(FORTUNE Magazine) – Burn my pants and call me Moses! So Tom Bodett is not the chief executive of Motel 6. The fella who does those folksy radio commercials, which have made the discount lodging chain known from coast to coast, is just a spokesman for the company. The real boss is Joseph W. McCarthy, 56. Well, as Bodett would say, what do you know about that? Normally when an ad campaign features someone like the chuckleheaded Bartles and Jaymes or the long-memoried Pepperidge Farmer, we smile, knowing that the actual chief executive is very different from his ad agency alter ego. But Bodett, 33, evoked no such certainty. Extolling the virtues of Motel 6's clean rooms and comfortable beds, he signed off with the now famous tag line ''We'll leave the light on for you.'' Pretty soon the mail started pouring in, a lot of it addressed to Tom Bodett, President, Motel 6. None of this fazes McCarthy, who credits Bodett's meat-and-potato voice for Motel 6's beefed-up performance in 1987; after five years of decline, occupancy rates rose 9%. The Dallas company did make a few improvements -- basic things such as accepting credit cards and offering free TV -- but McCarthy says, ''It was Bodett's message to the consumer that really contributed to our success.'' Bodett, who used to build houses to support himself as a writer, is doing fine too on the income from his four-year contract with Motel 6 (he won't say what he earns). So is the Richards Group, the Dallas agency that created the ad. It seems everyone connected with the company is happy. Maybe that's why they're leaving the light on.