Story Story Story

I started playing music at the young age of six years old Growing up, I was fortunate enough to play multiple instruments and I was influenced by many different styles of music I would often sit in with my Dad’s Country and Bluegrass band on the drums, guitar or sometimes saxophone which gave me my strong love for country music My grandmother insisted on taking me with her to bingo, and there was always a dance that followed This would introduce me to Cajun and Zydeco music While most kids were playing outside, I was learning guitar licks from CCR, ZZ Top and Foreigner records with an added influence of Kool & the Gang, Gap Band and Parliament while playing bass in a band formed with some school friends Then came Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night playing that good ole Gospel music in church I believe that part of my story is all too familiar

Church was a part of my life, giving me a foundation of faith I would step away from that foundation at 16 years old following the divorce of my parents That life event was further impacted by the move from Jennings, LA, where I had spent my entire life with all my friends and into a town where no one was known to me The legal age in Louisiana back then was eighteen I could buy alcohol and get into certain places at the age of seventeen So, I started drinking, playing bars literally playing in the bar on Saturday night and then music in church Sunday morning and Sunday night It was certainly an interesting teenage lifestyle

The first real adult choice made was to join the Air Force instead of continuing to be a bum I got married, shipped out to Germany While there I played in several different bands My next duty station would be Florida where I also played in a few different bands I ended my Military service following Desert Storm, moved to New Orleans working as a dispatcher for an oilfield trucking company and playing music on the weekends Ironically the time came that my music started to interfere with my day job and my day job was interfering with my music It was time to make another choice

The steady paycheck and insurance of my day job did not compare to the cash money of my music job So, I quit the day job and went into music full time My uncle told me that if I could stay away from women, booze and drugs that I was good enough to make a living playing music I never had delusions of grandeur! If I could just support myself and my family that would be success enough for me With four different house gigs, playing eight times a week locally, starting my own record label and publishing company with six bands, 2 solo artists I was off We put a total of 20 albums out It was time to venture out I did a stint at The Nashville Palace in 2001 Next stop in the music timeline, a call from Carnival Cruise Lines, they had a spot for me on their newest and biggest ship

The Carnival Conquest So, I did a six-month stint of 7 nights a week as an entertainer traveling between ports in Biloxi, MS to Kingston, Jamaica and Cozumel Mexico Just before my time on the ship was up, my wife went back into the church, and I could tell something had changed My wife was basically the single parent of 3 boys while I was at sea for six months, additionally she was attending college for her bachelor’s in criminal justice The choice was clear, I had to go home, be Mr Mom and in my mind, I could do the gigs on the weekend Of course, you know what happens next, I didn’t do that gig thing on the weekends, I got back into the church myself and rededicated my life to the Lord

With those gig days behind me, I visited a radio station that played my music and that of my artists While I was there the owner approached me about doing a show Now, I didn’t know anything about doing a radio show, but with nothing else to do and the prospect of getting paid ” Swamp Pop Saturdays with Hunter Logan” came to life on the radio every Saturday That same owner approached me with another idea to make some more money in sales during the week After about 6 months, due to working conditions, it just didn’t work out I had turned in a resignation, being totally up front that resulted in having the letter crunched up and thrown at me followed by a “if you leave, you will fall flat on your A++ Sadly, that station owner held a grudge against me for years, refused to play any of my music It didn’t matter the number of requests; it was a big fat NO! I made a promise to myself right then to never let personal feelings get in the way of playing someone’s music and I haven’t to this day

That experience would lead me to another radio station in the same town Little did I know then that stopping by to see about employment would connect me to the guy who trained me for what is HLE RADIO today He showed me all the ropes, graciously gave all his knowledge from having a number one morning show in Myrtle Beach, SC for 5 years It is vital to advise at this moment to always apply what you learn from another to yourself, his knowledge was invaluable, however, his methods of training were horrible It was a toxic training of verbal abuse, never being good enough or without error Seriously, this guy could look at perfection still finding error Throughout the difficult process, I would become fluid on the microphone, learn production, making commercials, maximizing song usage, how to create flow, create and sell sales packages, and how to annunciate - which is still a big deal to me That all sounds like an incredible opportunity but I just burnt out, I didn’t want anything to do with radio period

