shared stories about growing up “Larry in the Middle” in Pontiac, Michigan; the “ah-ha moment” that led him into a 40-year career in radio; his never-ending love for Cleveland, his adopted city; and why he's always been a glass-is-half-full kind of guy. And he tossed out some “teasers” about what his soon-to-be-published book, WIXY 1260 and Beyond , will be about.
When and where were you born and raised? And where are you in the family, first born, last born, Larry in the middle?
I was born in Pontiac , Michigan on March 24, 1938. Pontiac is about 20 miles north of Detroit .
There were six children and I was the middle child, and I fit all the descriptions of a middle child. I was sensitive, demanding of myself and insecure. I related in every way possible to my brothers and sisters, but I also was so different and didn't look like them, to a point where I thought I was adopted.
What did your mom and dad do?
My dad was a plumber, a master plumber. He worked six days a week and I never remember him taking a vacation.
My mother was a typical housewife. In those days women didn't work, so she took care of the house and our family, morning, noon and night. Mom also cooked seven days a week. Mom was also in charge of the Morrow finances. I can still remember that she'd pack my father's lunch every day and every Monday she'd give him twenty-five cents for a nickel-a-day to buy a donut during mid-morning break. One day he asked her for another nickel and she said: I gave you a quarter on Monday. What happened? And my dad said: On Thursday, Tony, didn't have a nickel, so I bought him a donut, so I need another nickel today. She said: OK, Frenchy – she called him Frenchy – I'll give you another nickel, but don't let this happen again.
You were a young child during WWII. What do you remember about the war years?
I remember that my father was gone, a long, long time. He was a SeaBee in the Navy doing construction work on [the island of] Saipan in the Pacific.
My mother took care of all of us and was extremely creative. One time she won a contest at a popular grocery store in our neighborhood, by guessing the weight of a bag of Pillsbury flour. She guessed right on the nose – 175 pounds – and the grocery store delivered the bag, right to our kitchen.
With all that flour, my mother began baking – mostly homemade bread, but also tea rings and brownies – and on Fridays my brothers and myself—about 6, 7 and 8 then – would load up our wagon and go from door-to-door in the neighborhood selling Mom's home made goodies. Our sales pitch was to take the still warm bread in our hands, knock on a door and say: ‘My mother made this homemade bread and it's 35 cents. Would you like to buy it?' We never came home until everything in our wagon was sold. Mom made enough money during that one year of baking to buy our first refrigerator which replaced our icebox – and a brand new Tappan oven.
When you were in elementary school and high school, what were you good, and not so good, at?
I went to Catholic schools all 12 years. In elementary school I was very good in math, science and English – a straight A student. I mostly liked English. While the other students were diagramming sentences, I was diagramming paragraphs. But, when I went into the 9 th grade, I went from straight A's to maybe a C- average. In algebra, I never understood why they put letters in the equations, instead of numbers, and it just got worse when I moved on to geometry. I was also a good athlete. I lettered in football, basketball and baseball all four years of high school which, for me, did not bode well for spending the right amount of time on the books. I was also deeply involved in social affairs and plays at school. I was never in the plays, always behind the scenes. And I had a girlfriend, too. I was fortunate with all of that going on to maintain a C- average.
The summer before ninth grade I'd gone away to the seminary to become a priest. I felt a religious calling, but at the same time I'd met a girl in the 8 th grade I thought was pretty sharp. I remember going to the priest a lot that summer and telling him something wasn't right. I wanted to serve God, in every way I could, but at the same time I wanted to keep dating the girl back home. The priest obviously knew of my frustration and suggested I leave the seminary. I left after three months.
You've always been musical, composing jingles and songs that have gotten local and national attention—including the Cav's “fight song” and the award-winning Smucker's jingle. Did you ever think about a career as a song writer or musician?
When I was very young my mother used to comment on the fact that I was always humming or whistling melodies she'd never heard before and thought that I was musically creative. One day when I was about 14 she saw an ad in the local paper for someone to write music for jingles and she suggested I take the bus down to the studio mentioned in the ad.
