Boom Boom Brannigan

Born in Utica as Joseph Charles Motto, Boom Boom Brannigan became well known during the 1960s as a disc jockey at Albany-Troy giant WPTR (1540-AM). Rock ’n’ roll music was a sensation, and Brannigan became a popular local ringleader for fans of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, Turtles and other bands of the era.

Brannigan looked the part. A dark wavy pompadour was his hairstyle. The Boom Boom wardrobe included leopard-skin tuxedo coats, velvet jackets, ruffled shirts and big boots.

Boom Boom with kids in 1961.

Personal appearances were part of the job, including parties, talent shows, bar mitzvahs and sock hops.

Brannigan was going by the name Ronny Victor at a Buffalo radio station when he landed the job at WPTR during the early 1960s. In a 1998 interview with The Daily Gazette, Brannigan said he was trying to think of a new name for the Capital Region market when he tuned in his new employer and learned his stage identity had already been chosen.

February 19, 1965

“I heard this jingle that said ‘Boom Boom is coming’ and then there would be this sound of drums,” he said.

Brannigan remained at WPTR until 1975, when the popularity of disc jockey-driven rock ’n’ roll had been replaced by album-oriented rock formats and talk radio. He secured slots at other local stations, including WABY, and did some television work on local cable access.

During the WPTR days, Boom Boom had chances to move to bigger broadcasts in New York City and Philadelphia. Station chiefs wanted him to compete against national talents such as Dick Clark and Wolfman Jack, but he didn’t want to move.

In 1964, two guys named Paul and John phoned WPTR — the two most famous Beatles wanted to talk to Boom Boom.

Brannigan was just a really nice man. He was not particularly egotistical, and he could have been because he so dominated the market. He was never taken by himself, just a simple, fun-loving rock ’n’ roll jock. He passed away on October 19, 2010 at the age of 82.

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Barney Pip

Bernard G. Pippenger II was born in Indiana on May 26, 1936.

Barney suffered from bipolar disorder which was not called that in 1967. It was called maniac depression. At one point, when he was working at WCFL, that Barney put himself in the hospital.

June 1966 Pip and Ron Britain

When he came out of the hospital the first time, he went back to work on WCFL. A few years later, Barney put himself in the hospital again but, when he came out, Lou Witz, the then current gm of WCFL would not put him back on-the-air.

Barney's career, at that point, started spiraling downward. That was in 1970. He went from there to doing afternoon drive at WHHY, Montgomery, Alabama. He got fired from WHHY because they decided that they didn't want to pay him as much as they were paying him versus the other djs at the station for the size of the market.

His next job was a country station in Miami. He was fired from there also. His next job was at Top 40 KXOL, Fort Worth, where he was hired by Program Director John Rook, formerly of WLS. This was in 1971. He did well at KXOL. Early in 1972, Ken Draper, the PD who hired him at WCFL, was consulting WPIX-FM in New York. Draper immediately called Barney and offered him a job doing evenings and the music director position.

Barney's favorite New York eateries

There were many nights in 1972 after work in New York City where Barney could be seen eating at one of his three favorite places - the Carnegie Deli, Nathans in Time Square and the Howard Johnson's by Grand Central Station.

Along with many of the other jocks, Barney used to go out to eat with the New York City record company promotion men. The one promo man who Barney was friendliest with was Juggy Gayles of Atlantic Records. Those nights were a lot of fun. The New York Daily News, who when it came to running a radio station, were so tight, they squeaked, got rid of Draper's consultant contract and fired anybody who was not making minimum AFTRA wages. Barney got fired along with Draper. This was some time in early 1973.

WCFL
September 1, 1967

WCFL
December 31, 1968

The penetration of FM stations in New York City in 1972 was minimal. FM was still in its infancy as a medium for top forty radio. WABC, in the spring 1972 book pulled about a 23 share. Barney pulled about a 4 share on his evening show. WPIX-FM pulled about a 2.9 24 hours a day. WOR-FM pulled about a 2 24 hours a day.

WWDJ pulled about a 1.3. This all means that other than WABC, Barney was the highest rated dj playing music in New York in the spring '72 book. The amazing part of the book was that Dave Herman, doing mornings on WNEW-FM pulled a zero. Who knew that a zero was even possible, especially for a major market radio station.

Fellow jock Ron Brittain and Barney on WCFL in October, 1967. [ LISTEN ] (31:49)

Starting off with a promo for the upcoming ‘New’ Dick Biondi ’68 show, here’s Ron Brittain and Barney, not together, but mixed inside this 30 minute partial scope of what sounds like a couple of different day recordings. Listen to the assortment of jingles that WCFL was using.

In the summer of 1967, Barney, and a local Chicago group, The Rovin' Kind, recorded his version of the 1965 hit song by Ian Whitcomb, "You Turn Me On". The single was released on Smash Records. This is the "B" side of that single, "Can't Sit Down".

From 1973 to 1979 Barney was in and out of the hospital and not on the radio.

In 1980, Barney briefly returned to radio for a period of months but, he went back in the hospital, then came back to the station and went on-the-air again.

Sometime in 1981 he went off the radio and just lived in a condo in Indianapolis. WJMK, Chicago, did a 60s DJ reunion in 1985 that Barney was a part of. Asked what had happened to him over the years - he gave little details. He did go back on the radio for a while in 1986.

He took a trip from Indianapolis to Long Island to see Bob Dayton whom he had worked with at WPIX-FM. Dayton was doing afternoon drive at WGLI, Babylon, at the time.

JUKEBOX SATURDAY NIGHT
WGLI 1987

Dayton convinced Barney to do morning drive on WGLI for about 9 months.

