WCHL radio host Ron Stutts ‘was that warm cup of coffee every morning’ for 43 years
After easing listeners into a new day for over 43 years, WCHL radio host Ron Stutts will hang up his headphones Dec. 18 for what could be the last time.
He’s had the best job in the best community in the world, Stutts said, and he plans to stick around.
“I’m still going to live here in the community. I’ll be seeing folks in the community. I just won’t be able to see them on the radio,” Stutts said, referring to his longtime signoff on “The Ron Stutts Show.”
The station announced the departure Monday “with mixed emotions,” general manager Aubrey Williams said on the Chapelboro.com website. Stutts’ co-host, Nicki Morse, will continue to play music from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
“His voice has woken up this community for 43 years, and he’s as much the fabric of our town as anything,” Williams said. “I will miss working with him every day, but I am also happy for him to get to spend more time with his family and to finally get to sleep in every morning!”
On-air personality Aaron Keck, who has hosted a live afternoon show for eight years, will take over Stutts’ morning show Jan. 4. The new “Morning on the Hill with Aaron Keck” will air from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, with co-host Victor Lewis.
Keck also will continue to host his “Live & Local” show featuring local music from 6 to 7 p.m. weekdays, and the station’s news director Brighton McConnell will take over Keck’s afternoon slot, with local news and traffic updates from 3 to 6 p.m.
“I’m sure it will be different, but (Keck) knows the communities already,” Stutts said. “He’s so well established over about a decade, and people know him from the afternoon show, but also they know him from being in the community.”
‘Like the 18th century town crier’
Stutts has been “like the 18th century town crier” for five decades, his longtime friend and colleague Fred Kiger said. Being the voice of WCHL was his job, but he never treated it like work, Kiger said.
He was “the man who realized his task was to be at his post each morning, and he did it wonderfully, willfully, professionally, and we always thought he was just having fun,” Kiger said.
The Rockingham native arrived in Chapel Hill in 1977 after six years at station WRMT in Rocky Mount, where he was known as “Ron Jon” and spent three of those years covering Rocky Mount Senior High School basketball and future UNC and NBA star Phil Ford.
“The only person that I know about who calls me (Ron Jon) is Phil Ford,” Stutts said. ”I did the play-by-play for his high school basketball games, and I wasn’t a whole lot older than he was at that time, but he ended up coming to Carolina, and I came shortly thereafter, and we’ve remained friends over the years.”
In the fall of 1977, Stutts met Kiger, who had arrived in Chapel Hill to teach at Phillips Junior High School. They “instantly clicked” when Stutts called to congratulate his baseball team at Phillips for their win, Kiger said.
They started working together the next year after WRAL sports director Bob Holliday, who then worked for WCHL, recruited Kiger to be the statistician for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Stutts oversaw his audition for WCHL’s “Countdown to Kickoff” show, Kiger said.
“I’ll never forget. He looked up and said, ‘Well, I think you have potential,’” Kiger said. That launched a years-long radio gig alongside such legends as Carolina Panthers announcer Mick Mixon, Associated Press reporter Skip Foreman and CBS producer Dragon Mihaljevic.
“There was a bunch of Lexuses and Rolls Royces in the garage, and I was the Ford Pinto,” Kiger said. “That cemented what had been kind of a casual relationship (with Stutts) into a true professional relationship.”
For several years, the men also shared a house on Shady Lawn Drive.
“We had so much fun. We had such a good time,” Kiger said. “Oh my gosh, the concerts we listened to, the friends that would come by, the times we had. I was with him when he met and fell in love with his wife, Beverly.”
On the air, they’ve also been challenging listeners for 18 years with daily trivia questions and a lively banter. At times they finish each other’s sentences, Kiger said; it’s “how we just naturally orchestrated our conversations and the love of music.”
Stutts’ “voice was that warm cup of coffee every morning,” Kiger said.
“He’s my friend, and I will still see him, but I will miss what he brought, not only to me, but to everybody that woke up in this community,” he said.
Stutts on town’s past, his future
His approach to radio has been to stay natural and enthusiastic, Stutts said. Some mornings have been harder than others, he said, especially this year “with all the crazy stuff that we have going on in the world.”
“I really have felt for a long time that I had the best job in the world, knowing there are all these people out there who are counting on me to get their day started with what they need to know and to also walk out the door with a smile on their face,” Stutts said. “That keeps me going.”
His tenure has seen town growth and change, numerous UNC Tar Heel championship victories, and more conversations with local listeners than he can count while serving as the emcee for July 4th celebrations, fundraisers, and public and private events.
Chapel Hill’s debate used to be over whether the village should grow, Stutts said. Now it’s a debate about how it’s growing. Carrboro is a lot like Chapel Hill was in the 1970s, but “Carrboro is always a degree cooler,” he said, referring to the phrase he coined years ago.
“Everybody says it now, and people believe that it’s actually true. And it may be, because it is a cool community,” he said.
WCHL has changed, too, having survived buyouts, bankruptcies and growing competition from streaming music services. The current owners, who took over in 2015, and the more visible location at University Place mall have been “really good” for the station, he said. In 2012, the station at 1360 AM added a second spot on the dial at 97.9 FM.
“Looking back over the years, I’m really proud of everything that we’ve been able to accomplish and all the things that the radio station has stood for and what we’ve been able to do to serve this community,” Stutts said. “I honestly don’t think there’s another radio station anywhere like we are. WCHL is really an anomaly.”
And it’s important in times of crisis, from hurricanes to ice storms, bringing minute-by-minute news that listeners need, he said. Before the internet made it possible to launch the station’s website Chapelboro.com, he said, they would get thousands of calls.
Stutts recalled many nights sleeping on the floor to make sure he was there when people woke up, and in 2002, staying on the air for about 36 hours after a major ice storm.
“I actually was reading these announcements that we had gotten in about closings and firewood and traffic and hazardous conditions … and I had literally in the middle of a sentence just drifted off,” Stutts said. “Someone was standing next to me answering the phone and feeding me information, and she realized what happened and she hit me with her elbow and woke me up. I just went on like nothing ever happened.”
Now 71, Stutts plans to spend more time with his wife, three grown children, and his pets. There might be some occasional radio work in his future or even a music column, he said. He’s still not a morning person, he said, so he’ll be sleeping in more often.
“Just take it easy, baby,” Stutts said, in his cool-cat casual way. “I need to relax.”
