FB Friend: Kurt Wallace
Today’s “Awesome Facebook Friend Of The Day” is one of the few guys I know who has dragged his family across the country more times than I have. If you look up “radio vagabond” in the dictionary you’ll see a picture of Kurt Wallace.
The Christian radio industry is a pretty small group, so I’d heard of Kurt before I met him. Oddly, when we did first meet he wasn’t working in radio. He was on staff at a church in the St. Louis area. For some reason, I had occasion to speak with him on the phone while working at WCBW in St. Louis. He said something funny and I replied with something like, “You’re a knucklehead.” To which Kurt responded, “Did you just call me a ‘knucklehead’?” I said I had and (I believe this is mutual) we knew we’d each found a kindred spirit.
Kurt is a seriously funny guy. He seems to be “on” wherever he is, whoever he’s with. And he knows how to use that natural talent to communicate some pretty deep truths, like the love of God in Jesus. Somewhere around 2002 we had an opening in the afternoons in Atlanta. Our consultant at the time suggested Kurt. “He’ll only stay a couple of years, but those will be some pretty good years,” he said. And he was right.
Kurt accepted our offer and moved his family to the Atlanta area. He and his wife and three kids actually moved in with Teri and our daughter Kelsey and me for a few weeks until they could close on a home. Those were a couple of crowded but fun weeks. You get to know a family pretty well when you live with them for a while.
In 2004 I left the radio station (though I’ve since come back) to take a programming position at a new cable TV network. Kurt took over my job as Program Director. But it only lasted a few months before his terminal wanderlust kicked in and he and the family were off to Ohio, or Indiana, or Madagascar or somewhere. I check in on Kurt on Facebook from time to time. He’s still doing radio, still a cut-up. And still getting to the heart of the matter with a little humor.