So I took the bus into Detroit which at that time cost five cents. When I arrived I spoke with the agency's manager. He asked me if I knew what a jingle was and I said no. He explained that clients would give his company a slogan and they would write the music for it. He gave me two or three slogans – including ‘GM, Mark of Excellence' – and told me to put them to music. Then he turned on a tape recorder and left. When he came back about 15 minutes later, he listened to the slogans I'd put to music and told me he really liked the one I'd done for ‘GM Mark of Excellence' and he gave me $15 for it. That particular jingle lasted for 25 years as the GM jingle.
That's what started me off as a jingle writer. Back then, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just knew I could create music for slogans and possibly songs.
And about being a musician, I was 15 or 16 at the time I first sat down at a piano. My girlfriend had one – horribly out of tune – but when I sat down in front of it, I was hitting chords with all ten fingers. That's when I started to study music.
Right out of high school – when you were barely 18 – you joined the Marines. Why the Marines? Where did you serve? What did you do?
In those days [1956], you either “joined” the armed service or you would get drafted. My father had been in the Navy and my older brother followed my dad into the Navy. I didn't want that for me so I joined the Marines. I was originally tested in the Marines and was best qualified for communications. Following basic training I was transferred to S3, which was the Intelligence Division of the Marine Corps and responsible for war-time analysis and strategy.
I was stationed at Camp Pendleton , in southern California , where the weather is always pleasant, around 74 degrees, so it helped in terms of loving the Marine Corps and wanting to stay in California .
What did you do when you got out of the Marines?
Like most fathers in those days, they would like to see their sons follow in their footsteps. Even though my dad encouraged me to become a plumber, I could not see myself as one. I wanted to be a business man. In those days, anyone who lived in and around the auto industry in Detroit , most assuredly, ended up a factory worker, a design engineer or president of an auto company in the industry. My ultimate goal was to be president of General Motors. And I started working toward that goal when I got out of the Marines in 1959. I remained in California for several reasons, not the least of which were the palm trees, the sunshine and the warm weather. My first job just outside of San Francisco was recapping tires at a little shop called Speedy Recap . At that time I also enrolled at UC Berkley, which was just down the street from the shop.
Nine months later, Mom called and said Dad was in the hospital for an undisclosed disease and I needed to come home to help with finances for the family. I immediately sold everything and headed back home to Pontiac , Michigan . My two younger brothers had also joined the Marines but my two sisters were still at home. After returning home, my first job was that of a ditch digger.
From ditch digger to disc jockey, that's a leap. When and how did you make the leap?
Ditch digging was a very short career for me. As I mentioned earlier, I desired to be president of GM. I immersed myself in the study of engineering at the Detroit School of Technology and GM Tech in Flint, Michigan, so one day, I'd have all the credentials to fulfill my dream.
I was 22 at the time when one day, while driving home from work, I was listening to my favorite disc jockey, Joel Sebastian on WXYZ in Detroit . He called himself ‘the Swinging Spaniard.' Since I was just a few miles away from where he was broadcasting, I decided to drive to the studio to see what a real, live DJ looked like. As soon as I walked up to the announcer's studio, it was as if lightening had struck. It's difficult to explain, but it was then that I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I also had this picture in my mind of Joel, and he wasn't anything like I thought he'd be. He was tall, blond and had blue eyes and he certainly did not fit the description of his nickname, Swinging Spaniard!
When, then did you land your first job in broadcasting?
It was 1962 when I walked into WPON, in Pontiac , Michigan , dressed in my best suit and with my shoes spit-shined to perfection. I was even carrying an attaché case with nothing in it because I wanted to look the part. The general manager, Don McCloud, sat me down and asked me why I wanted to be a DJ and what was it that I would bring to the industry that current DJs were not offering.
