Waking Up with Tim and Sue

Waking Up with Tim and Sue
by Michala Michaels

For 13 years, Tim Burns and Sue Campbell have been helming the airwaves each morning on WINK 104. And if their on-air banter seems too good to be true, know that it’s not. The two possess a fun chemistry — a result of merely being in one another’s company for more than a decade and the fact that they get along famously — and that chemistry is evident even after the microphones have been turned off. They finish one another’s sentences, they laugh at the same jokes, and they, by their own accounts, enjoy the mornings they spend together.

While Tim Burns was well on his way to finding success in the radio world, Sue Campbell had no intentions of obtaining any airtime. Born and raised in New Cumberland, at age 18 she took a job answering phones at the station’s front desk and began telling jokes in the hallway. Word of her jokes got to Burns, he asked her to come on the air, and the rest is history. The story is one that Burns claims Campbell loves to tell. “I used to tell jokes in the hallway and Tim said, ‘you ought to come on the show and tell jokes’ so he came up with the character of the joke lady. I didn’t use my name, I was just the joke lady — the persona was that I had my hair in curlers, I wore a bath robe out in public, I worked for the fire company’s ladies’ auxiliary making funnel cakes, and I told these raunchy jokes. That’s how I became even a voice on the show,” she remembered, laughing. “And then I dressed up one day as the joke lady and we did a remote at Lemoyne Sleeper on a Friday the 13th and we just had a crazy morning, a fun morning, and that was it.” After a few executive decisions, the choice was made to add more voices to the program and Campbell was on board — without her alter ego.

Tim Burns got his start on the air in 1964, a year after Campbell was born. A native of Clearfield County, in the western part of the state, Burns lived and worked in a number of places — Altoona and Buffalo among them — before settling here in mid-1979. “I worked at KBO for about five years when I first came to Harrisburg, then I came over here (to WINK),” said Burns. “I’ve been here for quite a while. I love it, I like the area a lot.”

Always a morning show host, Burns has greeted the day for many a listener in this area, including a young Sue Campbell, who listened to his show before heading to class. “I used to listen to Tim when I was in high school, we used to march around the kitchen table waiting — for snow delays, information …,” she said. “All of the important things,” Burns interjected, causing the two to erupt in laughter.

Fans of the Burns and Campbell will know that laughter is a key element to the show, a fact that doesn’t escape the two. Between their interaction with each other, their listeners, and their wise-cracking antics, they have cited their career as being more than just a profession — it’s a good time. And that ‘good time’ feeling is something that has endeared the duo to their listeners. “I think a lot of people feel that because our lives are kind of an open book they know us, that we’re a real friend, because we’re such a part of their morning,” said Campbell. “We don’t know them, obviously, but they feel close to us.”

“There’s a comfort zone in the morning, they tune in and they hear the same people goofing and having fun,” agreed Burns. “And we have a lot of fun.”
Vowing that they never truly argue — “not to the point where either of us have stormed out of here and said, ‘that’s it!’” said Campbell — they credit their early morning attitudes to a mixture of a having a good night’s sleep and being part of a good environment. “It’s just really casual, we have a great team here in the morning, with Carolyn Brady and John Wilsbach,” said Campbell. “We all get along.” And while Burns adds that their chemistry has much to do with the fact that he and Campbell are “pretty much from the same disposition and sense of humor and mentality,” his female counterpart admits to being the ‘wild child’ of the two. “I get more hyper than Tim,” she said, laughing. “But Tim keeps me tame. He’s very laid back.” And, with a pause, she adds, “We’re tame on the air, anyway. We get a little more colorful off the air, but that’s what keeps us laughing when the microphone comes on,” she said. “We can get rude and crude with each other and gross each other out and laugh about it, which we can’t do on the air and that keeps us entertained. It keeps us up and in a good mood.”

And while they have numerous other activities — including families of their own — to fill their off time, Burns and Campbell have yet to tire of going to bed at 10 o’clock and heading to the station at 4:30 a.m. “You never get used to getting up at 3:30 in the morning, though, I know I don’t, it’s just an ungodly hour,” said Campbell. “But I always look forward to coming to work.”

Together Tim Burns and Sue Campbell have found a good partner, a loyal audience, and a job they love at a show they enjoy hosting. Sounds like they have it made — an evaluation that apparently isn’t too far from reality. “You know, the truth is you’re never as good as you think you are and you’re never as bad as people think you are. I learned that a long time ago,” said Burns. “People that call in and say, ‘oh, you guys are great’ and you know what? We’re not that good, it’s as simple as that, but we’re not that bad, either. But when people call in and say, ‘you guys stink,’ well, I know we’re not that bad.”

Tim Burns and Sue Campbell can be heard weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on WINK 104 FM.