Public radio audiences lost an old friend this week when Arthur Hoehn passed on, his life cut short by lung cancer.
Much has been made of his status as MPR’s first full time, professional announcer, and I suppose that’s an important detail. To be the first one in the door just ahead of a vast and distinguished crowd is a meaningful bit of timing, but Art Hoehn would have stood out had been the tenth one hired, or the two hundred and tenth.
For many years he was the overnight host, happily working a shift that most dread. While everyone else was asleep, Arthur would be gliding around the radio station in his slippers and sometimes his bathrobe, turning off lights to save energy and flipping over the accordion-fold paper after it had already chunk-chunked through newsroom teletype once, feeding it through again so the blank side could be put to use.
For lazy young journalists it meant you had to check the date on your copy. Coming in first thing in the morning to throw together a newscast, there’s a 50/50 chance the item you’re about to read on the air is three days old, even though it’s still warm from the machine. Take a look at the other side and say thanks to Mr. Hoehn for conserving the resources.
Arthur was the perfect companion for insomniacs and others whose internal clocks put them at odds with the world. Though I’m sure he could do it, he wasn’t the sort of announcer who would dazzle you with a sharp, sparkling monolog. Mr. Hoehn took his time. And face it, if you’re listening to a classical station at 3 am, chances are you’re not there for the energetic pacing. You’re in need of companionship, and Arthur was ready to abide with you.
He was the disc jockey who would be content to stare out the window as you both watched snow fall through the lonely beam of a streetlight. Today’s listeners are deprived of the eerie sensation of tuning in to a station to hear the sound of someone … um … thinking. He gave us deliciously long pauses – a rarity in radio but surprisingly effective as an attention-getting device. “What’s going on?” you wonder. An intake of breath. Another long pause. “Is he going to speak?”
Probably. What’s your hurry?
For all the forms of media we have at our disposal today and the 24/7 streams of programming that flood out of our computers, there are few places where gentle soul is given an open microphone and license to allow his stream of consciousness to meander. For a significant number of years, Art created that sort of comfortable space for his listeners. As one of the announcers who followed him to open up the next “day part”, I was grateful for his easygoing presence. No matter the type of work you do, it’s harder to get started when you’ve just walked into a space that’s cold and dark.
With Arthur Hoehn on duty, there was always a warm spirit in the house.
Trail Baboon 
What a gracious tribute. I always feel sad when I learn more about a person after his death than I knew during his life. It makes me want to pay better attention to those who are still with us and to listen for the stories of their life. This piece reminds me I should listen for the pauses too.
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Well said, Beth-Ann.
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Art was my good friend. Met him first when he was a DJ with Bob Smith (aka Wolfman Jack) at KUXL where they were doing double DJ shows: one locally and the other feeding a Mexican station through a standard phone line. Art was known as Big Daddy Washington on the Mexican station. He figured out how to feed a “pots” line down to Mexico. Skip ahead to meeting Art again when we was the chief announcer at KSJR, Collegeville, where Bill Kling ran the station that later became KSJR and MPR. Art had an easy and quick wit and knew his broadcast engineering. Later on, I was a DJ at WLOL-FM and then KTWN-FM. When we lose great broadcasters like Art, there are none that can take their place. God Bless You, Art!
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Whoops! My reply regarding Art as I knew him at KUXL,KSJR, and KSJN was from me. Jim Stokes. I am at wordsandmusique@gmail.com. My music is on: wordsandmusique soundcloud. Some concert music of mine there. 🙂
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Nice tribute Dale
Mpr did some things right and did a nice job in allowing us to get to know our radio personalities like a part of our lives. Thanks for giving us a bit of your personal insight with the paper and light conserving and the slipper and bathrobe visualizations. As we go down the road more and more of our fond memories of mpr are things of the past. I guess that’s the way it goes but you can’t help the heavy sigh that goes with remembering
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Arthur was not typical of anything, but in a sense he typified the angular, highly individualistic personalities who formed the core of MPR in the early days. Just for starters, consider a small company that employs Arthur Hoehn, Garrison Keillor and Bill Kling. That is diversity (not to mention talent). I don’t see MPR hiring the same sort of talented eccentrics, but I’m not on the inside and can’t claim to be an expert.
As for those long silences, it would be fun to have arranged a contest between Arthur and Garrison. When I dialed in KSJN in early days I learned to listen for a special sort of silence that meant I had the station but Garrison was not speaking. I assumed then that the silences were occasioned by reflective inhaling while smoking.
