Godspeed Teddy Bart

     I have a soft spot in my heart for kids coming out of school, trained and eager to embrace the world without a clue as to what they want to do with their lives. I have a soft spot...because I was that kid.

     Having graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in advertising, I hit the ground running, so proud to have landed a job with an ad agency immediately after graduation. Dating all the way back to childhood, I knew I wanted to be in advertising. Something about solving the world's problems 30-seconds at a time appealed to me. More than that, I wanted to create.
     Sadly, I wasn't a match for agency life. What some found exciting I found stressful. With an ulcer and a diagnosis of Crohns, I headed home to the country thinking my life a pure failure, and to keep myself from spiraling into depression, I threw myself into a renovation project hoping somewhere along the way God would send a sign.
    While driving to Nashville to pick up materials, I tuned into a radio show that would forever change my life. It was a new show...only in its first week. It was called "Beyond Reason" --Its host and creator-- Teddy Bart.
    Teddy's was a household name. As a child I had watched my grandma swoon over his Noon show good looks and Eddie Fisher voice. As a grade schooler, The Waking Crew accompanied our morning school commutes. I was aware he did commentaries....vaguely recalled him as anchor. But the show I was hearing was different. It was about the unknown. Reincarnation...Life after Life. Questions we all seek answers for, but questions only Teddy Bart would be brave enough to ask. It truly was "...for those who dared to think."
     I heard he had a live audience, so I made my way to Vanderbilt Plaza and quietly took a seat in the back of Snaffles lounge. I remember it like it was yesterday. His guest was Ruth Montgomery...a respected White House correspondent who had covered every administration from Roosevelt to Johnson, but whose life and writing took a dramatic shift after she interviewed famed medium Author Ford (the man who broke the Houdini code).
     A self-proclaimed skeptic, Ruth agreed to attend a seance and cover the story for her newspaper following, but when a message came through from her deceased father who (as she writes)"gave [me] evidential information that Ford himself could not have known" her life was forever changed. She would go on to write more than a dozen books about the future of our planet and the world beyond, along the lines of Edgar Cayce or Nostradamus. (Only Ruth was in the here and now. And Teddy had her on the line.)
     Gripped by what she had to say (all very new for a Church of Christ girl raised in the South)  I raised my hand to ask a question and the rest as they say, is history. After the show I asked for a job. Given I had no background in radio and he had no openings, that went nowhere flat. The next week I returned and asked if I might intern. "If I could just read the books" I thought "I could stick post-it's on the pages, offer up different angles on questions..." (Little did I know they call this producing.)
     After 3 months of my free internship, Teddy's real producer got a call from a larger market, and I got a shot at her job. Six months later, while lining up an interview with a psychic made popular by Shirley MacLaine, an assistant confused our CST time zone for east coast time, meaning our guest was no longer available. (Some psychic, huh?) With minutes to go before the opening music Teddy turns to me and says, "Mic up kid. We've got an hour to fill."
     We talked about what happened and other behind the scenes stories. We shared our favorite guest moments and which topics intrigued us personally. We opened up the lines and let the listeners ask their questions. It was my foray into talk radio. To say I was mentored by the best would be an understatement. Teddy didn't mentor, he groomed. Little did I know at that time the life he was preparing me for.
     Within a year I was given an opportunity to audition for "Teddy Bart's Round Table" (then on WLAC). The next 20, would find us side by side on a host of creations ranging from mid-day call ins to Music Row lunch shows to weekend political recaps. As so many have already noted, there was no one better at the art of the question than Teddy Bart. There was no one who studied his craft, or worked to perfect his talent more rigorously than Teddy. He was a student of the best and a student of life.
      Teddy's love of the question was born of his insatiable curiosity for the unknown. Of all he created...of all that intrigued him, Beyond Reason was his platform for his one true passion...what lies beyond.
     Teddy believed the journey continues...
     Today Teddy knows.
     Teddy was my mentor, my business partner, my teacher...But more than these, he was my best friend. While profoundly sad for my own selfish loss, the bliss of his gain brings me hope and lends peace. And while I have no words for a moment such as this...if I did, goodbye would not be among them.
     May the angels protect you dear soul...
     May the journey be every bit the outpouring of love we've been told of and then some, for if anyone is deserving, it is you.
     My heart is heavy with sadness...yet full of gratitude for the life we shared.

     Godspeed Teddy Bart. I wish you peaceful travels, endless peace...and only love.