Larry Bly

1975	2004

Larry Bly was born in Baltimore, Maryland at Doctor's Hospital, which is now a parking lot. We don't know if the hospital just up and moved or actually went out of business.

Raised by his Uncle Pete and Aunt Tootsie on a farm near Winchester in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Larry went on to attend Monroe Business College after high school graduation. On his way to a degree in Business Administration, the college went out of business due to bad business practices. Do you think there's a theme developing here?

During college, Larry began his broadcast career as a rock disc jockey at WHBG in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he worked off and on for many years.

In 1968 Larry went into the Army for two years and ended up in Korea at the American Forces Korean Network, where he was a network jock.

After returning to civilian life, Larry went to work for WWWW in Detroit, Michigan. The station was owned by Gordon McClendon, the guy who first broadcast a baseball game on radio and later helped invent the "TOP TEN" radio format for rock stations (or so the company claimed).

Yearning for his Southern roots and wanting to get back near family and friends, Larry accepted a job at WROV in Roanoke where he became fairly well known and somewhat well respected as a wacky radio guy. During this same time he and his business partner, Marty Hall, started System 4 Advertising Agency. This would quickly become, and still is, Larry's full time employment. The business is now one of Southern Virginia's largest agencies.

In 1980, Laban Johnson approached Larry about an idea he had for a cooking show. Their combined TV experience and general lighthearted approach resulted in a great partnership, called COOKIN' CHEAP, one of America's longest-running cooking shows, until it was cancelled by Blue Ridge Public Television.

After starting COOKIN' CHEAP, Laban and Larry did many things together: an "oldies" radio show that ran locally for nearly a dozen years, appearing for a season on the USA Cable Network in "The Great American Housewife Show" with Vickie Lawrence, heard nationwide with Michael Feldman on "Whad'Ya Know" on National Public Radio, and made countless personal appearances and commercial endeavors.  Larry is host of Exceptional Entertaining, a how-to program designed to teach the art of entertaining on Cox Communications. He also writes a column called Dining Out and Cookin' In for Roanoke.com.

Hear Larry!

Bart & Larry   (3.4M) July, 1980