This was the last time that Barney was ever on the radio. When someone who has bipolar disorder reaches the age of 50, the effects will usually subside. This happened to Barney. He was in better shape after the age of 50 in regard to bipolar disorder than he ever was. He was living in his condo in Indianapolis and was relatively peaceful and happy.

During the early 90s Barney seemed to be in pretty good shape. But on February 17, 1994 he was the victim of a tragic accident.

He was backing his car out of his condo driveway, and the car ran into a fence causing carbon monoxide to seep up through the floor boards. The fumes quickly made Barney pass out at the wheel. He was smoking a cigarette at the time. The lit cigarette caught the car's upholstery on fire and he was burned to death. Barney Pip was 57 years old. He was laid to rest at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, IN.

WHERE DID BARNEY WORK? Here is the list: WHOT, WOKY, WCFL, WHHY, KXOL, and WGLI.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Airchexx

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Chuck Brinkman

Chuck Brinkman was one of Pittsburgh’s most popular radio DJs and an influential music/program director from the 1960s to the 1980s on Pittsburgh radio stations KQV, WTAE, and WFFM / WMYG.

KQV-AM was the number 2 highest rated station in Pittsburgh through most of the 1960s. Chuck Brinkman was the mainstay of the KQV staff for 12 years during the station’s Top 40 glory days. He frequently ranked second to Clark Race in the 1960s radio ratings.

Adding new songs every week as the "Pick of the Week" KQV launched many hits by Motown artists. British Invasion bands, and Pittsburgh musicians. At KQV Brinkman was credited with breaking nationally the hit songs "Sitting In The Park" by Billy Stewart, "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry, "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' by the Crazy Elephant and several songs by the Vogues, and the Jaggerz.

Chuck at KQV in '61, '62. '65. and '71.

Charles Brinkman was born in Pittsburgh in July of 1935. His family lived in Dormant until he was five. After several years in Cleveland Chuck's family returned to the Pittsburgh area where he attended high school at the Kiski Prep School. He attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and began working in radio at station WAND in Canton. He quit college after two and a half years to become an announcer on a Warren, Ohio station. He moved to station WELI in New Haven, Connecticut in 1956. He then worked at a station in Mt. Clemens, Michigan and station WJW in Cleveland.

He volunteered for the National Guard in 1958 and spent six months of active duty at Fort Knox. After his National Guard duty he worked at WCUE in Akron for a year and then went back to WELI for a few months.

Brinkman began at KQV in 1960 working the all night shift. He took over the 7 PM to midnight show in August of 1962 replacing the departed Larry Aiken. He became part of KQV-AM's "Fun Lovin' Five," in 1963 which included Hal Murray, Steve Rizen, Dave Scott and Dexter Allen.

In 1964, he introduced the Beatles to the crowd at the Civic Arena - the band’s only Pittsburgh concert.

He also hosted the WIIC-TV Chanel 11 "Come Alive” dance show in 1966. Brinkman also was the DJ at many Pittsburgh area teen dances during the 1960s.

Beginning In 1967 Brinkman served as KQV’s music director and afternoon drive host. As music director he selected the stations playlist. The station played 5 new singles and two new album cuts every week. Brinkman received gold records for his work in breaking hits by Mungo Jerry and Crazy Elephant.

Chuck is playing records at KQV on January 9, 1972. [ LISTEN ]

Chuck opens this segment of KQV's All Hit Winter Weekend. The new request line number is 333-9190. Also heard is Dawn, Gary U.S. Bonds, Melanie, Michael Jackson, The Carpenters, Three Dog Night (The KQV group of the year), and more. (10:12)

Of all the KQV Fun Lovers, Brinkman was there the longest (12 years), and worked in every time slot at the station: over-nights, evenings, mid-day, afternoon and morning drive time.

Brinkman moved to WTAE-AM in October of 1972 taking the mid day time slot. Chuck was appointed WTAE's music director by Bernie Armstrong in 1973. Chuck selected favorite Pittsburgh tunes for WTAE's "Solid Gold" TAE format.

Chuck left the Pittsburgh radio market in 1979 to work at KOGO in San Diego as a DJ and program director. While in San Diego he also served as a programming consultant to station WFFM 96.9 in Pittsburgh.

Brinkman returned to Pittsburgh in 1980 doing the morning drive time slot at WFFM 96.9 and also became the station's program director. The station changed its call letters to WMYG (Magic 97) in 1986. As program director of WMYG Brinkman signed Jimmy Roach and Steve Hanson to a multi-year contract and brought them back to Pittsburgh after their stint at WSHE in Flordia. Jimmy and Steve returned to the Pittsburgh airways on WMYG-FM Magic 97 on Sept 1, 1987 taking over Brinkman's morning time slot.

WMYG shifted its format from Adult Oriented hits to Classic Album Oriented Rock (AOR). Brinkman was replaced as the WMYG program director by Ron Reger in February of 1988 and became the station's operations manager.

Chuck Brinkman left WMYG in April of 1988 for a job as program director and afternoon drive DJ at KLUV-FM in Dallas. Ironically the station was owned by John Tenaglia who had hired and fired Jimmy Roach and Steve Hanson at his station WSHE-FM in Fort Lauderdale.

Brinkman spent the next 17 years playing oldies on KLUV. He left the station in December of 2005. Later, he was part owner of a Greenville, Texas rock oldies radio station KGVL-FM 1400 and did the afternoon drive show.

Chuck Brinkman died August 24, 2018. surrounded by family at his home in Plano, Texas. He was 83. Brinkman’s son, Jonathon Brinkman, said his father had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

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