Jack Bogut Visits KDKA Morning News For First Time In Over 30 Years

PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - Before Larry and John and even before John Cigna and the K Team there was Jack Bogut, a friendly voice KDKA Listeners woke up to for 15 years. Bogut, a radio hall of famer and a staple in Pittsburgh radio since 1968 visited the KDKA Morning News for the first time in 32 years.

Bogut spent the morning with Larry reminiscing about his days at KDKA as well as talking about creating the Farkleberry cookie, the Kinotata song, and other classics.

He started out his visit with the classic line, "Hello, hello, your Bogut says hello."

Bogut, who is from Montana and was working in Salt Lake City in 1968, says he wasn't too excited when he was first offered the job at KDKA.

"If I make a move, I want to go somewhere nice because I had heard all of the stories about Pittsburgh being dark at noon, [being] a big steel city and so polluted you couldn't breathe. The publicity for Pittsburgh was not good," he said.

When Bogut went through the Fort Pitt Tunnels seeing Pittsburgh he says, "There were bricks in the tunnels then. It was like a drum roll and bursting out of the end of the tunnels, there [it was], Pittsburgh."

"I was in love with Pittsburgh at that moment."

Bogut was a big part of the Children's Hospital Free Care Fund during his days at KDKA. When Larry was attending Clarion University, he invited Bogut to come up to Clarion to collect the money they had raised.

"It was such a treat for me because the world is [about] young people," Bogut said.

Bogut also talked about the impact KDKA Radio has.

"This station is a king maker. You [Larry], would not be where you are today were it not for KDKA and this great radio station's signal and tradition. Same thing applies to me and everyone else who has had success," he said.

Bogut says that there were a lot of great things about KDKA ,but his favorite was the Children's Hospital fundraising campaign. Bogut told a story about a letter he received from a listener, who as a young child collected $300 for the Free Care Fund. However, they kept the money and spent it on himself.

In the letter the man told Bogut he felt so guilty that he wanted to pay the money back with interest. So, the man donated $10,000, about $300 a year for each year that had passed since he kept the money to himself.

A lot of people think that the Farkleberry is a made up berry, but Bogut, who created the Farkleberry cookie for the Children's Hospital Free Care Fund Campaign, says that it is real.

"It is a real tree that grows in Texas. It's a relative of the holly bush and in Texas, they serve a drink called a Farkletini,"he said.

For more information on Jack Bogut visit his website www.storytellerjack.com

Listen to the KDKA Morning News with Larry Richert and John Shumway weekdays from 5 to 9 on NewsRadio 1020 KDKA.

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