The man behind the voice: Get to know Big Dawg's radio host

Every day, Bob Clark’s voice carries across counties on The Big Dawg 92.1 FM radio station between songs, sharing local news and weather updates, personal anecdotes, prizewinner names, fun facts, and everything in between.

Clark’s off-the-cuff commentary has cemented the gregarious radio host’s voice in many local’s memories, but fewer people have a visual. Even when he covers sports, Clark is often out of view in the press box.

Tucked away in Morganton sits a building with steep concrete steps. Stepping inside feels like stumbling backwards through the decades with walls covered in brown wood paneling and a small, antique radio immediately to the right, tuned to 92.1 FM.

Walking down the narrow, wood-paneled hall and turning right leads into Clark’s domain, where he sits behind a radio apparatus with a mic and headphones.

The Ohio native pulled his headphones off and sat across the desk, leaned back comfortably in his computer chair as he answered questions about his background.

Clark, 52, has lived in Burke County for the majority of his life, having taken a job at a gospel radio station 29 years ago. He’s been married for 27 years and has three children. He is heavily involved with his church and follows the Carolina Panthers, but also the Ohio State Buckeyes, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Guardians, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

And, since he was 14, he’s known he wanted to go into radio broadcasting.

Whereas his mother said she dreaded the thought of class presentations, Clark said he was the exact opposite.

“I said, ‘Mom, if I have to do a speech in school, I don’t want any of the other kids to be sick because if I’m going to give the speech, I want them there to hear it,’” Clark laughed. “So the public speaking part was easy.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT RADIO?

I used to have people get confused when they would see me out and they were just in their car and heard me on the radio and maybe forgot the idea that we record things. “How’d you get in here so fast? I just heard you!” Well, we actually recorded that and then played it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PODCASTS?

I think they’re informative. There are some that I occasionally listen to if the topic interests me, but obviously in hometown radio, podcasts and SiriusXM and all that stuff, I don’t want you listening to that because Big Dawg is local. That’s one of the things that we try to push here is, yeah, you could listen to those things, but you won’t necessarily get some local news and weather and activities.

For instance, just this morning, we mentioned the fact that there was a baseball player who played at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute who made it to the major leagues this week. He got his first hit in the majors for the San Francisco Giants. So you might not necessarily hear about that, but that’s a cool, local thing. And folks can call in and win stuff. We give away a bunch of stuff. Right now, we’ve got Lake Hickory Haunts. We always have Crawdads tickets.

Plus, people still call in like, “I want to wish my cousin so-and-so a happy birthday,” and I don’t know how many locally-owned radio stations across the country there still are, but we are one of them and it feels like people still enjoy it and they like the local touch.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR NEIGHBORS?

There’s a scripture verse that I thought of. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 says, “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.” I try to tell my boys, “You know, I always try to avoid baggage, because when you get older you don’t want to have to deal with this, that, and the other.”

I have seen all kinds of alcohol abuse and that sort of thing. I have never tasted one drop of alcohol in my life. Part of it early on was, “Well, we don’t drink, it only causes trouble,” and then when I got older I saw people have their troubles and it became, “I don’t need that. I don’t need the baggage.”

And I don’t say, “Oh, you shouldn’t!” But I’m saying, for me, it’s one thing I never have to worry about. I don’t want to have any baggage, I just want to do what’s right.