| Show Name: | The House Foundation |
| Format: | Comedy, Talk, Country |
| Runtime: | 4 hours |
| Creator: | Gerry House |
| Executive Producer: | Gerry House |
| Starring: | Gerry House Mike Bohan Al Voecks Duncan Stewart Richard Falklen |
| Country: |  United States |
| First Aired: | 1983 |
| Last Aired: | 2010 |
| Website: | The House Foundation (Redirects to WSIX Home Page) |
| Home Station: | WSIX-FM |
The House Foundation was the morning show at Nashville's WSIX-FM radio station.
In the early 80's, WSIX-FM started a morning show that featured veteran disc jockey and songwriter Gerry House as the host. Al Voecks had presented a talk show on the AM station, and he soon became House's news man. Duncan Stewart came to Nashville from Boston in 1983, through a friendship with the music director at WSIX-FM, and he soon became House's Sports guy.
Completing the foundation was Paul Randall, who began as a traffic reporter and he soon became House's co-presenter or 'sidekick'. While Voecks and Stewart came in every half hour to do news and sports, Randall stuck around for the whole show and played off House.
The first run of the 'House Foundation' ended in 1985 when Gerry left for WSIX's competitors, WSM, citing politics within the company as the reason. Soon thereafter, he moved to California as an on-air personality for KLAC
After a successful time in California on radio and writing for Television, Gerry cited personal reasons for a return to Nashville. WSIX's new owner, Steve Hicks, soon offered House his job back and even agreed to a complete 'House Foundation' reunion that would see House return to the air with Voecks, Stewart and Randall all in their original roles. Devon O'Day also joined the show as producer and for a Country news segment at 9.45 called 'Twang Talk'.
Tragedy would strike when House Foundation member Paul Randall became very ill. Mike Bohan joined the show in 1995 after 20 years at WSMV. Randall succumbed to his illness in 1998 and Gerry finds it hard to speak of his late friend now.
Randall's sidekick role was filled by Mike Bohan, former weatherman for WSMV-TV. Recently Richard Falklen joined the team as a replacement for Devon O'Day and hosts the news segment once named 'Twang Talk'. Falklen's 'disembodied voice', as Gerry calls it, can often be heard through the studio intercom during the show whenever he adds input.
Al Voecks and Duncan Stewart's contracts were not renewed by WSIX and they ended being with the show in Dec. 2009 and many listeners were saddened by their departure. Gerry stated to them on their last day that the show would not be the same without them.
On Friday, September 3, 2010, Gerry announced in the last few minutes of the show that the House Foundation would be dissolving and that their last broadcast will be on December 15, 2010. Gerry stopped short of calling it a retirement and made no characterization as to whether or not the decision was solely his — instead stating that "no one is mad at anyone" and that the timing "feels right". A press release issued to local media immediately after the announcement said that Gerry will continue to contribute to WSIX as a writer, adviser, and "consigliere".
The House Foundation follows a traditional morning show format, eschewing sequential song play for information and discussion. Generally, in any given segment of the show, there will be one top charting country music song, a time of discussion among the hosts and/or listeners, and a series of commercials. In addition, there are traffic/weather/news/sports blocks interspersed with commercial messages.
House pre-tapes many of the comedy bits played throughout the show, using his own voice and stock music.
House generally does not have live guests on his show, but will from time-to-time feature country music stars local politicians and local celebrities. Many country stars do listen to his show either locally or on satellite radio, and will often call in unsolicited. Occasionally, House will bait a star to call in on the air with mixed results. There is an unpublished phone number that House provides to entertainers so that they do not have to be queued with the general public.
House determines the overall direction of the show, sticking with a fairly regular template each morning. Certain portions of the show are designed to solicit input from listeners, and often House will direct the conversation to current events both in news and entertainment. House is very adept at structuring conversations to be informative and humorous at the same time. Almost always, the music played is country, and House almost always tells a caller, when requesting a "devil rock-and-roll" (as he puts it) song, to "Get off the phone!" However, in some cases (such as when a 13-year-old boy named Noah called, requesting the song Bad Day, and House was so taken by Noah's enthusiasm (though he did wait until Noah hung up before he told Bohan to find it)) House will play a non-country song.
Throughout the show, House will insert pre-recorded short comedy segments that he creates at his studio House Notes. Several segments are long-running, where the general framework of the comedy bit stays the same, but the content changes, sometimes based on current events.
Daily contests occur at regular times each day during the show. House announces the call-in number and the audience is invited to call to compete. A caller is chosen at random to participate. The sole prize for the winner is $50. House generally does everything he can to help the caller win the contest, and has been known to award the prize even when the caller is incorrect, or has to guess several times to get the answer. Winning answers are accompanied by a stock cheering sound effect.
Whenever there is a major prize given away on the House Foundation, the contest usually includes some sort of complex trivia question, nonsense phrase or guessing game that lasts for almost the entire show. Like most radio stations, major prize contests usually occur on Thursdays during sweeps.
House's show is sponsored by local and national companies. Certain featured sponsors receive regular advertising times when their commercial spot is broadcast. Some sponsors appear on the show themselves, either in pre-taped or participatory segments that feature extemporaneous improvisation with House. Other sponsors elect to have House Foundation members voice their spots in testimonials.
One interesting aspect of the majority of the phoned in advertisements - the sponsors seem to be coached to agree with everything that Gerry says, applying a basic rule of improvisational comedy.
Frequently, Bohan will voice a five to ten second live spot prior to his weather report. Many times, House will interrupt and try to throw him off script
Many of the comedic elements of the show are recurrent and understandable at first hearing. Some of the show's jokes have stemmed from topical discussions, and others are based on malapropisms that have occurred on the show.
Many of the long-running jokes on the show are pre-written or developed through improvisation.
The House Foundation has myriad inside jokes, most deriving from spontaneous improvisation between House and the various other members of the team. Sometimes these jokes require extensive listening to more fully appreciate their humor.
When House is away on vacation or ill, Chris Romer presents "The Best Of The House Foundation". Generally, the ratio of music to other material is increased greatly in this format, but usually with some "best of" material between songs: averaging 7-8 bits per hour.
The Best of the House Foundation also aired on Saturdays...and 5-6am weekdays.