Bing Marlow
The Voice of WMRG and Host of the WMRG Christmas Eve Broadcast
The voice of WMRG. He will tell you so himself.
Bing Marlow has been the voice of WMRG since the day the station went on the air, and if you have any doubt about that he will be glad to introduce himself again. Before radio he sold things: encyclopedias door to door, then men's hats at a department store, then briefly himself, as a wedding singer, a job he left when he discovered it involved singing at other people's weddings. Radio found him the way radio finds most people. A friend of a friend needed somebody to read the hog prices at five in the morning, and Bing read them like scripture. Within a year he had the evening slot, a sponsor, and a way of saying "good evening" that made listeners across three counties put down whatever they were holding.
He grew up in a cold house with exactly one lamp, in a town whose name nobody can pronounce. In his family, the ornaments on the tree were homemade, and his mother spent hours making them. Putting the star on top was his father's sacred duty and nobody else's. He has told this story to anyone who would listen, every Christmas, since possibly the beginning of time. He is no longer allowed to tell this story on air, however, under threat of termination, after over 125 people called in last year to complain. We're sure he will have another story this year.
Bing is a crooner by trade and a ham by temperament. When the microphone is on he is warm, round, unhurried and formal, and he can sell anything, including several things nobody asked him to sell. When the microphone is off he is exactly the same, only louder. He is married to a patient woman named Louise who has heard every one of his stories at least twice and laughs in the correct places out of loyalty. He writes a letter to Santa every December, on station letterhead, and considers the replies confidential.
He believes the applause sign is beneath a man of his stature, yet has never once taken his eyes off it.
Every production of Christmas on the Dial is cast from its own community, so the face changes from town to town. Your program has tonight's cast.
Meet the others: Vivian Vale, Chester, Maggie, The Kids, The Narrator, The Hi-Fi Five, WMRG.
