By RAYMOND LINEX II/Daily Sun Staff

His day begins rather early, and depending on night meetings that need covering, it can end rather late. But no matter what else Bob Belcher does these days, his time between 9 and 10 in the morning have become his mark.

"More often than not I hear, 'You're the guy that does Talk Time,' " he said. "I've been called worse. That's fine."

Talk Time, in Belcher's words, is a world unto itself. KAND's popular phone-in swapmeet has its usual listeners who buy, sell and trade, and Belcher's more than happy with being a part of their day. Or their world, if you will.

In reality, Belcher, 49, does a little bit of everything for Corsicana's only radio station. He plays a little music, does some reporting from the field, handles news reports when news director Dick Aldama is out and even tends to technical problems that may arise. In addition, he's an active part of Northland Cable's news programming.

In the radio business since 1975, when he had similar duties in Needles, Calif. (including a Talk Time-like show in his first commercial job experience), Belcher has known what he wanted to do since he was a boy. He left Needles for two stops in Missouri, and that's where the Corsicana connection was born. Terry King, whom Belcher had worked with in Missouri, joined KAND in 1987 when it still operated an FM frequency in addition to the AM. In April of that same year, King moved the Belchers -- Bob, wife Tammy and son Kevin -- to Navarro County to be the program director for the 107.9 FM station, which played lite rock at the time.

"My first experience was Derrick Days weekend," Belcher said.

Three years later, the Belchers were off again. Bob moved the family to Florida, where he helped get a station off the ground. Six months later, however, he was back.

"We just didn't like Florida," he said matter of fact, adding with a laugh. "We just looked at it like a six-month vacation. A working vacation."

In about 1992, the AM and FM stations began simulcasting the AM's country music format. In 1994, the FM frequency was sold.

And, in 1997, Belcher found himself out of the business. He held a few jobs in town, did some part-time work with KAND on occasion, and was working for H-E-B in May when David Ross left the radio station. He and Tammy were having lunch on their back porch when Aldama called and talked to him about coming back full time.

"I said, 'Let me think about it,' but by the time I hung up the phone, I had made up my mind," he said.

That meant back to Talk Time full time. He and Aldama are the only over-the-airwaves personalities at KAND 1340AM, and Talk Time was Ross' after Roy Miller left the station a few years ago. It was no sweat for Belcher, who had manned the lines on several occasions over the years.

Radio, overall though, has changed since 1975. Belcher has met George W. Bush and Jay Leno, and had Donna Douglas, the actress who portrayed Elly May Clampett, sit on his lap once. Leno was a budding star when he met him in the early '80s, and he still meets people who hope to be tomorrow's stars. It's technology where the game has changed.

"It's mind-boggling how big stuff used to be and how small it is now. We're dependent on computers," said Belcher, who stops short of saying he is a computer guru, and opts for the gentler phrase of, "I have a working knowledge of it."

Still, he admits, he is the first line of attack for combating technical problems on site.

That's just a part of his job description. He gets in at 5:30 in the morning, gets the coffee going, starts gathering weather information and sifting through the news. After 10, it's off to schedule programming via computer and -- most days -- prepping in some way for Northland Cable weekend news, which has been on a brief hiatus because of technical upgrades.

And that's part of life for Belcher, who considers Corsicana home, and radio his passion.

"We like it here. We wanted to raise our son here, and we did," Belcher said. "He's in college now, but we've got our house and our cats. We're good. ...

"This is something I've wanted to do since I was 8 years old. For somebody to be able to do that, you can't beat that. There's nothing I'd rather be doing."

And, he said, he'll be doing it until his mic is taken away.

"There's an old saying in radio that there are two kinds of DJs; those who have been fired, and those who are going to be. I've been on both sides," he jested