Marjorie and Larry Morris moved from Memphis to Selma in October of 1965, half a year after the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights struggle began in earnest on the Edmund Winston Pettus Bridge. Friday, July 30, 2004, marked his last day of 37 years broadcasting the city’s most popular radio program,

“The Great Awakening.”

Morris laughs as he recalls “our families and friends thought we both were crazy in light of the negative publicity about Selma. They were wrong. It was a good move,” he adds, with the laugh familiar to his fans who tune in at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday for the latest news, sports and weather, “a little bit of everything.”

A veteran of the broadcast business, Morris says that radio is different from the ’60s, ’70, ’80s “when mostly music was played. WHBB was not the information type station it is now.”

Preparation for his career in broadcasting began at Arkansas State University, was interrupted by two years of service with the Army Missile Branch during Vietnam, continued in Memphis where he went to radio training school at night and worked part-time during the day. His wife was employed as a nurse.

“One day Julius Talton called from WHBB and offered me a job. We moved right down – I began at the radio station and Marjorie moved right into the old Baptist Hospital as a nurse.”

Morris has remained at WHBB except for a year and a half attending Livingston College, and a brief interval broadcasting sports for WSLA, now WAKA. When he returned, Viewpoint, the most popular segment of The Daily Awakening, was added to the last hour of the program.. After changing its broadcast time several times, it is on the air from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The reason it began, Morris explains, “was to let citizens vent their feelings and attitudes right after the events of ’65. It is an everyday outlet on the air.”

Viewpoint is broadcast line through calls received on the Listeners Call-In line. The topics are not really limited, he said,

“although we stay away from anything with sexual connotation. And we no longer use the seven-second delay once in force because we didn’t know what kind of language might be used. That’s proved not to be a problem.”

Now, Morris says, “I punch the button and take the call cold. Of course, there are also people who always listen but do not call in.”

He does try to limit the length of calls “to a certain extent. To be fair during this political campaign the limit is two minutes.”

And some of the calls, he says, “are so off the wall they stand out in memory. A caller a few weeks ago accused one of the mayoral candidates of buying weapons used in a local shootout. There are also distinctive types: all some want to talk about is race, with others it’s politics – and some just want to complain about what’s going wrong in the community.”

Morris says his philosophy is “Let the people voice their opinions. In this small town, the radio host is not able to challenge callers, as a Rush Limbaugh can. Occasionally, I do take issue with certain outlandish comments; example, people charge that certain local actions were taken in order to further a national cause other than Civil Rights and Voting Rights.”

Viewpoint has a small corps of regular callers, Morris says, “who go on and on and on. It’s a problem getting them to change the subject, which may be people, politics or trees. I am constantly fascinated by our callers’ passions for certain subjects. There is only one subject that consistently garners community-wide response – race. We may go days without this being brought up, then something triggers it and we’re off again.”

However, Morris says, “I’ve always enjoyed it. When I close the mike each day I move on, leave it all behind until the next day.”

His reasons for retirement include “not enough hours in the day for the things I want to do.” Owner of his own video production company, which he will continue to operate, he is also working on new broadcasts in Montgomery for Huntingdon College sports program: football, basketball and baseball. However, he will continue to live in Selma.

The Morrises are actively involved in Elkdale Church, where he fills in as music director of the choir, a position he is qualified to assume as the result of studying music at Ouachita University near Hot Springs. Both take an interest in civic and community activities in Selma, “when time allows,” he adds. One of his favorite hobbies is that of amateur theatricals. He is frequently cast in Encore Productions at the Performing Arts Center.

Retirement will allow Morris and his wife to spend time with their family. They have a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Tuscaloosa with her family, a son, Stephen, who is with Ala-Tax in Montgomery, and six grandchildren.

When asked if he will miss the busy broadcast hours, he answers frankly: “Yes, I am going to miss it, especially the association with people. Although they don’t give names over the air, I recognize voices of the frequent callers. I especially enjoy the birthday names as I read them and recognize names of the once four and five year olds who are now calling in the names of their children.

“You create a history.” A momentary expression of sadness flashed across his face, and he said, “Yes, you do.”