The following is an original production of WTCI.

After 70 Years on the air in Chattanooga.

This man is known around town by just one name.

What's funny is when I go in, a lot of times if they're not looking at me and they hear my voice and they turn, that's Luther.

This week I sit down with a broadcasting legend, Luther Massengill.

Straight ahead on the A LIST.

Luther Massengill.

For over 70 years, he has been a trusted and familiar voice that Chattanooga residents have depended on for news, weather and community happenings.

The longevity of his career is unprecedented in the broadcasting world, and he is said to be the only radio personality to have reported both the Pearl Harbor and 911 attacks.

His imprint on Chattanooga's culture does not end with his numerous professional honors.

Luther's dedication to helping others and his passion for the city and its people have made him an institution in the homes and hearts of generations.

While Luther, welcome to the A-list.

We're so thrilled to have you here.

Allison.

This is an honor.

How did you all ever choose me for something like this?

I feel like I'm on your show.

I feel like we've made it to the A-list now that we're with you.

Well, in this town in Chattanooga, you're certainly a legend.

I've heard you call been called a Chattanooga icon, the voice of Chattanooga.

You know, people have compared, you to E.F. Hutton to the Wall Street Boys is a little flair to the city of Chattanooga.

When you talk, people listen.

Oh, wow.

Tell me about the journey to get there.

My broadcasting career began on New Year's Eve night in 1940 in a studio down on the fourth floor of the volunteer building with Mr. Joe Engle and some other celebrities.

And Mr. Engel was the one that founded WRVO.

And that intern finally ended up as Channel 12 after a couple of sales and so forth.

But that was the start of my career in radio when I was in high school, the high school.

By the way, during that time, and I worked after school in the afternoon and then during the early evening and.

At a gas station, right?

Yeah.

And I know.

Yeah, at a gas station where I met that's where I met Joe Engel, actually.

And as I asked him, I said he's I read in the paper that day I was wiping his windshield and I said, Mr. Engel, you were starting a station.

That's right.

Boy.

And they said, I said, Well, well, well, how do you get a job done?

And he said, Come on down.

Tonight we're having interviews and auditions.

I said, okay, I'll go sit down.

And he handed me a piece of copy.

I said, Oh, well, what do you want me to do?

He said, Go in the studio and read that.

And then we're listening here in the office.

I said, Okay, go in and read it and came back out.

And he said, How would you like to be our apprentice or club announcer?

I said, Well, I hadn't really given it any serious thought, but okay, I'll yeah, I'll do it.

And that's the way my career began.

That New Year's Eve marked the beginning of an on air personality who would soon become a permanent fixture for RDF.

But Luther's career in Chattanooga Radio was interrupted nearly two years later when one of the stories he first reported on changed his life and the life of our nation.

I remember at the time, back then, when a bulletin came in on your news machine, the news machine was down the hall with a door open.

You hear a ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

And if it's a really big story, big event, it'll.

It'll bring ding, ding, ding, ding for about 20 or 30 times.

I remember reading it.

It said, the Japanese have attacked on the island of Oahu.

I think it was.

And it to me at the time, well, during those years, there were a lot of attacks, and I didn't think too much of it until the next bulletin came in.

No, about 10 minutes later, here comes another ding, ding, ding.

And they explained that the it was Japanese and that the guess that the number of planes.

But they reported that and then they mentioned that of several.

I think there were several of our battleships were had had direct hits.

You know.

So it sounded bad.

Then two years into his radio career, Luther left Chattanooga to serve in the Army's 13th Airborne Unit, returning home in 1945.

Luther picked up where he left off at WDSU and began making a name for himself in the world of Chattanooga Broadcasting.

My royal typewriter.

I had one of these in high school.

I had one of them in the service.

WW Two guys in New Guinea.

Said in a shack and jungle of New Guinea.

And I typed on one of these in the communications tent.

And then I came back home at 737 and we still have the royal typewriter, just the same one, same model and everything coming back after the service and going right into the radio again at WITF.

They hired me immediately.

I spent two and a half years in the service in Australia and New Guinea and Admiralty Islands in the Philippine Islands, and I believe coming back and after being on the air back here, after about six months or so, I believe I became fairly well known and recognized then and a number according to the number of phone calls I got, you know.

Hey.

Hey.

Welcome.

You know, and thank you and sound and your sounding good and all that.

