High Profile: RICHARD TODD

WTMA talk-show host has 'never been happier'

The big red digital clock reads 5:52 a.m.

It's eight minutes until show time, and Richard Todd is sitting in front of a microphone scanning a sheet of paper. In his right hand is a yellow highlighter. As he taps it on the table, he says to no one in particular: "Today will not be boring, I will tell you that."

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

WTMA 1250 AM radio personality Richard Todd has become one of the Lowcountry's most recognizable voices — and faces, thanks to Comcast Cable, which simulcasts his 'Morning Buzz' talk show on Channel 2 every morning. His show can be heard and seen 6-10 a.m. weekdays.

Thanks in large part to his strong opinions and wide-ranging political views, his "Morning Buzz" show, which airs weekdays 6-10 a.m. on WTMA 1250 AM, is never boring. In fact, it's one of the Lowcountry's most-listened-to talk shows on AM radio. And while ruling the AM airwaves might not sound like much, keep in mind his show also is simulcast on Comcast's Channel 2. Making it the only watched radio show in town, AM or FM.

And on this particular morning, if you had turned your TV set to Channel 2, you'd have seen Todd wearing a dark blue golf shirt, khaki shorts and a pair of white tennis shoes. You'd also have seen he hadn't shaved in two days.

"I got into radio so I could dress like a slob, and yet here I am on TV every day," he says with a laugh.

And then, just like that, Todd puts on his headphones, places his upper lip against the microphone and presses the square red button in front of him. With one eye on the clock and the other on his producer, he waits five seconds for the intro music to die down before wishing all his listeners a "Good morning."

Love of radio

It wasn't all that long ago that people weren't listening to Richard Todd. As the guy anchoring the 3-6 a.m. shift on the University of South Carolina's campus radio station, WUSC, he often would tell listeners, "Look, I've got a term paper to write so I'm just going to play The Beatles' 'White Album' today."

After graduation in 1985, he held down several odd jobs: driving the bookmobile for a local library, playing guitar for children and senior citizens, teaching history to high school kids. But none of them gave him that rush, that feeling he was doing what he was supposed to.

"Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to be on radio," he said.

It was that passion and will to follow his dream that landed him a gig at Charleston's 96Wave in 1993 during the station's heyday. It was blind luck, he said, that he and fellow disc jockey Atom Taler formed one of the most formidable and memorable duos in Lowcountry radio history.

"That show and that radio station, at that time, it was one of the greatest in America. That may sound cocky, but it's true," Taler explained. "The whole time we did that show, we just had a good time."

But like anybody in radio will tell you, you can be the best in your market one day and unemployed the next. And at 29, Todd found himself out of a job and sleeping on a friend's couch.

For the next couple of years, he jumped up and down the dial, eventually landing as the host of a morning AM talk show.

"After doing rock radio for years, it was a shock to switch to talk," he said. But as it turns out, the switch was the right one for Todd, a man who will flat-out tell you he's got plenty of opinions and will tell them to anyone who will listen.

"Let's just say he has a strong personality," his wife, Mary, explained. "He will kill you with logic. He won't let emotion rule his argument."

That sort of reputation eventually led him to WTMA, where Todd says he's "never been happier professionally."

But as typically is the case, in order to fully appreciate life, you often have to hit rock bottom first.

Life's ups and downs

With his career on the upswing, Todd met his wife while out at a bar with some friends. The two began dating, and after a couple of years, Todd knew it was time to make it official.

In May 1999, while the couple were attending the Blessing of the Fleet in McClellanville, he asked her to marry him. Since Mary was the daughter of a shrimp boat captain, it was fitting that the proposal took place on the bow of "Daddy's Girl."

Almost immediately, the newlyweds bought a house, got two new cars and talked about having children. But not even six months later, the couple hit a rough patch. There were deaths in the family. Mary got sick. Todd's job was on the rocks again. And then came the toughest news of all.

Todd recites the date with no hesitation: Aug. 29, 2001.

Provided

The Todds, Richard, Mary and son Tyler (9 months), visit Bull's Island in September 2003.

After feeling a slight lump on his right testicle, he scheduled an appointment with a urologist.

"I remember being worried that my car was parked at a meter in front of the hospital, and then the doctor tells me I have a growth," he said. "I asked if he was telling me I had cancer, and he said yes. I'm going to tell you: Everything changes in an instant when you think you might die."

But because it was caught early and because testicular cancer has one of the highest survival rates, he was able to undergo three surgeries over the course of the next nine months and become cancer-free. Though the only sign of the now-seven-year-old ordeal is an eight-inch scar on his stomach, the disease has left a more prominent mark on him as a person.

"Cancer changes you forever," he said. "Not a day goes by that I don't appreciate what I've got."

A proud father

As Todd fiddles with a picture of his 5-year-old son, Tyler, at his desk, he smiles with pride. Never in a million years did he think he'd ever have a child after all he went through.

"But you know what? We did it the old-fashioned way," he says, his face round and healthy now.

All the weight he lost when he was sick has come back. Plus a little bit.

"I'm happy fat now," he says with the laugh of someone who doesn't sweat the small things in life anymore.

With more than four years at WTMA under his belt, it is far and away the longest running and most stable job he's held in the 23 years since graduating from college.

"Somehow, I'm still standing," he says. "To have stayed with this as long as I have and to finally have carved out a niche, it's pretty incredible. Life is good, man."

Reach Bryce Donovan at 937-5938 or bdonovan@postandcourier.com.