Indiana Broadcast History Archive

Tom Hensley is an Indiana native best known for his multifaceted and highly accomplished musical career. Spending his childhood playing piano throughout various Bloomington restaurants, Tom was drawn to music and performance from an early age.  

Before spending over forty years on a worldwide tour with singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, Hensley worked at various broadcast stations after receiving a degree in Radio and Television from Indiana University. Currently retired with his wife in Los Angeles, California, he spends his days reflecting on his adventurous career as he works on his memoir.  

IU student Madison Roark interviewed Tom Hensley for the IBHA in 2025. You can watch the whole interview here.

Early Life

Hensley was born Sept. 20, 1940, in Columbus, Indiana, to Ralph and Frances Henry. Hensley was one of four siblings, with one brother and two sisters. His parents operated an entertainment machine business, instilling in Hensley a love for performance and music from an early age.  

He learned to play piano at age six, performing in local pizza joints around Bloomington, where he grew up. Tom graduated from University High School in 1958, with a graduating class of fifty members.  

Education

Hensley enrolled at Indiana University in 1958, where he would eventually meet his wife Sarah, a Jacobs School of Music Voice alumnus. He spent several years as an undecided undergraduate before declaring a major in Radio and Television. During his time at IU, he was named best pianist at the Notre Dame intercollegiate jazz festival and hosted a WFIU broadcast, back when the Radio Television building was a quonset hut.  

Hensley also got a taste for life on the road as he landed a gig with singer Al Cobine’s band, playing various shows throughout the early 1960s. He graduated in 1965 after seven years of studies with a degree in Radio and Television. 

Early Career

After college, Hensley and his wife, Sarah, moved to Brown County, where he worked making jingles for car dealers. 

"You could do that in those days — actually make a living doing that."

Tom Hensley

The pair owned and operated an antique gift shop, One of a King Shop, and vintage movie theater, Nashville Nickelodeon. He started a tourist magazine, the Brown County Almanack, which was picked up by a local newspaper and is still published today.

Broadcast Career

Hensley took on nighttime DJ duties at WTTS in Bloomington. Hensley described those days of WTTS as full of small-town charm.  

“I learned that the station manager at WTTS went to bed early. So, any good stuff I wanted to play, I'd have to play after he went to sleep.”

Tom Hensley

One standout memory was of a local older woman who hosted a weekly religious show and paid cash for her airtime. As Hensley said, “people loved that.” While working at WTTS, he rejected an opportunity to tour with jazz pianist Buddy Montgomery, choosing to stay for the steady $2 per hour pay, which he credits as being the right decision. 

He later served as the afternoon announcer at WBIW in Bedford. Hensley happened to be working the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. After finishing his shift, he began the drive home to Bloomington and heard the news break on another station. Switching to WBIW, Hensley heard the regular tunes he had left on and realized the announcer after him hadn't checked the news wire. He pulled over, used a payphone, and called the station to alert them. He jokingly recalled, “WBIW was the last station in America to know about the assassination.” 

Early Music

In the mid 1960s, Hensley played with various local musicians, starting his own self described “jazz/rock/psychedelic/noise/comedy/magic outfit” band, Masters of Deceit.  

The band released one album, titled “Hensley’s Electric Jazz Band & Synthetic Symphonette,” in 1969. Tom began playing the Jim Gerard show in 1965, where he played piano daily for five years. During this time, he also played in a band at the Embers, an Indianapolis nightclub, where he met several legendary musicians.  

Life in Los Angeles

In 1970, Hensley and his wife moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of Hensley's music career. He toured briefly with Paul Anka, Seals and Crofts and David Cassidy, among others, before he began his almost forty year run of touring with Niel Diamond.  

He toured with Diamond from 1976 to 2018, traveling to Australia, New Zealand, all of Europe, South Africa and more. Some notable moments from touring were performing at the Grammys, the 2003 Glastonbury Festival of over 130,000 people and playing in 1989 East Berlin, Germany, just days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Retirement and Reflections

Hensley is currently spending retirement with his wife in Los Angeles. He has two adult children. In 2012, he and his wife celebrated fifty years of marriage. In 2018, he began blogging again, something he originally began in 1996, publishing a newsletter on a blog called “The Diamondville Chronicles” for many years. 

 His new blog is named “Hensley Farms,” an affectionate reference to him and his wife’s first home. Hensley is currently writing a memoir. Overall, he reflects back on his time in broadcast as, “a much more personal medium and everybody sort of knew each other and swap jokes and had a good time.” 

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Written by Madison Roark, Edited by Lily Saylor

April 2026