Tony Taylor

Coupled with great on-air audience ratings at WQXI, participation in so many outside promotions involving the general public helped to cement William Wahl aka Tony Taylor's name in the audiences’ memories. In his eight years at "Quixie", in addition to his on-air and commercial work, he became Production Director.

After an extremely successful ten-odd years away from Atlanta, when WGST was sold by GA Tech, the new owners did a survey to determine the most recognizable radio names in Atlanta. Tony and Bobby Harper were the names most remembered and their offer was sufficient to bring Tony back to Atlanta.

While away from Atlanta, Tony was successful in the 12-3 slot at WOR-FM. He moved to Metromedia’s WIP in Philadelphia where he was named the Bill Gavin Program Director of the Year in 1969. Metromedia transferred him to their Los Angeles station, KLAC. After about a year, he was lured back to New York and WNBC. He also became the youngest NBC staff announcer, at the time, and was a host of the highly regarded program MONITOR on the NBC radio network.

In addition to on-air work, he also established himself as an in-demand voice for national advertisements. Upon return to Atlanta, and WGST, he resumed his voice work, becoming the first commercial spokesman for Home Depot, among other major companies. This led to the creation of Taylor and Associates, a boutique advertising agency that had, among it accounts, the leading Mercedes Benz dealer until his retirement in December 2006.

Tony passed away on June 18, 2017.

Tony “The Tiger” Taylor, at WQXI on April 1, 1965 [ LISTEN ] (27:55)

It’s April Fools’ Day and Taylor says someone’s playing a trick since he can’t get the Beatles in for an encore performance… actually the record seems to not wanna play at the start of this aircheck but he gets it working with a perfect talkup. You’ll hear plenty of classic commercials and Taylor’s top 5 countdown.

Taylor again, this time at WOR-FM in New York some time in 1969.
[ LISTEN ] (44:06)

Lots of Bill Drake and the format that was slightly modified to reflect the New York “Big Town Sound”. Still, it’s tempting to hear ’93 KHJ’ in your head when these jingles play! This was Drake’s answer to ABC’s “All Americans” on 77 WABC.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Georgia Radio Museum and Hall of Fame.

[ READ ]

Ron Britain

Ron was only 14 years old when he hosted a teen show called "High Varieties" in Louisville. This was during a different era in radio. It was one of those old time radio shows performed in a huge studio with a script and full orchestra, and he went by his real name Ron Magel.

Ron got his first big break in Cincinnati. Right after he was hired, someone suggested he change his name. A meeting with the Program Director Jim Lightfoot ensued. At that time Ron drove a Jaguar, and dressed like an Englishman. Lightfoot suggested let's go with "Britain." From that point on the name took off.

WCFL March 11, 1970

In Cincinnati, Britain leased a supper club that seated a huge crowd. He had a big banner with the Union Jack British flag, and did record hops, that were a huge hit. At one point Ron had 72% of the Cincinnati listening audience.

On this aircheck, you'll hear WIND's oldies format branded as "#1 Music" which began in the summer of 1971 and lasted until 1974. Britain was at WIND from 1970 to 1974.

He was doing mornings when he left in March 1974. As for WIND, the station evolved into a mostly news-talk format by the end of the decade. September 1, 1971 featuring Ron Britain and Bob DelGiorno on WIND. [ LISTEN ] (59:00)

Ron was affectionately known as King Bee, a nickname that originated in Cincinnati. Ron had numerous teen clubs, and he couldn't stand it when the kids called him Mr. Britain and they didn't feel comfortable calling him Ron, so they started calling him King Bee. He liked it, and started using it himself.

Ron was a big fish in a small pond in Cincinnati, but he really wanted to go to New York. He had a few interviews in New York, and he told them how hot he was in Cincinnati. He had a great audience, and a hit record, "Are We Going to Wail Tulu", and they said "That's great. You should stay in Cincinnati."

Ron had a brother in law who worked in radio in Cleveland, and he called him up, because he figured that if he made it in Cleveland, they'd take him in New York. He did make it there, but New York didn't call. Chicago did.

January 28, 1967

Ron and the WCFL crew

Britain flew up to Chicago and met with the folks at WCFL. He knew Chicago was a great radio town, and maybe this is where he should go. Ken Draper, the guy who hired Britain, and Jim Runyan drove him into the city. All these lights were lit along Michigan Avenue, and was told that they decorated the city just for him. Britain took the job, but he was scared.

He was intimidated by a place that had so much talent, like Jim Runyan and Joel Sebastian. He was so scared when he went on the air the first time, he didn't know what to do. He was using squeaky toys, when he got a note from Ken Draper. The note said "We hired Ron Britain not Pinky Lee." And of course, he was right.

