Best AM Radio Personality

Chuck Norman is responsible -- if that word can be used -- for WGNU, which bills itself as "Radio Free St. Louis." Without Norman's special approach to radio, listeners wouldn't have Lizz Brown and Richard "Onion" Horton on the black and left, or Earl Holt and Crane Durham on the white and right. That's not to mention the lucid tones of Skip Erwin on sports or the Couch Potato on, well, whatever "Couchie" wants to whine about. Virtually none of the 40-odd talk-show hosts are paid a salary: They work for a commission based on the commercials that air during their shows. It's the vanity press of radio. Norman is seldom on the air anymore, surfacing sometimes to emcee a trivia contest. But never fear, even though he's up in years, Norman has made provisions. He has stated in his will that upon his death he's leaving the station to a committee that has to keep the same wacky talk format for at least three years. So Chuck's fingerprints will be on the scene of the crime long after he's gone.