RADIO DAZE AND THE GHOST OF MARK TWAIN

By Richard Miner

On a warm Saturday afternoon on Kauai, Hawaii in 1968, 25-yearold McAvoy Layne was washing his car at the Kapa’a Sands Hotel and listening to radio station KTOH broadcast a football game between two local high-school powerhouses. Mac found himself increasingly annoyed by the sloppy play-by-play commentary of the sportscaster who—to add insult to injury—constantly mispronounced the local Hawaiian players’ names.

Fed up, Layne stalked into his office—he was managing the hotel— and called the radio station demanding to speak to the person in charge. He was soon talking to the station manager who asked Mac if he thought he could do a better job, to which ex-marine Layne replied, “Damn straight, I could!” The manager suggested he come to his office on Monday for a chat. By Monday afternoon Mac was the newest employee of radio station KTOH, hired to broadcast all the station’s sporting events beginning the following weekend.

McAvoy first laid eyes on the Island of Kauai in the summer of 1962. As a freshman on the University of Oregon’s swim team, he became a featured member of the team’s traveling “Water Circus.” The team was invited to Kauai on a publicity tour. Layne’s most amazing circus trick was performing a dead-man’s drop from the 10 meter board with a lit cigarette in his mouth, and emerging from the water with the cigarette still burning between his lips. Layne never forgot the beauty of Kauai and vowed to live there one day, and now he did.

It wasn’t long before McAvoy had become one of the most popular radio personalities on Kauai. He was multitalented—had a voice like butter—and became equally adept at calling play-by-play sporting events or hosting entertaining and informative morning shows. He was a skilled interviewer and created clever, off-beat contests that engaged listeners and sold advertising.

By 1970 his phone was ringing with job offers, and he bid farewell to Kauai for the bright lights of Honolulu. His career path took him to KIKI, KORL, and KHAI on Oahu, then to KHLO in Hilo on the Big Island, then to KNUI and KMVI, both on Maui. By 1975 he realized being a well-know radio personality didn’t necessarily translate into being well-paid. And working a morning show till

10am and then surfing and working out for triathlons for the rest of each day was starting to take its toll.

Mac’s brother was living at Lake Tahoe, and in 1975 when the opportunity arose, Mac joined KOWL in South Lake Tahoe. Following the money, he jumped back to KMVI in Maui, then to KESY in Monterey, CA, WOCB in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and back again to KOWL at Tahoe before returning to old standby KNUI in Maui in 1980. By this time, Mac’s father—a wellestablished Orinda, California optometrist—had given up that his number one son would ever outgrow his wanderlust and do something of value that would utilize his God-given talents. Even Mac was starting to wonder.

In the winter of 1983 McAvoy decided to cure a case of islandfever by joining his girlfriend at Lake Tahoe for some downhill skiing, which had been his second love—after swimming—since high school. Susan was a TWA stewardess who suggested they spend a ski week at her cabin in Tahoma on the West Shore. Mac packed his bags and arrived to learn that she had just been given a last-minute assignment to crew a flight to Europe, and had to leave immediately. So she dropped Mac off at the cabin and drove off. Without radio or TV Mac built a fire and went to bed early in anticipation of skiing every day until she returned.

The following morning he awoke to discover an overnight blizzard had dumped 5 feet of snow on the neighborhood. He opened the door to a wall of snow; he was trapped! The cabin was well stocked with food and firewood, so he settled down to play darts and read. On the coffee table was a volume entitled, “The Complete Essays of Mark Twain.” Over the next 5 days he read the book cover-to-cover, even memorizing some passages to spout to Susan upon her return. He began to realize this discovery could be the vehicle for both changing his life and bringing knowledge and entertainment to others as not even radio afforded. But how, and when?

Soon after returning to Maui he was back in Incline Village to do the skiing he’d missed on his last trip. On the chair lift at Ski Incline he struck up a conversation with the woman riding next to him who asked what he did professionally. When he told her he hosted the morning show at station KNUI on Maui she asked if he might be interested in doing the same thing at Lake Tahoe. They exchanged contact information, and within weeks he moved to Tahoe City to take a job at a new station soon to open there. But when he arrived to start work he discovered his new station was so new it still had to be built from the ground up! Nailing studs and hanging sheetrock was not what Mac had signed up for. So when he got an offer to join the also new but actually broadcasting station KLKT in Incline Village, he jumped ship and moved. From 1983 until 1988, McAvoy came to distinguish himself as one of the most popular and creative radio personalities around. In his spare time, he was consuming every bit of Mark Twain lore he could find, and practicing short presentations to himself while taking his afternoon jog around the village.

In 1987, Mac finally had the opportunity to showcase his newfound talents to his dad. The occasion was his father’s 75th birthday party at the La Playa restaurant in Carmel, California. It was the first time he donned the now-traditional white suit and powdered white hair. The presentation before a live audience was such a hit it astonished his father and confirmed to Mac that he might have found his calling. Soon

Mac was combining morning radio shows with afternoon Twain presentations in the local schools, having found them to be great laboratories for trying out interesting, amusing, and informative stories about Mark Twain’s adventures.

Soon Mac was in demand as a speaker at all sorts of meetings and public events where as the living Ghost of Mark Twain he reintroduced his audiences to Twain’s contributions to American literature and society. In 1988 when KLKT announced that it was moving to Reno, McAvoy took the opportunity to quit radio forever and devote the rest of his career to bringing Mark Twain to life for audiences all over Nevada, America and indeed the World. Incline Village lost a radio personality, but gained the opportunity to experience in person the wisdom and spirit of the greatest name in American literature, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.

Carson City will be celebrating the First Annual Mark Twain Days Festival April 21-23 of this year. McAvoy will be guest of honor and headline several presentations. Mark your calendars. Details at www.marktwaindays.com