Dale, your excellent memorial to Arthur fails to mention what–to some observers–is the most amazing thing Arthur ever did. My memory needs to be checked on this, because I can’t quite believe what I think I heard. In a game of slow-pitch softball, Arthur pitched a no-hitter. It is relatively easy to do radio in your bathrobe (Cokie Roberts does it once a week), but that no-hitter qualifies Arthur for a star in the sidewalk hall of fame (which Minnesota doesn’t have but should).
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yes, Dale – thank you for a beautiful tribute for a beautiful man. i remember Arthur from early on, when i worked late hours and would come home and listen to him – so calm and relaxing yet always interesting.
agree with Beth-Ann and tim.
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Lovely tribute, Dale.
This has been a strangely nostalgic batch of days for me, no idea why. Music Through the Night got me through a lot of all-nighters back when crashing the following day was an option . Thanks for giving me this window on what was happening on the other side of the radio.
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Rise and Shine Baboons:
Thanks for the lovely remembrance Dale, and I’m sorry that you lost someone who sounds like a mentor/friend. This has been a season of loss, in both small and global ways.
Like others’ comments above, I don’t think MPR now reflects that idiosyncratic quality that allowed them to succeed. Too bad. For awhile they created a national treasure.
Down with consultants who measure what the Average Joe wants. Those results produce average products. I now look for such brilliance elsewhere, sadly.
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I failed to mention one of the most fascinating things about Arthur. He worked for a while with Wolfman Jack. Those who don’t know Wolfman Jack should rent a copy of “American Graffiti” and educate themselves.
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Arthur did indeed pitch a no-hitter in a game of slow-pitch softball, hurling for the MPR men’s team on June 1, 1989, at the Jimmy Lee Rec Center fields in St. Paul. I played in the game, and I remember it very well. We committed one error–otherwise it would have been a perfect game.
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so was it an in house game where he pitched against the tom keith , mindy ratner,bill kling, garrison and dale or a game against the real world?
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Real game in a St. Paul men’s league. By the way, Tom Keith was the best softball player I ever saw.
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i knew there was something about that guy i liked. thanks jeff
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Thanks for adding the detail, Jeff. Art was a master of the slow pitch on the ball field and on the air as well.
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I still think of Arthur all these years later. He was a great guy. I never met him, but we wrote back and forth many times during the 1980s and early 1990s. I was a huge fan of his “Music Through the Night”. When I was shipped overseas in 1988-1989 while I was in the Military, he was nice enough to send me a 90 minute personalized, fully hosted studio quality tape playing some of my favorite musical selections. I never asked for this, he just did it. He was a very thoughtful and unique person.
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i dated a california girl who brought me up to spped on the wolfman. it is amazing when you stop to think about it that we had vitrually no way to research anyhting like that. today you google it and bam… instant reference. i am afraid for the art of conversation. you used to have to discuss to get the information of the world, now we all look at our screens and nod in unison at the wikipedia version of the recap.
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nice tribute to him if you google him with clips of arthur and some nice words by michael barone doing an mpr radio piece from earlier this week
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Wonderful glimpse into a rare person. I love the notion of tuning in to hear someone, well, thinking. Thanks for writing this.
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Those pauses….itinerant radio host Bill McGlaughlin would tell you about the time he set off the alarm in the building and forgot the code to set it right. The only person he could find was Arthur who was in the midst of back-announcing the Mendelssohn Octet. He went through all the musicians, then said “wait, that’s only seven. Let me start again.”
Meanwhile the alarm continued.
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great. thanks mary
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Driving home from a scene shop late at night it was always soothing to listen to Arthur and his silences. Loved those. Thanks for the extra background – as has been mentioned before, his sort of character is deeply missed.
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Jeff and Mary, it is sweet to hear a fresh voice here now and then. Thanks for commenting.
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Hmm…are you calling the rest of us stale? 😉
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or merely well-aged in oak casks?
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So long as we’re not well aged in oak caskets… 😉
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Good morning to all:
I’m sure I did hear some of Arthur Hoehn’s broadcasts, although I hardly ever listen to classical music. I think I remember that he had a very distinctive deep voice. I think I also remember that there were sometimes some brief exchanges between the morning show hosts and Arthur. It seems he was one of a kind and had a very unique presence that many MPR listeners will not forget.
