Louisville Courier Journal features writer Kirby Adams crafted a reflective view on the radio and television career of Terry Meiners, set to cross the 50 years mark in a few months. Meiners launched his radio career in June 1976 at WKQQ in Lexington.
The expansive retrospective on Meiners’ career ran online on December 22, 2025 and appeared on the Courier Journal’s front page four days later. The feature included a photo gallery of 37 images, most of which were owned by the newspaper.
Terry’s mom Norma Jean Reasor Meiners was featured in 1980s newspaper articles about raising 14 children with husband Mel Meiners in a tight economy, and another profile after she graduated from college to obtain her teaching degree in her 40s. Norma was hailed all throughout the Meiners Germantown neighborhood, prompting Terry to remark, “I like being famous.”
Over the years, Terry Meiners has had 11 television “wives” so far. They’re all terrific talents but WHAS-TV’s Rachel Platt has no peer. She’s the consummate professional and helped Terry improve his television performance by always running the studio like a precision-focused rocket launch control.
Here’s Rachel’s contribution to the Terry Meiners 50th anniversary profile.
The Courier’s 2025 front page photo of Meiners was repurposed from a 1996 photo originally published in the business section. Announcers from WHAS and its sister station WAMZ were wrestling with whether to retain AFTRA membership. Wayne Perkey was pro-union and Meiners led the movement to disband what he considered an ineffective union unit.
The 1996 Courier Journal piece showed a sparkling photo of a smiling Perkey and a separate photo of an oddly distracted Meiners. Hmm..it was kind of obvious which side of the union issue the layout editor was on back in the day!
Radio trade magazines tend to notice when radio personalities receive prominent love in the local media markets. A longtime friend of Meiners reminded him of his prescient comments on the golf course years earlier.
Ralph Hacker, a well-known Lexington, Kentucky radio executive often imitated on the Meiners show as THE BEST DRESSED MAN ON RADIO, sent glad tidings. Hacker was often portrayed as a sycophantic toady to Kentucky Governor Wallace Wilkinson, routinely mocked by Meiners during his administration. Clearly the derision thrown at Wilkinson did not phase Hacker.
From: Ralph Hacker <*********@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2025 7:57 AM
To: MEINERS, TERRY A
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Congratulations
What a milestone, congratulations for again leading the pack. Thanks for all you have done for all your listeners, colleagues , and friends, especially the kindness you have shown me. I wish you many more years of success, and of course good health to go with this. Please give your brother Mike my best.
I can no longer dress to the title you bestowed on me.
Yet, many times each year people I don’t know will refer to that very statement .
All the best my friend,
Ralph
Just for trivia purposes, here is the list of Terry’s TV various wives since he co-hosted PM Louisville with longtime Louisville media personality Ange Humphrey. Ange is now a preacher in Evansville, Indiana.
TV WIVES: Ange Humphrey, Leah Bisig Leasure, Melissa Swan, Lisa Hudson, Rachel Platt, Angie Fenton, Laura Rogers, Kristin Goodwillie, Hayley Minogue, Shay McAlister, & Brooke Hasch. Plus, cameo wife appearances by Mel Fisher, Kelsey Starks, Julie Smith, DeAnn Stephens, Kirby Adams, and Tony Vanetti.
Meiners has interviewed Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Mike Pence, Al Gore; Senators Mitch McConnell, Wendell Ford, Rand Paul, Todd Young, Mike Braun; Reps. John Yarmuth, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers, Andy Barr, James Comer, John Boehner; Governors Andy Beshear, Matt Bevin, Steve Beshear, Ernie Fletcher, Wallace Wilkinson, Paul Patton, John Y Brown Jr.; Mayors Mike Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, Jerry Abramson, Greg Fischer, Craig Greenberg, Dave Armstrong, Harvey Sloane; candidates Vivek Ramaswamy, Daniel Cameron, Charles Booker, Shameka Parrish-Wright, David Nicholson, Bill Dieruf, and hundreds more federal, state, and local pols.
More interview subjects include Academy Award winners Jennifer Lawrence and Charlton Heston; writers Sue Grafton and John Grisham; musicians Dolly Parton, Roger Daltrey, Bryan Adams, Lou Rawls, Carly Pearce, Willie Nelson, Graham Nash, Kenny Rogers, Lou Graham, Ted Nugent, Ozzy Osbourne, Pam Tillis, Charlie Daniels, Timothy B Schmit (Eagles), Graeme Edge (Moody Blues), and Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night); media stars Jim Nantz, Vanna White, Katie Couric, Harry Smith, Rick Dees, Scott Shannon, Natalie Morales, Dan Rather, Larry King, Bill Maher; sports celebs Paul Hornung, Justin Thomas, Will Smith (Dodgers), Terry Bradshaw, Brett Favre, Lamar Jackson, Deion Branch, Paul Azinger, Bart Starr, Bob Knight, Fuzzy Zoeller, Dick Vitale, Kenny Payne, Darrell Griffith, Milt Wagner, Russ Smith, Luke Hancock, Rick Pitino, Denny Crum, Tubby Smith, Chris Mack, John Calipari, Mark Stoops, Bobby Petrino, John L. Smith, Charlie Strong, Peyton Siva, Jamal Mashburn, Richie Farmer, Tim Couch, and Lynn Bowden Jr.
Meiners’ favorite interviews are individual radio/TV chats with all 13 of his siblings: Lou, Maureen, Denise, Tina, Tim, Chris, Colleen, Michele, Greg, Lisa, Lynn, Mike, and Mark Meiners.
Probably the most popular feature on the Terry Meiners show was the SNOW SNOW SNOW sounder that would launch whenever snow was included in the weather forecast. Meiners would warn of THE WHITE BLANKET OF DEATH and then pepper the air with meteorologist Chuck Taylor blurting the word SNOW on an endless loop.
Meiners created the sound effect in 1985 and used it for many years. Taylor loved it.
As for Terry’s favorite part of every broadcast year, it is the WHAS Crusade for Children every June. Terry has been on the Crusade team since 1986 and has been the host of the telethon since 2000, now at a record 26 consecutive years, surpassing the tenure of 1950s through the early 1970s emcee Jim Walton.
Thank you, Courier Journal and Kirby Adams for the front page honor. Let’s keep it going in 2026 and beyond.
