Ed Walker

Ed Walker (born April 23, 1932 in Forrest, Illinois, United States) is a Washington, D.C., radio personality. He currently hosts a weekly four-hour Sunday night program, "The Big Broadcast", on WAMU-FM, featuring vintage radio programs from the 1930s – 1950s, such as "Gunsmoke", "The Jack Benny Show", "The Lone Ranger", "Fibber McGee and Molly", and "Superman". Walker began hosting "The Big Broadcast" in 1990.

Walker, who has been blind since birth, said that growing up with radio "was my comic books, my books, my movies". He was a student at American University in Washington where, in 1950, he helped launch the campus radio station, WAMU-AM – the predecessor of WAMU-FM. Willard Scott also joined the radio station the following year, forming a professional and personal bond with Walker, which continues to this day. Scott said in his book, "The Joy of Living", that they are "closer than most brothers". [Willard Scott, "The Joy of Living". New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982 (ISBN 0-6981-1130-3).]

From 1955 to 1974, Walker teamed with Scott as co-hosts of the nightly "Joy Boys" program, an improvised comedy radio show in Washington. On the "Joy Boys" program, Scott would sketch a list of characters and a few lead lines setting up the situation, which Walker would commit to memory or make notes on his Braille typewriter. The program began on WRC-AM, an NBC owned-and-operated station, moving in 1972 to WWDC-AM. In a 1999 article recalling the "Joy Boys" at the height of their popularity in the mid-1960s, the Washington "Post" said they "dominated Washington, providing entertainment, companionship, and community to a city on the verge of powerful change". [Marc Fisher, "Washington Comes of Age", Washington "Post", September 13, 1999]

Since the "Joy Boys" program left the air in October, 1974, Walker has continued working on other Washington-area radio and television stations, including WJLA-TV from 1975 until 1980, and then WRC, hosting other radio programs.

American University has recently released some of the old "Joy Boys" radio broadcasts of the 1960s on CDs.

Although he rarely makes appearances at conventions, Walker was a featured star at the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Aberdeen, Maryland.

References

External links

* [http://wwww.wamu.org/about/people/ed_walker.php WAMU-FM biography of Ed Walker]
* [http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=10795&fID=345 Interview with Ed Walker (University of Maryland video)]
* [http://thejoyboys.com/ "The Joy Boys" tribute site]
* [http://thejoyboys.com/wamucd3.htm WAMU-FM "Joy Boys" CD project]