DAYTON — Our friends at WHIO Radio are celebrating a major milestone this weekend as the station is turning 90.
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Larry Hansgen has been behind the microphone at WHIO Radio for nearly 44 years.
“It’s been life-changing,” Hansgen said. “I mean, I can’t imagine my life without it.”
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WHIO Radio first came on the air on February 9, 1935. It’s been a guiding voice in the Miami Valley for triumphs and tragedies.
“This radio station read casualty lists during World War II. You know, people would listen to WHIO to see if people they knew had actually been killed in the war,” Hansgen explained.
Hansgen still remembers his first day on the job and the people who showed him how it should be done. He recalled meeting Don Wayne, Jim Baldridge, Ed Craling, and Dick Beaser.
“Not even having grown up in the area, I knew I was among giants,” he said. “And it told me right then and there, I better bring my A-game because this place is special.”
Brittany Otto grew up listening to WHIO before coming to work at WHIO.
“I guess I never really think about kids listening to me and it being the same thing, because I’m still kind of in awe of the people that I’m working with,” she said.
Both Hansgen and Otto are just continuing the legacy of the legends before them and showing the next generation the WHIO way so it continues for another 90 years.
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