Jack Palvino

Jack Palvino was a popular Rochester radio personality for 40 years, first as host of an AM morning show and then as part-owner of FM station WVOR.

Known as “Smilin’ Jack,” the Rochester native joined WBBF (950 AM) in the late 1950s and was the morning deejay there until 1978. Then, he helped revolutionize local FM radio as part of an ownership group that bought WVOR (100.5 FM) and turned it into the top station in town.

As an emcee, Palvino introduced to Rochester audiences everyone from Ronald Reagan to Mickey Mantle. He once had a private concert by the Beach Boys before the band was given the OK to go onstage here.

The radio career wouldn’t have happened if his parents — who wanted him to become a lawyer — had their way. Palvino was attending law school at the University at Buffalo when the radio bug bit.

“I was in the law library on a Saturday night, looking up legal cases,” he said from his Rochester home in late December. “All my radio friends …were having a wonderful time heading off to a ‘record hop.’ I thought, ‘I belong with them. I love radio.’ And I still do.”

Convincing his parents wasn’t easy. His brother, Larry, himself a lawyer, helped break the news.

WBBF: January 11, 1967. Part I.

“They were about ready to shoot me,” Palvino said with a laugh. “But they said, ‘If you really want to join the crazy world of radio, we’ll support you.’ Rock and roll was just hitting at the time.”

The first stop was at WSAY, a station that used to operate at 1370 AM. Palvino performed under various on-air names like “Jerry Jack,” “Mac Maguire” and “Tommy Thomas.” All the deejays did the same, Palvino said. The station owner wanted the deejays to be interchangeable, in case someone didn’t show up or one of the deejays moved on.

He got hired at WGVA in Geneva and worked there until WBBF called in 1958. AM radio dominated the airwaves, and WBBF was Rochester’s most popular station.

“BBF was bigger than life, this little 1,000-watt station,” Palvino said. “BBF played Top 40 in a tight rotation, 24 hours a day, pumping out the top music.”
Jack Palvino is seen last month in his Rochester home.

“Palvino in the Morning” became huge with its comedy edge. Don Ariano, the show’s longtime engineer, recorded one-liners from comedians like Jonathan Winters and Don Rickles and tried to crack Palvino up.

WBBF: January 11, 1967. Part II.

“He threw ’em at me at 6 in the morning. He kept me on my toes,” Palvino said.

The music legends he met include Ray Charles, the Supremes and perhaps most memorably, Jimi Hendrix. Palvino was on the air when President Kennedy was killed. The station manager, Bob Kieve, immediately switched to classical music, and for the next three days, Palvino said, WBBF played no commercials, just somber music.

Most of the time was much more upbeat. Palvino referred to radio as “Theater of the Mind,” and his morning show included bits like “The Last Contest” and promotions like “The Chicken Man.”

Palvino joined WVOR shortly after he left WBBF in December 1978. As part of the station’s ownership team, the Lincoln Group, he served as vice president/general manager but went back on the air as the morning man before long.

“I was the cheapest option we could find,” he said with a chuckle. He wound up doing that for several years until signing off for good to concentrate on the behind-the-scenes business.

FM radio in the late 1970s was primarily limited to niche musical formats, Palvino said. WVOR officials chose to become “a full-fledged AM (style) station with news, business reports and live personalities on the air 24 hours a day,” Palvino wrote in his book, On the Air/My Life in Radio.

The format worked and WVOR moved to the top of the radio ratings.

“We transplanted AM features to the FM dial,” Palvino said. “Then, people followed us, big time.”

During his career, Palvino met plenty of VIPs, including several presidents. Jimmy Carter was a guest on the morning show in 1977 and requested an Allman Brothers tune. Ronald Reagan was campaigning for re-election in 1984; Palvino introduced him at a rally at the War Memorial and remembered Reagan as “ramrod straight, good posture.” George H.W. Bush was at a fundraiser at the Burgundy Basin Inn and told Palvino, “Never forget, this is the greatest country in the world.”

The Lincoln Group eventually owned several other stations, including WHAM (1180 AM), before it was sold in 1997.

Palvino remains heavily involved with St. John Fisher College. The college created the Jack Palvino Communication/Journalism Hall of Fame in his honor, and Palvino established a scholarship that aids two communication/journalism students each year.

He was elected to the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2015, and to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

As of 2016, Palvino and his wife, Joyce, have been married 55 years. The family includes three children and eight grandchildren. The “crazy world of radio” that his parents feared turned out pretty well.

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Jim Michaels

Jim behind the mic at KCBC. [ LISTEN ] (6:52)

James Michael VerHoef was born in Spencer, Iowa March 4, 1942. On Fathers Day 1945 when Jim was three years old the family went to a picnic at Lake Okoboji. When they got there everybody got out of the car and Jim said, "Daddy I can't walk!" It took two week to diagnose that he had polio.

After three years in the hospital in Sioux City Jim went through a couple of years of crutches, braces, operations and rehabilitation. When Jim was 8 years old, Ben Sanders and Mason Dixon at KICD Radio in Spencer took him on a March of Dimes tour of ballrooms around northwest Iowa.

