Tennesee’s Wild Side Weekly Article

Outdoors With Lanny Callicott

In 1973 my father Lanny Callicott of Union City, Tennessee, came up with an idea. The “Outdoors with Lanny Callicott,” a 15-minute radio show began being aired every Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. on 1240 WENK AM Radio in Union City. Dad, a well know crappie fisherman and outdoorsman came up with the idea along with local businessman Bill Koupa and Terry Hailey. Koupa was the owner of K & D Drug Company and the main sponsor of the radio show and Hailey was part-owner and general manager of WENK radio station. The “Outdoors with Lanny Callicott” show has been on the air ever since.

Since the start of the outdoors radio show, Dad has interviewed several folks and said many names on the air. He really likes to hear reports that includes kids and their parents. He likes sharing memories made with a father and son or father and daughter – that first duck, first deer or fishing outing. He has always been one to be himself when it comes to reporting information to you, the listeners. He tells and reports the truth about all issues.

There have even been shows taped while duck hunting on Reelfoot Lake. Over the years, Dad has seen the outdoor world change in many ways especially around the Reelfoot Lake area. He is the owner of one of the original Reelfoot Lake boats made by Dale Calhoun back in the early 60s and this boat is still just as new now as it was then. Now, Reelfoot Lake Boats have been replaced with mostly outboard motors and aluminum boats. Trips cross the lake that used to take anywhere from 45 minutes to one and a half hours, now takes just a few minutes.

One person who remembered those long trips across Reelfoot Lake was Dad’s grandfather-in-law and my great-grandfather Clarence “Speedy” Spicer. Speedy Spicer was a professional guide and commercial fisherman on Reelfoot Lake for over 60 years. Dad recalls interviewing him in the mid-70s. One incident Speedy recounted during this interview was exiting one of the ditches on Reelfoot Lake and turning around and seeing a Black Bear. These bears were few and far between around these parts back in the 30s and 40s. Dad was able to make several shows out of this taping.

In the beginning, the show was taped live, but work schedules at our regular jobs require us to now tape the shows earlier in the week for the weekend airing. This is mainly due to Dad’s full time job as a truck driver at Reynolds Brothers Oil Company. Before this he worked at Reelfoot Packing Company for over 28 years. Dad has now been behind the steering wheel of a truck for over 40 years and has covered millions of miles across the United States.

Now, I have come on board with Dad. I help him from time to time by filling in and getting reports. The show now has a somewhat different format. It is split into two different segments. The first segment is the fishing report which is a 2 minute show that has only fishing reports and then the other segment which is 5 minutes long goes into more detail on fishing reports and area-wide information. The show is now on at least 60 different times throughout the weekend, Friday through Sunday.

Now the outdoor show is broadcasted on three western Tennessee radio stations. The show can be heard from the Mississippi River to Clarksville Tennessee and into western Kentucky. WENK 1240 AM in Union City and WTPR 710 AM and 101.5 FM in Paris, Tennessee and the Kentucky Lake area now carry the outdoors show. Also, we have gone world-wide with the internet. The internet allows people that used to live in the area to listen in and keep up with what is going on in the outdoors world.

Our audience has a wide range of listeners from the very young to the much older generation. We receive calls, letters and e-mails from folks all over the area and have met many new friends. We ask everyone to please report to us your special outing with your friends, youngsters or just a trip to remember. We will also pass along any nonprofit outdoors related information that will benefit the community. Those of you who have listened to our show know that dad always ends with a saying that no one has forgotten, “we want thank you for listening and we hope you have a real nice day.”

If you see us our and about, please come up and say hello. We love to hear from our listeners. If you have any hunting, fishing or outdoors event that you want to pass along to us for on air use, please e-mail us at: . Or call Lanny Callicott at (731)885-1305 or me (731)885-7109.

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