Cousin Ed

By trial and error I honed my alter ego Cousin Ed voice down to almost an exact science. With a lot of practice, I learned how to do lightning fast transitions without making mistakes. Cousin Ed began to take on a personality all his own. It was almost uncanny. Some times in our banter I didn't know what Ed was going to say next. I didn't just "do" Cousin Ed. I became him during his part of the conversation. It was as if I could look across the room and see "George" sitting there. The reverse happened when "George" took over.

I didn’t have Cousin Ed to rely on during my tenure at KBER. Owner, A.V. Bamford, didn't allow anyone to use an alter ego voice on his station. He said it was not dignified enough for KBER. He also wouldn't permit any commercials or station promos that sounded what he considered as "wild."

One morning A. V. told music director, Max Gardner, to immediately remove all the records from the play-list that contained steel guitar. Steel guitar sounded too old fashioned for the KBER modern country format. Later that day, Max walked into Bamford’s office and handed him the updated play-list which contained exactly three records. A.V. quickly relented and reversed his mandate.

Many of us suspected that it was A.V.'s wife making most of these unusual decisions.

George Lester

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