Emmanuel College The Hub

Written by: Sofia Orlando ’28

On Tuesday November 18, Emmanuel College’s Communications Club and Public Relations course presented the historic live filming of the “Takin’ a Walk”, where host Buzz Knight conducted his first live filming alongside special guest Chuck Nowlin, making firsts for both Knight and the collegiate institution.   

“Takin’ a Walk”,  a music history podcast, follows Knight as he interviews musicians and insiders about their love for music, allowing listeners to go behind the scenes with some of their favorite artists and songs. As a special guest for this episode, Knight invited Chuck Nowlin of the “Chuck Nowlin Morning Show” to discuss numerous topics involving music, memories, and the radio broadcasting industry. 

Before filming began, Knight invited members of his audience to answer his signature question of “Who would you take a walk with, dead or alive?” Two students volunteered their answers, and were gifted copies of the books “The Story of Spinal Tap” by Rob Reiner and “The Last Great Dream” by Dennis McNally.

Knight then introduced Nowlin to the crowd and camera, who was welcomed with thunderous applause. Once again, Knight asked his signature question and Nowlin responded saying how he would love to take a walk with John Lennon, however, he would also like to take a walk with his father who passed away when he was young, so he could see that “it really turned out ok”. 

The two then began discussing Nowlin’s career in radio, which began in Worcester where he stayed as an afternoon radio host for eight years before moving to Florida for a bigger market audience. However, after changes within the station’s target audience and even his own hosting style, Nowlin returned to Boston and was hired by Knight to host the WZLX afternoon show. Since then, Nowlin has stayed with the station and currently hosts the “Chuck Nowlin Morning Show”. 

When asked about his connections to music and radio, Nowlin recalled one of his earliest fascinations being with his brother’s record player. 

“My oldest brother, Rick, had a great record collection, and an incredible stereo system, even the giant speakers,” Nowlin said. “As soon as he left [the house], I’d go through all his stuff. He started putting little slips of paper into the albums to see if they fell out to see if anyone touched the sacred helm. So that’s when I really started to like music.”

Nowlin then cited that his first love of radio came from his youth as well after listening to a late night channel with his brothers. 

“There was this guy on the air called Larry GI, WBCC. And he would just tell UFO stories and ghost stories all night. It was fascinating, and I could picture everything that he said in my mind, and I really love that kind of storytelling,” Nowlin said. 

Nowlin and Knight then went on to reminisce about some of the most memorable moments of their careers, discussing some of their favorite interview subjects and experiences, discussing their trip to Hollywood to cover the Grammy Awards where they met and interviewed Jon Stewart. Nowlin also recalled his experience at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Peter Wolf of the “J Giles Band” was his interview partner for the event. 

Before filming was concluded, Nowlin was asked to give some advice to the audience of college students. 

“If you have a passion, just go for it,” Nowlin said. “Give it a shot. Because if you don’t, you might go back and regret the fact that you never tried.”

To hear more from Knight and some of his other special guests, listeners can find the “Takin’ a Walk” podcast on Apple Podcasts or can visit Knight’s website.