In July of 2010 I covered a Grand Opening on Main Street in Jennings, LA for a computer repair place Fun fact – this is still the exact location of where HLE Radio resides today The building hosted a Real Estate office in the front with a Computer Repair place in the back After covering the Grand Opening, I stayed a bit after everyone had left and realized that the Computer Repair owner was also a musician which got me thinking we could make a studio together (he had the other half of recording equipment that I didn’t) My burn out was radio, not recording

We talked more which led to my renting a 7x14 office space, to avoid driving out of town on my current job, which led to more conversations about radio He wanted to start a radio station, but the timing was not good I shared the FCC had a 15-year freeze on all licenses, so he would have to find one for sale to acquire it He replied, “what about an internet radio station?” With no personal interest in doing it, I agreed to show him everything I knew about radio Being that Hunter Logan Enterprises (HLE) was already formed and under it I already had umbrella companies (HLE Publishing, HLE Records etc ) it only made sense to call it HLE Radio With a media player, some southern gospel music, and a few commercials I brought from my old station, jingles, and absolutely no live segments, HLE Radio was formed

In fact, we had a makeshift website which could not even be found on Google and a library of only 40 songs Keep in mind I was still producing a radio show called the Hallelujah Hayride for a local station on Sunday’s which featured Southern Gospel artists and local Christian artists as Christian Country music was unknown to me at this time

While producing the Hallelujah Hayride, a preacher friend gave me his personal cd collection to use for my show A blank cd with just 3 songs and “John Steed” written on it caught my attention After listening to it, I thought to myself, if we had more of this type of Christian country music, I know that people would love it! My introduction to Christian Country music, Mr John Steed Despite this finding, it would still be 2 years before I would know about Christian Country and at that point it had been around for over 20 years We were entering the transition of 2010 to 2011, a significant time for HLE Radio In reflection, it was at this time I shared with my wife that I felt the Lord leading me to full time ministry, working for myself for the Kingdom No specifics, that was all I knew at that time She saw my success in the music business when all said that I couldn’t do it She understood me, always believed in me, and she remains a great blessing to me

Being from the deep south, we were spoon fed Southern Gospel and did not even know Christian Country Music existed So, after two years of doing searches for John Steed I got an email (not from him, but he was referenced) and I followed the trail and finally got in touch with him I had been playing his music, well the 3 songs I had for the last two years, so I was really excited to talk to John He shared with me about more artists like himself and the lack of outlets for their music So, I started to contact those artists such as Tommy Brandt, Mike Manuel just to mention a few and they started sending me their music and that is how we became a Christian Country radio station People said that we wouldn’t be able to do internet radio as a terrestrial station I didn’t know any better Truth of the matter is I had never run a business much less a radio station I had no clue What I did have was a lump of faith and a desire to tell people about God

Most would think that HLE Radio was started intentionally with a great plan, but that is so far from the truth HLE Radio was started because I failed to witness to someone On a sales call for the other station, I could feel the Holy Spirit urging me to witness but I didn’t As I drove off, I pulled onto the side of the road and began to cry I told God that I wasn't ashamed of him, but I needed a comfortable way to tell people about Jesus I told God that if he would give me a comfortable way to tell people about him, I would tell people about Jesus every day! And that is exactly what he did I get to tell people the good news every morning! So, when I say HLE Radio is a ministry first radio station, it really is, and we mean it, the goal will always be souls

Faith is the beginning of any ministry; the development of that faith is a time often hard as was our case The house was going into foreclosure, both vehicles were being repossessed, and there was no money for bread and milk one week I had tried to get the mortgage company to lower the note for us to get caught up, but instead, they raised it to $181 00 I remember one time the repo people came to our home to pick up my car, but they didn’t know about the station on Main Street That very same day, a lady backed into my wife’s car and didn’t want to file it on her insurance, so she gave us a check It was enough to pay both car notes and keep them away for another month I told God, well I have 7 more fenders if this is how you want to do it Also, shortly after, both cars broke down, and we had no money to fix them I can remember my mom driving to town to take us both to work I pawned every piece of music equipment I had to keep the lights on in this place, including my bass that I was playing in church with the worship team This wouldn’t be the only time I would pawn music equipment to keep the lights on There have been two other times

There will be Seasons and individuals for Seasons!

