From 2005 to 2011, local broadcaster Tom Turbiville hosted Veterans of the Valley on KAMU-TV. Now the informal interviews he recorded to prepare for those shows are available on a new podcast, Brazos Valley Voices.
Turbiville, who in 2012 retired after 19 years on WTAW’s Infomaniacs morning show, featured more than 140 local military veterans on the weekly show that aired on the Texas A&M University PBS station.
“Before we taped a show, I visited the veteran in his home and had an informal conversation about their service,” Turbiville says. “It was normally an hour or longer visit to help me prepare for the 30-minute program that we’d tape the next day at the KAMU studio. With the veteran’s permission, I recorded most of those informal conversations and that’s what I’m making available on this podcast.”
Turbiville, a former sports information director at Texas A&M and a long-time radio voice, has long had a personal passion for giving veterans a platform to tell their stories of service. “In 1969 I was one of the anxious 21-year-olds listening to the draft lottery on the radio. My birthday came up number 307 so I wasn’t drafted and never served in uniform although I had high school classmates who served in Vietnam and some who didn’t come back. My mom’s first husband was killed in World War II when she was just 26.”
The podcast debuted on Memorial Day weekend with Turbiville’s visit with World War II Veteran Al Hanson, who passed away in 2015. “Al was one of the first veterans I met when I started telling veterans’ stories on WTAW. I recorded our visit in 2005 and he became a very close friend. He was an obvious choice to start the podcast.”
One upcoming veteran to be featured is the late Glenn Morgan, a bugler who survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945.
Turbiville says the podcast will not feature veterans exclusively, but will also include timely visits with local newsmakers, community leaders, and others. “I’m looking for do-gooders who make the Brazos Valley such a special place to live. They won’t be hard to find because we see them every day.”
The Brazos Valley Voices podcast, with current and archived episodes, can be found at www.bvvoices.podbean.com.
