Walt Baby Love

So the interesting thing was, is one gentlemen named Richard Oppenheimer, a professor down at the University of Texas, in Austin right now, was like my mentor. Mr. Oppenheimer wrote me back and said, "Young man, I don't have a job right now but let me know when you get ready to get out of the military. If you'll do that, I'll see if I can find a place for you with our company. I'm here in Houston, Texas. I think you could have potential. Would you send me another tape," and Christopher you'll find this interesting, he said, "with another photograph of yourself, a different pose." So I did. I made another tape and I sent a different picture. He called and said, "Y'know I gotta ask you a question. Is this really you in this picture? The picture you sent me? I said, "Yes sir, why is that?" He said, "I'll just be blunt with you. I thought you were a white guy who likes black music and was obviously knowledgeable about R&B music. You don't sound like our other disc jockeys, um, most black people I know; I didn't wanna take a chance offering you a job. You get here, and you're black, I don't believe I could put you on this particular radio station."

CH: Wow!!!

WBL: That was kind of interesting to me. Now, here I was in the military, just coming back from Southeast Asia, having been in ten tours, close to seven years. And, here was somebody concerned about what color I was because my sound didn't fit a stereotype.

CH: Right.

WBL: But, see, I always thanked him for that because when it was time for me to get out of the military six months later. He said, "We'll look forward to seeing you show up on this date and I'll have a job for you." I didn't even ask like what time or anything. All I knew was I was gonna get a chance to be on the radio. And here we are, 30 years later.

CH: What a remarkable story.

WBL: I was blessed. And all because this guy was willing to give a black man with no experience a chance. But, he felt I had the ability.