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OT-Peter Mayer is playing Sunday evening. Full information available at http://www.stjoan.com
There is no reserved seating. Only Aaron who brings his own chair won’t have to scramble for a seat.
The parking lot fills easily and there is a spaghetti supper before the concert which will make it harder even for those who come only a bit early to park.
The music will of course be wonderful and it will be a treat to sit in a room with other baboons!
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I am the luckiest guy at events like that! I will be there for sure! On topic, Dale I was surprised you didnt even mention the piece he helped you with, “Worldly Goods”.
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Yes, Aaron. Now that you mention it, I also remember Arthur participating the Worldly Goods productions which I very much enjoyed.
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Thanks for pointing that out, Aaron. Arthur was the glue that held that series together. He appeared as the unctuous and oily, “Nilo Saharin”. The name was bestowed by none other than Tom Keith, who learned it while playing a dictionary game of some sort. Nilo Saharin is really one of the four major language groups on the African continent, but when Arthur stepped to the mic it became the perfect name for an old-style announcer with a pencil-thin mustache. Because he worked the all night shift, Art rarely appeared in the studio with the rest of the Worldly Goods cast. I would leave the scripts for him at the end of my day. When I came in the next morning, the recording was finished. Arthur had self-directed Nilo to another introductory masterpiece!
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We’ll be there; thanks for the parking info, B-A. I’ll try to remember my goat pin for Baboon ID.
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i wonder if i will ever be proud owner of a goat pin?? of course, i never get down there to attend anything……
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BiB… you will be the proud owner of a goat pin in May. I’ll bring one (heck, I’ll bring two) with me when I come!
I’ll have a few on Sunday if anybody wants….
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Unfortunately, I will already be out of town–I’m gone from home all next week at a conference in San Francisco. ( Hope I don’t get radiated!) So my Baboon-spirit will be there. No chair needed for that. If I was home I would be certain to attend.
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BIB you have a goat pen which trumps a goat pin any day 🙂
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well said, Beth-Ann!
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I really enjoyed reading this tribute, Dale – well done. I didn’t get to hear him much, but feel that I know a bit about him now. I do remember that deep voice.
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I remember his voice, too, from my college days. It was pretty soothing to listen to while studying.
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Nicely written Dale.
I heard Arthur but regrettably didn’t pay enough attention… how many times do we say that in our lives? Woulda Coulda Shoulda….and I’ll hang my head in shame for awhile.
Russ Ringsak makes me laugh again with his latest entry:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/russ/2011/03/08/
Everyone enjoy the weekend if you want too.
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Thanks for the link – finally got out to read Mr. Ringsak’s latest. Good stuff. And I want one of the trash-eating goats… 🙂
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Thanks for the reminder to check in on Russ. Please continue to be that alarm clock for us. I was in Spokane last summer and am pretty sure I was right there under that bridge but didn’t see it’s majesty. There is a lesson there somewhere to pay attention. A lifetime room key for bemedji…something to carry with you.
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I forgot to add-it was such a shock for me when I moved to Winnipeg to hear the announcers on the CBC. They talked so much compared to the MPR announcers and it was so annoying. One guy always had nasty editorial comments about the quality (or lack thereof) of the liner notes. There was this really annoying announcer named Bernie Avalon from Newfoundland CBC who had a jazz program, and he was the smarmiest announcer I ever heard. He always made reference to the “really swinging guys” he was playing and tried to make it sound like Duke Ellington and Count Basie were all his best buddies. It makes me grind my teeth just to think of it.
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My husband reminds me that the liner note critic was Clive Gilmore. Thanks for your topic today, Dale. We haven’t thought about these things for a long time.
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We could sometimes get CBC on the North Shore. I loved the eccentricity–the Canadianness of CBC, even though it sometimes grated, as you say.
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I loved listening to the CBC news when I lived in Buffalo (still try to catch it at 10pm, if I can stay awake that long). I don’t know why, but I always rejoiced in the fact that the time in Newfoundland was an hour AND A HALF ahead of us. I still want to live there for that among many reasons!
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Newfoundland is really out there in the Atlantic. It was an independent country for a while and didn’t become part of Canada until 1949. A Newfie friend of ours told me once that the Catholic bishop in St. Johns blesses the sealing fleet at the beginning of the season. She didn’t quite catch how ironic it was that the Bishop’s last name was Skinner. Our friend used to go out in a small boat with a college friend while he did research recording whales. I think that would be an astouning thing to do.
