Trucking-radio leading light Dave Nemo's upcoming Monday, Feb. 16, show will be his last. That's according to this post to the Dave Nemo Show page early today, Friday, Feb. 13.
Nemo's history in radio stretches back more than a half century, memorably chronicled by Overdrive's own Long Haul Paul Marhoefer in 2022 as part of his "Faces of the Road" series.
Take a run back through that story to get a little more in-depth on just who Nemo was, in his own words. As he narrated for LHP back then:
"My first job was as a grocery basket retriever. I’ve been a lifelong working musician beginning in high school.
“I was a fleet man with a barge company on the Mississippi River for 7 years through school. Thank goodness I worked at night, as my mom wouldn’t let me in the house until I took off my clothes ... super dirty and greasy.
"I joined WWL Radio in December of 1969 as an on-air personality. Then, in 1971, I was on AFKN [Armed Forces Korea Network]. In 1972 I rejoined WWL and that’s when I met Charlie Douglas."
The all-night host Douglas "realized there was a totally unserved audience of truckers out there in the dark," as Nemo put it, and Douglas practically invented what became trucking radio.
Nemo's meeting him effectively launched a trucking-radio career that no doubt will leave a lasting legacy in the now-streaming platform that is RadioNemo.com, launched last year after Nemo and collaborators officially left satellite radio.
As the Dave Nemo Show Facebook post makes clear, RadioNemo's built a wall for listeners and fans to send off the man with their own recollections and tributes -- access it via this link to leave your message or read others.
[Related: Faces of the Road: Dave Nemo on history at 50 years in trucking radio]
Among salutes is one from Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh, who noted he'd listened to Nemo for nearly four decades, thanking him for "all you have done to keep us up all night and get us where we needed to be. You have been a great friend of trucking. I have listened to you for almost 40 years. You brought wisdom, news, knowledge, and music. Thanks my dear friend. There will never be an another."
Introducing him in November at the annual conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies, where Nemo was long a presence, NASTC President David Owen called him "a true friend of NASTC’s for 30 years, and a pioneer in trucking and in music and radio."
Nemo himself spoke at length to the small fleet owners assembled. Making a joke at the beginning of the program, "when you start something and you're ready to go," he said, "you've got to know in the back of your mind it's going to end," eventually.
His talk was humorous, engaging, thought-provoking, prompting laughter and reflection by equal measure in the way only a truly gifted talker -- and, crucially, listener, even in front of a packed room not taking questions -- can manage.
"My career has started and stopped five different times" since the late 1960s, he said, referencing the then-relatively-new RadioNemo streaming platform.
I well know there's a lot of you who hope there's a sixth coming for him in trucking radio after Monday. You might take heart from what he told Land Line last year when he announced he'd relinquish full-time hosting duties on his show: "I’m going to continue to be on the show. I’m going to continue to contribute. But I’m going to kind of do what I want to do when I want to do it.”
The current schedule for RadioNemo.com, however, puts it this way for morning programming Monday:
"Dave Nemo and Jimmy Mac take your calls (615-292-6366) as Dave Nemo signs off for the final time after over 55 years on air."
