Morning Man

Brent Farris has spent a lot of his life in a glass cage, but he considers that broadcasting booth at KZST radio his window on the world.

And the phone in the studio, which he answers himself during his live weekday show, is the world's hotline to him.

"It's life with a microphone on," said Farris, the station's "morning man" since 1983. "Whatever happens, happens. When my car was stolen, we talked about it the next morning on the radio. Heck, the listeners recovered my car."

Even though the Santa Rosa-based station programs pop music, not round-the-clock talk, Farris' first priority is carrying on an ongoing conversation with his listeners.

"If there are people who are in tears, I'll help them," he said. "If there are people who just want to say they enjoy the show, I'll listen to them."

As program director for KZST (www.kzst.com) and its sister country station KTRY, and consultant to jazz station KJZY, Farris has a free hand.

"What I do is a talk show, and when I don't have something important, interesting or fun to say, I shut up and play a record," he said.

The son of a Navy commander, Farris grew up living all over the world, which he says accounts for his wide range of interests.

After getting a degree in communications from the College of Marin, Farris worked as a newspaper photographer for the Marin Independent Journal, also freelancing for People and Us magazines.

"I had found my love of radio in college, and I dropped in on a radio station in San Rafael playing hippie rock and roll. I went, &‘This is for me,' and I never looked back."

After that, he worked at radio stations in Chico, as well as Marin and Lake counties. In 1982, he married his wife Diane, who plans events for the Safari West animal park in Santa Rosa. The next year, they settled in Sonoma County.

At 55, with two grown children, Farris has turned his personal life around in one important way during the past year. After reaching a top weight of 360 pounds, he underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach in January 2011. He has lost 110 pounds since then. He'd like to lose a bit more, but at 6 feet, four inches, he looks pretty trim.

His sharp turn toward better health, of course, has been duly chronicled on his radio show.

"There's not a question I'm not willing to answer, because if it's stupid, I've probably done it," he said. "And I'm here to tell others what happened to me, as a cautionary tale."

A lover of good food, Farris found himself getting full on half a container of yogurt, but has gradually progressed to a more inclusive diet.

"I eat everything. I just don't eat a lot of it. I get full fast," he said.

Farris hasn't given up one of his other loves, his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

"Actually, I love everything - hot rods, motorcycles, guitars. I'm interested in everything. I read all the time - newspapers, magazines, the Internet," he said.

Producing a copy of a magazine called German Life, he added, "This is what I'm reading right now."

Every day, Farris carries from his office to the broadcast booth a stack of clippings, notes and assorted junk he calls "A Show in a Heap."

"It's jokes, thoughts, weird ideas. Whenever we don't have something that's topical, I just pull something off the heap," he said.

Although Farris makes his work sound easy, he actually spends long hours in his home office working on material, both late at night and very early in the morning before he starts his shift on the air. He's on KZST at 100.1 FM from 5:30 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Farris also hosts and emcees a steady string of community fund-raising events.

And he has mentored a roster of on-air guests, including celebrity chef and TV star Guy Fieri, pet psychic Marla Steele and Marcy Smothers, whose work in Bay Area broadcasting has made her a local personality on her own, beyond her marriage to Tom Smothers of the Smothers Brothers.

"I'm Brent's biggest fan," said Marcy Smothers. "He's greatly underestimated. He could be writing for TV shows, or writing jingles or be a marketing and advertising executive. And I know Tom feels the same way."

Farris stays, he says, because he loves Sonoma County, and because of something famed disc jockey Bobby Ocean, of &‘60s-era KFRC in San Francisco, once told him about a career in radio.

"Bobby said, &‘You can move around, from town to town, and you'll have a great career," he said. "Or you can live in one town, have a family and have a life. You choose.'"

Farris chose to settle down.

"When I came here, I told my wife, &‘I'm living here,'" he said. "I'd traveled my whole life until then, and never put down roots."

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. See his ARTS blog at http://arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.