Top Man at WDCR

As Dartmouth College Radio (WDCR) resumed broadcasting, with the opening of College last year, residents of the Hanover environs were startled to hear what seemed to be the familiar heavy voice of Edward R. Murrow, bringing in the 6 p.m. newscast. On a college network one can expect strange interludes, inadvertent comedy and such, but hardly this sort of thing. For everyone the recognition was instantaneous, and when it continued night after night, the locals were buzzing about the student who sounded just like Ed Murrow.

Murrow might introduce his voice prodigy something like this: "Ronald Francis Kehoe, Dartmouth '59, lives in this modest home in Medford, Mass. A graduate of Medford High School, he was a member of the National Honor Society, valedictorian of his class, and editor of the school magazine. Ron has gone on to a brilliant career as an student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where he now serves as General Manager for Dartmouth College Radio. Good evening, Ron."

The story behind the Murrow imitation began last summer when Ron worked as an announcer for WEZE, the NBC station in Boston. There is nothing like a brush with the professional world to put the amateur on his toes and fill him full of vital enthusiasm. Consequently Ron returned to the college station with the idea of sounding bigger and better than ever. With him came the Murrow gimmick.

For the first six weeks of school, Ron was the voice of Edward R. Murrow. On Election Day evening, with a whole night of broadcasting ahead, "Murrow" left the air. Ron's tongue-in-cheek comment was that he had "grown out of it."

The Kehos family has been well represented in Hanover in the past. Brother William Francis was a member of the Class of '55 and headed the Quarterly during his senior year. Bill had talked Dartmouth so much that by the time Ron was finished at Medford, there wasn't much question about where he'd go to college. If there was, Phil Evans '17, a neighbor and close friend of the Kehoe family, added the extra impetus.

Ron has worked for the Quarterly to keep big brother happy, but his main extracurricular activity is WDCR. He says he just "drifted" into this field. Surprising as it seems, Ron has decided against a career in radio. He has been fortunate enough to have had a fairly thorough exposure to the field through summer work and contacts with Dartmouth men in the business. The realistic picture has not pleased him. It is, rather, a career in law that he seeks, and currently his application is in at Harvard Law School.

Student-wise, Kehoe is a Rufus Choate Scholar, an Alfred P. Sloan National Scholar, and a potential Phi Beta Kappa. When not busy at WDCR studios in Robinson Hall, his slender figure heads toward Sanborn House Library with a large pile of books in tow. His English honors work accounts for most of his waking hours.

A natural talker, Ron likes nothing better than a chat about the general campus issues. (His pet project at WDCR has been the Public Issues programs, a documentary series on pertinent current college issues for which the station won a $1500 H. V. Kaltenborn Award.) He displays a splendid sense of humor and is a sharp, quick thinker. Because of his entertaining personality, Kehoe is in demand. From time to time he has spoken before local groups such as the Rotary Club. When the new college film on the Anglo-Canadian-American Convocation was in the works, the directors called on Ron to do the narration. More recently, the Canadian Broadcasting Company had Kehoe do an interview for a coast-to-coast broadcast with Dartmouth polar greats Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Trevor Lloyd at the time of Sir Hubert Wilkins' death.

So Ron has his hands full and his voice going full-steam most of the time. Therefore it is now easier on the throat to be Ron Kehoe and not Edward R. Murrow.

Ron Kehoe '59