Britain had a long chat with Joel Sebastian about it, and Joel wanted him to play a tape of what he used to do. Joel listened to the tape, and asked why he didn't continue to do that sort of thing. Getting advice from someone like Joel Sebastian gave Britain the confidence he needed. So, he started out with a few sound effects, fanfare, and crowd noise. After that, Britain was off and running.

Britain created a show called Ron Britain's Subterranean Circus, which was really cutting edge at the time. It all began when he went over to Mercury Records in London in 1966, to produce a follow up to the hit song Winchester Cathedral. While there, he was told about this guy who was the next great thing. His name was Jimi Hendrix. Britain met him and they hung out. He was selling records, but even though he was an American, he wasn't getting played on the radio in the U.S.

Returning to the States, Britain asked CFL permission to play a few songs that were selling but weren't getting airplay, like Hendrix. Britain thought they only let him do it because they figured if they gave him the Subterranean Circus, they wouldn't have to give him a raise. And they were right.

Pip and Britain

It's the Fall of 1967 and Ron is on the air on WCFL. Airmate Barney Pip follows. [ LISTEN ] (31:49)

It aired on Sunday's, and it was recorded in a little production studio. The first week Britain did it, it didn't sound right. It sounded like he was making fun of the music by playing all of his sound effects, and he didn't want to do that because he loved the music so much. The next week Britain used a Ravi Shankar music bed as the backdrop, and that sounded much better. It fit the tone of the show. He just talked about the music, and why he loved it.

Britain had Frank Zappa on the show once, and he was scared to death of him. But he turned out to be the nicest guy in the world. Most of the people Ron had on were really nice, with a few exceptions. Van Morrison was one. Britain confessed he didn't know what planet Morrison was from. Another was Doug Engle from Iron Butterfly. Ron said he didn't know if he was stupid, or if he was just pretending to be, but they didn't click at all.

Many of the others were great. Blood Sweat and Tears was fabulous. Janis Joplin was great. The guys in the band Chicago used to listen to him when they were practicing on Rush Street. It was a wild time.

Britain also did a few shows with the Beatles, and hung out with them a few times. He introduced them on stage. After the show, he was looking for something of theirs to sell. Remember they were selling everything they touched in those days, even the sheets they slept on. So Ron went on stage and thanked the audience for coming out, when he saw that Ringo had left his drumsticks on the stage. He put them in his pocket and gave them away on the air the next night.

Britain stated many times that he was heavily influenced by the Marx Brothers. They were always his favorite.

He jocked at leading stations such as WSAI and WKRC Cincinnati, WHK Cleveland, KCMO Kansas City, WCFL, WIND, WJMK, WTMX, WLUP and WLS-FM Chicago. His last radio stop was WRLL "Real Oldies", a short-lived nostalgia station that also featured Chicago legends Tommy Edwards, Larry Lujack, Scotty Brink, and Jerry G. Bishop.

Ron Britain took his own life on October 25, 2020. He was 86. Friends said Britain was inconsolable after losing his wife and constant companion of 62 years. Helen Louise 'Peach' Magel, 83, died October 19th after falling ill at home.

WHERE DID RON WORK? Here is the list: WHAS, WINN, WKAY, WIEL, WLBS, WSAI, WHK, WCFL, WIND, KCMO, WLS-FM, WKRC, WCFL, WJMK, WTMX, and WRLL.

Some materials appearing on this page were originally published at the following: Airchexx, Rock Radio Scrapbook, Chicago Radio Spotlight.

[ READ ]

Bud Ballou

Dudley "Bud" Ballou was an American disc jockey and radio personality active for fifteen years on several commercial radio stations during the 1960s and 1970s. Bud was easily Syracuse's most popular evening disc jockey of all time.

Ballou was born on December 11, 1942 and raised in Liverpool, New York, a suburb of Syracuse. His father was Leslie G. Ballou, and he had a brother, James.

After a stint as an electronics technician at Western Electric in Syracuse, Ballou began his radio career as disc jockey at WOLF in 1962. With Ballou's help WOLF enjoyed a majority share of Syracuse radio listeners in 1963 and 1964. In 1964 he moved to WNDR radio. He also hosted a black-and-white television version of "The Bud Ballou Show" on WNYS-TV, channel 9, originating from the station's Shoppingtown studios in DeWitt, which premiered on February 8, 1965.

