Here’s Johnny!

Here’s Johnny!  A complete look at the life of John Carney.

Maybe you haven’t heard of John Carney, but I guarantee you’ve heard John Carney. He’s that famous guy with the recognizable voice that has brought laughter and levity to radio listeners for almost three decades.

Well-known for his down-to-earth commentary and honest, cheer-ya-up style of talk radio, John’s privileged youth lifestyle was anything but easy, yet in reminiscence, a blessing for where he is today.

It’s New Year’s Eve at the Lodge of Four Seasons, and the lobby is beginning to buzz as it gets later in the afternoon and closer to preparing for the annual midnight celebration. Guest check-ins and anxious Lake visitors begin to put on their party faces. A relaxed yet celebrity-like gentleman arrives through the guest door entry, bellman assisting.

It’s not the first time John Carney has passed through these doors. In fact, at age 10, he flew in by helicopter accompanied by Four Seasons owner Harold Koplar as a guest of “Uncle” Harold. Koplar was a close friend of John’s dad, Jack Carney, a radio icon himself, who kept young John away from the big business of radio and celebrity interviews. But as the story goes… despite his father’s wishes, and perhaps totally motivated by spite, John Carney is and has created his own legend in the broadcasting world.

His entry that New Year’s Eve afternoon at the Lodge made him reminiscent of his childhood days—roasting marshmallows in the Lodge lobby fireplace to make s’mores, or bowling recklessly in the Lodge recreation center followed by running through the corridors like he owned the place. This behavior from a young John Carney was not hard to imagine, for as he made his arrival, just behind him bounded in his two sons: Liam, 1, and John James, 2. Witnessing the same energy and robust disposition in him as in his young boys, I immediately knew I was facing a man with more stories and experiences than I could report.

His status and comfort radiated from his personality as we began to talk. Laughter combined with uneasy spoken memories of his past made John a real person with a heartwarming story of the path he has made through life.

His success comes partially from the ability to speak easily of anything. “I don’t filter,” he says. “My listeners have followed me through ‘radio talk’ content including the adoption of my girls, my DUI conviction, my divorce and the births of my boys. I couldn’t surprise anyone,” he says of his open-air talk style. “Maybe I’ve shown too many cards.”

In radio you can say almost anything. His father, Jack Carney, did just that. “People knew me before I was on the radio because Dad talked about me on his shows,” John explains. “I was an open book before I had a pen.”

His father built a broadcasting empire around himself interviewing celebrities and living most of his life away from home and in a broadcast studio. John remembers him as two different people, the personal and the professional.

“He had a great effect on lives and the community and his show was hard work. But the personal man didn’t get as good a report card,” John says.

But what makes John who he is today is how he got where he is today. He grew up in Marin, California, across from San Francisco and was raised by a Spanish nanny. His dad owned a bar at the time where John remembers his family hosting parties for Ronald Reagan and celebrating the 16th birthday of Barbra Streisand. John grew up with two half-sisters, and recently discovered a half-brother who was given up for adoption.

Radio was a big industry with big names, yet no names any bigger than his father’s, which made it even more complicated for John’s life as a teen in California. From getting kicked out of the house at age 15 to his first radio gig, John continued to search for his position in life. He says with ease and without hesitation, “My father didn’t want me to ruin his career. I’ve learned a lot about how to be a good dad, and that making time for my family (four kids) keeps me grounded. And I can say at the end of the day that emptying the Diaper Genie helps with humble, too!”

Finally, radio was what he knew and it became his way of life. He took his first disc jockey position in 1983 at a country music station in Colorado on his 21st birthday.

“I had finally started my radio career and just six months had passed when I got a phone call that my dad had passed away. I’ll never forget that day,” John remembers. Jack Carney died at the age of 52 of a heart attack after a scuba lesson. “I remember the parade of people and dignitaries who came to pay their respects, and thought to myself that I just want to grieve for my dad privately. KMOX radio suspended regular programming. My God, three days, no commercials,” John expresses with fresh astonishment, as if it were yesterday. The impact of his father’s death brought life to an even greater respect for his dad’s professional career.

The future held promise for John’s broadcast positions in that he now had a legacy to uphold. This didn’t keep him from being his usual free spirit though.

“My Colorado deejay position was short-lived. You see, it was a country music station with a handful of listeners, literally. I decided to play a Stevie Wonder record and, well, I got fired,” John says, comfortably. “That’s when I went on to Job Number 2, the “Get Off Cocaine Treatment Center.” Then Job Number 3, working for KFRU in Columbia, Missouri in 1984,” he says, as if he’s explained a million times before and probably has. He was doing stand-up at Deja Vu while exercising his talent as a drummer playing on jingles and in a band the Lake knows well as Chump Change.