At this point, I’m starting to get restless and thinking, I know how to make money, but I didn’t want to go back there again, especially after God had delivered me from it I am talking about playing music on the road again God always provides! The proposed partnership with the Computer Repair owner did not work out, he ended up leaving and I ended up with the entire back office Since the front of the building was used sparingly by the Real Estate office, I was allowed access to use it when it wasn’t in use

People were still walking in daily for computer repair, and there happened to be a gentleman in our church that was going to school for it It seemed logical to ask him to come do the repairs and pay him most of the profits This way we would make some money to help support the radio station The recording studio really wasn’t happening When it’s not God’s will, he will not pay the bill! Around this time, two gentlemen came on board to help the radio station in exchange for space to work One was able to do graphic design and the other was good at building websites and doing code, something we had desperately needed With a computer repair shop going, a Google worthy website being designed, we were on the way to something good During their tenure here, the website designer obtained a copy of software that would let us go live on the website, but we needed a computer to test it out Enter my wife’s broken computer that was destined to be trashed She worked at a medical billing place across the street from the station and gave us a broken computer that our computer repairman fixed and with a borrowed server we were able to try out live radio With the capability to go live, I asked the computer repairman if he would like to talk on the radio with me as he always did his repairs in the morning time till noon and he said, sure So, we did, and I asked about doing it again and again And just like that The Morning Show with Hunter and Boot was born That show remained for a little over a year until he went on to do other things, just as the other two individuals that had made great contributions to HLE Radio during their time here They were the individuals for that season, and seasons change It was also at this time I had a falling out with my current pastor of ten years Although many hurtful things were said, it was evident that God was moving us into a new season We lost our church of 10 years, our friends, and most of the income we had

I’m happy to say they were wrong. It was a store front building, a borrowed server, broken computer and three John Steed songs, a lump of Faith and the Promise to God. We went live the last week of March 2012, and we are still live and going strong today.

Since that time, not only have we grown but God has assembled a selfless and wonderful team Roilyn Self-Station Manager, Brian Carpenter-social media, Roger Barkley Jr-webmaster, David Ray-Christian Country Jukebox, Steve Roberson-Christian Country Countdown, Randy Finchum-Publicist, Dennis Higgins-Poster Graphics, Nate Knox-Prayer Team Leader, Patricia Teachey-Cameras, and many Volunteers HLE Radio is a 501c3 and the HLE would be changed to HE LOVES EVERYONE Radio Eight different upgrades have taken place, grown in space to take over a second building We have achieved radio station of the year ten times as well as radio personality of the year ten times Three other stations have been built off HLE Radio’s proprietary framework and we are currently heard in 191of the 195 recognized countries in the world today We are always first page google no matter how you search for Christian Country which is no small feat considering we have never and still don’t pay like major corporations to be on the first page of Google I give any success or anything that anyone would consider success to my Lord and Savior cause there is nothing that I can do without him leading the way Obedience is the key to all blessings

God’s gifts are always without repentance I started out playing music for Jesus and the for 16 years, I did not write or play any music of my own In fact, the Lord had me at the radio station promoting and supporting artists Most of the artists who came through the station didn’t even have a clue about my past of being an entertainer or a musician But in 2020 the Lord opened up my music once again and allowed me to write my first Christian song ever, “You Can’t Shack Up with the Devil, “written with two of my friends, Steve Roberson and Randy Finchum I have just released my latest song Tic Toc God’s Clock The record label and publishing company has reopened, and HLE Records has just sent out its first six releases by six different artists and are very excited about them What I am most excited about is the opportunity to share Christ, however that may be, whether through a song, a break on the morning show, leading worship at a church, preaching a sermon just so I can be used as a vessel Fill me up and pour me out, that’s what I’m all about!