Gerry House (born 1948) is an American radio personality who was heard on

WSIX-FM WSIX-FM (97.9 MHz, "The Big 98") is a radio station licensed to serve Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station broadcasts a country music format. WSIX's studios are located in Nashville's Music Row district and the transmitter sit ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

on the morning show ''

Gerry House and the House Foundation The House Foundation was the morning show at Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville's WSIX-FM radio station. History Beginnings In the early 80's, WSIX-FM started a morning show that featured veteran disc jockey and songwriter Gerry House as the ho ...

'' from 1983 to 2010. House has won the CMA ACM Billboard and Marconi awards for Personality of the Year numerous times. House is also a songwriter, who has written songs for

George Strait George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited for ...

(" The Big One"),

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music singer and actress. Dubbed " the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 single ...

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

"),

LeAnn Rimes Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at age 13 with 1996's "Blue". She has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Chris ...

(" On the Side of Angels") and

Pam Tillis Pamela Yvonne Tillis (born July 24, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She is the daughter of country music singer Mel Tillis and ex-wife of songwriter Bob DiPiero. Tillis recorded unsuccessful p ...

(" The River and the Highway"). He has also had his songs recorded by

Brad Paisley Bradley Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting with his 1999 debut album ''Who Needs Pictures'', he has released eleven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashvil ...

Randy Travis Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Active from 1978 until being incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, he has recor ...

Trace Adkins Trace may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995 * ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993 * Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band * ''The Trace'' (album) Other uses in arts and entertainment * ''Trace'' ...

Mark Collie George Mark Collie (born January 18, 1956) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, actor, record producer, and fundraiser for Type 1 diabetes study. He has won awards and acclaim for his music, his acting, and his philanthrop ...

Clint Black Clint Patrick Black (born February 4, 1962) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album '' Killin' Time'' produced four straight number one singles on the ...

Neal McCoy Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. (born July 30, 1958), known professionally as Neal McCoy, is an American country music singer. He has released 10 studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. Although he first charted on ...

The Oak Ridge Boys The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was change ...

, and

Big & Rich Big & Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a solo ...

, among others.

Family

Gerry House was born in

Independence, Kentucky Independence is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is one of its county's two seats of government. The population was 24,757 at the time of the 2010 U.S. census, up from 14,982 at the 2000 census. It is t ...

, a suburb of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, on March 28, 1948, to Lucille and Homer House. House married Allyson Faulkner in 1970 and has a daughter, Autumn House Tallant.

Career

Before moving to Nashville, House worked in

Richmond, Kentucky Richmond is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Madison County, Kentucky, United States. It is named after Richmond, Virginia, and is home to Eastern Kentucky University. In 2019, the population was 36,157. Richmond is the fourth-la ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. He first joined WSIX-AM in 1975. House had also begun to do

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

and was writing songs. In the early 1980s, WSIX-FM, a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

-formatted FM outlet, appointed House to host a new morning show. Al Voecks, who had previously been a local TV news anchor, had presented a talk show on the AM station, and he soon became House's newsman. Duncan Stewart joined the cast as House's sports reporter, and Paul Randal began as a traffic reporter and eventually became House's co-presenter. Around this time, the program began being known as ''The House Foundation''. The House Foundation was temporarily dissolved in 1985 when House left for a WSIX competitor,

WSM-AM WSM (650 kHz) is a 50,000-watt clear channel AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a full-time country music format (with classic country and Americana leanings, the latter of which is branded as "Route 650") at 650&n ...

. After a short time at WSM as the final host of historic morning program ''The Waking Crew'', the last morning radio program in America with a live band, House was hired by

KLAC KLAC (570 AM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, serving Greater Los Angeles and much of surrounding Southern California. Owned by a joint venture between iHeartMedia, Inc. and the Los Angeles Dodgers bas ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. House's time on the West Coast was also relatively brief; he soon left KLAC and came back to WSIX-FM and resumed ''Gerry House and the House Foundation'', with Voecks, Stewart and Randall, all in their original roles. Devon O'Day also joined the show as producer and for a country music news segment called "Twang Talk". House earned a record deal with

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

and released two country–comedy albums, ''The Cheater's Telethon'' in 1990 and ''Bull'' in 1992. House also hosted several nationally syndicated radio shows, including ''Countryline USA'', ''America's Number Ones'' and ''The Saturday Night House Party''. When Paul Randall became very ill, Mike Bohan joined the show in 1995, after 20 years at WSM radio and WSMV television. Randall succumbed to his illness in 1998; Bohan continued with the show, while Richard Falklen directing the show and hosting the news segment once named "Twang Talk". In addition House operates a music publishing company, House Notes, which owns the songs he has written. Some of his writing partners over the years have included O'Day,

Gary Burr Gary Burr, born in Meriden, Connecticut, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, primarily in the country music genre. Many of the songs he has written have become Top-10 hits, the first of which was " Love's Been A Little B ...

and

Don Schlitz Donald Alan Schlitz Jr. (born August 29, 1952) is an American country music songwriter. For his songwriting efforts, Schlitz has earned two Grammy Awards, as well as four ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year awards. In 1993, he was inducted int ...

, who have all had number-one hits with House. In addition, House records the "Maurice" (a character he bought from Los Angeles) segments for his show in the House Notes studio, as well as voices such as "Makk Truck" and "Homer". House has contributed to Nick Barraclough's

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

country show, offering 'news from Nashville'. He also hosted Radio 2's coverage of the

Country Music Association Awards The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards or CMAs, are presented to country music artists and broadcasters to recognize outstanding achievement in the country music industry. The televised annual presentation ceremony f ...

with Barraclough in 2004. It was announced May 19, 2017, that House would return to the airwaves on

WNRQ WNRQ is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting on a frequency of 105.9 MHz. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, it serves counties in northern middle Tennessee and southern central Kentucky. The station's studios are loc ...

-FM, with Bohan, on May 26, 2017.

Retirement

On August 15, 2003, House was hospitalized after complaining of a severe headache. He was diagnosed with a bleeding artery and underwent surgery to repair it and underwent further surgery to relieve fluid and swelling on his brain. He made a full recovery. On September 3, 2010, House announced the dissolution of the House Foundation and that their December 15, 2010 broadcast would be their last. House was inducted into the NAB

Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...

in the spring of 2011, placing his name next to Cousin Brucie, Wolfman Jack, Larry King, Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Ronald Reagan. In March 2014, BenBella Books released House's hardcover book, ''Country Music Broke My Brain: A Behind-The-Microphone Peek At Nashville's Famous & Fabulous Stars''. The foreword is written by his good friend Reba. At press time they are still speaking. House now spends his time between his homes in Nashville and WaterSound, Florida.

Discography

Notable recordings of House songs

*"The Big One" (George Strait) *"Little Rock" (Reba McEntire) *"On the Side of Angels" (LeAnn Rimes) *"The River and the Highway" (Pam Tillis) *"Thirteen Mile Goodbye" (Randy Travis) *"Three Words, Two Hearts, One Night" (Mark Collie) *"Midnight, Me and the Blues" (Mel Tillis, #2 country in 1974)

Albums

* 1990 ''The Cheater's Telethon'' * 1992 ''Bull''

References

External links

Article on Gerry from the Weekly Wire in 1999, a huge reference source for this entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:House, Gerry American radio personalities 1948 births Living people American country singer-songwriters People from Kenton County, Kentucky Country musicians from Kentucky Songwriters from Kentucky Radio personalities from Kentucky American male singer-songwriters