Twenty years ago, Newsradio 800 WVHU’s Tom Roten was traveling a different career path. As the station’s play-by-play announcer at the time, Roten was unaware of the changes that were about to take place and how one postgame interview would impact his career.
While interviewing West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, whose son happened to be playing in the game that night, Roten unknowingly, was solidifying himself as the station’s new morning show man.
That was June of 2001. Fast forward to 2021 and Roten is still going strong, with a faithful morning audience that knows him as “Straight Shooter.”
Newsradio 800 WVHU recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and as Roten reflects on his unlikely transition to the news/talk format, he feels blessed to have been in the right place at the right time.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but members of management were listening to the interview and had been looking for a local morning talk host to fill out the lineup of the station’s new talk format,” Roten recalled about the postgame interview with Sen. Capito. “We had Rush Limbaugh, but the rest of the lineup was still up in the air.” He was offered the morning gig and agreed to try it for a year. About his 20-year morning talk career, he says, “It’s hard to believe really.”
Roten thanked the listeners and advertisers who have stuck around.
“Talking about what’s going on in our region and in the nation from a local perspective has helped me bond with my listeners.”