I said that I thought people ought to be talked to at the heart level, rather than the head level. At that time popular DJ's joked and generally programmed laughter in all they did. I told him that I thought people related more to story telling and things that related to their everyday lives rather than jokes that did not. I told him I was very sincere at caring about the same things most people cared about and I would relate to them on that level. He told me that with that kind of thinking, I had a chance of going on to fame in the radio business because he too believed that was specifically missing. Following our conversation, he gave me my very first job in radio at $1.00 an hour. It wasn't on the air – I had to learn the craft – so I was running the sound board and recording commercials for the disc jockeys.
Following that life-changing moment, I enrolled in the Detroit School of Announcing and Speech, which was the most prestigious broadcasting school in America at that time. When I graduated, everyone – from the owners and instructors at the school to the famous Detroit news people who were teaching there – told me that I wasn't going to make it in the broadcasting business. They all told me I had an obvious talent for broadcasting, but that my voice was too nasal – I sounded like I was all stuffed up – and that would keep me off the air.
So, I hurried to a voice teacher who worked with me for a year to change my nasal sound to forcing my voice first into my throat, then to the upper chestal area and finally out of my diaphragm. I was blessed with a baritone voice but the voice needed to be worked on. When people say how blessed I am to have the voice I do, I tell them it was not always like that. I had to work very hard, and still do, to keep it this way.
By your late 20s you were a top on-air personality at CKLW in the Windsor-Detroit market – going by the name Duke Windsor. What brought you to Cleveland ?
I was on from 7 pm to midnight at CKLW, a 50,000 watt powerhouse out of Windsor , Ontario , Canada just across the Detroit River . It was one of the most powerful radio stations in North America at that time. CKLW could be heard loud and clear in Cleveland and my evening show from Windsor was rated number one in Cleveland from 7pm to midnight. If you were a teen in Cleveland , you were listening to Duke Windsor – my nickname – on CKLW.
Norm Wain, Joe Zingale and Bob Weiss, owners of WIXY 1260, wanted me to come to their new radio station in Cleveland due to my huge ratings.
So, the question that begs an answer is: Why did I leave Detroit , which was the number five radio market in America to come to Cleveland , which was the number eight market?
The answer is simple: I was fired. During those days, when radio stations changed ownership, in most cases, the entire on-air staff was replaced. One day after I had been firmly implanted in my new city , the general manager at CKLW called Norm Wain and told him hiring me was a big mistake, that “the Duker” would never make it in Cleveland . Norm told him: Well, that's strange, because Larry has the highest rating of any DJ in Cleveland , and WIXY 1260, our little 5000 watt radio station, has the highest ratings in America .
What made you stay?
Actually, when I arrived I didn't think I'd be here very long. Cleveland was going to be a stepping stone to bigger things in my life: New York , Chicago , Boston or Los Angeles . As I spent the evening in my hotel room in Cleveland , anticipating my interview the following day, I turned on the television. All three television stations were running live footage of people rioting in Cleveland . The next day, I found out it was the Hough Riot of 1966 and I was just minutes from its epicenter.
That is when I decided to stay in Cleveland . The Hough riots had paralyzed the culture and the people in Cleveland . Politicians were all running around wondering where in the world the glue was going to come from to reassemble the city. I wanted to make a difference. I had just enough experience at reaching the hearts of listeners that I thought a change agent could help restore some of what I personally thought was missing. The people of Cleveland had been beaten down so bad that it would be difficult to get up. I knew I could help them change their introverted ways of looking at themselves and their city. Once I got to know the people of this great city, I fell in love with them and never wanted to leave.
In 1969 I was blessed to be voted one of the top 12 DJs in America by a national publication similar to today's People Magazine. Music-wise, Cleveland was really tuned-in to what was happening in America : records that got their start here climbed the musical charts nationally. The music industry believed that Cleveland , being a melting pot of different cultures, represented a cross section of America .
But there was something else, too. When I came to Cleveland , the city had several advertising agencies that represented many of the Fortune 500 companies in America . So there was a tremendous opportunity for me to write jingles, suggest creative ideas for their clients and offer my voice for commercials.
At WIXY – in the late-'60s and early-'70s – you always connected on a personal level with your audience. Why do you think that was – and is – important?
