By Greg Wilson/Editor&Publisher/Anderson Observer
“He gone.”
Well, not yet. But on May 31, Michael “Pork Chop” Branch will turn off his microphone one last time at Anderson’s WRIX-FM Talk 103.1 after 15 years of spinning records and tales. Branch is leaving WRIX for a new position at WLHR 92.1 FM in Lavonia, Ga.
Branch’s new morning show, “Breakfast with Pork Chop,” will be a mixture of country music and talk when it debuts June 7 on WLHR.
Pork Chop says while he will miss the interaction of talk radio, he is looking forward to returning to his roots and playing records as a disc jockey.
“I will miss the pure, unscripted experience of talk radio,” Branch said. “But I am really looking forward to getting back to playing records.”
Branch began his radio career spinning records at WRIX’s AM 1020 gospel music station in 1998, and quickly moved over to the FM dial at 103.1 where he eventually shared the microphone with partner George Duckworth before taking over solo on the all-local, all-talk “The Morning Show.”
The mix of music and local news comes naturally for Branch. His grandfather Larry Adkins served for many years as editor of weekly “The Travelers Rest Monitor” newspaper, where Branch was allowed to write sports stories.
“I remember getting into Furman University football games and basketball games with a press pass and thought it was so cool,” Branch said.
But Branch credits his father, Curtis Branch, for his lifelong love or radio.
“My dad loved music and music history and I grew up listening to music on the radio. He especially loved the (legendary) disc jockeys, guys like Wolfman Jack, who played the records, who talked over the music. His favorite movie was “American Graffiti.”
Pork Chop’s mother, Rachael Branch, who played piano at church as he was growing up, added to his musical legacy which stretched from classic rock and roll to old-time gospel.
When both he and his brother, Anderson musician Christopher Branch, both got guitars for Christmas as teenagers, Pork Chop began his second career as a musician. Today he might be as well known for his music as his radio program. He is a founding member of the highly regarded bluegrass band Tugalo Holler and also plays bass in with a new band in Anderson called Highway 81.
Despite his love for music and radio, Pork Chop (a nickname put on him by a friend in sixth grade which stuck) might never have sat behind a microphone if he had been able to make the grade in Spanish. Branch attended Tri-County Technical College with aspirations of becoming a history teacher, but after struggling to pass Spanish at West Oak High School, found the required language class equally hard in college. Though he did pass the class, he decided he wanted to take a break, try something fun, so he signed up for a course in radio and television.
“I just loved it,” Branch said. “I got hooked on radio and just ran with it.”
His running brought him to WRIX, where he not only started a new career, but a new life. Branch met his wife Connie at the station, where she worked on the gospel station. They married a year later. The rest of the story is enough to make a history professor smile.
Filling Branch’s shoes will not be easy. Under his watch “The Morning Show” has grown into the best of what local radio has to offer. It helps unite a community, reminding listeners that even though the place they call home is changing, there is still a place where people have not forgotten what makes Anderson and its people special. Its sense of place. Want to know the name of the guy who ran the old “Shining Tower” restaurant back in the 50s and 60s? Call Pork Chop and ask his listeners. Somebody will call with an answer and usually add a story. (It was Vic Wilson, and he always gave the kids a roll of Life Savers or a pack of Fruit Stripe gum at checkout). Need to promote a fundraiser for a child with cancer, a church building project or just about any other project aimed at helping a neighbor? Call Pork Chop.
His show has not given into the negativity, vulgarity or hollow-laughter foolishness which has sadly become the hallmark of much talk radio, particularly morning radio. Pork Chop brings a civility even to the most heated discussions. He is at home behind the morning microphone, and does his best to bring calm to the nervous first time caller, the church secretary who called into to promote a revival service, an elderly person with a simple question. Always ready to raise funds for neighbors, Pork Chop has also become one of the community’s most vocal advocates of the local arts scene, always taking time to encourage local musicians and other artists. And local charities have had few more vocal and eager supporters.
In other words, “The Morning Show” is more than a time slot, it is the true “voice of the people” for Anderson. And for the past few years it has been led by a host who loves this community and who has making our hometown a better place to work and live.
Anderson Attorney Nancy Jo Thomason, who joined Pork Chop as co-host on Fridays in recent years said things won’t be the same without him.
“Michael Branch is as dedicated to his profession as anyone I have ever known,” Thomason said. “He is a loyal friend, employee, and co-worker. He will be sorely missed at WRIX by not only the listeners but by those of us who have worked with him. I certainly wish him well in his new adventure, but it is so sad to see him leave us.”
And so, as Pork Chop winds down his final days at WRIX, the community owes him a chorus of well wishes as he embarks on this new adventure. He’ll be on the air today and Tuesday-Friday, so plenty of time to take him a biscuit or doughnut or cup of coffee and say thanks - and goodbye.
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 10:23AM