The "Bud Ballou Show" combined the hit songs of the day, local bands, and top national recording acts that toured the area. Freddie and the Dreamer (I'm Telling You How), The Shangri-las (Leader of the Pack) were just a few worth mentioning. His TV show, the Beatles, the British Invasion and his eminence popularity led to offers from larger radio markets.

The KBTR Crew

c.1971

Ballou left Syracuse for KBTR in Denver, Colorado in 1966, and in 1967 he departed for Buffalo's WKBW Radio AM 1520 a 50,000 watt giant, to replace Joey Reynolds. As an April Fool's Day stunt in 1967, Ballou hosted one shift on WPOP, trading places with another DJ.

Here's 24 year old Bud Ballou on WKBW Radio in Buffalo some time in 1967. [ LISTEN ] (14:01) WKBW sounded much different in ’67 than a couple of years later in the 70s.

Ballou moved to the Boston area in 1968 appearing on WMEX until 1971 and then moving to WVBF in Framingham until 1976. During this period he was an avid hockey fan who sometimes watched games even while broadcasting.

Beatle Hour airing on WNDR [ LISTEN ], WMEX in December, 1969
[ LISTEN ], WMEX Summer of 1970 [ LISTEN ], WMEX in December, 1970
[ LISTEN ] and one more WMEX cut with Bud in 1969. [ LISTEN ] (13:42)

Confusingly, a different ex-WOLF disc jockey from the Syracuse area named Howie Castle used "Bud Ballou" as his professional name while working for Radio Caroline in Europe in late-1967 and early-1968.

Ballou died April 15, 1977 at age 34 of a massive stroke at Leonard Morse Hospital in South Natick. After his passing Ron Robin and WVBF produced a special "Tribute To Bud Ballou". It featured some of his favorite songs as well as rare airchecks of WKBW and one of his first shifts on WOLF (1/14/62). It aired Sunday evening April 17, 1977. [ LISTEN ]

He was laid to rest in Fulton, New York. He was survived by his wife, the former Kasia Rondomanski of Fulton, and four children.

Some materials used in this article were originally published by the following: Airchexx, The WOLF 1490 Tribute Site.

[ READ ]

John Zacherle

Zacherle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 26, 1918. He was the youngest of four children of George a bank clerk, and his wife Anna who was a homemaker. He grew up in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, where he went to Germantown High School.

After graduating, Zacherle enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an English degree in 1940. He enlisted in the Army at the start of World War II and served in England, Italy and North Africa with the Quartermaster Corps, rising to the rank of major.

Returning to Philadelphia after the war, he joined the Stagecrafters, a small theater troupe in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Before long he found work doing commercials for local drug companies.

Zacherle's first horror gig was posing for before-and-after pictures for some new brand of tranquilizer. In the ‘before’ shot, he was chasing his wife with a carving knife like a maniac. Then, after he took the pill, he was transformed into a kind and loving husband!

In 1954 he gained his first television role at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, where he was hired as an actor playing several roles (one was an undertaker) in Action in the Afternoon, a Western produced by the station and aired in the New York City market. Three years later, he was hired as the host of WCAU's Shock Theater, which debuted on October 7, 1957. As the host, Zacherle appeared wearing a long black undertaker's coat as the character "Roland," who lived in a crypt with his wife "My Dear" (unseen, lying in her coffin) and his lab assistant, Igor.

The hosting of the black-and-white show involved interrupting the film to do numerous stylized horror-comedy gags parodying the film, an influential change which pioneered a now-standard television genre. In the opening sequence, Zacherle as Roland would descend a long round staircase to the crypt. The producers erred on the side of goriness, showing fake severed heads with blood simulated with Hershey's chocolate syrup.

During the comedy "cut-ins" during the movie, the soundtrack continued to play on the air, while the visual feed switched briefly to a shot of Zacherle as Roland in the middle of a related humorous stunt like riding a tombstone, or singing "My Funny Valentine" to his wife in her coffin. The show ran for 92 broadcasts through 1958.

The purchase of WCAU by CBS in 1958 prompted Zacherle to leave Philadelphia for WABC-TV in New York, where the station added a "y" to the end of his name in the credits. He continued the format of the Shock Theater, after March 1959 titled Zacherley at Large, with "Roland" becoming "Zacherley" and his wife "My Dear" becoming "Isobel." He also began appearing in motion pictures, including Key to Murder alongside several of his former Action in the Afternoon colleagues. A regular feature of his shows continued to be his parodic interjection of himself into old horror films.

He would run the movie and have "conversations" with the monster characters. He kept his "wife" in a coffin on stage. His co-star was in a burlap sack hanging from a rope. The on-air conversation consisted of Zacherle repeating the words he heard from the sack.

