Radio is in the genes of Nebraska Hall of Fame broadcaster Don Gill
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BY JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star
The woman loves the music of 1940s singer Eddy Howard. It reminds her of how she and her recently deceased husband danced to the crooner’s velvety smooth voice. One of their favorites — Howard’s “I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder.” Oh, and how she wants to hear it again, only she doesn’t have it, can’t find it and doesn’t know where to look. So she calls Don Gill.
The legendary local broadcaster, the host of a weekly public radio Big Band show, tells her he’ll do what he can.
And he does.
He goes online, finds a CD with the song on it, orders it for her and then, as if that isn’t enough, hand-delivers it to her.
She is so thankful, she takes Gill into her home, shows him a wall of pictures, including those of her husband in his Marine Corps uniform.
She tells him how much Howard’s music meant to them, and how much it still means to her — about those nights on the dance floor.
Gill, who is known for talking, listens.
“That’s just like Don, exactly like him,” said Gill’s friend Norton Warner, who brought Gill to Lincoln in 1972 to work at his radio station.
“He’s a super nice person, and you would expect him to do something like that for someone.”
The overly modest Gill tells the story, not as an example of his kindness, but as way to show how music affects people.
How a song can trigger a memory and transport you back to a point in time when everything is right with the world.
How a melody can warm your soul, make your stomach flutter and eyes tear up the same awesome way remembering a first kiss does.
It’s that powerful.
“Music,” Gills says, “is quite a vital part of life.”
The gentlemanly broadcaster pauses before he finishes.
As he’s done for most of his life, he lets his words resonate with his listener — to take hold and make an impact.
“People who don’t listen to music … they’re missing a lot of memories, a lot of wonderful associations,” he says.
Then he smiles as if he’s recalling a song and a moment that hold some special significance to him.
It’s mid-morning Aug. 10 and Gill, 77, takes his place behind the microphone at NET Radio to tape his weekly show, “Big Band Spotlight,” which will air the following night at 8:30 p.m.
As usual, he brings a briefcase full of CDs and records with him. Today he has, among others, the music of Les Brown, Buddy Morrow, Henry Mancini and Nat King Cole, the latter not singing, but on the piano.
Later that night, Gill will find himself with his family — wife Donna and daughters Dara and Diane — at a special celebration. He’s being inducted with Lexington’s Eric Brown into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
His name will join a who’s who list of Nebraska broadcasters, including such big names as Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.
Gill says having his name associated with Carson and Cavett is nice, but — in typical Gill fashion — he’s more proud of joining the likes of longtime Lincoln broadcasters Richard Chapin, Roger Larson and Jack McBride and Omaha legend Lyle Bremser.
“These are the people who have done so much for Nebraska broadcasting,” he said.
As has Gill himself.
Thirty-four of his 52 years (and counting) in the business have been in Lincoln, where he has become one of the city’s most recognizable individuals.
Many Lincolnites will remember Gill calling Nebraska football games for KLIN in the 1970s, describing how I-back I.M. Hipp took one of those many pitches from quarterback Tom Sorley to score a touchdown.
His play-by-play work resulted in five Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year honors.
“He did his homework,” Warner said. “He knew everything about every player and every team. He didn’t show up and just call the game. He knew what he was doing.”
Many more Nebraskans came to know him for his work at Nebraska ETV, where he co-hosted the popular “Cornhusker Football” show, which featured game highlights and interviews with Nebraska coaches and players.
In 1985, Gill left KLIN, where he had risen to station manager, to become director of development at Nebraska ETV. He remained there until he retired in 1997.
At Nebraska ETV, Gill was front and center for the station’s fund-raisers, many of which he co-hosted with program director and fellow local celebrity Leta Powell Drake.
“Don and Leta were a good pair,” former Nebraska ETV general manager Jack McBride said. “They were a natural fit. They talked back and forth quite naturally.”
Gill’s work in local radio and television put him in demand as host or emcee for charity events and banquets. There’s probably not an organization in town that hasn’t called upon his services.
Two of his longest running gigs include the State Community Awards banquet (25 years) and the Lincoln Continentals Barbershop Show (30 years).
Currently, he’s a Lincoln Area on Aging volunteer, tour guide for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and president of the Lincoln Municipal Band.
Because of his stature and skill, he was Bobby Layne’s immediate choice to emcee his orchestra’s 40th anniversary at the Pla-Mor Ballroom.