John went from Columbia to St. Louis where he joined KXOX in 1985. It was his first real taste of talk radio, working with broadcast legends Mort Crowley and Grant Horton. An offer from KMOX pulled from the other side of the dial, but that proved to be a ploy to get him off the St. Louis airwaves altogether. Little did John know, he was headed to Mid-Missouri. He got an offer to work in Eldon as a deejay for Super Country KLDN in 1987. Yes, John claims KLDN was his first gig that made him the radio personality that he is today.

John developed his interview style. He recalls interviews of many “odds and ends” persons of interest, but one who really left an impression was David Allen Coe in the Eldon studio. John questioned his guest, “So tell me some of those stories when you would hang with Waylon and Willie?” Coe responded immediately with disgust, “I am a married man and a Christian, and this interview is over.” John remembers it as if it happened yesterday.

The Lake treated John well, he remembers. He spent every afternoon lying out by the pool at his Robinwood condo, then hitting his favorite party nightclub, Splash, on the strip at night.  That was when John made it into print as the cover personality for Tube Tab TV guide while playing guest deejay at the Mad Hungarian Night Club. But those nights took their toll on the morning show deejay.

“I guess it was when I showed up one morning and they had another disc jockey handling my shift that I realized I had been replaced. But nothing can beat the memories of broadcasting in the little “Bomb Shelter” station in downtown Eldon,” John says. Only 24 years old, his fate of attaining celebrity status in a broader market was inevitable.

Here is where the stardom begins. From being the original replacement for longtime talker Jim White, to creator and cohost of the Two Johns, No Waiting show, and finally the Carney Show, KMOX was John’s home for the next 12 years. Celebrity interviews were commonplace with guests including Al Roker, Jimmy Carter, Gene Simmons and more. John’s career catapulted.

He taught broadcasting classes at the St. Louis Broadcasting Center between shows, and admits having the Lake’s own Jeff Karr of Mix 92.7 as a student. “Really, Jeff Karr is on the air? Not sure what I taught him but he’s a good golfer. He’s got that going for him,” John teases.

John’s voice is recognized by radio listeners in one of the largest markets in the country: St. Louis. His popularity means he’s booked for personal appearances at both charitable and official events. Although he’s being awarded 2011 St. Louis River Front Times Media Personality of the Year, and has been honored twice as the Talk Show Host of the Year, he finds that plaques, billboards and magazine covers, and even recognition from his peers in the broadcasting field are not how he wants to be remembered.

He recalls making the decision to start the Carney’s Kids foundation after he realized how many benefits and fundraisers that he was asked to take part in as Master of Ceremonies or to make a guest appearance. He thought if he could benefit these charitable organizations, “then why not use myself to benefit the personal concerns I have for children,” he says.

He began the Carney’s Kids program after he made the humbling, generous and selfless commitment to adopt two girls from China. The Carney’s Kids Foundation raises funds every year to provide activities for six different children’s organizations and to provide fun events for kids.

“I want to bring awareness to children’s benefits that people don’t know all that much about,” he says. “I can fall over with plaques, it’s embarrassing. It’s a privilege for me to do what I do and I’m thankful for getting to do this,” he adds.

The children’s events are energized by the same enthusiasm that John displays every day on or off the show, paralleling the way he lives his life, even today at age 47. The most notable Carney’s Kids event is the Halloween Costume event where John claims he’s been almost every dress-up character from Janet Jackson to Flo, the Progressive Insurance lady.

John is continuing to make great changes in his career. This past winter he just moved from KMOX to be the personality on the morning drive on “Fresh 102.5.” And in keeping with the format that made him famous, John Carney will continue to grace the airwaves on KMOX on occasional Sunday night broadcasts with his humor and wit while catching his four visits a year to the Lake.

His longtime friendship with the Koplar-Brown family of the Lodge of Four Seasons has kept him connected to the memories of his late father and the time spent with the Koplars as part of their family. “It’s like coming home when I get to the Lake,” he says. “I can see myself here full-time in the future, but not just yet.”

By now, our once-private interview has turned into a full blown lobby-bar happy hour as hotel guests fill the tables around us. Like John celebrates life, we celebrate a rediscovery of the details that make him the guy who can get anyone to smile and realize that life’s day to day, no matter the good or bad, can be celebrated. It was just two hours until the formal dinner celebration kicked off the beginning of the New Year 2011. So with a smile and a funny comment or two, we signed off.

Click here to read the Q & A session with John Carney.

Tags: Featured

Category: Blog, Cover Stories, Featured