It was early on in the relationship between the Harry Ornest-owned St. Louis Blues and the team's new radio home KXOK-AM 630. The great Dan Kelly, Ron Jacober and several other St. Louis broadcasting stars had been lured in 1985 to KXOK by its new owners in an effort to "out-KMOX" KMOX. Robert Hyland, the long-time, and very powerful, GM at KMOX was not at all happy with this development. He had made a practice of his station being the one-and-only station to carry major sports on the radio in the city. AM 630 had been known in the decades before as a powerhouse top-40 format station; playing the hits for the younger generation. Those days were over. And the new owners had big plans for the significant 5,000 watt signal. As it turned out, significant but not powerful enough. But that's a story for another time.Blues games would not be heard on KMOX for the first time in team history. Mr. Jacober hired a fairly-young broadcaster for KXOK as a producer and as-needed sports announcer and host. That now not-so-young announcer would go on to become the Blues public-address announcer in 1987 and is writing this piece. Not only would the games be heard on KXOK, but the station planned to fill its sports talk shows with large amounts of Blues news and talk. And it did.
In the station's effort to bring some "star power" to the evening sports talk show, Mr. Kelly arranged to have Wayne Gretzky as a guest one evening in early December 1985. The Great One's Edmonton Oilers were in town a day early for their game the next night at the old Arena. Gretzky, while still a very young age-24 player at the time, was considered a superstar in hockey and the Great One moniker had already been bestowed upon him by "the hockey gods". Having Gretzky join the greatest hockey announcer in the world for two hours of pucks discussion and also take calls from adoring listeners was a BIG deal at that time, and to the station's growing image.
As I recall, the call-in phone lines started lighting up a couple of hours before Gretzky's scheduled 6-8pm appearance on the station. Callers would say.."I'll hold on the line as long as I need to so I can ask a question of Wayne"...or something similar. The phones were packed with callers for the entire two-hour show. If memory serves, Dan agreed to pick up Gretzky at his downtown hotel (The Old Spanish Pavilion hotel then, now the Hilton at the Balllpark) and bring him to the Sevens Building in Clayton where the KXOK studios were located at the time. Many of the station's daytime employees hung around that late afternoon and early evening hoping to get a glimpse of #99. I was lucky enough to get an autograph from him after the show on an NHL media guide. And yes, of course, I still have it.
After the show, a number of us were standing around in the lobby of the station. Mr. Gretzky signed...a lot. Kelly told stories...as he always did...and we all basked in the glory of a big day in broadcasting for all of us. As the gathering was about to break up, Mr. Kelly, in his usual big voice blasts out..."Hey Calhoun, you're driving back to Illinois right?" Not having any idea why he's asking, I replied.."Yes Dan...as always". Little did I know that he had a task in mind..."Well I live out in West County..how about you giving Wayne here a ride back to his hotel downtown since you're headed that way?" Well, what was I going to say...no? "Sure, Dan, I'd be happy to." 
I had no idea it was coming, and as soon as I agreed I started thinking..."How clean is the car?" "What is a guy who's used to riding in limos going to think of my crummy little Datsun 510?" I was still in the early stages of my broadcasting career and money was tight. We couldn't afford much of a car at the time. The Great One, if it bothered him, didn't show any sign of it. In fact, he couldn't have been nicer. We had a great conversation while driving from Clayton to downtown St. Louis. We talked hockey and we got to know each other a little.
In fact, he must have enjoyed my company a bit because, and here's where it gets interesting and embarrassing for me, he issued an invitation. "Hey Tom...isn't there a Playboy Club in St. Louis?" Don't ask me how I knew, but I said..."Why yes, it's down in South County if I'm not mistaken." 99 says.."Well, I'm a member and have a key. (you needed a membership key to get in) How about we go down there and have a beer?" My mind starts racing. "What? Wayne Gretzky is asking me to have a beer at the Playboy Club? What do I say? What do I do? Well, of course, any sane young man would say..."You bet. That would be great. I can't think of anything I'd rather do on a winter night." But what do I say? (Remember, this is in the days before cell phones.)"Welllll...Wayne...thank you for the invitation...but with all this snow on the ground if I don't get home at my usual time my wife will probably get worried." That was what I said. What I was probably really thinking was...I'm in this crappy little car, Wayne Gretzky has tons of money and I don't, I'm really intimidated by this situation and feel kind of uncomfortable.
So there ya go. Maybe the most ridiculously stupid and inexplicable thing I've ever said, thought or done in my entire adult life. Gretzky says.."OK...well just drop me off at the hotel then." Which I did...and have regretted not accepting the invitation ever since. In fact, when I finally got around to trading-in that old Datsun 510, I tried to get the dealer to take the front passenger seat out of the car so I could save it as a souvenir. That didn't work out. But I'm still hoping that one of these days I'll have a chance to take 99 out to dinner and make up for my lack of intelligence that snowy night in December of '85.In the meantime, I did get to introduce The Great One in his first game with the Blues, and at the Alumni Classic at Busch. Still two of my all-time favorite moments as the Blues PA guy. Thanks to our great organist Jeremy Boyer who took video without me knowing, you can view the Alumni Classic intro here.
