Oral History Interview with Randy Atcher

I was born December 7, 1918–yes, Pearl Harbor Day–at Tip Top, Kentucky, which many people don’t know exits but it’s now part of Fort Knox reservations. But Dad had a farm there that he was renting. They called it the Brooks place because the Brooks originally owned it. And I was the fifth of eight children. My father’s name was George Christopher Atcher and my mother’s name was Mary Agnes Ray. She was from Stithon [Ky.], and her father helped make the bricks and so on to build the St. Patrick’s Church there in Fort Knox. They lived at Stithon and my father was from Rogersville which was a little past Stithon on the old 31W Highway that went down that way. And as I said, I was the fifth of eight children. I had an older sister named Josephine who’s still going by the way and will be 90 her next birthday. I have a brother Raymond who’s the only one of us who still lives in the old home town of West Point and he’s 87, going on 88. And I have my brother Bob Atcher who many people know of in the country music field who died a few years ago. And then my brother Francis who is two years older than me–he’s 83. And then I have a sister younger than me who’s 78 now I believe and one sister who’s 70. The one brother died when he was 14 years old–his name was Charles. That’s the family.

But in my early days, when I was eight months old, I don’t remember this, but I have a picture, I guess, to prove it, my parents moved to North Dakota. Dad had a–they were running a big farm up there. We were there until I was almost five and you know, during the time there I can remember a few things but Dad decided the snow up to the second-story windows and things like that were too much for him, so we came back to Kentucky. And Dad went to work at the Kosmos Cement factory and we moved to West Point, Kentucky, after spending a few months in Kosmosdale, which was where the cement plant was, so West Point is where I grew up–went to first grade there and through high school there. When I graduated from high school, and there’s an interesting story I’ll tell you about my high school, but I’d already been in the country music business and I thought I’d get out of it and go to college. So I went to Western, then the 1937 flood washed our house down the river, so I came back from that and went back into the country music business. Yeah, West Point had lots of floods. And came back from Western and helped Dad build the house back and then I went back to the country music business at WHAS in late 1937. I never finished college. I was going to study teaching at Western. It was then known as Western Kentucky State Teachers College. I really don’t know what I would have taught. I had good grades in everything and liked everything in school. Chances are it would have been somewhere in the literary side like English and that sort of thing although mathematics, biology, those things, were always easy to do. I hadn’t made up my mind exactly because it was a short period of time, actually.

Well then, I was at WHAS from 1937 till the winter of 1938–and there are groups in here I was with we’ll talk about later–I went with one of the groups to KMOX in St. Louis–and we were only on a couple of times and my brother Bob Atcher was at that time in Chicago–in late 1938–well, it was actually early 1939 he called me and I went up to Chicago. And was there until the World War and of course Pearl Harbor on my birthday. And there’s much to be said about what I did in that period. As soon as Pearl Harbor was bombed, I quit the group I was with–and we’ll talk about that–and came home and enlisted in the Air Force. And Jan. 12th left home to go to Keeser (spelling?}Field, Mississippi for basic training. That was Jan. 12, 1942. I enlisted in about, December 20th, I think it was. And then this was when they took me. So I was in the war from 1942 until late 1946. Got out of the service in October, 1946–spent three and a half years in the South Pacific in the Air Force. There might be one or two of my letters to my family around from those days when I was in the service. I have a sister who might have some–she’s got a lot of Mother’s written stuff, you know. But I can find out-- I think there’s one or two.

After the war, I came back–they had the thing where you’re supposed to get your job back, you know, but when I went to Chicago, things had changed so much and that’s when I thought it was probably best for me to become my own person ‘cause up to that time I had been just with my brother and his wife. On part of the shows, they just called me Little Brother [laughs]. I have not regretted not staying in Chicago with my brother. I’ve always thought it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I would have been in his shadow all the time. You know, he was great to be with and we did a lot of things; we got along together–oh, yes, really well. As a matter of fact, I’ll talk a little bit about that if I can remember it about when we carried the papers at West Point. He is the reason I got into the business, you know.

Anyway, I got back from the war, went to Savannah with a fellow from Chicago, and we opened a little radio station called WFRP there and lived on Tybee Island which had practically nobody on it then but now it’s just covered, and was there about six months as the musical director of the station. And Joe Eaton, who was then at WHAS–the general manager–called me and wanted me to come to Louisville, so I did leave and come up here–and for basically, a one year contract in 1947 for the Vick’s Salve people.and formed the Western swing band. Vick’s Salve was our sponsor. I think my parents thought Vick’s Salve was good for you, too–I remember rubbin’ it on the chest when I had the cold. Anyway, I formed the Western swing group we called the Swingin’ Cowboys–I’ll get into who the people were in it at a later time. At the end of that contract, though, it sort of ran out. So I left WHAS and went to WGRC–when it was here–and did a solo program. I always said it was the easiest job of my life and we’ll talk about that later. And then, the same Joe Eaton who was at WHAS had left there and was general manger of WKLO Radio called me and wanted me to come over there, and we’ll talk about some of that. Anyway, I was there as a disc jockey and we did a Saturday morning big-top circus program but during the weekdays–I was on from 8 to 12 everyday with a country music record program followed by Foster Brooks with a pop music program. And we were doin’ Big-Top Circus program, when WHAS decided to go on, put on television–and they called me and asked me to come over and audition for the T-Bar-V program.

