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.