Leonard Postero

Leonard Anthony Postero, Sr. (December 11, 1922 - July 20, 2001) was a native of Athens, Georgia, best known for his syndicated radio show, Leonard's Losers. He was a 1943 graduate of the University of Georgia and served as an aviator in the United States Navy from 1943-1945. [http://tsn.sportingnews.com/nfl/articles/20010723/331222.html "Host of 'Leonard's Losers' dies at 78"] , Sporting News, July 23, 2001.]

Leonard's Losers

In 1958, Postero taped his first Leonard's Losers radio show at station WRFC-AM in Athens. The show described college football matchups and then predicted which team would lose. Postero taped his show using a pseudonym of "Leonard Postosties" and was introduced by his sidekick "Percy Peabody" (also voiced by Postero). The show's "schtick" was a rural delivery style (a-la Jerry Clower) and comedic scripts using alternate nicknames for college teams. Some of these included "The Riflemen" (as opposed to Volunteers) for University of Tennessee, the "red clay hounds" (rather than Bulldogs) for University of Georgia teams, "giant water lizards" (rather than Gators) for University of Florida, and "pachyderms" to refer to the University of Alabama, the latter because UA often uses an elephant symbol. Leonard claimed that he possessed a "little smart pill machine" to come up with his prognostications and always closed his broadcast with a plea to his sidekick to "get me out of here, Percy". A game might be described as follows:

"Phillip Fulmer leads his Rifleman into the Athens Kennel for a shooting match with Jim Donnan's Pack of Drool Dogs. The Volunteer Army has owned the K-9s of late, while the Red Clay Hounds think its about time to sink their teeth into the Big Orange Rifle Brigade. The Knoxville Army is angry after last week, but the Athens Dawgs will get the job done. Leonard's Loser? Tennessee"

At the height of its popularity, Leonard's Losers was carried on over 1400 radio stations, including Armed Forces Radio. Postero also published a weekly newsletter called Leonard's Losers.

Postero retired in 1999 and a group of Athens businessmen purchased the show. As part of the transition to the new owners the new voice of Leonard Postosties was introduced as Leonard's nephew though there was no relation between the two. The show is currently delivered only via the web.

However at the end of the 2005 season, a message appeared on Leonard's Website saying that due to personal reasons Leonard was unable to make his predictions and hopes to return later in the season. This message remained on the website until 2007 when the website went down. However a search on the web will find old pages on the site still active but not updated. In fact the most current audio of the show is the end of the 2004 season.

References

External links

* [http://www.leonardslosers.com Leonard's Losers web site]
* [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ga/clarke/obits/athensdailynews/2001/22jul01.txt Postero's Obituary]