In about two weeks, my Trusty Sidekick Kevin McCarthy and I would have celebrated our 23rd anniversary on the air together. We started in September of 2001, just a couple of weeks after the attacks of 9/11/01. At that time, it was The Car Guy Show, and of course, later became the Car Pro Show.
I knew I wanted to experiment with a radio show where people could get the truth about cars and the car business, even though I owned a chain of dealerships at the time. I didn’t have the nerve or the radio knowledge, so I reached out to DFW radio legend Kevin McCarthy. I explained what I wanted to do, told him I wouldn’t pay him, but I would give him a new car to use. He said, “I’ve got nothing else to do, I’m sitting out a non-compete” and the show was born. Neither of us knew or even had a thought that it would last 23 years, much less become nationally syndicated all over the country.
On our first show, on a crap station with a lousy signal, the pre-recorded announcer said: And here’s the man they call the Car Guy, Jerry Reynolds. The on-air lights came on and I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Kevin, being a pro, picked it up and took off. I joined in shortly afterward, and the rest is history as they say. I would have never attempted to start this journey without Kevin McCarthy.
So, the time has come for Kevin to hang up his microphone and those golden tones after a literal lifetime of talking on the airwaves.
Kevin’s Grandmother told him he was born talking and hasn’t stopped since, so he made a career out of it, and what a great career it has been. When he was in grade school listening to his favorite DJs in faraway big cities, while under the covers with his transistor radio way past his bedtime, Kevin’s destiny was sealed…well, almost; he wanted to be driving a new car almost every year---but climbing the ladder in the radio biz he couldn’t afford that, and none of the deejays he idolized ever talked about cars.
So, he went to Michigan State to get an education, but he was rescued from the frozen tundra by an apprentice of radio legend Gordon McLendon and he was later offered a job at one of the biggest and best radio stations in the country, KFRC in San Fran, back when San Francisco was still one of the most beautiful cities in the world. That was Kevin’s Super Bowl. After killing it there, he decided to move to Dallas and see if he could make a career here.
We now know just how successful that radio career was. In addition to his radio career, Kevin spent three years as a Sportscaster on Channel 4 TV, and yes, he was the guy who pushed longtime news anchor Clarice Tinsley in a swimming pool at a Channel 4 function. Oh well, he liked radio more anyway.
Then, in the 1990s, he spent ten years as a talk show host on KLIF with radio sports legend Norm Hitzges, talker David Gold, and Bob Ray Sanders in the KLIF lineup. That’s where he was a first ballot inductee into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, an honor that he never lets me forget, since I keep getting snubbed, but that’s OK, one of these years. His humor and quick wit also earned Kevin five Katie Awards from the Press Club of Dallas.
I will say Kevin was ahead of his time in many ways. When he had the daily show on KLIF, sometime in the later 1990’s he started an online discussion board called Dallas Digest. People who listened to his radio show continued discussions there. Remember, this was in the very early days of the Internet, and the board was wildly successful. I found the front page of the forum online still, and by 2005 117,000 individual posts had been made at the website. It is still active today, only on facebook, but many of the original members are still there and still talking. When I reached out to Kevin about my idea for the car show on radio, it was there I was able to contact him.
It was in early 2001 that his run at KLIF came to an end, but with a really nice severance package, he was in no hurry to get another job. That’s when one of his former guests, yours truly, asked him to co-host a radio show about cars. It was a perfect marriage, I didn’t know anything about radio and despite what he thought, he didn’t know anything about cars.
As I look back on the last 23 years, I recall so many things. More Kevin-wrecked cars than I can count, including one of my demos that was totaled out. A couple of divorces he went through, one wedding on a rooftop in Downtown Dallas when it was over 100-degrees and I was his best man and he had me hold a boom box for music as I sweated through my clothes. I will always remember all the jokes about him being way older than me, way shorter, and my constant reminder to him that it would take him an hour-and-a-half to watch 60 Minutes. Nor shall I forget his support when I went through back surgery, a burst appendix, a bout with kidney cancer, and the loss of my only child, from whom Kevin bought numerous cars.
After almost 23 years together, Kevin says he will still be doing the show in one respect: that he’ll be listening to the Car Pro Show when he sleeps in on Saturday mornings, and I say good for him, well deserved.
So, we say So Long to my Trusty Sidekick, my loyal friend and on-air partner for almost two dozen years, a man to whom I owe everything for a successful second career. I had a great run in the car business, and it has been a great run in radio that would not be possible without Kevin’s initial help, his sharing of all the radio tips that made him a legend, and for being my friend.
I liken Kevin’s life and career to what famous Dallas Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith said to the person sitting next to him on an airplane that everyone thought was going to crash. When asked “what are thinking?” Dandy Don simply said: “Damn, it’s been a good ‘un”.
Enjoy your well-deserved retirement Trusty Sidekick.