He was a close colleague of Philadelphia broadcaster Dick Clark, and sometimes filled in for Clark on road touring shows of Clark's American Bandstand in the 1960s. Clark reportedly gave Zacherle his nickname of "The Cool Ghoul."

In 1958, partly with the assistance and backing of Clark, Zacherle cut "Dinner with Drac" for Cameo Records, backed by Dave Appell. The record broke the Top 10 nationally. Zacherle later released several LPs mixing horror sound effects with novelty songs. Sequels included, “Eighty-Two Tombstones,” “I Was a Teenage Caveman” and “Monsters Have Problems Too.”

In a 1960 promotional stunt for his move to WOR-TV, Zacherley—by then, a Baby Boomer idol—staged a presidential campaign. His "platform" recording can be found on the album Spook Along with Zacherley, which originally included a Zacherley for President book and poster set which is highly collectible today. He was a guest on CBS-TV's What's My Line, on Halloween Eve, October 30, 1960 as the final guest on the broadcast.

When WABC had run through its stock of horror films, Zacherle took his act to Channel 9 and then Channel 11, where he became the host of “Chiller Theater,” “The Mighty Hercules Cartoon Show” and, briefly, “The Three Stooges Show.”

Disc-O-Teen c.1967

In 1965, WNJU, a new UHF television station broadcasting from Symphony Hall in Newark, put him in charge of an afternoon dance party called “Disc-O-Teen.”

The show simply grafted Zacherle’s “monster of ceremonies” persona onto a low-budget version of “American Bandstand.” Somehow, it managed to attract well-known groups like the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Young Rascals and the Doors during its three-year run.

“Jim Morrison looked at our weird set and mumbled, ‘This is the damnedest TV show I’ve ever seen,’” Zacherle told The New York Times in 2012.

He moved to the New York album-rock radio station WNEW-FM in 1967 as a morning D.J. and two years later began hosting a program at night. He later worked at another rock station, WPLJ, and in 1992 joined WXRK, known as K-Rock. That job ended four years later when the station changed its format from classic rock to alternative rock.

DICK'S PICKS VOLUME 4

On February 14, 1970 he appeared at Fillmore East music hall in New York City to introduce the Grateful Dead; his introduction can be heard on the album Dick's Picks Volume 4.

It's September 18, 1975 at WPLJ, but Zacherley isn't doing much more than back announcing the records. There is a cool promo for a Summer-end concert featuring KISS, Orleans, John Sebastian, Don McLean, Chris Hillman and Brian Auger & the Oblivion Express for $6.50! [ LISTEN ]

In the early 1980s, he played a wizard on Captain Kangaroo, appearing without his Roland/Zacherley costume and make-up. He continued to perform in character at Halloween broadcasts in New York and Philadelphia in the 1980s and 1990s, once narrating Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven while backed up by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

WPLJ'S ROOTS OF ROCK
Sunday, April 16, 1972

In 1972, WPLJ was a year or so into the "New York's Best Music" format, but they were willing to break format a bit to host a "Roots of Rock" weekend. Many of the songs played are what we would now call "oldies", although some weren't all that old in 1972. But it was still impressive that WPLJ would deviate from format to play these tracks.

There were some bad choices: I don't see how "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" or even Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" were roots of rock, although they were hits in their day. Seems to me those songs could have been replaced with some real roots music: blues from Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and others or some very early R&B.

Hard to tell if Zach was picking the tracks, but there are a fair number of tracks out of Philadelphia, like Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp and Zach spent a lot of time there. We even get to hear Zach's own "Dinner with Drac". We also hear some Beatles, the Who and the Drifters among others.

The show starts with an unnamed announcer. About 20 minutes into the aircheck, Zach takes over for the rest of the show. [ Part 1 ] (1:07:00) and [ Part 2 ] (1:02:06)

In 1983, he portrayed himself in the feature length horror comedy Geek Maggot Bingo produced and directed by Nick Zedd in sequences shot in Zacherle's apartment on the Upper West Side.

He hosted a direct-to-video program called Horrible Horror in 1986, where he performed Zacherley monologues in between clips from public domain sci-fi and horror films.

In 1988, he struck up a friendship with B-movie horror director Frank Henenlotter, voicing the puppet "Aylmer," a slug-like drug-dealing and brain-eating parasite, one of the lead characters in Henenlotter's 1988 horror-comedy film Brain Damage, and cameos in his 1990 comedy Frankenhooker, appropriately playing a TV weatherman who specializes in forecasts for mad scientists.