Layne remembers Gill reading proclamations from governors from at least 10 different states. He said their words struck more of a chord because they were read by Gill.
“He read them all so well,” the band leader said. “It really made you feel good. Even President Clinton sent his acknowledgment, and Don was the guy to read it.”
Gill was born May 2, 1929, in Long Beach, Calif., where his parents moved from Missouri earlier in the decade.
His father was a salesman, dealing in restaurant supplies.
His mother, who lived to age 100, was a featured radio vocalist in the 1920s and Gill has scrapbooks filled with programs and posters from his mother’s days of performing.
He likes to say radio and music are in his genes because of his mother.
As it was for many growing up in the 1930s and ’40s, radio was his most dominant source of entertainment. Jack Benny, Fibber McGee, The Shadow …
“Radio was as big as the movies are today to most people,” he said.
As a boy, he used chalk and a ruler to create a football field and then rolled marbles to replicate a game in order to call the play-by-play.
This was his first taste.
Persuaded by friends, he moved to the Midwest and attended the College of Emporia and Wichita University. While at Emporia, he competed in a forensics tournament for his speech team and finished second in radio reading.
This was his spark.
He later worked at the college station at Wichita before enlisting in the Army.
This is where he found his calling.
He was a company clerk in Okinawa when he ran into a friend from Wichita who helped get him a job with the Armed Forces Radio Network. He did everything — interviews, disc jockeying, remotes and play-by-play.
He parlayed his work with the radio network into a job in the states, beginning in Concordia, Kan., where he helped put KNCK on the air in 1954.
It was the same year he married Donna, who he credits for much of his success.
“Broadcasting is a wonderfully rewarding occupation, but it was demanding on my family,” Gill said. “The only time I had breakfast with them was on Sunday mornings. It was that way for 30 years.”
After working at several stations in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, he came to Lincoln.
This is where he found his home.
Gill lifts off his headphones after introducing Ray Anthony’s “Dancing in the Dark.”
He tells a story about meeting the legendary trumpet player in California, where Anthony still leads a band.
He tells how Anthony was a nice guy, but refused to have his picture taken with Gill.
Not wanting to leave without some kind of remembrance, Gill had a photo of himself taken next to the license place on Anthony’s car. It said “Ray A.”
A celebrity himself, one doesn’t expect this kind of story from Gill. But the silver-haired, silver-tongued man is genuine.
“Genuine is a good adjective,” McBride said. “What you see is what you get, which is good, quite good. He’s affable. He’s certainly conscientious. And he’s genuine.”
Warner believes that’s why Gill resonates so well with the public.
“Don is so personable, you feel like you know the guy,” he said.
He’s also humble.
Powell Drake shares a story about Gill performing at a Gridiron Club show.
Gill has a cardboard frame around him like a TV set. To his left is somebody dressed as Big Bird.
Gill pretends he’s talking to elementary age children. He tells them Big Bird is sick and to get better he needs the children to reach into their mothers’ purses, pull out a credit card and pick up the phone.
The unforgettable taped performance was played as part of a video tribute to Gill at the Hall of Fame induction.
“He’s willing to poke fun at himself,” Powell Drake said. “He’s such a good guy. That’s why people like him.”
And they haven’t stopped liking him.
In October, Gill will celebrate his 16th anniversary hosting “Big Band Spotlight,” arguably one of NET Radio’s most popular programs.
He calls the show his “labor of love.”
“Music is very important to people,” he said, noting that when he took “Big Band Spotlight” on the road to North Platte, Gering and Norfolk, it played to packed houses. “It provides powerful memories for them.”
That’s why he helped the woman who recently lost her husband find the Eddy Howard song.
It mattered to her, so it mattered to him.
Because, beyond the voice and the persona, that’s the kind of man Don Gill is.
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
Don Gill
Born: May 2, 1929, in Long Beach, Calif.
Personal: wife, Donna; daughters, Dara and Diane; two grandchildren
Education: Attended College of Emporia, Wichita University
Service: 1951-53, U.S. Army
Career: 1954-72, radio stations in Kansas, Missouri and outstate Nebraska
1972-85, KLIN (sports director, station manager)
1985-97, Nebraska ETV (director of development)
Hobbies: golf, travel, hosts “Big Band Spotlight” 8:30 p.m. Friday on NET Radio (KUCV 91.1 FM)
Quote: “You can’t fake sincerity. People are perceptive. They can sense if you’re not leveling with them.”
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