Vin Smith

Concert Pianist. Piano Tuner. Talk Show Host. Novelist.

Internationally recognized multimedia artist, Vin "Doc" Smith, is a freelance writer, novelist, poet, pianist, singer, songwriter, composer, orator, ventriloquist, entertainer, journalist and is a talented hypnotist.

Degrees & Certifications:
Graduate Cuesta College, Columbia School of Broadcasting, New York Institute of Photography, Cronemiller School of Music, American School of Piano Tuning.  Awarded provisional Doctor of Divinity Degree, September 9, 2002, and perfected September 9, 2003, under the auspices of the Ancient Order of the Wa (serviced by an independent educational company).   

Born in Whittier, California on May 19, 1944, Vin Smith grew up in the midst of orange and avocado groves in Pico, California, later to incorporate as Pico Rivera in 1958. Back in those days, Los Angeles County sported thousands of acres of citrus. Vin loved to climb every orange tree in the grove, when he wasn't playing baseball and rooting for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. His earliest demonstration of writing talent came in the third grade, when he wrote a science fiction story about cruising through the universe in the space ship he had built himself out of old lumber and construction paper.

He has always loved horses. Back in the early fifties, Vin would punch cattle, right along with his brother-in-law on the Starr Ranch, which is now the city of Rancho Santa Margarita, and also on Rancho Mission Viejo, which is now the city of Mission Viejo. He always found himself closest to God while herding cattle, or sitting next to a campfire.

Recently Smith said, "One of my fondest memories was following the football fortunes of my Alma mater, El Rancho High School during the 1965 and 1966 seasons.  In 1966 they actually won the National Championship, as awarded by a high school sports magazine.  Coach Ernie Johnson always put together good squads.  That '66 team was awesome, quarterbacked by Rick Pope.  The '57 squad was quarterbacked by Bill Nelson, who later starred with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns.  I have always been amazed by El Rancho High School.  The kids were terrific.  I felt privileged to be a student there."

Vin's interest in literature began in the third grade in Mrs. Brunhill's class at Rio Vista School in Pico. Suddenly, the whole world opened up to him. And things out of this world, such as astronomy. While in Mrs. Brunhill's class, he made a space ship out of wood and paper and soared through space, all over the galaxy. This memory would spill over Vin as he reported the news of Neil Armstrong's moon walk in 1969 over KOCY radio in Oklahoma City some sixteen years later.

In the mid-sixties, Vin began his commercial radio career after years in college radio, at the small 250 watt station KTAT in Frederick, Oklahoma,  "When I first saw that wonderful town, I almost cried," Vin said a few years ago. "America's heartland at last. I quickly fell in love with the people of Oklahoma, and the wheat and cotton fields that spread as far as the eye could see."

Later, Vin would move to Oklahoma City to star on KOCY as the first midnight radio personality in the station's history. His show was sponsored by Spectro Theaters and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. "One of my duties was to go to the movies every single night of the year. Of all the films that came through town on a sneak preview, the one that sticks in my memory the best is John Wayne in True Grit. Nobody realized at the time that True Grit would be Wayne's masterpiece." 

While at KTAT, Vin invented the Countrypolitan Radio Format. It was one of the most successful radio formats ever developed, incorporating music that would one day fuel the crossover movement.  In the seventies, Vin was sales manager at KQIQ in Santa Paula, working with owner Bill Wallace, who was also technical director of the Joey Bishop talk show, opposite Johnny Carson.  In recent years Vin has hosted the Midnight Bookworm Family of Radio Shows on several different networks.

In 1986, Vin won the first of three straight writing awards from the National Writers Club in Aurora, Colorado.  He has since published nine books, with 38 completed manuscripts.  Vin was a founding member of the Yreka Chapter of the National Writers Club, now known as the Siskiyou Writers Club.   As a composer, Vin has written over 8,300 songs, on piano, guitar, harmonica, organ, synthesizer and drums.  

Vin has experience in a variety of industries, which helps as both a writer and an agent.  He always kept his finger in broadcasting and music. His career would eventually land him in all of the Who's Who publications. Always one to want to help people, Vin acted as an informal counselor for many years before he arrived on the world scene as the Internet's premier personal adviser with AskMe.com. 

Vin performs many times a year as a pianist and ventriloquist.  He often lectures on creative writing, journalism, fiction and drama, and counts himself in the Oxfordian camp--attributing the authorship of the Shakespearean plays to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.