The Biggest Voice in Los Angeles
In 1949, Stuart Hamblen was untouchable. His daily radio show on KFWB dominated Los Angeles — the number one program in the market. Cowboys, gamblers, Hollywood elites, and housewives all tuned in to hear him talk, sing, and crack jokes. He was the original shock jock before that phrase existed: loud, hard-drinking, and completely in control.
Then Billy Graham came to town.
Graham's Canvas Cathedral tent meetings in downtown LA were drawing crowds, and Hamblen went to one — mostly to mock it. His wife Suzy had been going for weeks, and he wanted to see what the fuss was about. He went back a second night. Then a third. Something was getting under his skin that he couldn't radio-voice his way out of.
"I've Had an Experience"
At 2 a.m. after one of those meetings, Hamblen called Billy Graham from a payphone. He was shaking. Graham came to meet him, and right there, in the small hours of a Los Angeles morning, the biggest radio personality on the West Coast broke down completely.
The next morning, Hamblen did something that no publicist would ever approve. He got on his own show — live, to his entire audience — and told them everything. "I've had an experience with God," he said. No script. No filter. Just raw honesty from a man whose whole career had been built on charisma and control.
The station's sponsors panicked. Hamblen had been advertising beer, and now he was refusing to do it. He got fired.
What Came After
Losing his show didn't silence him. John Wayne, a friend, ran into Hamblen and asked what had happened. "Well, Duke," Hamblen said, "it's no secret what God can do." Wayne told him to write that down. He did. "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" became one of the most recorded songs in American history.
Hamblen spent the rest of his life writing songs, doing ministry, and being aggressively honest about the fact that he was not the same man. He never softened the story or made it religious-sounding. He just kept telling people what happened.
What This Means for You
Stuart Hamblen had the biggest microphone in Los Angeles, and he used it to be honest. He didn't wait for a "spiritual setting." He didn't clean up the language. He just told the truth, live, to everyone listening. The cost was real — his career, his sponsors, his reputation. But the thing that replaced it was bigger than anything a ratings number could measure.
If you have a platform — even a small one — honesty is the most powerful thing you can do with it.