How hard was the transition going from a radio personality in the forties and early fifties to TV in 1954?

It was was I want to say is easy but a little frightening some time you you've got the cameras to worry about.

You've got the lights, you've got your position ceiling or otherwise you have things to worry about on.

But it wasn't too bad and people accepted me that I guess that was the thing.

They accepted me as a television personality and we were on the fourth floor, as I told you, on the way of the volunteer building.

Kind of a crowded situation up there.

But that was before we moved out here on South Island, where we are now on the 10th annual Angie Grubb Memorial Scholarship run.

I heard you were so popular that at one point you actually ran for mayor.

Yeah.

And the the management of the station said, Well, how about running for mayor?

I was a at the time we had two candidates that weren't too colorful.

They were great guys and everything, but not too colorful.

And they said, we'll add a little bosom to the election, get more people out to vote and so forth, and we'll withdraw.

Right Just at the time you can legally withdraw.

I said, Yeah, I'll do it.

We did it for the publicity with a big ad in the paper and so forth.

You know, I told them some crazy things that I would try to accomplish when I was as a mayor.

If they if they elected me, I'd do that.

And you actually had to run an ad, though, saying it was a hoax that you weren't really on the ballot so people wouldn't write.

You write, Don't don't vote for me.

Vote for one of these gentlemen, you know, And I named them and the election came out and the best guy, I guess, won at the time.

Did you ever have real aspirations to run in politics?

Seriously?

MM No, it doesn't interest me that much.

The guys I remember some of the things they had to contend with and, you know, answering to the public.

Right.

It was pretty rough.

A lot of people are rough on you, on like, bless you out right in front of your mama most you know.

But I no, seriously, I I've never been serious about going into politics.

But over the years, she had almost every election.

Somebody will come to me with her.

How about.

Would you like to run?

I think we can.

I think we can win it if you run and we need to win, you know, And I didn't let them.

I never let them talk me into it.

Well, in a way, you really are a civil servant, though.

I mean, the the services that you provide for this community, people have come to rely on and they look to you for more than just the weather.

I mean, they look to you for for concrete, no pun intended, changes to the streets, to traffic lights, to to places in Chattanooga that need fixing.

They call you and legitimately say, Luther, we need to fix this.

I can mention it a lot of times, and it will get done for some reason or other.

They just put a little pressure on them at the right time.

Yeah, if you cause people, I guess sometimes by what you say on the air, you cause people to do something they just put off.

And if they can get away with not doing it today, they'll put it off till tomorrow and then keep putting it off and it doesn't get done.

Tell me about 1979, speaking of causing something to happen.

But apparently there is something you said about there being a gas shortage and people flocked to the gas stations thinking that they were going to run out of gasoline at any given time.

Yeah, this was the first of that time, the gas shortage thing, you know, that I remember and I just mentioned it casually, I said, you know, people out there in the radio audience, you might ought to get I hate for people to run out of gas.

I told them, I said, don't run out.

Stop one of these places and get you some gas because that delivery man who delivers it may not be able to get back to that station.

You know, And boy, the people I mean, the mamas jumped in their car and they went down to the service station and filled up.

You know, everybody filled up and they really were out of gas.

Then I caught something I didn't mean to call.

A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Right?

Yeah, that's right.

Well, I read somewhere, and my favorite line was, if you put Luther together with a snowflake, you can shut a town down.

Well, they always used to keep me about Luther.

You mentioned snow or freezing weather and the.

But it was the first.

There was a red food store.

The red food store will run out of bread.

They won't have any bread and milk, you know.

And later the Bi-Lo.

It was the same way if you mentioned a bad weather, especially snow.

Oh, they people do.

I don't know.

They think it's going to snow forever or something.

It's like it's only going to slow a day or two, you know.

And I don't think you're going to run out of stuff, but they think that they are going to run out.

So they go get whatever they need.

Knowing how popular you have been and your show has been and knowing the real power that your words have had on your audience.

Was there ever a time where you refused to either promote something or to announce something because just in your heart you just felt like that wasn't the right thing to do?

Oh, Oh.

There have been one or two spun up many that I knew just and the public was aware of the fact too, that that particular man or that particular company just didn't have that good a reputation.

And I'd hate to get on the air and read his commercials as if I'm just so sold on it.

I Hey, I wanted you to go and buy from this man.

