Al Hobbs, within his northside office. (Frank Espich / The Star)

Al Hobbs (right) talks with a longtime friend, Pastor Henzy Green, about an upcoming appointment. Hobbs says he thrives on multi-tasking, which he connects to his religious faith: "OK, Lord, I've done this. Got something else for me?" (Frank Espich/ Indy Star)

Al Hobbs may be a household name in Indianapolis because of a high-profile tenure at radio station WTLC that began in 1970 and ended in 1993.

Gospel music listeners know Hobbs for recordings he made leading the Indianapolis Mass Choir in the 1980s, plus dozens of albums other artists made for his Aleho label between 1992 and 2003.

Hobbs -- who graduated from Central High School in Louisville, Ky., as a classmate of Muhammad Ali -- has been a key player for decades at Indiana Black Expo's Summer Celebration and Circle City Classic events.

On Saturday, Hobbs will present Fall Fest in conjunction with the Circle City Classic football game for the 25th time.

Question: When a person reaches your voice mail, references to Aleho Enterprises, Aleho International Music, StarQuest, Fall Fest, the Gospel Announcers Guild, the Gospel Music Workshop of America and the Indiana Black Hall of Fame are heard. Is it a challenge to stay focused or to prioritize what you're doing?

If a task is in front of me for five minutes, I can give it 100 percent. When it goes off my desk, it's gone. But my recall captures everything I did.

The big problem for me is that I wanted to accomplish so much. Quite honestly, the prayer of my life became, "OK, Lord, I've done this. Got something else for me?" I've always been about increasing not only my zeal, but those things the Lord could use me to accomplish.

Along the line somewhere, I thought about making money. I worked with that aim in mind. But I fell in love with what I was doing. My love of the Lord was such that I wanted to see people blessed in their personal lives and in their musical lives. I began to work with that in mind, no matter what I did. The byproduct would be my sustenance. It made life so much richer.

This year's Circle City Classic football game is in a new building. How will that affect your Fall Fest, which serves as a pregame and postgame gathering on Pan Am Plaza?

When I started this, it started as an opportunity to respond to the retail climate of Downtown. In other words, here come 40,000 black people and there isn't a black anything that anybody owns or champions. It would be nice if a black person had a chance to sell a hot dog.

Pan Am Plaza was the perfect place, nestled between all these hotels. It was probably the only space like it in the country so close to the front door of a stadium -- the RCA Dome.

We thought we'd do 3,000 to 4,000 people that first time in 1984. We had nine vendors, two sponsors, 11 other booths and a performance stage. We ended up doing about 40,000 people. Much of that was thanks to our location.

Fall Fest has become a fixture, something you expect when you come Downtown for the Circle City Classic. We're really a block-and-a-half away from Lucas Oil Stadium. Coming from the hotel corridor, you still have to go right past us.

Was religion always part of your life?

I came from a devoutly religious family. My mother was always at church, always insisted that I be a Sunday school attendee. It was kind of old-line fundamentalist Baptist.

The area in which we lived was a ghetto, and I got involved with a lot of the bad eggs in the ghetto. In fact, I had taken on a major role in a lot of the little mischievous and quasi-criminal activities in the neighborhood. One Sunday afternoon -- coming home from Sunday school -- I stopped by one of the alleys and they had a big craps game going. It was so big that one of the neighbors couldn't get his car in his garage. He called the police, and everybody scattered. I was scared to death, so I stood there.

When my mother came to pick me up from the police station, I had already been transformed. As I was placed in the holdover, the good Lord let me see myself coming back into that situation several times. I saw a number across my chest. I didn't say, "No." I said, "Hell, no." My mother insisted that our pastor get me involved in the choir. Once I became involved, gospel music saved my life.

What brought you to Indianapolis?

I came to Indianapolis to go to Butler University. I arrived on Dec. 22, 1960, and discovered my mom had spent the tuition money fixing the furnace in her duplex. I went to work at the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, known as A&P, across from Crispus Attucks High School on West Street, with the idea of enrolling in the fall semester. I started making bread and never got there.

Did you have a mentor in terms of becoming an entrepreneur

In June 1961, I moved to Seven-Eleven supermarkets, and I was co-manager at 17 -- which was hilarious to me. I wasn't even old enough to ring up beer. The learning experience really began in that scenario, nurtured and mentored by the great and infamous Zoltan Weisz, owner of Seven-Eleven.

He would say, "The mothers have their babies. They count on me to be open at 7, not 7:01, not 7:02, not 7:03." It was that kind of an exacting science for him. He helped me develop an acumen for multi-tasking at a very early age. Later in life, it was natural for me to juggle nine or 10 or 12 things at a time.

I worked 60 to 70 hours a week, but I became dissatisfied that I couldn't get to church because of working on Sundays. Not being able to be a member of a fellowship was getting the best of me. I asked for the time off, and Weisz told me, "No."

That's when you made the transition from supermarkets to radio?

I was developing as a promoter of gospel music. I was bringing Shirley Caesar and James Cleveland to town. I went to WTLC to buy a commercial, but I was really disenchanted with all the voices they had to cut spots. I asked if I could cut my own spot. I did, and that spot came to the attention of the general manager, Tom Mathis.

When I came in to pay the bill, he asked if I would like to host a gospel show on Sundays. Later, he asked if I would be interested in being an account executive. I didn't know what that was. He said, 'You're personable. You're glib. Once you learn about the product, you're going to be good.' They showed me what the rate card was and sent me out to sell advertising.

In 1973, I became the sales manager. In 1976, I became general manager. In 1981, I became vice president and general manager and a part owner in the corporation that owned the radio station.

What's the state of gospel music today?

Gospel music reigns supreme as the favorite music of the African-American church. It works in the church to do so many different things. It has a supportive function that backs up the preaching evangelism. It has a fusion function that ties the services together. It has a function that promotes psychologically the setting in which the word is going to come forth. It does a lot of things that might not be recognized on the surface.

All of us are looking for something more to hold on to. It seems that God has always sent a song or a group of songs to balance off the times in which we live.

You founded StarQuest in 1986. Are you surprised the public seems to have an insatiable appetite for talent contests?

No, I'm not. I don't know if the appetite is for talent contests. I think it's for talent. From an entertainment perspective, I think the public at large -- no matter what culture, no matter the racial divide -- has an appreciation for gifted people. We're always looking for that new somebody. We tire quickly of the marginal, but we pick our stars to caress and love as long as they keep bringing us great stuff. There are a lot of people out there who don't have a tremendous amount of talent. I've known some people who had garbage-can voices, but they were stars because they were communicators. They found a way to communicate the essence of their presentation to an audience. The better you do that, the better you are. You have to be able to take whatever you have and sell it to somebody.

Fall Fest

When: 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Pan Am Plaza, 201 S. Capitol Ave.

Tickets: Free with Circle City Classic football game ticket.

Info: www.circlecityclassic.com.

Al Hobbs

Age: 65.

Hometown: Decatur, Ala.

Education: Central High School, Louisville, Ky.

Occupation: "Entrepreneur."

Family: Daughter Bridgett, 25; son Alex, 20; daughter Asha, 18. Late wife, Gabrella Coleman-Hobbs.