Sensible Don Pulls Off The Road

Now "Sensible Don" Lewis has more time to call WLW-AM (700) talk shows.

Lewis, 63, a regular talk show caller for more than a decade, retires Friday after 40 years and four months as a Metro bus driver, usually on route #4 Montgomery Road out to Kenwood and back downtown.

The Bond Hill resident, who has driven over than 2 million miles without an accident, will be honored Friday with a 1 p.m. party at the Bond Hill Metro garage. He retires as Metro's current longest tenured driver, says Sallie Hilvers, Metro spokeswoman. (The above photo is of Lewis receiving the "National Safety Council 2 Million Mile Award" for 30 years without a preventable accident from Metro CEO Mike Setzer.)

Lewis will begin retirement by co-hosting WLW-AM 8-9 a.m. Saturday with Gary Jeff Walker. He hasn't been a regular Saturday co-host since last summer, due to a dispute with the station, he says. He first subbed for Mike McConnell in 1994, he says.

But he continues to call talk show hosts during the day, as he has for years. He got the nickname "Sensible Don" because "being a black man, I can say things that other (white) people can't say and not get in trouble." He considers himself "a conservative on issues of society," but supports Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

Expect to hear more from Don on the airwaves. "I'll be calling them more because I'll have time on my hands," Lewis says.