But they were very few.

And I mean, there is there are times at least where you had wait lists for sponsors just to be on your show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good feeling too.

Lost and Eastridge, a small brown Chihuahua, found a terrier, kind of a Benji type dog.

And found out why.

Many poodle.

And this is an East Ridge call for 2 to 3.

Now, what what really was the impetus for your affinity for lost pets?

How did that start?

I guess by accident, just way back there in the first days of radio, I would occasionally get a call with it.

Can you help me?

What?

What's the matter?

At the time?

I've got to tell you this, there were a lot of wrecks before the freeway.

There were a lot of wrecks at 23rd.

And Dodds.

Oh, we were always reporting.

And then ladies and gentlemen, it was a load of chickens and they were running everywhere.

And of course, a lot of people run over and get them a chicken, you know, But mixed in with all of that, there was a load of dogs one time that somebody was taken somewhere that got away and they got got every one of them back while they were a certain breed and they escaped when the person in the truck, the van and whatever it was, had a wreck.

They got they were loose all around East Lake and Dodds Avenue.

Well, anyway, the Lost Dog thing came by from a person who said, Can you help me?

I've lost my dog.

Oh, running.

What kind is it?

It's a it's a German shepherd and it's lost in East Lake and on their 34th Street or something.

All right, I'll put it on anyway.

I'd put it on right after I as quickly as I could, after it's your call.

So it would look like if we did find it, it would look like, Hey, that's as good service.

You know, I might get some credit for it.

And sure enough, I did.

I put it on and the person was listening who found it, called her.

She got her dog back, had it back, and then 15 or 20 minutes, she couldn't believe it.

She said, You got to do this more often.

I hope I don't lose mine, but there will be people who are losing their court dogs and cats and cows and horses and pigs.

And, you know, I've found all kinds of animals.

I've heard even a llama and a snake.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've had a snake and a llama.

I'll tell this story.

One day a woman called me from North Chattanooga.

I've lost my two dogs.

I've forgotten what breed they were.

They.

They're gone.

And help me put them on.

I put it on there.

Yeah, we'll put it on the air.

And a lady of two blocks away was listening, looked out her window.

She was washing dishes and there they are out in their backyard.

She knew the woman called her, said, I've got your dogs.

Good.

I'll be right over.

No, I'm getting ready to leave to go some shop, do some shopping.

I'll put them in the car and bring them over.

Hot summer day.

She put them in the car, turn the air conditioning on, took off, got to the front of the house, pulled up, left the motor running, left the air conditioning on, got out and walked up toward the house.

She met the woman, the owner of the dog met the woman, and she said that I've got your dog here They are in the car.

And they got back there and they realized that the dogs in jumping around had locked the car.

And the only other key was in her husband's pocket in San Francisco.

Oh, now.

Yeah, he had flown out and the day before.

So anyway, they had to call the dogs.

They're just having a big time in there, you know, enjoying the cool air.

And she called a locksmith and came out.

And Luther has enabled thousands of pet owners to become reunited with their lost pets.

And it is this unwavering compassion and desire to extend a helping hand that has made him so embedded in the heart of Chattanooga.

Luther says that this drive to help others was instilled in him at an early age through the memorable words of a childhood mentor.

I understand that you have a motto or a borrowed motto from from some one of your principles.

I think that you should do what's right because it's right and not because you're compelled to.

Yeah, that was one of our favorite sayings.

It was the those are the words of Stacy Nelson.

He was the principal of Central High School.

And when I left junior high and went to Central High, I chose Central High on Dodds Avenue.

And he said, Welcome.

He said, I'll be good to you.

He says, I've got a saying and I'll do it.

I'll say it every time a new group comes in, Listen to me, do what's right because it's right and not because you're compelled to.

And years and years ago, I love the saying and I used it quite often, but years later I saw him in the S and W cafeteria downtown.

He remembered because I'd been in the office for some time.

One or two times were misbehaving.

I found out what I did and he, Mr. Nelson, I said to him, Do you remember this?

I to do what's right?

Because rather he said, Yeah, I'll do that.

I use that over the years.

He said, That sticks with me everywhere I go and I apply it to my life.

He said, Well, thank you.

And tears.

And.

Tears came to his eyes.

He drew.

I just.

I learned then just how much you should appreciate your teachers and principals and how how much they devote to you and to the profession of teaching.