That gets back to my early days at WPON in Pontiac , when I told the general manager that I wanted to reach people at the heart level, rather than just the head level. When I arrived on the air in Cleveland it was only the fourth radio station I had worked for. At that time I wasn't convinced that the talent I had was what the audiences in Cleveland wanted. But after just a few months we were on the same page. It was clean fun – Jam-up, Jelly Tight and Peanut Butter right – and exciting radio.
One very important factor to my early success was that women then weren't working in the numbers they are today. After all, women in the mid to late '60s were stay at home moms, so all of my shows at WIXY were directed specifically to all of their needs. It wasn't just the music. I had purposefully designed my show to build relationships that spoke directly to what mattered to them; their spouses, their children, their God and the community they lived in and loved.
Being on the air wasn't the only thing that drew me closer to Cleveland . I wanted to meet my audience. On weekends, I would head out to malls and shopping centers to meet listeners and talk to them. I would take pictures with me and stand at the front doors of the malls and introduce myself by saying: Hi, I'm Larry Morrow on WIXY 1260. Here's a picture of me and the time I am on the air. If you'll listen to me and give me a call at the radio station, I'll mention your name on the radio. I also would spend at least an hour before my show calling people from the white pages of the phone book. I would not put the book down until I had reached 10 people who agreed to listen…In the beginning, I'd make 40 or 50 calls just to get 10 people to listen. Two and one half years into my show, WIXY 1260 had become so significantly popular that it was close to 10 for 10. When I left WIXY after six years, I counted the number of people I'd called. It was over 17,500 people.
From the very beginning, aside from your work-related personal appearances, you did lots of volunteer charity work – and you still do. Why has that kind of work always been important to you?
Over my 40 years in Cleveland , I've probably been involved with over 150 charities. I wouldn't have been able to answer your question 10 years ago, but one day, while watching Jerry Lewis during his annual Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon, I can still hear his answer to a question Casey Kasem, former host of American Top 40 Countdown, asked him: Jerry, why do you spend hundreds of hours each year in preparation and the hosting of this telethon?” Jerry simply said: “Because it makes me feel good.”
That too, is why I do it, because it makes me feel good.
Where was the first place you volunteered?
Camp Cheerful . When I first came to Cleveland, Dave Brunswick owned Brunswick Florists near University Circle and just across the street from the Cleveland Clinic. I was making a personal appearance at his store selling Christmas Trees to benefit Camp Cheerful when Dave asked me to volunteer at Camp Cheerful . I gladly agreed. The following week Dave took me to Camp Cheerful so I could see what I was working for. I was so deeply moved by seeing hundreds of children in wheel chairs, crutches and walkers that it swelled my heart. I wanted to be their spokesperson and take their message to the people of greater Cleveland . That was the beginning of wanting to help in any way I could.
To this day, volunteering in my community appeals to the deepest chambers of my heart. People in Greater Cleveland often talk to me about all the good I've done for local charities. I always say back to them: No, it's the other way around. You can't believe what the community has done for me.
In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, you went to Vietnam and recorded holiday interviews with local soldiers. What made you want to do that?
I actually didn't want to do it, not because I didn't think it was the right thing to do but I thought there would no way we would get permission. They called me into the program manager's office one day and said: Larry, we've been doing all these promotions – Mini-skirt contests, Big-bust contests – and some of them have not sat well with many of our listeners, so we've come up with a promotion that will appeal to adults and change the way people in this community view WIXY 1260. We are going to send you to Vietnam and have you interview all of the greater Clevelanders who are there. When you return we'll play those interviews on the air for Thanksgiving.
I told them I thought their idea would never work because it was the height of the Viet Nam war and we would never get permission from the State Department or the Pentagon. They then told me they had checked and I would be interviewing as many as 200 local solders from the greater Cleveland area...I spent less than a month traveling all over South Viet Nam interviewing most of the 200 service personnel there though only 54 agreed to be taped. The interviews were played over WIXY 1260 for not only Thanksgiving but Christmas as well.
