Gerry House

Gerry House is a [http://www.cmaawards.com/2005/broadcast/05win.asp Country Music Association (CMA)] and [http://www.acmcountry.com/content/index.php Academy Of Country Music (ACM)] award-winning radio personality, currently heard on The Big 98 WSIX-FM in Nashville on the breakfast show, 'Gerry House and the House Foundation'. Gerry is also a hit songwriter, who has penned major hits for George Strait ("The Big One"), Reba McEntire ("Little Rock"), LeAnn Rimes ("On the Side of Angels") and Pam Tillis ("The River and the Highway"). He has also had his songs recorded by Brad Paisley, Randy Travis, Trace Adkins, Mark Collie, Collin Raye, Neal McCoy and The Oak Ridge Boys among others.

He was born in Independence, Kentucky, on March 28, 1948 to Lucille and Homer House. His mother (who died in 1997) was a homemaker and his father (who died in 1989) was an electrician. As well as Gerry, Homer and Lucille raised a daughter who was 13 years Gerry's senior.

Gerry met his future wife, Allyson Faulkner, at elementary school in Walton, Kentucky. Gerry was 3 years her senior. They got married in 1974 and had one daughter, Autumn, who has followed her father's footsteps into music, and now works at Capitol Records in Nashville after working as a song plugger for Reba McEntire's company and Madonna's Maverick Records.

Gerry got his first paying job at WBCR, before getting a job as a morning man at a rock and talk radio show in Ithaca, New York. He then moved on to wmbr in Jacksonville, Florida.

Gerry moved on to WSIX-AM in 1975. The station was relocated at the WKRN-TV studios and Gerry began doing local television. Gerry had also begun to do stand up comedy and was writing songs.

In the early 80's, WSIX became the big FM country station we know it as today. The 'House Foundation' was soon born. Al Voecks had presented a talk show on the AM station, and he soon became House's news man. Duncan Stewart came to Nashville from Boston in 1983, through a friendship with the music director at WSIX, and he soon became House's Sports guy.Completing the foundation was Paul Randall, who began as a traffic reporter and he soon became House's co-presenter or 'sidekick'. While Voecks and Stewart came in every half hour to do news and sports, Randall stuck around for the whole show and played off of House.

The 'House Foundation' was split up in 1985 when Gerry left for WSIX's competitors, WSM, citing politics within the company as the reason.House was soon called up to KLAC in Los Angeles after winning for best radio presenter in a major market for the Country Music Association. Gerry began writing for "Roseanne" around this time and he also developed the character of Maurice, a black sports newcaster, who voiced spots during Los Angeles Lakers games.

Gerry disliked the culture and wanted to be back in Music City with his friends. WSIX's new owner, Steve Hicks, soon offered House his job back and even agreed to a complete 'House Foundation' reunion that would see House return to the air with Voecks, Stewart and Randall all in their original roles. Devon O'Day also joined the show as producer and for a Country news segment at 9.45 called 'Twang Talk'.

Gerry got a record deal with MCA Records and released two country/comedy albums, 'The Cheater's Telethon' in 1990 and 'Bull' in 1992. The albums were released internationally.

Gerry also presented several nationally syndicated radio shows, including Countryline USA, America's Number Ones and The Saturday Night House Party.

Tragedy would strike when House Foundation member Paul Randall became very ill. Mike Bohan joined the show in 1995 after 20 years at WSMV. Randall succumb to his illness in 1998 and Gerry finds it hard to speak of his late friend now. While no one can replace Randall, Mike Bohan was a welcome addition to the team. A team that carries through today, expect for the fact that Richard Falklen is now the man twiddling the nobs and hosts the news segment once named 'Twang Talk'. Falklen's 'disembodied voice', as Gerry calls it, can often be heard during the show whenever he adds input - Falklen's voice appears intact for his news segment however.

Gerry heads over to House Notes after his show every day, which is his publishing company where he keeps the songs he has written. Some of his writing partners over the years have included O'Day, Gary Burr and Don Schlitz, who have all had no.1 hits with Gerry. Gerry still has many songs uncut and often quips on air that fellow writers such as Rivers Rutherford and Craig Wiseman 'need to be stopped'.This is also were Gerry records the 'Maurice' segments for his show. As well as the other voices, 'Makk Truck' and 'Homer'.

Gerry has contributed to Nick Barraclough's BBC Radio 2 country show offering 'news from Nashville'. He also hosted Radio 2's coverage of the Country Music Association Awards with Nick in 2004.

Gerry loves to play Golf and Tennis and loves to listen to a wide variety of radio stations, such as BBC Radio 1 and Nashville college station WRVU. He lives with his wife Allyson and two dogs, Saki and Louie, and his neighbours include LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban, Phil Vassar and Gary Levox & Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. Gerry also has his much talked about 'palace' in Pegram, Tennessee.

On August 15, 2003, House was hospitalized after complaining of a severe headache. He was diagnosed with a bleeding artery and underwent surgery to repair it and underwent further surgery to relieve fluid and swelling on his brain. He made a full recovery.

Discography

Notable recordings of House songs

*"The Big One" (George Strait)
*"Little Rock" (Reba McEntire)
*"On the Side of Angels" (LeAnn Rimes)
*"The River and the Highway" (Pam Tillis)
*"Thirteen Mile Goodbye" (Randy Travis)
*"Nothing But Taillights" (Trace Adkins)
*"Three Words, Two Hearts, One Night" (Mark Collie)

Albums

* 1990 "The Cheater's Telethon"
* 1992 "Bull"

External links

* [http://weeklywire.com/ww/12-13-99/nash_cover.html/ Article on Gerry from the Weekly Wire in 1999, a huge reference source for this entry]
* [http://www.wsix.com/pages/gerryhouse.html/ Gerry's Profile from the WSIX Website]