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After 68 years, Kearns retiring Lead Balloon Show

After 68 years, Kearns retiring Lead Balloon Show

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Show passed from father to son comes to end Dec. 23 on WKTY

The first time he was ever on the air, it was on WKTY in La Crosse. 

The year was 1959. Mike Kearns was 7 years old. His dad Charlie (right) brought the kids into the studio on Christmas day, because “we weren’t allowed to open presents until Christmas morning,” Mike said.

He doesn’t remember exactly what his first words over the air were, but he guessed it was Merry Christmas.

“Yeah, it probably was,” Mike said with a laugh.

Last month, the 64-year-old celebrated his 44th year on WKTY. On Dec. 23, Mike will retire the Lead Balloon Show, which was started by his father and has been a staple on WKTY in La Crosse since the station went to air back in 1948.

One show. One family. One community. Infinite memories. And a lot of lead balloons, of course.

Mike doesn’t call it the “world’s worst radio show,” for nothing. It’s been that sense of humor that’s kept the show’s atmosphere loose and listeners loyal.

“I don’t think a station could lose an on air person and have it be a bigger impact than Mike retiring from the Lead Balloon Show,” Midwest Family Broadcasting’s production manager Ken Cooper said.

At MWF, Cooper has worked with Kearns the second-longest to Mark Meier, dating back to 1992.

“That’s the funny thing, Mike was the old guy when I met him,” Cooper recalled. “And I thought of him as the old guy. And he was, at that point, older than I am today.”

Monday on WKTY, Mike introduced Dave Carney and Matt Skradie, who will take over mornings on the station beginning Dec. 27, if not sooner. Mike hinted he might call in sick on his last day.

Since Mike announced his retirement, he’s been adamant about not wanting a farewell party. He doesn’t want this story, either.

But, throughout December, he’s been touring the area, making the stops he’s made so many times the last few decades, as an unofficial sendoff.

He’ll celebrate his last show in studio at MWF surrounded by friends and family.

Mike will still be calling games as he has done since he was 20 years old with his father.

Mike also ran the board from the WKTY transmitter building, while Charlie did the Lead Balloon Show from the basement of the Hotel Stoddard.

In 1981, however, Mike had to take over under difficult circumstances.

It was then that Charlie was hospitalized due to complications from diabetes, suffering a stroke.

Mike, 29 at the time, was called to do the show. Sadly, his father passed away at 57.

Happily, Mike never relinquished the role as host.

“He was very proud of what his dad, the legacy of the Lead Balloon Show and doing games,” longtime friend and color man of 18 years, Scott Erickson said of Mike. “It was tough, but being able to follow in his footsteps, that helped.”

During that transition, Roscoe Short helped Mike with co-hosting duties – something he had also done with Charlie.

“(Charlie) said, ‘Why don’t you come down? You have a lot of B.S. Let’s use it,'” Short said back in 2011 of his start on the Lead Balloon Show.

In 2011 Short announced his retirement, blindsiding Mike with the news right before the show. It was later that he also exposed a little secret about the host.

“Mike has been witty at times,” Short said. “I taught him everything he knows.”

Short, who co-hosted with Mike for 30 years, died three years later at 91.

During their tenure together the show went from one hour to what is now three hours. The format, however, has been relatively the same throughout.

“Listeners always could hear and enjoy Mikey’s wit and one liners,” MWF local sales manager Cedric Friesen, who has worked with Mike for 16 years, said. “While you couldn’t see, you could sense the side smirk across his face with every wisecrack.”

Mike saves his sports talk radio “hot takes” for his friends off the air. During the show, he has stuck with reporting: local sports news, scores, the weather and creating a banter with his clients, whether he’s on location or they call in.

And, of course, there’s still the occasional lead balloon dropped, a tradition that started with Charlie and has continued today, especially with Mary and Mike Drugan owners of Drugan’s Castle Mound in Holmen, Wis. 

Once a week, one of the two still calls in and caps off their appearance trying to top Mike with a somewhat inappropriate joke. There’s even been the case where some weren’t too happy with the level of inappropriateness, but that’s Mary Drugan for you.

Most of Mike’s clients have been on for a long time, as one would expect after cultivating relationships for the past 44 years.

One of those clients, Rick Boyer of Boyer’s Budget Furniture in La Crosse, emulates what WKTY clients can expect with Mike.

“It started out being, ‘I gotta be on Mike’s show, to show him support because he’s a friend,’” Boyer, a La Crescent High School classmate of Kearns, said. “But it turned completely the other way around, where that show really was a big part of our business. He really did help our business be successful.”

Boyer said it best when he said of Mike, “He’s made everybody his friend.”

That’s what everyone has said about Mike, followed by how nice and genuine a person he is.

And, that will continue, of course, as he remains a staple on air nightly, covering local high school and college sports with Erickson (next to Mike below).

It was there, at the scorer’s table, that Mike got his start in broadcasting, calling games right along side his father. The two were inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association (WBA) Hall of Fame together in 2009 – the only father-son tandem to be inducted together.

“The tradition that Charlie started and Mike continued in the La Crosse market epitomizes what local broadcasting is all about,” WBA President and CEO, Michelle Vetterkind, said. “They have truly made a difference in the lives of so many people.”

Mike isn’t sure when he plans on retiring completely from radio. He still enjoys calling games.

But with his added free time, he definitely plans to make the most of it with his high school sweetheart Dawn, their two children Patrick and Erin and, of course, his three grandchildren Rylie, Reagan and Rory.

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