A little background:  When I met Henry, he was already on the downside of his radio career, while I was, I suppose, on my way up.  He'd been hired to replace a very good friend of mine at WOBR on North Carolina's Outer Banks.  The firing of my friend, followed by the hiring of this fatter, older guy I didn't know, was my first bitter taste of the cruel business side of radio.  In the years prior to Hen's arrival at the station, he had built a reputation as a shock jock, doing morning drive at FM99 & later 96X, among other Virginia stations.  He, along with a few different partners along the way, pulled off legendary stunts like the "Mt. Trashmore Incident."  Google his name, and articles about that stunt aren't too hard to find. 

    Banner from henrythebull.com- told you I didn't know much about web design at the time.

Having grown up on Pittsburgh radio, I may have been the only person on the beach who knew nothing of Henry's exploits prior to his arrival on the OBX.   So I wasn't as excited at his being there as many, but I didn't have the same prejudices that many others had about him either.

The Bull I met for the first time wasn't the loud, arrogant, or even confident guy I'd later find out was his trademark public persona.  He was shy and unsure of himself.  He expected to be judged on the mistakes he'd made in his past-perhaps with good reason.  He knew he was replacing someone who was well-liked, and had worked like a madman, only to get a pink slip for his efforts.  He knew that, in the eyes of many, he was coming to bat with two strikes against him.

I've sometimes thought of the time I spent with Henry as the final days of Babe Ruth- the bitter final year the Bambino spent in a Boston Braves uniform.  He was no longer able to pick up a team, put it on his back, and carry it to a pennant.  He still made a mighty swing for the fences every time up.  Too often he's strike out.   Occasionally, he'd hit one 450 feet.  But he'd never look at a called third strike.  I don't think Henry ever went down without taking his cuts.

There's been a lot said about Henry Del Toro, while he was alive, and probably more since then.  I suppose most of it is true- the good and the bad. 

In his younger days, he could be an egomaniac.  He had reconciled this part of his past when I knew him.  He was often frustrated with his situation and the path his career had taken.  He wanted another shot at working at a more prominent station, but wasn't willing to move too far from home.  His parents (his father passed a couple months before Henry) were elderly and he couldn't stand to be far from them.  He'd declined interest from a station in Detroit to stay in the area. 

Most know Henry fought with drugs till the bitter end.  I never heard an official cause of death beyond "natural causes," but I'm sure years of abusing his body, along with his weight problem, were at least indirectly responsible.

"In my younger days, there was nobody there to say, 'No, Bull.  You're overdoing it,'" I remember him saying.

He held some bitterness towards the radio community in Hampton Roads.  It was stupid, stubborn, Puerto Rican, Catholic pride more than anything.  He knew he'd been all but blacklisted and had very little chance to ever get back into "The Big Leagues," as he called the market.  He wanted to be invited back to the party in the worst way.  While he still had many friends on the air in Norfolk, no station would give him another shot.

With all his faults, Henry has as kind a heart as anybody you could ever hope to know.   He insisted on giving me things all the time- Tides baseball souveniers, t-shirts, books, anything he thought I might like.  I was making very little money at the time.   He wasn't making much more though, especially compared to years past.  I had gotten a part time job waiting tables and needed white dress shirts I couldn't afford.   Henry showed up at the station with a box full of hand-me-down shirts for me.   I ran a lot of errands for him and he tried to pay me every time.  He bought me pizza more often than I can remember.  He got me a Harmon Killebrew autographed baseball "To Knothead: Keep Swingin'" at an ODU baseball fundraiser he was involved with.  He gave me a Phil Niekro baseball from his collection too.   When I left the Outer Banks for a job in Wilmington, I didn't ask him for a letter of recommendation, but he wrote me one anyway.

When Henry passed in 2002, I changed the index page of my site with just a pic of Hen and me and a few words.  I took a lot of time trying to put how I felt into just a couple of sentences:

Henry loved God, his family and his community as much as anyone I've ever known.   Rest in peace.

In the years since his passing, I haven't been able to come with any better words.

Del Toro, radio ''shock jock,'' found dead

By JOHN WARREN, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 29, 2002

NORFOLK -- Henry ``The Bull'' Del Toro, once a popular and controversial figure in Hampton Roads radio, was found dead Friday evening.

Police spokeswoman Valorie Massingill said Del Toro, 44, of the 2400 block of Doumar Drive in Norfolk, was found in his home around 6 p.m. Massingill said Del Toro died of natural causes.

Del Toro, a Norfolk Catholic graduate, was known for his shocking on-air antics but also for his devotion to his hometown of Norfolk.

``You like to turn on the radio and hear someone who sounds like you,'' said Harvey Kojan, program director at radio station WNOR, where Del Toro reached the height of his popularity as a morning disc jockey. ``A lot of his appeal was that he embodied the spirit of the time and he was local.''

Del Toro's ``shock jock'' antics generated both high ratings and job changes.

Perhaps his most notorious stunt was a 1992 April Fool's Day hoax about Mount Trashmore being on the verge of exploding because of a gas buildup. Callers flooded 911 lines. Del Toro's employers at WNOR suspended him and three others for two weeks without pay.

Other stunts -- such as dumping 50 pennies in a toll-collection bin on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway -- were more benign. And some, like spending 79 hours in a dog cage for the SPCA, benefited local charities.

Del Toro was also no stranger to the court system. In 1985, he pleaded guilty to cocaine charges. In 1993, he was convicted of prescription drug fraud in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach and was ordered to undergo drug treatment and to perform community service.

In 1996, he was sued for slander by Tommy Griffiths, his former ``Morning Zoo'' partner on WNOR.

But, despite the litigation, Griffiths said he found it hard not to like Del Toro.

``He knew, and he knew I knew it wasn't a majorly personal thing,'' Griffiths said Friday.

Del Toro's connection to the community wasn't just based on his shocking behavior..

``His roots were here,'' Ron Reeger, a former WNOR on-air sidekick, said in 1997. ``And despite the occasional bad things he did, people would always come back with . . . yeah . . . but . . . and for every bad thing, they'd have a list of four or five good things.''

Del Toro left WNOR in 1995 to take on morning co-host duties at rival 96X WROX, but by then his ratings had peaked. He was fired two years later.

Since then Del Toro's name surfaced from time to time, but the notoriety of his earlier years never returned.

His career in radio started at K94 in Moyock, N.C., where he developed ``The Bull'' character.

``The Bull is everybody's inner self,'' Del Toro said in 1997. ``He does things that most people don't but would like to. He lashes out at the boss, he goes after city council, he expresses an opinion.''
13 News contributed to this report.

This was to be the cover of a Jimmy & The Bull best-of CD.  I don't recall the reason, but it was never made.  I seem to remember Hen saying it was going to be titled Born To Eat, a parody of the Springsteen album title.

with John Boy & Billy, during a stint at WKLR in Richmond, circa 2001.  Henry got fired from that gig as well, for airing a bogus tornado warning, although he maintained he received the report via fax.  Has anybody else evacuated Virginia's two largest cities?

With AC/DC

and Danny Bonaduce