[ad_1]
An hour-long radio show airs early Sunday mornings on WOBL (1320-AM and 107.7-FM) and WDLW (1380-AM and 98.9-FM) tells the stories of first responders and members of the forces American armies.
America Warrior Radio, hosted by Ben Buehler-Garcia, is from Tuscon, Arizona.
Stations in Phoenix, Colorado Springs, Colorado and Sacramento, Calif., Have taken up the torch.
Oberlin is the first market east of the Mississippi River.
Buehler-Garcia contacted WOBL owner Gary Tollett and asked if he would be interested in the show after reading a profile on Tollett in a radio industry magazine.
“He sent me episodes and I was going to listen to one, and five hours later I had listened to six,” Tollett said. “It’s a great show.”
Tollett said he solicited sponsors and ended up selling all the commercials in just 72 hours.
The show runs from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Sunday.
“It tells the stories of those who protect us at home and abroad, and these are the men and women of our military and first responder communities,” said Buehler-Garcia, who hosted the show for nine year.
He succeeded series founder Dave Sitton, who died suddenly at the age of 58.
Sitton had invited Buehler-Garcia as a guest when Sitton had to resign while running for Congress.
Buehler-Garcia, 60, has never served in the military.
When he was younger, he had hopes for a career in law enforcement.
Buehler-Garcia said he majored in criminal justice, took a tour with the police, volunteered in county jails and learned he was not made for the career.
“What it taught me was that I didn’t have the level of patience to be a police officer,” Buehler-Garcia said.
How he got into radio, he laughed, is a longer story.
Sitton, the show’s creator, attended the University of Arizona on a baseball scholarship in hopes that he would then join the United States Marine Corps.
However, a shoulder injury suffered while playing baseball choked him.
It also prompted Sitton to start the show.
“He established this theme for the show of trying to bridge the gap between the 1% who served and the 99% of the rest of us,” Buehler-Garcia said.
Buehler began to suggest guests for the shows.
Sitton, who was also an award-winning sports broadcaster who appeared in both the University of Arizona’s football and men’s basketball games, then asked him to host the show when he left for the campaign. election in 2012.
After Sitton’s death, Buehler-Garcia wanted the show to continue.
“I felt so passionate about the importance of carrying these messages, that I jumped with both feet without knowing anything about the radio,” he said.
Now the show is in five markets at seven different stations.
The show is interview style; Buehler-Garcia does not take calls from listeners.
His most downloaded interview is the one he did with Mike Day, a former member of the US Navy Seal, who was shot 27 while entering a terrorist’s house in Iraq.
“(Day) took care of all the bad guys himself and then walked over to the rescue helicopter,” Buehler-Garcia said.
Film studios and book publishers, he said, contacted him to promote their products.
“It has to be a compelling story, and there has to be a connection to the active duty military or first responders,” Buehler-Garcia said.
One of his favorite interviews was with Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, the two DEA agents whose story was part of the Netflix series “Narcos”.
“I’m trying to dedicate the show to a guest,” Buehler-Garcia said. “It allows us to go into the details of their history and get to know them.
“I firmly believe in the power of storytelling. “
[ad_2]
Source link
