Longboat Luau is a labor of love on WSLR

COVID-19 shut a lot of doors, but it opened the door to retirement for 64-year-old Gary Saunders. After a year of career detox and living like a tourist, he’s become happier and busier than ever living the Florida dream and hosting the Longboat Luau on WSLR. 

“When I envisioned retirement, I wanted to do things that I wanted to do, and my sports career was starting to feel like Groundhog Day,” Saunders said. “We also had several friends who either died young or developed serious illnesses, and it got us to thinking that our future is not guaranteed. If Longboat and greater Sarasota is where we want to be, let’s just go and we’ll figure out a way to make it work.”

Saunders only retired from his main gig, a 30-year career in sports marketing and sales, when there were no games to promote because of pandemic shutdowns. If you’re not listening to him on the radio, you can catch him over the loud speaker operating the sound board at spring training baseball games. He also works in the fitness center at the Longboat Key Club a few days a week and assists the IMG Academy with special events. 

“Thankfully, with all of the stuff I’m doing, I still have enough time every day to get a swim in, get in the hot tub, walk on the beach or ride my bike,” Saunders said. “I do my best thinking, whether it be creating playlists or ideas or my writing projects, when I’m out floating in the Gulf of Mexico.” 

This isn’t Saunders' first dip into the Gulf. He lived on Siesta Key when marketing for the Cincinnati Reds. After the team moved to Arizona in 2010, Saunders connected with IMG. He worked for the academy in various capacities for the next 12 years, about four of them at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, selling advertising and tickets.

From there he headed to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he stayed eight years. Before that, Saunders had lived and worked all over the country advertising for the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves. But it all started with radio.

“While I was at college at Virginia Tech, that was where I got hooked on radio because they had a student station there,” Saunders said. “I started there as a sportscaster because my interest at that time was baseball. I was a big player all the way through high school, so I thought I might want to do the sportscasting thing.”

The communications major stayed on track with sportscasting but began noticing more creative opportunities within the station. He started a “morning zoo” program called “The Bob and Bill Show” and another on his own called “Sunglasses After Dark.”

Bob and Bill — aka Gary and Jeff — did skits and employed funny voices and sound effects. “Sunglasses After Dark” was Saunders' introduction to FM radio. His playlists were crafted with music from the 1950s and '60s. 

Saunders graduated and started working at a local radio station. But with his new coworkers going by on-air names like the Rooster and Fub Nuggles, Bob wasn’t going to cut it, so the Rockin’ Fig was born. 

The job turned out restrictive compared to working at a campus station. With a for-profit agenda, the playlists stuck to the Top 40 and were mostly curated by the bosses. He moved to a larger station in Roanoke and got a morning spot from 5 to 10 a.m. six days a week. 

Now, the hours were restrictive. Saunders was in his early 20s, going to bed at 7 p.m. and waking up at 3 a.m. Then, the station switched to an easy listening format, which didn’t appeal to him.

So after watching the sales team work normal hours, drive nice cars and have a life outside of work, Saunders switched gears. It took him three decades to get back on air with a wacky name, but the Ho Dad has arrived. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

What is a Ho Dad?

First came the pitch for the show. 

“Just imagine this: beach music, tropical music, Calypso, reggae, '60s pop, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, surf guitar, maybe a little big band stuff, maybe some '40s and '50s like rhythm and blues that would all somehow flow together.” 

Saunders was pitching to Jesse Coleman, WSLR’s station manager. Coleman had two followup questions: What do you want to call the show, and what do you want to call yourself?

“One of the things that I’ve really gotten into recently is the surfing scene and surfing culture that emerged in the '60s in California, and one of the characters in that scene was the Ho Dad,” Saunders said. “The Ho Dad is someone who likes to hang out at the beach, who enjoys being part of the surfing scene — the music, the dancing, the fashions, the cars, all of that but is not necessarily a great surfer.”

Live from the Monkey Room

The Monkey Room is a throwback to the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort. Saunders hangs a stuffed monkey mascot on his microphone in the studio, Cappy the Capuchin monkey. 

“When I worked for the Reds, I used to eat lunch out here at the Monkey Room. It was a really cool vibe because they had all this tropical monkey wallpaper everywhere,” Saunders said. “It was a relaxed atmosphere to sit and have lunch when you’re working, so I wanted to do something that tied in Longboat Key and the history of the key. So I thought when I’m on the air, I should just say I’m live and in color from the Monkey Room.” 

He got the gig after the Latin Explosion aka Juan Montenegro heard him in the sound booth at a Pirates game. It was Hispanic Heritage night, and Montenegro was impressed enough by the pregame playlist that he went to the press box and said, “You should have your own show.” 

The Longboat Luau is live on WSLR from 7-9 p.m. Thursdays but can be replayed anytime on the station’s website or app. 

“The last show I did, I played a song from 1929, and I played a song from 2020, so it was almost a 100-year span of music that I was pulling from,” Saunders said. “I focus on nostalgia, and I focus on fun, primarily upbeat, positive-type stuff.”  

The show is a labor of love. On its website, WSLR describes itself as “an innovative, listener-supported nonprofit, noncommercial FM radio station dedicated to serving the Sarasota community.”

Saunders loves music to the border of obsession. When moving into his Seaplace condominium, his record collection didn’t fit. About 30 plastic bins filled with almost 3,000 records are currently in storage.

“Mrs. Ho Dad has been very gracious and patient with that,” Saunders said. “I tell her all the time there are worse hobbies one could have.”

With a mind filled with music, the Ho Dad prides himself on playing a few songs that “can only be heard on the Luau” like the Spanish version of “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” But most of his playlists are cultivated from hits of the 1950s through the 1970s. He says the '60s are the most played decade with ‘65 and ‘66 being the most played years. 

“I’m trying to get them to maybe reminisce a little bit, but also forget about their problems for a couple hours and just relax and have fun,” Saunders said, “Everybody’s so stressed out these days, and there’s so much division as far as politics and everything else that’s going on. I’m trying to pull everybody together and, at least for a couple hours, let’s agree on doing something fun and positive.”