John Erling

John Erling, a self-described “North Dakota farm boy,” was raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota. His early interest in performance emerged at the age of three, when he delivered impromptu sermons to the chickens on his family farm.

This formative experience foreshadowed a distinguished career in radio. He spent five years with Northwestern College Radio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before continuing his broadcasting career at WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota, and later at WOW and KOIL in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1976, Erling moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting on KRMG. Following a 45-year career in radio, in 2010 he founded Voices of Oklahoma, an oral history website through which he has interviewed hundreds of Oklahomans. He is a member of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, and the Tulsa Hall of Fame.

In his oral history interview, recorded October 9, 2014, John talks about his fundraising for community needs, the Tulsa Mountains, and the day he was fired by KRMG on the oral history website and podcast Voices of Oklahoma.