LIVERMORE — Sixteen-year-old Holden Parker’s first time on a radio show is an event he’ll remember forever. He experienced a lot of firsts that day, and had a blast doing it.

Parker, of Livermore, was chosen as one of Herb “Captain” Ivy’s apprentices earlier this month: Parker played co-host on the WBLM 102.9 “Morning Show” on Dec. 9 while co-host Celeste was on maternity leave.

Parker, who has been interested in becoming a disc jockey for a long time, submitted an application about himself to earn the apprenticeship.

“WBLM is probably my favorite radio station,” Parker said. “I’ve been listening to the Captain for about 16 years,”

He took the Captain back 20 years with a recording of a “Wake Up” call the Captain delivered to his mother, Julia Kelley Parker, the day before she wed his father, Rick Parker.

This wasn’t the first time Parker has hit the airwaves. He has been broadcasting youth sports games since he was in fifth grade. He also has done some stints on the local cable station and was the original “Rod Roddy” at the Livermore Falls Middle School’s annual “Price Is Right” fund-raiser. Parker has also appeared in front of the local school board several times, speaking on behalf of his junior class.

However, the scholar-athlete isn’t sure what he wants to do after he
graduates. He has been looking at colleges that offer architectural
engineering, but he would like to pursue his interest in radio as well.

Nothing was going to stand between Parker and the microphone on his big day. He drove through a snowstorm and still made it on time.

He even called ahead to find out how the Captain likes his coffee so he could pick up a cup.

The only thing he had prepared for the show, he said, was a three-page song list. He collected a lot of requests — including some from teachers at Livermore Falls High School.

He sat at a corner counter in the studio, a microphone in front of him. The Captain sat near him at a horseshoe-shaped work station, everything at his fingertips, Parker said.

“It went awesome,” he said. “So many times we broke down laughing because one of us made a funny joke and the other capitalized on it.”

The Captain is on vacation so couldn’t comment on the stint. But Parker shared the correspondence between the two leading to the show.

The big news of the day was the Boise, Idaho, boy getting his tongue stuck on a metal pole, Parker said.

So when the Captain grabbed his own tongue and talked as if it were swollen, Parker did the same.

The two played well off each other, he said.

“I guess it’s all natural to me,” the teenager said. “I guess I’m good; so I am told.” 

Before he left the studio, Parker got his picture taken holding an original vinyl copy of Arlo Guthrie’s album, “Alice’s Restaurant.”

The station plays its once a year and Parker’s family listens to it at noon each Thanksgiving Day.

Speaking of family, one thing he forgot to do, he said, was give a shout-out to his cousins.

“I got a lot of angry texts afterward,” he said.

In an attempt to make amends for the gaffe, “I want to thank my cousins, the McDaniels, the Youngs, the Dubes, the Manters and Tracy Allen and the rest of my family for listening,” he said.

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Holden Parker, 16, of Livermore, a
junior at Livermore Falls High School, made the big time when he was
Herb “Captain” Ivy’s co-host on the “Morning Show” on WBLM 102.9
earlier this month.

Holden Parker, 16, of Livermore, a junior at Livermore Falls High School, made the big time when he was Herb “Captain” Ivy’s co-host on the “Morning Show” on WBLM 102.9 earlier this month.

Holden Parker, 16, of Livermore, holds a copy of Arlo Guthrie’s album “Alice’s Restaurant” on Dec. 9 at the office of WBLM 102.9 in Portland.