🎧The career of Eagle Radio's Randy Goering as retirement arrives

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

Randy Goering grew up on a farm in Moundridge, Kansas and was a long time 4-H member. As a junior leader for the McPherson County 4-H, Goering was present when the manager of a McPherson radio station visited their 4-H meeting. Goering was told to use the station’s new cassette recorder to talk with people and record their comments during the county fair.

“I had the recorder from time to time,” said Goering. “I still give credit to this for getting me the job. I was at the show arena and there was a pig show going on. I said ‘What do you think is going on?’ and turned the microphone down to a pig which walks by and grunts right on cue. I have to believe the station heard that and thought they needed to hire this guy.”

And so began Goering’s career in radio.

Following graduation from Moundridge High School, Goering attended Hutchinson Community College where he obtained his associate’s degree in broadcasting.

“I learned a ton from people across the state that visited our classes,” said Goering. “I talked to them about what they do, what they heard and what they liked. It was a very valuable two years in Hutchinson.”

The school’s radio station, at the time, was a 10-watt station that covered the city of Hutchinson.

“We didn’t have a huge audience but we were on the air,” said Goering. “We knew anyone could hear us. I think that was a really big growing experience there.”

Once he graduated from college, Goering sent a tape and resume to a station in Hays for an open position. The program director for the station called Randy to inform him a guy was hired just a day before he received Goering’s resume.

“The program director told me he wished he had my tape earlier, but he might call me back in a couple of weeks because he didn’t have a lot of confidence in the guy they hired,” said Goering. “I was at the farm in Moundridge and I went back to the barn after the phone call. My mom calls me back to the phone about 30 minutes later and it was the program director asking if I wanted to start right away.”

Goering packed his bags and went to Hays without knowing anything about the company and stayed four years. He continued his radio career in Liberal for a couple of years, then Junction City before arriving to Great Bend in 1984.

Working for KHOK in the 1990s, Eagle Communications eventually acquired both KVGB stations in Great Bend and that was the start of Goering’s career with Eagle Radio. From on-air roles, sports play-by-play and sales manager, Goering will retire as Eagle’s market manager Aug. 6.

“This is not something you do on a whim,” said Goering. “Before I took the manager job I knew I wanted to keep it for at least five years. I got six. There were a lot of things that came together at the right time to help me make the decision to retire.”

Hired to cover an afternoon shift on the air in high school, Goering noted becoming a general manager was never something he planned for.

“As you get into the field, you realize all the opportunities radio presents,” said Goering. “When I was working in small-market radio, it was not uncommon to hear ‘We can’t give you a raise but here are some accounts to earn commission.’ That’s how I got started with sales, then sales manager, market manager and now retirement.”

Radio sports play-by-play was another part of Goering’s career that was not planned. The first door opened to announce games when Goering came to Great Bend in the 1980s. A colleague from Scott City did not want to travel to Great Bend for a Thanksgiving basketball tournament and asked the staff in Great Bend if they could call the games.

“Our play-by-play broadcaster couldn’t cover all three days of the tournament,” said Goering. “I told him not to give up the gig because of one day, I’ll cover that one day for you. Everyone looked at me and asked, ‘You can do that?’ I said I’ll give it a try and apparently I did okay because I became the fill-in guy around here for games.”

Goering covered Ellinwood High School for a couple of years before Sports Director Steve Webster left Great Bend to take a position in Hays. Webster left a couple of weeks before the football season and management asked Goering if he wanted the job of broadcasting Great Bend High School games.

“They asked if I wanted it for a year, but it turned into 17 years as the voice of the Panthers,” said Goering. “I took over in the fall of 1987. It was Tim Friess’ first year as football coach and they went 0-9. It was a meager start but I was able to grow and hone my skills.”

Goering’s 17 years calling GBHS games landed him in the Great Bend High School Hall of Fame in 2015. Goering references two “career-defining moments” while covering games for the Panthers. The first happened when Goering was broadcasting a softball game in Liberal. With the score being 21-0, he was asking himself why would anyone still be listening.

“Chelsea Fellhoelter rips one up the middle that rolls to the fence,” said Goering. “She slid safely into third base and broke her foot. Her dad was in the stands and told me from the time he left the bleachers to the time he got to third base he had three phone calls asking about his daughter’s condition. That told me what we’re doing is important.”

The other moment that sticks out to Goering came a few years earlier when the mother of a Panther basketball player approached Randy after a game. Her husband was dying of cancer.

“She told me her husband was not able to watch any of their son’s games and it was their boy’s senior year,” said Goering. “He wasn’t strong enough to leave the house. But he listened in his bed with his radio and he said he could “see” every rebound his son grabbed and movement of his teammates by the way I called the game. That set me back and still does every time I think of that story. That told me just showing up to do a game is not good enough. We need to be on our “A” game every time we do something.”

Goering brought his “A” game to work and it served him well as market manager the past six years. Goering’s final day before retirement lands on Aug. 6, the night of Eagle Radio’s car giveaway.

“Fortunately, I was guiding a ship that was going along at a pretty good clip the way it was,” said Goering. “The stations had a good reputation, good culture and were well-respected. Having a great team behind me to help pull us through was a real blessing in my chair.”

Goering has changed his stance on his post-retirement from when he first started thinking about the upcoming date.

“A year and a half ago, I wanted to know exactly what I was going to do the Monday after my retirement,” said Goering. “Somewhere along the way I determined it does not really matter. I have the nest egg, but I always thought I had to have a job. It’s definitely a different mindset but we’ll figure it out.”

One of Goering’s two daughters is pregnant and expecting a child in September. He and his wife, Annette, will be spending time with the new grandchild and might even provide daycare help for a period of time.

“I’m open to anything, but I want it to be pretty flexible,” said Goering. “The good Lord has had a plan for me so far, he isn’t going to let me down now.”   

Listen below to the entire interview with Goering and Eagle Radio's Cole Reif.