Be good to him, don't be mean.

In a way.

Do you consider yourself a teacher?

Well, not a good one, but a teacher, I guess.

Yeah.

Well, the brush, your teeth and where are you reading?

You know, almost that.

The parental.

Now, this morning I told him that we put a jacket yesterday morning.

I said, Momma put a jacket.

I think a little cold, some kind of little jacket or sweater or feel good this morning on that little town, that child.

Yeah.

And it took me back to my early radio days when I was telling him the wear something comfortable you won't freezing either going to school or coming back.

Luther has maintained the same timeslot at the same station for over 70 years, an achievement that is unheard of in the world of broadcasting.

He is referred to as the voice of Chattanooga, a title earned through his many years of unwavering service to the community.

I understand you are a creature of habit, that you basically had the same routine for countless years.

Is that still the routine you hold today?

Yes.

Somebody not so long ago said, Listen, you're 88 years old.

You look like you're in pretty good condition for 88.

How did you do it?

That's a really I don't know.

Nothing.

I'm I don't play golf.

I should I know all the words, you know, And in the morning I get up and I shower and shave and everything and I. Oh, before I go to work and I touch the tips of my shoes 50 times without stopping, you know?

And then I take the shoes off the dresser and put them on my feet.

And not always they get a little deeper.

And I said, No, I don't do anything super to try to keep it in physical shape.

I'm active in my church and I like to fiddle around up there doing little things that the members ought to be doing to save the church some money.

You know.

I heard you work there so much that one little boy thought you owned it.

Well, I helped one day, one Sunday, I was they didn't pick up the they didn't empty the the cans, the trash cans and the rooms the day before.

So I did it Sunday morning.

And while I'm doing it, this little girl came in and spoke and she had a friend with her from her school.

And they went back to school the next day and said, Well, where did you what did you do this way?

Well, I went to church, took my friend Nancy to school, and we saw the preacher and we saw the choir director and we saw Luther, the fella on the radio.

And what does he do?

He's the garbage man.

She saw me in trash cans.

You got a job as a garbage man.

Now, you've received a lot of accolades over the years between, you know, Man of the Year and the city's favorite Chattanooga.

And you even have a parkway named after you.

Too.

Most of us gathered in this chamber.

This is just a simple bill naming a road after another individual.

But you, the residents of Hamilton County, this is an important opportunity to pay tribute to one of, if not the most esteemed citizen in our county, Luther Massengill.

What does all that mean to you?

Is it overwhelming?

Is it something that that humbles you?

How do you take all of that in over the years?

Well, I body how it's used to kid me.

Buddy House was a friend of mine he was very funny is gone now but he he was so funny he'd he'd say when you get these awards ask them for some money.

I said, you can't do that, buddy.

Just the award itself is enough.

I'm grateful for that.

Now, with all of the success that you've gotten, you know, you've had ratings in the sixties and seventies, and in a city that loves you, why not go somewhere bigger?

Why not go to the New York's the LA's and increase your visibility in markets like that?

I've had not that not nothing recently.

I'll have to be honest with you.

Nothing reasonable because of my age and so forth, I guess.

But it's years back.

I had offers from all the big cities.

They would hear about me or read about me and they all call you or send you a letter and offer you a job.

San Francisco.

Houston.

New York.

San Francisco Bay.

The Philadelphia of all three or four other big towns and a lot of little towns that offered you, they thought was more than you were making.

And come on and be with us, you know, help us with our ratings.

They all want to increase their ratings.

You know.

But never it was never compelling for.

You.

No, it didn't.

I love at the time I had my mother, my father died and I had my mother and a brother, younger brother and a younger sister to take care of on that small salary that I made when I came back from the service.

But no, I had no really inclination to leave China.

And I love the town.

I always have, Luther says.

When you help someone find their lost pet, you've made a friend for life.

And that is exactly what he is to Chattanooga, a friend for life, a trusted voice that has dedicated a lifetime to serving those in need every morning, extending a helping hand and more, all while putting a smile on the faces of his devoted listeners.

Luther is so much more to Chattanooga than just a voice over the radio.

He is undeniably a part of our family.

Who makes you smile?

Lifted up over the bridges.

And across the bridges.

Here's what's going on around town with Luther on Sunny 90.

2.3.

Yeah, there's a community flea market club, and you?