The name on his driver's license was Bobby C. Hanson, but legions of Southern radio listeners knew him as Ludlow Porch, the genial down-home talkmeister who kept them company for a full three hours a day each weekday and made them chuckle with his wry comments about life's frequent silliness.
The name Ludlow suggested a small-town fellow from a less hectic, more neighborly era. Porch bespoke the comfortable vantage point from which he bemusedly observed the passing scene.
It was a name Hanson invented in letters to the editor he wrote to Atlanta newspapers before he ever thought of a job on the air. When he was offered a position hosting a talk show on Atlanta station WRNG -- and that's another story -- he took Ludlow Porch as his nom de plume.
Back in the early 1970s Hanson was doing well as an independent insurance agent when his stepbrother, the late Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Lewis Grizzard, recommended Hanson to Sports Illustrated editors who were looking for trivia geniuses for a feature article. The magazine went on to profile Hanson as a walking encyclopedia of trivia, and two Atlanta radio stations, WSB and WRNG, became interested in interviewing him.
WRNG moved more boldly, asking Hanson to fill in for a week for another broadcaster, and he was hooked. A week's tryout turned into a more than three-decade career -- 10 years with WRNG, about the same with WSB sandwiched around a two-year stint with WCNN, and 16 years with FunSeekers Radio Network. The latter was a syndicated operation that at its zenith in the mid-1990s carried Ludlow Porch to 60-plus stations across the Southeast.
Bobby C. Hanson, 76, of Dawsonville, died Friday at the Gold City Convalescent Center in Dahlonega of complications following a series of strokes. His memorial service is 2 p.m. on Feb. 19 at Big Canoe Chapel, Jasper, with a reception to follow at Broyles Community Center, Jasper. Bearden Funeral Home, Dawsonville, is in charge of arrangements.
Among those who talk for a living, Porch was much admired.
Grizzard, a star himself on the lecture circuit, once said, "Ludlow talks like I wish I could write."
John Long, president of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame, said Porch's programs made him feel he had joined a group of neighbors gathered around a restaurant table enjoying a cup of coffee and good conversation. "When it came to selecting the first inductees to our Hall of Fame in 2007," he said, "Ludlow was among the top people on our list."
The secret to Porch's enduring popularity was civility, Southern-style.
"We don't do any of the angry white-guy stuff like you hear on other stations," he told an AJC interviewer in 2005. "No abortion, no politics, no gun control. We're just trying to prove that the good old art of two-way conversation is still alive and well on the radio."
Denny Ainsworth of Lawrenceville was Porch's producer, engineer and co-host for more than 30 years, and carries on with the show. He said Porch's formula for the daily three-hour program was fairly constant. "He'd do a monologue on the topic of the day, then field calls from listeners, and from time to time interview celebrities passing through Atlanta."
"Ludlow was pretty much non-political," Ainsworth said. "Basically, he emphasized family themes and nostalgia, remembering the good old days full of sunshine and 70-degree weather."
Ainsworth recalled that once during an on-air conversation about music at funerals Grizzard asked Porch what he'd like to be played at his own farewell service, and Porch replied, "Volleyball." Ainsworth said he wouldn't be a bit surprised to see people bring volleyballs to Porch's memorial next Saturday.
Neal Boortz, who became a fixture at WSB after Porch left, said, "The remarkable thing about Ludlow is that during his long career in radio he never made one single enemy, never had a sponsor dump him, never had listeners demand that he be fired. That's a testament to what a sweet guy Ludlow was."
Boortz recalled the numerous gags Porch pulled on his audience: "He repeatedly denied the existence of Montana. He had a bogus state official announce that all marriage licenses issued during the previous 18 to 20 years were invalid and the children of those unions were illegitimate. He reported that the NCAA had ruled the names of school mascots could not be duplicated, and therefore the University of Georgia would have to stop labeling its teams Bulldogs."
These pranks created a flap now and then because people took Porch seriously. The thing was, Boortz said, "Ludlow had a audience that loved him dearly, and they didn't mind being fooled."
Porch wrote several books of humor, often with quirky titles such as "Who Cares About Apathy?" and "There's Nothing Neat About Seeing Your Feet: The Life and Times of a Fat American." He had collaborated with Emory Jones of Cleveland on a new book intended for publication later this year titled: "Zipping Through Georgia on a Goat-Powered Time Machine with Ludlow Porch and a Parrot Named Pete."
"It was wonderful working with Ludlow," Jones said. "Whenever I was at a loss for a word, he'd pick it right out of the air. What you heard from him on the radio was the real thing."
One of Porch's hallmarks was his sign-off salutation to his listeners at the end of each show: "Whatever you do today, find somebody to be nice to."
His wife, Nancy Hanson, said, "If you knew Ludlow, you knew it wasn't just something he said. It was the way he lived."
Survivors also include daughter Barbara Davison of Asheville, N.C., son Philip Hanson of Marietta, stepsons Charles McGarvey of Washington and Kyle Harvey of Alpharetta, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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