Zacherle joined the staff of "K-Rock," WXRK in late 1992, at a time when the roster included other free-form radio luminaries such as Vin Scelsa (with whom he'd worked at WPLJ) and Meg Griffin. He departed in January 1996 when the station switched to an alternative rock format and hired all new jocks.

In 2010, Zacherly starred in the documentary, The Aurora Monsters: The Model Craze That Gripped the World. The documentary includes a number of short pieces featuring Zacherly and his puppet co-host Gorgo.

Zacherle continued to make appearances at conventions through 2015. The book Goodnight, Whatever You Are by Richard Scrivani, chronicling the life and times of The Cool Ghoul, debuted at the Chiller Theatre Expo in Secaucus, New Jersey, in October 2006. Scrivani and Tom Weaver followed it up with the scrapbook-style "The Z Files: Treasures from Zacherley's Archives" in 2012.

Zacherley continued to make occasional on-air appearances, usually around Halloween, including a two-hour show at WCBS-FM with Ron Parker on October 31, 2007. Zacherley and Chiller Theatre returned to the WPIX airwaves on October 25, 2008 for a special showing of the 1955 Universal Pictures science fiction classic Tarantula!.

The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Zacherle into their Hall of Fame in 2010.

John Zacherle died on October 27, 2016, at his home in Manhattan. He was 98.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Finetooning, New York Radio Archive

[ READ ]

Brother John Rydgren

Born February 14, 1932, John Rydgren (aka Brother John, as he came to be known as an on-air DJ and radio personality) was an ordained minister in the American Lutheran Church, and was a director of the American Lutheran Church's radio and television films division.

His claim to pop history fame came in the 1960s and early '70s when his syndicated FM shows, most notably the show called Silhouettes, which was broadcast across the U.S. (and in Vietnam) between 1966 and 1968, reached a wide-ranging audience.

Here is John on June 15 or 16, 1968, on a recorded demo prior to the launch of WABC-FM's syndicated "Love Format". [ Part 1 ] and [ Part 2 ]

The WABC-FM Love Format Team: Brother John Rydgren, Bob Lewis and Howard Smith.

Positioning himself as a sort of "hip preacher" between Christianity on one hand and the emerging "Flower Power" generation on the other, Rydgren interspersed progressive and psychedelic rock tracks with his thoughts on spirituality, philosophy, and the changing times, all in a deep, sincere, and affecting baritone.

Heading into the Summer of Love, Rydgren was the crafty head of the TV, Radio and Film Department of the American Lutheran Church. Years before the words "Jesus" and "Freak" became joined at the rib, the straight-looking Rydgren created a daily radio show called Silhouette in which he became the reassuring, resonant-voiced Hippy for God. Rydgren wrote, announced and programmed Silhouette, taking his musical and cultural cues from The Electric Prunes, Herb Alpert and the cover of Time (Is God Dead?), with a vocal delivery that was straight out of the Tom Donahue, Scott Muni, Ken Nordine school of breathy baritone radio seduction. Silhouette dropped all the counter-cultural code words of the day into a heady mix of Peace, Love, Sex, Drugs, Jesus. and groovy fuzzy guitars.

He also released three LPs of his thoughts and musings laid over a backdrop of fuzz guitars, heavenly choirs, and sitar drones, Worlds of Youth, Cantata for New Life, and Silhouette Segments.

Rydgren's Silhouette segments are stunning. Here are all 19 of them: Music to Watch Girls By, Hippy Version of the 23rd Psalm, Rinky Dink, An Offering In Music, Disadvantage of Life, Hippy Version of Creation, Search it Out, Plea of a Lonely Girl, Butterfly, The Happening, Groovin On A Saturday Night, Dark Side of the Flower, The Lord is My Shepherd, The Oil Painting, Here Lies The Church, Move Out In Style, A Simple Stroll, The Noise, and A Beautiful Girl

New York's WABC-FM picked up Silhouette on a daily basis after the FCC forced them to stop using their FM station to re-transmit WABC-AM, their Top 40 powerhouse. Faced with an immediate need for a new format, ABC signed on to Rydgren's Psychedelic Christian format, at least for part of the day.

The FCC rule in question - the non-duplication rule - sent stations all over the country scrambling for formats at a time when youth counterculture ruled the zeitgeist. Yes, the same rule that created the Psychedelic Christian format also gave birth to the commercial freeform radio movement in the US.

ABC quickly dropped Silhouette from its lineup, and flailed around for three more years before finally changing the station's call letters to WPLJ in 1970 and finding their calling as one of New York's eminent Album Oriented Rock stations throughout the 70's.

