Features Editor

Oct. 25, 2000 10 PM

Farmer Frank Talbot will get up unusually early Friday morning. He’ll check his chicken houses, feed his cows, shine himself up and drive into town to make his debut as guest host on the WFBF Radio Morning Show along with host Jim Roling.

Rumor is that Talbot has been trying out his radio voice on the hens in his houses and they’ve been doing a lot of cackling about it. But he vows he’s got his radio spiel down pat and will put Jim Roling on the "off" microphone and do the show himself.

Then, when Roling, comes to Talbot’s farm near Tarentum next week, Talbot will hand him a bag of chicken feed and a water bucket and let him have the chickens and cows all to himself.

Talbot and Roling are participating in the annual Farm City Week Swap. That’s kind of like in the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse. The country mouse goes to the city to visit his cousin and see what life in the city is all about.

Talbot knows about city life, but he knows nothing about entertaining an invisible audience for a couple of hours, but talking is a piece of cake, Talbot said. "Everybody can do it."

But come 6 a.m. Friday, the huge audience of the WTBF Morning Show will know if Talbot was just talking trash or if he’s really a displaced radio talk show host.

Talbot said Roling has not given him a script for the show or a list of topics he might be asked to give opinions on or information about.

"I know we’ll be talking about the dry weather and the effects of the drought," Talbot said.

Talbot should be able to shed some light on the drought situation from a farmer’s perspective because he and his wife, Nedetria, have six broiler houses, a cow and calf operation, 40 to 80 acres of peanuts

and 767 pecan trees they shake commercially.

The Talbots also work for Anderson’s Peanuts buying points in Brundidge and Troy. They were honored Saturday as the grand marshals of the Peanut Butter Festival’s Nutter Butter Parade in Brundidge and their fine dog, Bud, is the immediate past-winner of the K9 Joe Show.

So, if folks want to talk crops, cows, canines or nuts, Talbot can hang in there with the best of them.

He’s also boning up on politics, football, baseball and the price of tea in China.

"I’ll get into anything," Talbot said, laughing.

If he’s allowed to take call-ins and he gets enough requests, he’ll gladly do his impersonation of Shirley Q. Liquor or her sister Barbie Q. Or, he might just do it anyway.

Whichever way the show goes, it’s bound to be one that will be talked about for a long, long time.

Roling and Talbot. Syndication might be their next step.

Don’t forget to tune in and call in to the WTBF Morning Show at 6 a.m. Friday. It will definitely be the talk of the town.

"We’ll talk it at ’em," Talbot said. And it’s a safe bet they will.