Jim's radio career began right there when he began reading kids books on the air. A fellow named Tom Shumate and his wife hosted. Little Jim would read and they would give him a sign like cutting their throat and then he would stop at the next period. The sponsor was Redmond Shoe Store with Buster Brown and his dog Tag.

The VerHoef family moved to Des Moines in 1952. Jim entered a DJ contest at KIOA. The station was located in the old Onthank Building at 10th and Mulberry. Jim came in third.. In 1960 he competed in another DJ contest on KSO with Dick Vance and Bobbi, the Sweater Girl. Phil Thomas won and Jim came in 2nd, Mel Ott came in third. Phil got a full time gig and Jim got weekends with Mel also joining the staff. Jim later went to radio school at Brown Institute in Minneapolis, met his future wife Judi, who was in his same home room at North High School though they never dated in high school. Judi graduated from Brown and went to work in St. Cloud Minnesota and Jim ended up doing weekends there. When Jim graduated, he joined KWKY in Des Moines, with Smokey Smith and Irish Davis. In 1962, he went to KDFI in Wichita, Kansas. KDFI was actually the first country station to use rock jocks in a country format. The ratings were very good.

Here's a small slice of how Jim sounded at KIOA on August 18, 1966. [ LISTEN ] (4:39)

Jim got married in Wichita and then moved back to Des Moines. He then went back to KSO as Big Brother Bill Bailey. Dic Youngs and Jim became life long friends at that time. Jim then went to KBAB in Indianola. He had been there about a year when he got a call from Peter McLane at KIOA.

Michael's behind the KIOA mic on June 21, 1967. [ LISTEN ] (11:33)

This is a segment of the first hour of the Jim Michael's program on a typical Wednesday night.

Jim Michaels joined KIOA in 1963 as a Good Guy and remained there until 1970. He was honored to be named " Bill Gavin Music Director of the Decade 1960-1970 in small and medium markets." A real highlight in Jim's career was a Hooper Rating while doing nights at KIOA that showed him with about a "63 share."

Jim went to KSO for one rating period, and then went to WMIN in Minneapolis. After some success and one brutally cold, blizzard filled winter he talked with Peter McLane after KIOA had just purchased KYNA 93.3FM. It later became KIOA-FM, then KMGK and Jim programmed it until 1976.

While working there he was very involved in the Iowa Jaycees. He was President in Urbandale, and in 1976-1977, was the Iowa State Jaycee President. he was then hired by the United States Jaycees and moved to Indianapolis and later to their national headquarters in Tulsa, Ok. While in Tulsa, Jim was Operations Manager of KELI, station Manager at KMYZ, and air talent at KVOO. He left the U.S. Jaycees and went to work for KIX - 104 in Fayetteville AR where he was very successful with the ratings.

Then, it was back to Ames and he worked for Bob Bunce at KEZT, until going to work as Executive Director of the Iowa Jaycees. The United States Jaycees rehired him and he moved back to Tulsa, and that is where Jim and his family call home to this day.

In 1998 Jim started his own business doing background employment checks. In 1999, Jim Michaels was inducted into the Iowa Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Desmoines Broadcasting.

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Joel Sebastian

Joel Sebastian began his radio career in his native Detroit at station WXYZ. He moved to Chicago in 1966, after working at stations in Dallas, TX New Haven, CN, and Los Angeles, California.

From the 60s to the mid-1980's, he had been a disc jockey and morning on-air personality at eight Chicago radio stations, including WCFL, WLS, WGN, and WMAQ.

Here's an aircheck from Joel's final program on WXYZ in 1964. [ LISTEN ] (20:56) "Four years of memories in four hours."

He began his Chicago career at WCFL as a talkative morning disc jockey. He would open each show with the greeting ``Good morning Chicago, baby, while playing Jack Jones` rendition of ``My Kind of Town.``

Joel Sebastian along with J.J. Jeffrey (first show) on 89 WLS-AM in Chicago some time in November of 1971.

Included are tons of early 70s commercials and those awesome WLS Jingles! J.J. Jeffrey would go on to station ownership later in his career. WLS would go on to number one status later that year. [ LISTEN ] (17:48)

Joel worked at WIND in 1975.

Here's Joel again at WLS recorded between October 17, 1970 and April 12, 1971. [ LISTEN ] (1:07:14)

Mr. Sebastian performed a variety of radio roles, reflecting both the wide range of his abilities and the whimsical nature of the business. He was program director at WCFL, rock DJ at several stations and in the late 70s, an all-night classical music show host at WGN.

LAST WLS SHOW
February 26 1972
[ LISTEN ](41:00)

He survived a purge at WMAQ when the station switched to country music in 1975. Most of the on-air staff, including Mr. Sebastian, was fired. But he was rehired a short time later as production chief and weekend DJ.

In 1983 he stopped at a station in New York City, before returning to Chicago, joining WJMX.

Here's a treat. It's the 45 rpm record of "Blue Cinderella", sung by Joel Sebastian on Miracle Records in 1961. [ LISTEN ] (2:08)

Sebastian passed away in January 1986, from complications of pneumonia, at the age of 53.

WHERE DID JOEL WORK? Here is the list: WXYZ, KYW, WCFL, and WLS.

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

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