But Rydgren and the American Lutheran Church aggressively syndicated the show beyond New York, and in that effort, they issued a double LP in 1967 called New Life Radio Spots and Cantata, which distilled Rydgren's swinging message of redemption into bite size bits for other radio stations to play. If they liked the Silhouette segments on the New Life LPs, they could pick up the whole show, as American Armed Forces Radio did in 1968. The 2-LP set was issued to radio stations only, but the segments were later reissued a few years ago on a single LP called Silhouette Segments. That reissue wisely omitted the LP-length Cantata, which was along the lines of The Electric Prunes Mass In F Minor.

In 1970, John left WABC/fm to produce religious and socially slanted radio/tv programs. He moved to L.A. in 1972 and eventually hosted a program called "Heaven Is in Your Mind."

In 1982, John suffered a debilitating stroke while on the air, which left him with a form of dyslexia, forcing him to relearn reading and speaking from the third-grade level. With therapy he rejoined KRTH in 1986. John passed away on December 26, 1988. He was 56.

[ READ ]

Jim Lange

Born August 15, 1933, in St. Paul, Minn., "Gentleman Jim" began his broadcasting career as a teenager after winning an audition at a station in his hometown.

"They wanted a boy and a girl," he told the Bay Area Radio Digest in a 1992 interview. "They wanted the boy to do sports and the girl to do the dances and stuff that was going on in the Twin Cities — very sexist — and play music once a week. It was sponsored by a local department store."

He remained on the program for two years before heading off to the University of Minnesota (graduating with honors in 1954) and a three-year hitch in the Marines, which included an assignment with the Armed Forces radio and television service in Hawaii. He left the military late in 1957 and arrived in San Francisco in search of a civilian job in radio.

THE GREAT RACE OF 1961

560/KSFO, San Francisco

Don Sherwood vs. Jim Lange
Sunday, February 12, 1961

A video presentation — distilled from the original black-and-white "newsreel"-style film — of the famous footrace between KSFO's Don Sherwood and Jim Lange, from Stinson Beach in Marin County to the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Narrated by KSFO newsman Aaron Edwards and produced by Norm Howard Lehfeldt (later known simply as Norm Howard, popular morning personality on KQED-FM), the film also includes cameos by Giants play-by-play men Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, and begins with classic Tom Nuzum title art.

His first opportunity came at KGO in January 1958 on the overnight shift. Despite the late hours and the relative anonymity inherent in the time slot, he built a substantial audience as "The All-Night Mayor" on KGO, which afforded him the chance to make a significant leap within two years, joining KSFO in January 1960 as afternoon disc jockey during that station's rise as "The World's Greatest Radio Station."

His first network television job came in 1962 as announcer and sidekick on "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show." In 1965, while still working his weekday job at KSFO — which included occasional early wake-up calls when a fill-in was needed for Don Sherwood — Lange began hosting "The Dating Game," which brought him even wider national recognition. He continued to host the show in its original form until 1986. (In high demand as a game show host, in later years he also hosted "Oh My Word," "Hollywood Connection," "$100,000 Name That Tune," "Bullseye," "$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" and, for one season, "The New Newlywed Game.")

After the sale of KSFO, former station owner Gene Autry invited Lange to move to KMPC in Los Angeles, where he settled in from 1984 to 1989. Growing tired of splitting time between home in the Bay Area (where his wife, television host and former Miss America Nancy Fleming, remained) and his job in Southern California, he signed on with Magic 61 (KFRC, during its incarnation as an Adult Standards station) in 1990, hosting middays until an ownership change and personnel moves landed him on the morning shift. Another ownership change and format switch at KFRC led Jim to KKSJ in San Jose (1994) before arriving at his current radio home, KABL, in 1997.

Dino Donikian, Jim's longtime sidekick on KABL, said, "I've had the great pleasure of working with Jim for almost 14 years. After all that time it never felt like 'work.' The person you hear on the air is the same person you get off the air — a true gentleman who has a warm personality. ... Jim has been blessed with one of the greatest voices in radio history; his voice is unmistakable."

With the sale of KABL in the Summer of 2005, Jim Lange announced his retirement from fulltime broadcasting as of Thursday, July 28, 2005. He was elected to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2006.

On February 25, 2014 Lange passed away at his home in Mill Valley, California. He was 81.

[ READ ]

Jim Jeffries

JIM JEFFRIES
KEENER 13 Detroit

January 30, 1967 [ LISTEN ] (9:21)

He had the job every DJ wanted, the foot in the door at the greatest radio station in town. In the world that was radio back in the 1960s, the overnight shift was the proving ground, the place where the program director tested new talent, and the assignment from whence stars were often born.