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that all sounds really appealing.
I think there is also a very fine Marine Biology school there (I tried hinting at this for a field of study for the s&h, but I am afraid his heart is set on either the cosmic or the sub-atomic)
astounding is a good word for that experience
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Godspeed, Nilo Saharan. You shall be missed.
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In my U years my late night study companion was Joe McFarlane of WCCO. Arthur Hoehn reminded me of him. McFarlane was in the days of eccentric radio personalities of CCO, before homogenized pasteurized diluted everything. Both had perfect late-night voices and presences, each in his own way. Then my sleep patterns changed and I lost track of late-night radio.
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remember Hobb’s House???
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God, yes! What a distinctive sound.
Or how about Steve Cannon, and all the little Cannons: Ma Linger, Backlash Larue and tart-tongued Morgan Mundane.
Cannon did his alternate voice schtick so well that it was hard to believe there was just one guy there. Many years ago I tuned into the Morning Show after one of those times Garrison had quit and come back. He had a new guy in the studio, Jim Ed Poole, who was so clever and who fit in with Garrison’s commentary so well I knew he was just a voice of Garrison’s, like Ma Linger!
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Remember indeed. How many if any of those CCO people would make it on any radio station today–ones named plus Maynard Speece, Boone and Erickson, Cedric Adams.
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Yep
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Since the topic has broadened a bit to include talented eccentrics from early MPR days, how about Leigh Kamman? His dreamy, soporific voice would create a magic carpet in the nighttime while Alice Babcock whooped in the background. Leigh’s commentary made it clear he was less like a guy doing a job than a preacher sharing something holy. Leigh was one of a kind. I used to think his name was Lake Hammond. What it sounded like to me.
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me too – Lake Hammond. also, the “Hallo and how do you do?” – just can’t remember his name…….
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I sure miss the jazz programs that used to be on Friday and Saturday nights… when I first started listening didn’t Leigh’s show go 9PM to 3 AM or something? And then they just kept snipping away at it… makes me as grumpy as everything that surrounded TLGMS.
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Ben, don’t get me started about the dropping of local jazz programing on MPR. That also makes me grumpy.
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Make that Alice Babs. I might need to fire my fact-checking assistant. Standards are sliping.
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I remember the distinctive sound of Alice Babs.
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I miss Eric Freisen (sp?) on my drive home from work. He was good at soothing the savage driver during afternoon rush hour…also loved how he brought Sylvester V into the conversation without Sylvester ever saying a word on-air. Canada got at least one good dj when he moved back there.
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I totally agree, Anna.
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I am sort of venting about this when it is really the standardization of a couple of others areas closer to me interests where it really bothers me. But I shall not talk about it.
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Oh BiB was it your birthday yesterday and we completely blew it off? Hope it was filled with everyone and everything that brings you joy. Happy birthday to you and the new little lives in your life.
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thanks – OC! it’s been fun out here since tuesday afternoon.
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What a cool birthday present(s)!
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for those of you that wanted to see the kiddos in action.
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I want one!!! I wonder how they would feel about Newfoundland?
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Think of all the rocks upon which they could gambol about!
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they’d LOVE the rocks – we only have sand so have to use makeshift things for them to climb on (like 20 minutes ago, Alba)
boulders – anyone who brings me a nice, big, climbable boulder will get a lifetime supply of chevre. 🙂
better get busy – thanks!
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Awwww… Thanks for posting, this is great.
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Nice! Those little tails are killer cute.
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I think they should have an agent.
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Wow barb great video.great stuff. Thanks steve
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thanks, tim – i’ll tell Steve.
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Dale… you do many kinds of writing well, but I am always amazed at how thoughtfully and gracefully you do these rememberances. I had a funeral today for a woman I’ve known for 25 years – her son, who is one of my best friends did the eulogy and he also did a wonderful, thoughtful job. I think it’s hard to do – so thank you!
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Ditto.
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I’m just getting caught up after a week out-of-town – I’m so sad to hear of Art’s passing! I listened to him all through high school and college when I was burning the midnight oil. In his later years, when he was doing just sponsor acknowledgements, I loved his rich and fruity pronunciation at the end of Pipedreams of “APOBA”… And I once had the honor of having him announce my name in connection to a concert I was playing, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it said with such gravitas. My mental picture of him was – and probably still is – incomplete (I imagined him to be like Uncle Walter who would go waltzing with bears ) – thank you for filling in some of it!
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