When Earl Reilly was asked to play country music during his afternoon pop music radio show on KXA, he scoffed.
It was 1947, the nascent days of Seattle broadcasting, and Reilly wanted to play “Moonlight and Roses” not “San Antonio Rose.”
Not wanting to associate his radio personality with the twangs of Nashville, Reilly adopted a screechy falsetto and created an on-air alter ego, “Spike Hogan.”
In short order, Spike Hogan became more popular than Earl Reilly. Wearing a cowboy hat and a fake beard, he’d show up in character at special events where he rubbed elbows with Peggy Lee, The Andrews Sisters and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Goofy and light-hearted, Spike Hogan played gags such as airing Christmas music on the Fourth of July. When UFOs were reported over Mount Rainier in 1947, he dropped branded aluminum pie dishes from a helicopter over Seattle, prompting newscasters to warn of incoming flying saucers.
Listeners must have been delighted by “The Friendly Trail,” Hogan’s show that aired for five years until it went silent in 1952. Readers of “According to Earl,” Reilly’s recently self-published memoir will laugh at Reilly’s stories and enjoy his tales of 60 years in the broadcasting business, along with stories from his life.
The slim volume, which sells for $12.95, was just released on Amazon.com.
“It’s my story, I guess it had to be about me,” Reilly, 87, said Tuesday from his Freeland home.
He bills the book as a tell-all. It’s not Kitty Kelley, but it’s wholesome fun and will leave readers chuckling.
The book begins in the mid-1930s as Reilly recounts building short wave radios, stringing antennas from his parents’ home on Rucker Avenue and using a closet at the Everett YMCA to send broadcasts from his Ham radio.
He graduated from Everett High in 1941 and still joins classmates for coffee in Mukilteo.
Through persistence and some luck, Reilly rode the wave of early commercial radio and landed a job in 1952 at KING-TV, Seattle’s first TV station. It debuted as KRSC-TV in 1942 and later changed call letters.
One of his first jobs on TV was to read advertising spots on air. In those days, there were no prerecorded advertisements, and Reilly had to recite a script live, from memory. While trying to promote Fowler Hot Water Tanks, Reilly goofed and said, “It’s lined with rust to prevent glass.” Realizing his mistake, he forgot his lines and — all on live television — tried to compensate. He repeated the line and repeated the mistake. He earned the nickname “Rusty.”
Reilly wrote this memoir at the urging of his wife and with the help of editor Sharon Warsinke.
Anyone who had anything to do with Seattle-area broadcasting and advertising sales will like this book. I’ve had little to do with either, and I really enjoyed the stories, the history and getting to know this character of a man.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3447; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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