Some loved the lifestyle and made overnights their brand. WJR’s Jay Roberts was one of the most famous, helping listeners drift off to sleep for over two decades as the captain of “Nightflight 760”. So when Keener DJ Bill Phillips left the overnight shift open at Keener 13 in mid-1965, Frank Maruca, station program director for WKNR at that time, promptly filled the void. He knew who to call. He made the call for Jim Jeffries from sister-station WKFR “Keener 14” in Battle Creek, Michigan.

These were the night owls who worked the third shift at Ford, patrolled Dearborn’s streets from behind the wheel of American made police cruisers, baked Silvercup Bread and brewed Stroh’s beer. These were the countless security guards who kept watch over Hudson’s, Federal’s, Cobo Hall and Olympia, and the union jacks who delivered Motown’s newspapers from the presses to the hundreds of street corners where young boys and girls piled them onto bicycles to prepare a slowly awakening Motor City for the new day.

The station is WKNR and the jock is Jim Jeffries on May 31, 1965. [ LISTEN ]

This was Jim Jeffries domain. For the bulk of WKNR’s brief prime, he sat behind the controls, the solitary human presence at 15001 Michigan Avenue, and entertained his unique and demanding audience.

While doing the overnight 1AM to 6AM shift, Jim's popularity rose to prominence at WKNR. Jim connected well with his audience with his blend of personality, humor, exuberance and warmth. The Jeffries brand soon became the overnight sensation during his entire radio stay in Detroit. By mid-1966, arbitrarily, Jeffries became the most listened to deejay doing the all-night show in Detroit at the time.

Jim and the crew on New Year survey of 1965.

The show was, of course, different than what listeners heard during other parts of the day. The intensity was turned down a notch, and people would hear a bit larger swath of music than was typically found on the tight 31 song WKNR Music Guide. But all the rest of the Keener magic was there. The contests, the promos, and the personal relationship that still puts WKNR in a special place in everyone's memory.

But before the end of 1967, Jim Jeffries would set sail for newer horizons outside of Detroit. This time he was offered a ‘prime-time’ radio slot for another radio market outside of Michigan. Keener newsman Bob Neal, along with Keener DJ Bob Harper, would soon follow Jim Jeffries down to WQXI in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jeffries c.1965

“Even though our shifts and schedules only allowed for minimal day to day contact (beyond regular DJ meetings) , Jim was one of a very tight fraternity,” remembers long time WKNR program director Bob Green, “And whether you happened to be a listener or an insider, there was no question that Jim enjoyed what he did. That element of ‘fun’, so much a part of what made Keener special, was highly evident… from the man and from his on air presence.”

Later, like many others in the trade, Jim became a promoter for the record companies that plied their product to music directors in hundreds of markets.

Minnie

He was head of Epic and Associated Labels Promotion in the mid 70’s. He had hits with Dan Fogelberg ‘Part Of The Plan’, Minnie Riperton ‘Loving You’, Michael Murphey ‘Wildfire’, Lou Rawls ‘You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine’ and the Isley Brothers’ ‘Who’s That Lady’. Jim also contributed to the success of Philadelphia International artists like the O’Jays and Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes success.

Keener’s Scott Regen remembers Jim as a kind heart. He recollected, “I was just thinking, radio made each of us, the station staff and the audience, a family. It happened in a way that did not, could not exist before the electronic age. We were the players on that electronic stage. That, I think, was and still is what radio can do best: bring people together in a common purpose .”

To Jim Jeffries, family was the most important dimension of life. The itinerant broadcasting road game often made it hard to sustain a long term relationship. Not so for Jim Jeffries. He found true love with his bride Debbie and together, they built a family over a 32 year marriage that ended only when he left suddenly, at age 66.

Jim Jeffries will always be remembered, along with Dick Purtain, Mort Crowly, Swingin Sweeney, Ted Clark, Jerry Goodwin, Bob Green, Gary Stevens, Scott Regen and J. Michael Wilson as the greatest of the Keener Key Men of Music.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Motor City Radio Flashbacks.

[ READ ]

Bart Prater

Bart Prater’s first job in radio was shoveling ashes after a fire.

He was a high school kid in Marion VA when the town’s radio station - WOLD-AM - went up in flames. The station owner hired teenagers to clean up, but Prater told the man: “I could do more than that.”

Prater, 15 years old at the time, already had his amateur radio license. He rebuilt the station’s transmitter and control board. Soon, he was working as an engineer and a disc jockey.

