Neal Boortz cruised back into Atlanta last week to participate in News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB's annual Careathon for the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
[WSB raised a record $1.6 million in pledges from its listeners. You can still donate here. ]
Eighteen months removed from retirement, Boortz looked suitably relaxed, having finished a four-hour stint pushing listeners to give, give, give. One enticement that raised $20,000 (20 tickets at $1,000 apiece): dinner at Ray's on the River with Boortz and WSB Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree.
When Boortz did his first Careathon in 2000, he considered it a disruption from the "flow of the show."
But over the course of the past 14 years, he said "It's just grown on me as I meet these kids and parents... Now I look forward to it."
Boortz, who lives full time in Naples, Fla. but keeps an apartment in Atlanta, also returns each year as an excuse to see program director Pete Spriggs and his former producers Belinda Skelton and Cristina Gonzalez. Spriggs said Boortz can come back any time he likes.
In some ways, it's as if he's never left. He still does short commentaries each morning at 8:45 a.m. "I'm a news junkie," he said. "I generally ad lib it. I find a story I want to key off on, open the mic, drag it in the dropbox and they pull it out the next morning."
He still does endorsements, which are heard regularly on the station for Mercedes Benz of Buckhead, Comcast Xfinity, Quick Weight Loss Centers, Solomon Brothers and Vision Computers.
But he doesn't really miss the show, he said. "I miss the people. I was so blessed to work with Belinda and [the late great] Royal [Marshall] and Cristina and Pete. How many people get to work with a team like that?"
He said retirement at this stage "has been better than I expected. You always wonder if the money is going to be enough. Clearly, it is. I'm in good shape. I don't have to work. There's no anxiety. It's just trying to fit in all the travel."
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Boortz said the primary reason to retire was so he can visit places with his wife Donna. For domestic travel, he purchased a million-dollar Millenium Prevost RV which weighs 30 tons and extends 65 feet. He has full Web access so he can send his commentaries from anywhere. "I could do a radio show from it," he said. "I just don't want to."
(He will be subbing for his replacement Herman Cain later this month, from August 18 to 20 from Disney World. Cain is heard locally from 9 a.m. to noon.)
Earlier this year, he and Donna took their first big trip in it, driving 7,000 miles, from Atlanta to California with stops in Utah and Colorado.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
He also took a solo trip to Antarctica, which he considered "one of the greatest trips I've ever taken in my life." He showed me photos of himself on the ice, where it was oddly warm enough for him to wear a short-sleeved golf shirt while others donned swimsuits and put down beach umbrellas. He loved the desolation, the starkness, the kayaking and the penguins. He also has an iron stomach. "I loved the 45-foot seas," he said. "The ship had an open bridge. I'd stay up there, brace myself and ride through a wave. The captain thought I had lost my mind!"
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Later this year, he and Donna plan to visit New Zealand and Australia. Next year: a possible river boat cruise in Europe.
He's also purchased a two-seater Carbon Cub bush plane, which is much smaller than the plane he had before. "This one is just fun to fly," he said, "and I can land it anywhere."
At this point, I had a question I had never asked him: "Would you have stayed on air longer if Royal Marshall hadn't died?" [Boortz's right-hand man passed suddenly in early 2011 at age 43. ]
The answer? No.
"In fact," he said, "I might have stayed on longer because of his passing. The plans were already in place for me to retire."
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
WSB is part of Cox Media Group, which also oversees the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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