The WIXY Brings the Boys Home for Thanksgiving promotion was a huge and emotional success. Bill Hickey, them entertainment writer for the Plain Dealer , printed the day, the time and the soldier interviewed on the font page of the Plain Dealer . And the station sent copies of the interviews to all of the soldiers' parents…I, personally, received thank you letters from the parents, family members, girl friends and close friends of each soldier.
That journey to Viet Nam catapulted WIXY 1260 to a higher level of respect that not only made me a staple in our community but put WIXY 1260 on a pedestal. Although it was not my idea, when I returned home to Cleveland , I received much of the credit for which I was grateful.
You left WIXY and went to 3WE – in 1973 – and you got married, too. How did you meet your wife, Rosary, and did getting married fuel the move from WIXY to 3WE?
I'd actually stopped dating because I was never sure whether people were going out with Larry Morrow the celebrity or Larry Morrow the man. When I went to visit my older brother in Virginia Beach , he fixed me up with a good friend of his and his wife. Her name was Rosary. At the time she was divorced and had three young daughters.
When I went to pick Rosary up for our dinner date, I thought highly of the way she was raising her three young girls – 12-year-old twins, Donna and Diana, and 10-year-old, Cynthia – in a two-bedroom apartment on a hair dressers salary. Rosary was so different than the girls I had been dating.
When I returned to Cleveland , I somehow had left my jacket behind at her apartment. Rosary sent it back to me with a note stuffed in one of the pockets. It read: When you leave something behind, that means you had such a good time you would like to return. I got such a tingle from her note that I started calling her every day. I returned to Virginia Beach five months later. The moment I laid my eyes on her I knew she was the one. A few months later, I asked Rosary to marry me and bring the girls to Cleveland . We were married in Atlantic City , New Jersey in July of 1973.We have been so blessed. We have been on a long, extended honeymoon for the last 37 years.
Did getting married fuel your move to 3WE?
In a way, it had everything to do with going to 3WE. I quit WIXY in the summer of 1972, the day the station was sold. My company, Morrow's Music Machine had picked up steam over the past six years and I truly believed it was time to leave radio and spend full time on commercials jingles and creative work with advertising agencies across America . I'd been receiving quite a bit of national exposure with my company and wanted to continue building it.
Tom Embrescia, 3WE's president and general manager, called one day and asked me if I was interested in getting back into radio at 3WE? I'd told him flat-out, no. But, when Rosary and I were talking about Tom's offer, she said one of the reasons we would be getting married was that I could be home with her, be a father to her girls and be there for all of them. How could I accomplish that if I was going to be traveling most of the time?
That question hit me like a ton of bricks and made me think. It confused me for a short time because if I were to go back on the air, I would have to give up most of what I had built up nationally for the past six years. It became a simple decision. The next day, I called Tom and said I'd take the on-air job at 3WE and become your new morning man
In 1979, then-Mayor George Voinovich named you Cleveland 's Number One Booster – Mr. Cleveland. And you have continued to be a major booster for your adopted city. Why?
That really gets back to why I stayed here. As I mentioned earlier, I had fallen in love with the people of Cleveland . And I also felt that Cleveland had had enough badgering from the national press. When George Voinovich became mayor I told him I wanted to do something for our city. I desperately desired to be on his team and be one of the symbols for Cleveland 's comeback.
My job on the Voinovich team was to make sure that no one – no one – made fun of Cleveland , Ohio . On my morning show, I made it a point to have leaders in our community – company presidents, CEO's and civic leader – tell listeners why they loved Cleveland and what they were doing to make our beloved city better.
After stints at not only WIXY and 3WE, and WERE and WQAL, and winning just about every major broadcasting award given out in Northeast Ohio, and being inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame (in 1995), you “retired” in 1999 at 60. Over your career, what would you say was your most memorable interview? And why?
That's so hard because I did so many, including five presidents of the United States . But the person who really comes to mind is Barbara Walters. Barbara was about 50 years old at the time we met while she was appearing at the Front Row Speaker Series where I was going to introduce her. She did something at the outset of our get together that told me that she was the “real deal.” I was waiting for her in the Green Room at the Front Row when she arrived. She was running a little late and went directly to the phone. She said: You must be Larry, I'll be right with you but I have to call my New York office first.
