Timmy’s Tale: How Timmy Got His Name!

Here's a fun little tale that some of my friends and fewer of my listeners have ever heard, how I got my name. Well let me say, I've always heard that when you can get into the first name basis of entertainment, you've done a good job! Think about it... Bono, Madonna, Cher, Todd! They all only need one name, you hear it, you know who is being talked about! Thank goodness for the character of "Timmy!!!" from South Park for helping me achieve that milestone (at least in my own mind).

I was inspired to share this story because of this post from South Park's Facebook post:

Yeah, South Park premiered 23 years ago, but Timmy didn't make his first appearance until season 4 in the episode titled "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000". I've been doing radio for a little over 20 years, and so I went roughly a year before I got my "Bono". When I started radio school (2000) at YV Technical Skills Center, our teacher Andy Reckstead, encouraged us to use a fake name, (not sure if that was his real name or not). The reason for this was to keep your identity secret, in case of groupies, stalkers or as most likely the case, bill collectors. It was also a way to just get into a different mind set when you got behind the mic.

Thanks to the world of social media, keeping your real name a secret is a little harder, but yes Timothy is my real name, and I go by Timmy for obvious reasons, even though I hated it growing up. In radio school, I went by T-Bone Kane (a nod to comedy singer Tom "T-Bone" Stankus), Tim Evans (a nod to my best friend growing up who is named Evan), then I started with "Mr. Tim", "Dr. Tim" and then I just went for it, "The Tim". When I got the job on KATS working over nights I went back to the name Tim Evans. Then came along a mentally challenged cartoon character named Timothy Burch, only son to loving parents Richard & Helen Burch. He has time traveled, had his own taxi service and was a rock star in his own band... he went by Timmy! You knew this, because that is all he said/screamed (mostly). I loved it, people loved it, it gave me so many sound clips to use for radio sweepers and over all imaging for my radio life. It was and still is heart warming when someone sees me in public, and just screams my name at me! If by chance you have no clue who the Timmy character is, take a peak at some of the best moments of Timmy from South Park below.