Yes, I had a night program on WHAS radio. That was with the Swingin’ Cowboys and then at night it was only at 6:15 in the evening. Yes, at night WHAS was heard all over the eastern U.S. I used to get mail from as far south as the most southerly town in Texas, and from Canada–WHAS was so strong. You mentioned in the other book [Pee Wee King] that it’s a wonder Louisville wasn’t a center instead of going to Nashville. Louisville was an important radio market in those days–one of the most important in the interior of the country–and if a person was working in entertainment, this was one of the places to be. Speaking of that, I have been told that West Point was named that because it was the most westerly point of the United States at the time it was settled.

WHAS TV called me to come over, auditioned and I’ll tell you a funny story how this came about, and they decided to do T-Bar-V Ranch, the children’s birthday program. It was named through a kind of a combination. The general manager was Harold Fehr (spelling??)–a really good man and he knew his business. And we were just talkin’ about it one day and decided it would have the Western motif because I did the Western songs, and Tom Brooks who was Cactus had been on a program called Circle Star Ranch, so that brought the Western in it. And you know the Western brands “T.” This was T dash V –the way they used to write TV down. And they decided T-Bar-V, so that’s what it means. And that program was on for almost 21 years. At the same time, I was doin’ 22 programs a week with three morning radio programs, T-Bar-V five days a week, the old Kentucky Barn Dance on Saturday nights, the Hayloft Hoedown on Friday nights. So that was every weekday for a long period of time, doing that. And in 1951, was when they decided to put the Hayloft Hoedown on television, so it was on for 19 years–a little over 19 years.

Then after I left WHAS, I had 19 offers of different things people wanted me to do and I decided on real estate. I went with a fellow named Fred Pfannenschmidt (spelling??) in the real estate business, and was at that really till about 1987–I had my own company for about the last six years and sold out to my partner who was a young fellow from Hart County–from down Munfordville area but he was then living in Carrollton–and we had offices there and here. And sold out to him–he kept the name–we let him keep the name. Then I hung my license up because it....The name was Atcher Goff Realtors. I enjoyed being in real estate to an extent; it was quite a change really. And I am not, I guess unfortunately, in some ways maybe not, but a forceful kind of a high salesman. I had to depend mostly on whether people knew me and so on, and being able to ....And then real estate is a nighttime and weekend business, so after so long a time, I had pretty much enough of that. And I had a family too, and I’ll talk about that. I got married, you know, over in Australia during the war, and my wife died in 1977. And in 1979, Betty and I married.

And anyway, in 1979 Betty and I married and I’ve been nothing but very happy ever since. And it just amazes me the way people remember T-Bar-V, remember the songs–I wrote the songs we used on the program–and every day just about somebody stops me or says to me, “I was on T-Bar-V when I was little,” and now they’re 60 years old–some of ‘em, and all in between.

Now I’m a narrator at the American Printing for the Blind House–I read over there every day. play golf as often as I can when the weather’s nice. And have had some recent experiences that I will enjoy talking about like my visit to the Senate and House of Representatives in Frankfort, the 50th anniversary of WHAS television which we just did a special program about. Ant that pretty much brings us up to date.

Every Monday through Friday–except they’ve recently instituted a program where every second Friday you’re off. But I’ve been reading at the American Printing House for the Blind since 1969. And in the early times we didn’t read every day–maybe twice a week, somethin’ like that–but in the last oh, three or four or five years, I’ve read every morning at 8 o’clock–8 to 10:15 it is now--and you read for two hours and you make these tapes–the Library of Congress tells you what to read or sends the books. They’re sent to the library, they’re proofed and then sent out to libraries all over the world. So I’ve had mail from China; I’ve had mail from other places.

I don’t read the book in advance–I scan it–looking primarily for words I don’t know how to pronounce–many names and-- you know, I’ve learned pretty well to read French. The hardest book we ran across [he reaches to show you something], The History of Brazil, which is in Portuguese but it’s not exactly the way Portugal pronounces Portuguese. And the library liked that well enough that they’ve used it for sort of as a guide for people. Yes, it’s a nice outreach for me to have.