At this time Barbara Walters was arguably the most popular lady in the world – at least in broadcasting – and I was very anxious to meet her. Following a short conversation with her office in New York, this very petite woman with a large smile and elegant way about her – in her red and black suit, she looked like she'd just come off a fashion show runway – walked directly up to me, shook my hand and said: OK Larry, what is it I don't know about you and what is it you want to know about me before you introduce me in a few minutes….Meeting her turned out to be one of the most enjoyable interview meetings I've ever done.
How has broadcasting changed in Cleveland since you arrived in 1966?
When I arrived in 1966, the stations were unique, and individually owned. Congress passed the Communications Act in 1999, which allowed companies to own as many radio stations, newspapers and television stations as they wanted in one community, as long as they did not exceed 25% of the advertising revenues.
That allowed big companies to come in and buy as many radio stations as they could. Owning several radio stations in one market meant you only needed one general manager to manage the entire group rather than six. The same was true with sales managers, program directors and promotion directors. That plan also eliminated much of the competition that was present before stations began consolidating. Everything became bottom-line driven. Sadly for the listeners, whenever you allow that kind of management – which in reality disenfranchises the announcers from the listeners – the independence of radio is over. Once you begin telling announcers what to say, when and how, you have lost all engagement with listeners and your listeners can feel it. It turned me off so much that I could hardly wait to get out of radio broadcasting.
So you decided to retire because of the change in how stations were run?
Partly. I'd become extremely unhappy with what was happening at Q-104 [WQAL]. We'd begun playing records that were demeaning to women and to their families. I had refused to air that kind of music and programming and made it clear that I would not participate. They said: Look Larry, we own the radio station and you'll do as we say, or else. I quietly shot back: You are absolutely right, you do own the station and I own the audience. A few months later, on June 1, 1999, since my contract was not going to be renewed, I left.
How long did it take you to unretire?
I remember sitting here [waves a hand around the deck he built onto his house in Chagrin Falls ] over the July 4 th weekend, planning on what I was going to do next. I was used to getting up at 2:45 am and getting to work by 4:10 am. I was also asked to emcee community events weekly and generally found myself extremely busy. I can distinctly remember saying to Rosary: Every day is Sunday and Monday never comes. I have to go to work.
Initially, I bought into a promotional products company – Sherwood Promotions – and stayed there about 15 months. Then I went out on my own and started the Larry Morrow Group, selling promotional products, doing creative work, advertising, and voice work. But something was missing: being able to work one on one with people.
I'd written an article, “Linking Strategic Communication to Leadership” about building relationships at the heart level, and put it up on my company website ( www.larrymorrow.com ). One day I received a call from someone in the HR Department at Cleveland Clinic asking me to explain what I meant in the article when I talked about connecting at the heart level – in other words, saying things so that they are heard the way you mean them. And we talked about things like integrity and character and competitiveness. She said thank you and hung up.
About six weeks later I got a call from the same person asking me if I'd come to the Cleveland Clinic and begin teaching what I had written about. I would be coaching and working one-on-one with many of their hospital presidents and executives. They also wanted me to work, with groups of executives, on team building and building trust within a team. When you trust people and spend enough time with them, trust becomes the shared experience that is critical to all good relationships.
I've been teaching leadership development and communications skills for almost ten years now and it is the joy of my life. I teach all aspects of communication skills, especially non-verbal, which is over 50% of how you communicate. Whether you are in the board room, across the table in a restaurant, on the telephone or one-on-one in private meetings, the person across from you not only has to hear what you say but feel what you say. Executives, for the most part, never give that a thought and don't understand why they lost the order or can't connect.
I also teach what I call the Two and Five Theory : it takes two seconds for people to decide whether they like you or not and it takes five seconds for them to determine whether they are in sync with you or not. And that's before you ever open your mouth. The way you carry yourself, the way you look, the way you smile, what your eyes say, all that “speaks” before you do.