From those studio ashes, Prater rose to become one the most prominent voices and personalities in Roanoke radio history, a disc jockey who brought national recognition to both Roanoke and himself. He worked at WROV-AM during the wild and crazy 1970s when rock ‘n’ roll was king and the station’s studios were located in a Quonset hut in an industrial section of Roanoke.

Up from Marion, Virginia, the new guy started out as the nighttime DJ, “young Bart” the upstart, the one with the long hair. As a joke, the other WROV DJs trapped him one afternoon, dragged him into the studio, and cut his hair, live on the air. Well, that’s what they said they did.

WROV Roanoke, Virginia
July 10, 1972

Within a few years, Bart’s career popularity exploded. He moved to afternoon drive, and later became program director, responsible for hiring, firing, and managing all the on-air talent. In 1974, he helped break the Doobie Brothers’ immortal “Black Water.” By 1975 he had fully arrived when Billboard named him DJ-of-the-year for markets of under 1,000,000 population. He had become the “Wizard of Rock.”

Bart’s voice was an utterly compelling blend of deep baritone resonance and crisp, cutting consonants. He spoke with the same cadence and timbre as Rod Serling. Bart didn’t seem to have to work at producing the sound. He just spoke, and every syllable was imbued with his intense, witty, sometimes loopy, sometimes nearly surreal on-air personality.

Later, as AM faded in popularity, Prater jumped to K92 in the 80s when it dominated the airwaves like no Roanoke station before or since.

And he ended his career away from the microphone, behind the scenes at public radio station WVTF, where he programmed satellite feeds and wrote computer codes. He retired in 2012 from doing what he always loved, working and tinkering in radio.

Bart Prater was part of two of the most successful rock and pop music stations in Roanoke broadcasting history. He came to Roanoke in 1968 as the overnight DJ at WROV-AM, which was the valley’s first rock ‘n’ roll station. Under the guidance of station owner Burt Levine, WROV dominated radio ratings from the 1950s through the ’70s and amassed a lineup of DJs who became local celebrities — Fred Frelantz, Jack Fisher, Larry Bly, Rob O’Brady and Prater.

“It was a different era,” said Jay Prater, himself a veteran of Roanoke radio and television broadcasting, as well as a former employee at The Roanoke Times.

“Radio was king. Local personalities were the stars. We had to change our phone number a lot because people would call the house, just wanting to talk to my dad.”

Bart Prater spoke with a deep voice, singed with a bit of a smoker’s rasp. He was so good on-air, he could keep listeners riveted to funny sketches with just his voice — whether it was showing family vacation slides (on the radio, remember) or giving a tour of an imaginary WROV studio complete with DJ lounges and a chapel where the owner “could pray for money.”

He sang and played guitar on the radio, writing his own novelty songs, which included the ridiculous “Pickle Jar Lid” song, which was a local hit in 1969 (the song’s full name, according to an online history of WROV-AM, was “I Got a Pickle Jar Lid and I Carry it in My Pocket, Baby”).

Prater was on air when up to one-third of Roanoke’s radio listeners dialed in to 1240. Those were the Wild West days of AM radio, when the station was housed in a cramped military-style building at Cleveland Avenue and 15th Street near the Roanoke River. Rock stars and celebrities dropped by the studio when they were in town, such as the time Wolfman Jack broadcast a show at WROV in 1975.

DJs pushed the envelope with on-air stunts and promotions (which included the time O’Brady demonstrated the dangers of alcohol abuse by getting intoxicated on the air). That kind of irreverent behavior was magnified when WXLK-FM debuted on Jan. 1, 1980, with a much larger footprint than WROV had.

Prater remained at WROV, but soon realized that AM’s days as a rock music behemoth were over. He moved to K92 in 1981, where he worked afternoons until 1988. During that time, K92 became one of the top-rated stations in the country, as owner Aylett Coleman and manager Russ Brown put together a dream team of DJs that included Larry Dowdy, Vince Miller, Bill Jordan, David Lee Michaels, Prater and others.

He left K92 because he believed radio was becoming more corporate and less fun. He ran an advertising agency for a while, and launched an unsuccessful effort to buy a radio station before settling into the engineering job at WVTF.

For a man who had made his living with his voice, Prater could be a reticent subject when interviewed. He preferred his privacy and seemed to enjoy his later career away from the microphone.

Bart ended every one of his air shifts with, “never whittle toward yourself, or spit into the wind.” After a few years of declining health, Bart Prater passed away in January of 2017 at age 69.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: The Roanoke Times, Garder Campbell Blog.

[ READ ]