But in 1979, Betty and I married. Betty’s husband was on T-Bar-V--he was a puppeteer. His name was Allan Blankenbaker. And he operated Mr. New which was a steady part of T-Bar-V for a few years. And he was killed in an automobile accident in 1975. And my wife died in 1977. And Betty is very good at this and she wrote me a letter. I wish I had had sense enough then to keep it but it really was a letter that sort of made you feel better than you should under the circumstances. But it was some months later after that I–I guess it was a year and a half–no, about a year–when we were talking when I called her, and I expect partly to thank her for the letter and partly just to talk to her–and we decided that we, we could go out. And she could tell you about it–I was doing some kind of an entertainment our first date [laughs]. She was just sort of sentenced to listening to what was goin’ on. But then we decided...I don’t remember what the entertainment was but she will. She will remind me. And we started dating.

I didn’t know her well. I had met her. Her children had been down to T-Bar-V. And I had met her there. They had a kind of a family puppet program that they all worked with–it wasn’t on the station but they used it at church and so on. So I had met her but I didn’t really know her. And then we started dating and got well-acquainted and decided that we would get married–married on Bastille Day, July 14, 1979. And it is–and I’ll tell you this–and I want it in the book–it’s the best thing that ever could have happened to me. She is a wonderful woman–she has four children, three girls and a boy. And I have two–one adopted. So we have six altogether. She has grandchildren. And I have one grandchild with a great grandchild on the way. But the last 20 years of my life, I could not ask for anything better than the way it’s been. But I’ve been fortunate, too, in the side things as a result of the children’s program, and WHAS, that have happened to me over that period of time. And now as I think I said before, I just read at the Printing House for the Blind, play golf and .... I couldn’t want anything more. I’m very lucky. Most people, perhaps, can’t say what I just said. I consider myself very lucky.

Now the house here–when we first married, when Betty and I first married, before that I lived on Pennsylvania Avenue. My wife had died and just one son was still with me. But of course the house got pretty much blown away in the ‘74 tornado. But we did have it built back and we were livin’ there and Betty and I started goin’ together, and we married and we moved to her home which was on Finch Hill Road in the Highlands–big ol’ two-story with a fallaway lot, and lots of things that needed to be done. And we lived there about eight years or so and by that time, all of her children had left home–some married, some not–but were not living at home anymore. So we decided that it was too much work for that big house and started looking for a condominium and found this place and originally decided it wasn’t really going to be for us but then six months later, we decided maybe it was and were very fortunate to get it the way we did. And it’s a condominium that seems like a separate house–it was only attached to the back, and we have a swimming pool right across from us, and a front yard, and patio with flowers Betty can fool with. It’s very quiet back here. And you feel–one thing about condominium life–you feel pretty safe ‘cause there’s always neighbors close by who hear and see. And yet we’re close to main arteries. The most convenient location you could think of –Taylorsville Road, Breckinridge Lane, St. Matthews, I-64, the Watterson–they’re all right here by us. So we can go [easily].

We eat in most of the time but we have some kind of rituals like... Betty’s a good cook but she doesn’t like to do it much. I’m not much of a cook; I can fix rudimentary things, you know, and don’t very often do it because Betty always provides. But we have some kind of ritualistic things like Sunday mornings we always go to breakfast somewhere. On the Fridays when I’m not working, we go to breakfast somewhere. And then we’ll just be sittin’ here and say, Let’s go to dinner somewhere and we’ll go to the Bristol or go somewhere and have dinner. But it’s not a steady thing.

Yes, in a sense I have the best of all possible worlds because I’ve got options now. I can say, Let’s do this, or this, or this or this. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.

As to my health, well, I guess you’d have to say I’ve had three [heart episodes]. I had a heart attack in 1980 which only started with perspiring. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and woke up and soaked a bath towel with perspiration, and worried us, so I went to the doctor and he said–first, they couldn’t prove it but later they decided it was a heart attack. And it wasn’t anything really serious–I was in the hospital about five days and then sent home. Had no problems for another ten years and then in 1990 on my way over to the Printing House one morning, aching in my arms all the way up to my shoulders and elbows, and I went ahead and finished the reading and came home and it was still goin’ on and gettin’ a little worse. So they called EMS and they took me over and this time they decided that they’d do a catheterization–they found three blocked arteries–two not so bad, one about 85 or 90 percent. So they were talkin’ about a bypass surgery and I had heard about angioplasty and I said, You know, I wondered about that. They said–well, they sent me home–said, We’ll let you know. Couple days later they called and said they could do the angioplasty which I had done in 1990. The catheterization was done at Audubon Hospital but the angioplasty was done at Baptist East, and have not had a pain or a problem until about, oh, goin’ on a year–it’s not quite a year–seems like it was–it is too–I believe it was March of last year. Anyway, I had a problem sleeping, breathing, when I’d lay down flat. So they decided they’d better take me over again. This time they found what they call fibrilation–the heart pumps but it doesn’t pump the blood and it pools in the bottom of the heart and they’re concerned about clots and so on. So they put me on a bunch of pills and I’ve been just fine ever since. I’ve taken the pills and my health is good–like I say, I play golf three, four, five times a week sometimes. I feel good–feel good.

