Farewell to Lovable Larry Ryan After 60 Years on Air in Shreveport

If you have a job you love and you have fun doing it, keep going. That's the message from the iconic local DJ "Lovable" Larry Ryan. He is stepping away from the business after more than 60 years behind the microphone.

To say he is legendary really doesn't tell the story. Ryan stopped by the KEEL studios today to spend an hour telling tales and taking a look back as his amazing career. And we barely scratched the surface.

Ryan told the story about the time he got mad at the post office for slow deliveries, so he rode a horse from Shreveport to Marshall to see if he could beat the post office in delivering the mail. He did win that race. But he told us his body was sore for a long time after that crazy stunt.

Ryan also told us about the radio business has changed since the 1960's. He talked about his decision to take a lucrative deal to move to Chicago to work at a country station back in the late 80's. He says he does regret that decision.

Ryan is originally from Marshalltown, Iowa but came to Shreveport in 1964. He was the voice of Southern Maid Donuts in those early days.

He also talked with us about getting to introduce some legendary bands including The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix and The Dave Clark Five.

Ryan was the man thousands of people in Shreveport - Bossier grew up listening to. He always tried to have fun and you could hear that every day in his broadcasts. He also paid tribute to his buddy, Mr. Weather who has been with him for many of these years.

Ryan left KEEL in 1996 and moved across town to KLKL where he bought his own airtime and sold his commercials. It was quite a unique deal in the business.

Lovable Larry Ryan will be missed on the airwaves by the thousands who grew up listening to this amazing icon. So proud to call him a friend.