Photo – Alice hosting guests Linda Block (left) and Marcia Reed (middle) from Bittersweet Garden Club in preparation for their annual garden tour.
Gardening Shows on Radio with Alice Longfellow
The History of the past 37 years
December 14, 2024 marked the end of Alice’s radio hosting career, specifically The Garden Spot, a call-in gardening show with a long history.
The news came the previous Saturday that Cumulus was canceling all local shows in order to change their program format. This affected quite a few people, many who have been hosting shows for over 25 years. For me, it came with mixed feelings. As much as I love doing the show and engaging with mid-Missouri gardeners, I knew that at some point it would need to come to an end.
This bittersweet announcement symbolizes a turning point in my life and career. Now, I am free to pursue other activities. I plan to continue with garden tours, producing the newsletter “Life in the Garden”, plus I have other ideas swirling around. However, I’m not going away and can be reached through this website, Facebook, or by email at gardengrowingtips@gmail.com. So, continue to send messages when needing gardening help. Sign up for the newsletter so that gardening tips and ideas can still come into your inbox.
Here is a recap from the show today – the final program for The Garden Spot.
The 37-year Radio Show Journey:
When I met Bob and made plans to move to Missouri in the mid-80’s, opening a garden center was part of the plan. As a way to market this new business, I knew it needed to have a different twist, especially to draw customers to Centertown. People didn’t know me, so I was looking for a way to quickly get involved in the community. Joining local garden clubs was a good start, along with connections from Bob’s friends and neighbors. Gardening shows on the radio were starting to be popular, and though I was very shy, I knew I had to do it. Boy, did I learn a lot on the way!
On June 6, 1987, KZMO in California hosted my first show, 15 minutes long. We even had a few callers. Ray and Sue Rouse (owners) were a big help, always ready to save me when I floundered. Jeff Shackleford was the board operator at the time (became owner eventually). After 2 months, the show was expanded to 30 minutes, and we were on our way.
The show was called “Out in the Garden” and the theme music was “The Garden Song” by John Denver, a classic tune that forever identified this show with the local audience. A back story on this classic garden-themed song, it was written by David Mallett, a songwriter and folk singer from Maine in 1975. He often times performed in nearby college towns, and when I was attending the Univ of Maine at Orono from 1976-1980, I heard him playing in person at a local coffeehouse. Being a Plant Science major, his garden song resonated with my classmates and was a big hit!!! A few years later, the rights to the song were sold to and made famous by John Denver. The melodious flute music and lyrics “inch by inch, row by row…gonna make this garden grow” played in people’s mind for hours after the radio show.
In 1994, Ray and Sue sold the FM side of KZMO to KAT Country (97.3). Jeff bought the AM side and opened KREL (1420). A year or two earlier, we added KWOS (950 AM) to our air waves, now broadcasting in Jefferson City and California.
Another gardening talk show called “The Garden Spot” was airing on KFRU 1400AM in Columbia and wanted to expand to Jefferson City on KLIK 1240AM. This show was started by Ray Rothenberger, a horticulture professor at MU, sometime in the 1970’s. After he retired, The Garden Spot was hosted by three people taking turns weekly – Dr. Chris Starbuck (horticulture professor at MU), Bob McConnell (owner of McConnell’s Plantland near Midway), and Helmi Sheely (then retail manager at Superior Garden Center in Columbia, now owner of Helmi’s Gardens). The station managers wanted only one host for the show but none of the three stepped up. They asked me, so I said goodbye to “Out in the Garden” and John Denver and began hosting “The Garden Spot” in 2001. We could now be heard in Columbia, Jefferson City, and California.
Through the years, I was a guest on, and became a guest host a few times on, the “Derry Brownfield Show” (ag report) and Don Zeman’s “Home Improvement Show”. These were syndicted shows, so I was receiving calls from Florida, New Mexico, Illinois, and so on. It was great fun!
My biggest appreciation on this show is for the listeners, callers, and those sending emails. THANK YOU for your participation. You made the show.
I greatly appreciate all the radio stations involved, the programming directors, and the board operators. You tolerated me so well. All my goofs and coughing fits. I could never go “big time” because I needed to be myself. Scripting was hard for me. I just needed to be able to “talk plants” and let the rest fall into place.
I want to thank all the guests and guest hosts through the years. You were a pleasure to work with and a big help to me. Plus, I want to thank the new owners of Longfellow’s Garden Center (All-n-One Outdoor Solutions) for letting me continue the show after we sold the business in 2020. I also want to thank Cumulus for all your support over these later years. You gave me so much freedom.
Finally, I want to thank all my family, friends, and past employees for their support and tolerance as I needed to make the show a priority. It affected our family life, as I had that hard-line committment on Saturday mornings. The hardest time for me came when the grandchildren started to arrive. Becoming a grandmother made it obvious that the radio show would need to come to an end…..and here we are. Now that we have 5 grandchildren (all under 6 yr old), I have my Saturday mornings free to help with either family.
Part 2 of this blog will highlight Frequently Asked Questions and the Timeless Gardening Wisdom tips that I want to leave you with. Read on for Part 2.
