[1] A pioneer of the radio call-in talk show format,[2][3] Phillips delighted in a form now banned by the FCC: putting people on the air without their knowledge.

[1] After the end of World War II, he attended drama school for a while and then became a disc jockey in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[6] Phillips expanded his career as a radio personality at WLW in Cincinnati where he established his call-in format and his trademark style of remixing prerecorded interviews as a comedy piece.

[6] Discussing this piece in a 1976 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Phillips said, "I wrote, 'All members of infantry company so-and-so report immediately to your draft board,' and I described an insurrection in some phony country.

[citation needed] Another time, Phillips called Ipanema, a neighborhood located on the southern region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and inquired whether there were any women there who were "tall and tan and young and lovely".

He eventually revealed the note bearing the name of Jean Rogers, a movie heroine Phillips admired for her role as Dale Arden in several Flash Gordon film serials.

[3][4][5][6] Another unique aspect of Phillips' show was a large library of sound bites, each just a few seconds in length, which could be played on short notice in response to something that was said.

Phillips then hosted a two-hour Saturday morning radio show on WAIT in Crystal Lake, Illinois for some years afterward.