I keep my weight down. I don’t like to say. I guess about 2 ½ years ago, Betty went on a diet and I lost 20 pounds [laughs]. But I’ve managed to keep the weight off.

We moved in here in 1989, about 11 years ago. We like it here. Well, there are five rooms on the first floor, and then the basement’s finished with two bedrooms and a family room. So we have about 1,500 square feet. And three bedrooms on this main floor–two downstairs but I took one of them for an office down there. We can entertain visitors and family. It’s wonderful when the family come because there is a bathroom, family room, bedroom downstairs. And they can be down there and be on their own. We don’t feel like we’re in their hair and they don’t feel like they’re in ours. And my son once in a while–my son moved to Florida–we’ll talk about that trio High, Wide and Handsome before [he moved to Florida]–I enjoyed that period. And he moved to Florida, so once in a while comes up for somethin’ special–he’ll spend time with us. And Betty’s children–the one they live in Connecticut, they’ll come home and bring the grandchildren and there’s room for them down there, you know. So it’s worked out really well for us.

Well, I grew up in the Catholic Church. In West Point, we had a little church called St. Patrick’s which was about the size of this room. And it’s very small. Oh yeah, I am still a practicing Catholic. We were eight children–I guess you’d call it a good Catholic family [laughs]. My mother was really a staunch, strong Catholic. My father was a convert; he was not Catholic when they married. I don’t know really whether he was anything or not. But when they married, he converted to Catholicism.

It was important in my life–in the early years. And I guess probably I’ll tell the story about Mother and I getting into an argument ‘cause I was into Zane Grey and all these Indian books and stories, you know. And we got into an argument and I was saying you didn’t have to be a Catholic to go to heaven, that it was not the name of the religion, that it’s what you believed and that Indians, even though the believed in the Great Spirit–it was the same as God–we had a big argument over that. Anyway, I was about 14 when that happened. Yes, most Catholics now have a much broader view since the ecumenism came in–Vatican II. My mother couldn’t stand it, you know–that they quit saying Mass in Latin, you know.

I belong to St. Francis of Assisi over here on Bardstown Road. Course, Betty’s Methodist; she belongs to St. Paul. So we go to her church one Sunday and mine the next, and it’s worked out beautifully for us. No conflicts, at all.

But I’ll tell you some funny stories about Mother and the religion and so on.. My father was the disciplinarian in that he carried out the things that Mother felt needed discipline for, you know. Because he worked–really was a hard worker and when he worked at the cement factory, he’d come home just worn out, you know, but then he’d go out and get on the tractor and maybe plow the corn rows–things like that. And of course, we boys were the ones out with the hoe, hoeing the weeds. I disliked to hoe more than anything in the world, I think, at that time. But if we needed a spankin’, my father said, always said to us, You’ll get a lickin’ at school, you’ll get another one when you get home. And it was not unusual for that to happen.

No, we didn’t go to Catholic schools. West Point didn’t have anything resembling a Catholic school. St. Patrick’s was so tiny. But each of we boys as we came along were altar boys and served. It was a mission church so that meant a mission church only had Mass once a month, but we worked it out and my brother Bob and I would come into St. Louis Bertrand’s, pick up a priest, take him out there so he could say Mass. And then it was in the diocese that included Vine Grove, and the priest from Vine Grove would come in. So we’d have Mass either at 6 o’clock in the morning or 11 o’clock because he [the priest] had to do his others in between and travel, you know.

Maybe we were kind of an oddity in country music because there aren’t many Catholics in country music. There aren’t many that I know of–possibly a few–most of them, I think, are Protestant. Or at least have Protestant backgrounds. So I guess it’s possible we were an oddity. You know we practiced our religion–when I was up in Chicago with my brother, I can tell you a funny story about going to a Polish church. And when I was overseas during the war, I was able to get to Catholic services. And still go. As I said, every other Sunday.

Yes, I would classify myself as a believer now. Well, I’ve always been a believer in God and in Jesus Christ. I must admit I sometimes think of God before I consider Jesus Christ but I feel like everyone has a God--of some sort. You know, Buddhism, Islam–whatever kind of religion, there is a greater being–God. And everyone has that and it’s just how you look at it. By different names maybe. There’s a mystery out there that we don’t understand.

I was over at Pee Wee and Lydia King’s a month or two before he died and he didn’t know me. When I was over, he stayed asleep most of the time. He sat on the back patio with a little bear or baby doll or somethin’ clutched and was sound asleep and Lydia woke him up and said who I was and everything and he acknowledged somebody, but....