CALHOUN: Hanging up the headphones: Alan Ringhausen retires from WJBM after 40 years

By Editor | August 6, 2024 |

After 40 years with WJBM Radio Alan “Alley” Ringhausen signed off the air for the last time with the station on Friday, Aug. 2. (Steven Spencer/Calhoun News-Herald)

By Steven Spencer

After 40 years with WJBM Radio Alan “Alley” Ringhausen is entering retirement and signed off the air for the last time with the station on Friday, Aug. 2.
Ringhausen said he lived in Jersey County all his life and after finishing college was trying to find something other to do than work in his family orchard.
“For a brief period of time I had taken a job as a carpenter,” he said. “Then I had a motorcycle accident so I couldn’t do that for a while, and I had gone to broadcast school also. About that same time they had a change of ownership here at the station. They had an ad out that they were looking for people, so I came out and got the job.”
Ron Mott was the new manager who gave Ringhausen his first shot at the station which led him to dedicating 40 years of his career to local media at WJBM.
“He said ‘I want local guys.’ And I was as local as they came. That’s how I got my foot in the door,” Ringhausen said.
While a lot of radio personalities move from station to station, change formats, or move to larger markets, Ringhausen said he was very fortunate to have a station that brought changes to him and allowed him to stay local.
“Typically a person doesn’t stay at one location for a very long period of time. There’s a lot jumping around and following different formats,” he said. “But here at WJBM, it all changed for me. The first guy was doing oldies and then management changed and we went to a country format, then we went back to oldies for a while, then modern country, then all talk, now we’re back to country again. The formats kind of kept changing to where I didn’t have to seek anything, I just adapted. I wanted to stay local. This is where I grew up, these were the people I knew, and the adventure just kept changing along the way.”
Format changes weren’t the only changes Ringhausen saw during his time at the station. Equipment changes were a big part of the job as media became more digital. Going from records to cassette tapes, to CDs, to digital files, Ringhausen said you always had to adapt and would wonder what would come next.
“When I first came here there was no internet. There were no computers, anything we typed we typed on a typewriter,” he said. “We were playing 45 records that you would get from the record company. They would have a room full of records and you would pull out the ones you were going to play that day. You’d have one playing and while that was playing you’d be getting the other one ready and you’d talk in between them. It was just a constant queuing up and being ready to go all the time. You had to pay attention. You had to pay attention to how long your songs were and time everything out, but it was fun.”
While equipment and format changes kept the industry evolving, Ringhausen still had to chance to cover some memorable and special events. He said there are a lot of things he got to experience that he otherwise wouldn’t have if not for the job, like riding an elephant as guest ringmaster for a circus and creating the Ringhausen Brothers Alligator Wrestling Show.
“There’s been some interesting things I’ve done that otherwise I probably wouldn’t have,” Ringhausen said. “They had this one promotion for Ford Motor Company a few years back. They invited me to come down to the St. Louis race track and I could go on a ride around the race track. This was back when they reintroduced the Thunderbird and they had these NASCAR drivers that would give you a ride around the track. One of them was Bill Elliott, you got in the car with him and it was just terrifying going around the track with him. You’re clutching on for your life and he’s driving at breakneck speed but looking at you while he’s driving instead of watching the road like he’s talking to his wife and kids.”
Ringhausen also had a chance to report on several breaking national and world news events, interviewed six different governors, and met with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Ringhausen said over the years he’s seen a lot of changes in the station and a lot of people come and go, but believes some of the newest changes have revitalized WJBM and will help keep its local identity.
“We had some owners that kind of just stepped away and were hands off. It was kind of just Craig Baalman and I and a handful of others that endured for a period of time. Now we have a new owner, Chirs Lorton, and he’s stepped in and really taken a hands-on approach that I feel has revitalized the station. If it wasn’t for this 40-year anniversary where I already had my mind made up that 40 years in one place was enough, it would be an exciting time to continue on,” he said.
Although his journey in radio is coming to an end Ringhausen said he’ll still continue the Ringhausen Brothers Alligator Wrestling Show in podcast form and will continue to pursue his passion for environmental conservation as the Executive Director of the Great Rivers Land Trust.
“I’m going to continue on in that capacity. I’m retired from here, but I’ll devote more time to that,” he said. “It’s been a terrific career doing that, and still going. With that, I think in the years ahead I’m going to see some of the biggest projects that that organization has ever been involved in come to fruition. It’s a very exciting time.”