Neal Boortz gets lifetime achievement award at March of Dimes fundraiser

Boortz, a syndicated talk show host who is heard locally on AM750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB, was feted by former University of Georgia football coach Ray Goff and retired Channel 2 Action News sportscaster Chuck Dowdle.

The self-proclaimed "talk master" was a recipient of the National Radio Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Boortz, after he hit the dais, gave kudos to his loyal support team in the audience: Royal Marshall, Belinda Skelton (below, with her husband Clark) and Christina Gonzalez. He then repeated the classic story of him taking over a radio show in 1969 the morning after the regular host had died. Yes, Boortz, was a proud opportunist!

Boortz, who tends to riff in these situations,  spent a couple of minutes roasting Clark Howard, in the audience to support his old buddy. Some of the stories are true - such as Clark buying two single Wendy's burgers, then combining the patties to enjoy a double because it was cheaper than buying a double. But several were apocryphal. Boortz loves to say Clark hates dry cleaning so much he'll drop shirts off at a Goodwill store, have them dry clean the shirts, then buy them back at a lower price than the cost of dry cleaning. Boortz told me that story personally in 2001 when I was writing a profile on Clark for a national publication. But Clark told me it was false. What's hilarious is that there are so many hilarious true stories about Clark's cheapness out there, why would anyone need to make one up?

Here's the video made for Boortz in his honor:

After the ceremony, I asked Boortz when his contract was up. He isn't  even sure. "Sean Hannity has told me I'm the better talk show host, but he's the better businessman," Boortz said. Boortz, an attorney in the past, negotiates his own deal.

Boortz, on air for 41 years, said he would like to hit 50 years. "That's another nine years!" said Dan Kearney, vice president and market manager for sales at Cox Radio Atlanta. Kearney sounded happy about that.

Past winners  include retired sportscaster Larry Munson, long-time Peach announcer Steve Goss (now at WABE-FM) and former Eagle 106.7 morning host Rhubarb Jones.

The economy was so bad last year, the March of Dimes skipped the annual fundraiser. With the radio business bouncing back a bit in 2010, the non-profit group brought it back. This is the 10th  time I've attended.

Not a lot of on-air personalities showed up. (For the morning hosts, it's a work night.) V-103's Ryan Cameron was the emcee and he killed as usual. Carol Blackmon, who has worked for the Georgia Lottery for years and is now on Majic 107.5/97.5, was also there to support Margaret DeFranciso, CEO of the lottery, and winner of the "Friend of Radio" award.

Blackmon's presence gave Ryan a chance to recount the story about how he was working at a Blockbuster circa 1990 and decided to take part in a comedy competition. Blackmon was at the competition, in which he came in second. ("The winner did joke she heard on the Apollo the night before and won!")

"She asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I said I wanted to be in radio. She and Mike Roberts invited me down," he said. [Carol and Mike were the morning hosts at V-103 at the time.] "I love you Carol for taking a chance on me. I hope I made you proud! To think I'd be here 20 years later and doing things that would have gotten me detention at Campbell High School, that's amazing to me!"

The committee also gave a community service award to Emperor Searcy, long-time afternoon jock at Hot 107.9. He said he used to be very low key about his charitable contributions. His new boss Hurricane Dave encouraged him to be a bit more upfront about it, not for his ego, but to spark more giving.

During the ceremony, Boortz said: "Every male is born with the same number of male hormones. Ray Goff and Chuck Dowdle used theirs to grow hair. Ryan and I obviously have found a much better use!"

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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog