Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Ham Radio to Join Cast of "Last Man Standing"


Amateur radio will become an ongoing part of the ABC comedy, "Last Man Standing." Star Tim Allen will have various pieces of ham gear on his office desk, including rigs provided by ICOM, and an HF antenna from Comet. Scenes from CQ videos will be visible on his large-screen TV and some copies of CQ magazine may show up on his desk as well. His character will be identified as a licensed ham, although the callsign he will use is fictional.

Producer John Amodeo is a ham (NN6JA) and says he feels that ham radio fits right in with the persona of Allen's character, Mike Baxter, who is marketing director for an outdoor/sporting goods company. He also thinks that hams fit right in as part of the show's target audience. Amodeo warns that, at least at first, ham radio's presence will be only visual, and has not yet been worked into any scripts. (See John's article, "Producing Ham Radio," about how he got several of the show's staff members licensed as hams, on page 30 of the December 2011 issue of CQ.)