A little bit country: Local man makes his way in radio

By LISA BRAMEN, lbramen@poststar.com

Updated: 2/18/2006 10:31:31 PM

Growing up in Corinth, Kevin Richards didn't realize that, when Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn sang their tales of plucky working class women, they were singing his mother's story.

He fell in love with country music back then, when his mother, Carolyn Fuller, a single mom raising two boys, would play it while she cleaned the house. His grandfather always had the radio tuned to country while he worked in the garden.

Now, Richards' family tunes the radio to him. He hosts one of the area's most popular country radio programs every afternoon on WGNA 107.7. He also records several programs for Sirius satellite radio, and has done a series of tribute shows about classic country artists for public television.

Country's ability to connect to everyday people through storytelling, as it did with his mother, is what makes it so popular, Richards said during a recent interview at a Glens Falls cafe.

"I like sharing my love of the music. I like getting people hooked."

When a man at the next table, overhearing the interview, struck up a conversation, Richards went to work, asking him if he liked country music. The man said he wasn't too familiar with it.

"How about Patsy Cline, do you know her?" Richards said. The man said he did. Richards told him to watch his upcoming PBS special about Cline.

"See, I almost got a new fan," he said.

Richards said that people who stereotype country as "redneck" music are off the mark.

"They're missing songs that really do inspire you," he said. "It's lyrics to live by. The stories they tell, people can relate to."

Richards was recently voted best local radio disc jockey in the Metroland reader's poll, which he said shocked him and the station.

"Metroland has very diverse readers. It just goes to show that people are listening," he said.

Many people are surprised to learn that country is the most popular radio format in the Capital region, he said.

"Some people are even afraid to admit that they listen to it. We call them 'closet country fans.'"

Although he never hid it, Richards was one of the few kids who listened to country in Corinth, where his family returned in the 1980s, after several years in Hudson Falls.

No wonder, his mother said, since he was listening to it since he was in the womb.

"When he was a kid, he'd get his microphone out and sing along," Fuller said.

When Richards went to pick up a prize from the now-defunct Corinth country station WSCG, he forged a long-term relationship with the microphone. He was enthralled by the stacks of country records and posters, so the DJ, Joan Crane, let him shadow her.

Soon, the station hired him for a part-time gig on the air. He was 12 and had to apply for a child actor's permit to work legally.

He continued to work in radio after school and on weekends throughout high school and college, progressively moving to bigger stations in the area before landing at WGNA in 1995.

He began teaching country line dancing during college, as a way to make extra money. Despite a busy schedule that includes five days at WGNA and weekly trips to New York City to record his Sirius shows, he continues to teach.

Some of the students in his seniors' class at Moreau Community Center have followed him for years.

"Even though he's big on radio, and has met all these huge stars, you'd never know it," Jean Marie Donnelly of Glens Falls said. "He's still the same Kevin he was at 19. It's like a miracle to me that he's still doing this." Donnelly was wearing the Kevin Richards Show T-shirt she got a few weeks ago on the Caribbean country music cruise he hosted.

Jane McCabe, 86, of Glens Falls, is another loyal fan.

"He's so wonderful," she said, adding with a stage whisper, "and he's good-looking, too."

Richards is fairly tall, with a medium build, kind brown eyes and a clean-cut appearance. His look is more regular guy than country personality -- he favors slightly baggy jeans and untucked button-down shirts rather than tight Wranglers and cowboy hats. His hair is short and slightly gelled.

"He's very, very easy-going," his mother said.

Richards has a group of close friends from his college days. Otherwise, he's somewhat shy in social situations, he said. He prefers to connect with people through the radio.

Often, listeners call in and talk about how a particular song has affected them, or share their own stories of surviving cancer or domestic violence, like a "mini-Oprah," he said. But it always comes back to the music.

"The music's like a companion, especially if you're lonely."



Kevin Richards can be heard weekdays 3 to 7 p.m. and Sundays 6 to 9 a.m. on WGNA 107.7 FM and weekends on Sirius satellite radio. His Patsy Cline tribute show airs at 8 p.m. March 12 and his Martina McBride Soundstage Special airs March 13 at 9 p.m., both on WMHT/PBS.