Gourdon and Witch Willie make their radio debut Sunday, Oct. 15 on WVXU-FM, and I got the scoop.
Gourdon, the pumpkinhead puppet, Witch Willie and Morty the Ghost star in "The Ghost Who Can't Say BOO!," a production of Terrence Burke's Wump Mucket Puppets.
Burke, of Northside, has been a professional puppeteer since 2010. He's a fellow "WKRP in Cincinnati" fan - we met at the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's music of "WKRP" concert Labor Day weekend - and we invited him to tape a segment on "Around Cincinnati" (7-8 p.m. Sunday) to talk about his Halloween shows.
Burke performs "The Ghost Who Can't Say BOO!" twice on Saturday, Oct. 28:
--10:30 a.m. at Trenton's MidPointe Library, 200 Edgewood Drive.
--3 p.m. at the Reading branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 8740 Reading Road.
The Wump Mucket Puppets are a family affair. Burke writes the "more silly than scary" scripts and songs for his family shows. His wife, artist Lara Rumizen, designs and makes the puppets. He also composes the music, books the shows, does the advertising and promotions, and maintains the WumpMucketPuppets website.
The Wump Mucket Puppets change costumes next month for their "Frozen Follies" shows. They'll be at Behringer Crawford Museum in Covington's Devou Park 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16. Burke says he's also available for holiday parties and private events.
Off the air, Burke told me that I knew his father. He's the son of radio personality Denis Burke, who died in 2001. His father did TrafficWatch reports for 21 years on many local stations, and worked at WUBE-AM, WMLX-AM, WJOJ-FM, WWEZ-FM and Storer/TKR cable.
After the "Around Cincinnati" broadcast, I'll add a link to the interview here.