I'm a visiting lecturer at John Carroll, Tri-C and Ursuline. I'm beginning to grow a reputation as a teacher now which pleases me greatly.
You really stay on top of what's going on locally and nationally – politically, culturally, socially. Is that because of your business, or is that just something you, personally, think is important?
Yes and yes.
I've always been the kind of person who was interested – genuinely interested – in what was going on around me and in the world. I took that with me into broadcasting, where you had to be on top of every single story, everything that was happening in your community, and the people who lived in your community.
You are incredibly energetic. Where does that come from?
I have always been active and athletic. I work out to stay in shape. I'm an early riser and I start off every day at 5:15 a.m. with a 2 ½ mile walk and then, later in the day, I go to my gym in the lower section of the house, for weight lifting. I have been blessed to continue putting up the same numbers I worked out to when I was a long distance runner, running 8-10 miles a day. Outside, I'm 72, but down deep, I'm still in my 30s, so I'm still aiming for those much talked about six-pack abs. I exercise partly for the mental effect as-well-as the physical outcome. It really makes me feel good.
Are you doing anything diet-wise, to maintain your weight and energy?
I wish that I ate as well as I work out, but I don't. Growing up, we were a meat and potatoes family so my mother made deserts every night. So sometime during the day I have to have something sweet.
I eat a very healthy breakfast – four of five kinds of fruit with cereal, orange juice and coffee. Lunches are iffy, because I'm eating where and when I can. But Rosary cooks healthy dinners every night. And we don't eat fatty foods, at all.
Mythbusters is all about successful aging. What's Larry Morrow's “recipe” for aging well?
It's a combination of things. Be a positive thinker. My entire life I used the old cliché; the glass-is-half-full never-half-empty. Always take the high road. Always! And think “young.” When people ask me my age, I ask: Do you want my chronological age, my phil osophical age or my cardiovascular age? My biological age is 72. My phil osophical age is around 30. My cardiovascular age is going on 50. I refuse to think about getting “old.”
Do you think you are living up to your “recipe?”
I think about 95% of the time, yes. One of my “issues” is that I'm a details oriented person, a worrier. [Chuckles] I wake up in the morning and start worrying – about my family, my community and my business. If there is one thing I could change about myself that would be it. I'd worry less. But I don't see that happening.
If you had to choose just one thing to be remembered for, what would it be? And why?
That's easy: That I loved my wife and my children unconditionally…And next on the list would be that I loved my community. George Voinovich gave me the title of “Mr. Cleveland” and it's been a moniker I've worn proudly and taken very seriously.
You mentioned you were working on a book. What's it about?
Over a year ago I approached David Gray, from David Gray Publishing, about doing a book on leadership, but he wasn't interested. Then, about four months later we spoke again, about a book on WIXY 1260, the radio station I worked for in the mid-'60s.
At first I was not interested: WIXY, although immensely successful both locally and nationally, was only a miniscule part of my 40 years in Cleveland radio. David then said he'd invested 40 years into my life by listening to me all those years and felt there were thousands of Northeast Ohioans who, like him, wanted to know what is was like to stand on stage and introduce five Presidents of the United States; to host the biggest crowd ever assembled in downtown Cleveland – 450,000 people during our Bicentennial; and walk the streets with Dennis Kucinich and George Voinovich.
I still said that no one cares what I have to say in a book. But David convinced me otherwise.
It took me 18 months to write the book and right now I'm going through the final edit, putting in close to 50 hours a week. And it's been one of the toughest things I've ever done. The one thing I've learned from writing this book is that while I spent 40 years in Cleveland radio telling stories that painted verbal pictures, trying to do that in print is challenging, so the rewrites have been exhausting. I'm extremely grateful for the insight from my associate Amy Lawrence and writer, Scott Lax, who has written a successful novel and movie.
So, when's it coming out?
We are hoping for a late fall (2010) or early holiday season release.
[Updated January 2011: Morrow's book "This is Larry Morrow: My Life on and off the Air" is available at Cleveland-area bookstores and through Amazon.com]
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