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An aspiring country/rock musician from Brainerd, Minnesota, Steve Hall found his fame in the form of a hand-made cowboy puppet he purchased at a Minnesota pet and hobby store for $40. Hall and his puppet, now christened "Shotgun Red", crashed Ralph Emery's local Nashville morning television show with the intent of promoting the upcoming appearance of Hall's band (Southbound '76) in Seagrams 7 Battle of the Bands contest, and wound up with a job offer to become a recurring guest on Emery's upcoming "Nashville Now" talk show on The Nashville Network.
Viewers of "Nashville Now" grew fond of Shotgun Red, with the character receiving more fan mail than any other personality at The Nashville Network, despite the fact that Red only appeared on "Nashville Now" two times a week. Red's (and by extension Hall's) popularity continued to skyrocket with the creation of official Shotgun Red plush toys, recurring appearances in the final years of "Hee-Haw", a 1986 Christmas special, as well as becoming the host of his own weekly Country music video presentation series: "Country Clips".
Hall and Shotgun Red remained staples of The Nashville Network from it's launch in 1983 until the channel's rebrand to The National Network in 2000, and continued to maintain a devoted fanbase with countless live appearances all around the United States. In 2011, RFD-TV (a spiritual successor to The Nashville Network) recruited Hall and Red to host their own program entitled "The Shotgun Red Varity Show", which lasted for four seasons. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Hall and his band began performing "The Shotgun Red Show" live aboard the Nashville-based General Jackson showboat, which lasted for 15 years (the longest tenure of any act featured on the showboat).
In December of 2018, Steve Hall passed away of natural causes while visiting family in Brainerd, Minnesota.- Roger Awsumb spent more than 50 years in broadcasting, entertaining radio listeners on KLKS FM Breezy Point and delighting countless young viewers as "Your Old Buddy, Casey Jones." After serving in the US Army, he began broadcasting in 1948 as an announcer at WBOM at Macalester College in Saint Paul, later becoming program director and manager. In 1951 he became announcer and program director at KDLM Detroit Lakes. He moved to television in 1952, joining WCCO TV Minneapolis/Saint Paul as a floor man, announcer, and director. He took a similar position at WMIN TV Minneapolis/Saint Paul in 1953. In 1954 he created the popular "Casey Jones" character, a railroad engineer who invited children to join him for lunch, skits, songs, and cartoons. The show ran on WMIN and WTCN TV (now KARE TV) until 1973, and came back to television on WFBT TV (now WFTC TV) Minneapolis/Saint Paul from 1983 to 1985. He returned to radio in 1986, joining the staff of KLKS FM. He was named Outstanding Broadcast Personality by the Minnesota Broadcasters Association in 1995, and inducted into the Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2001.
Roger passed away, at the age of 74, on July 15, 2002. - Lynn Dwyer was born on 22 November 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Lunch with Casey (1954). He died on 3 September 1976 in Brainerd, Minnesota, USA.