Johnny Canton

Born October 4th, 1941, in Kansas City, Kansas, Johnny Canton was one of the indisputably most popular disk jockeys of the 1960s at WDGY in the Twin Cities. Johnny claimed that the first "rock and roll" record he ever heard over the radio was either by Chuck Berry or Little Richard, on a late night 15-minute program aired on a station in Shreveport, Louisiana.

At age 16 Johnny made his on air debut as a DJ on May 8, 1958. The first record he played on the show was “Yakety Yak” by The Coasters. Johnny was the host of a one hour Saturday afternoon show that featured rock’n’roll music (sponsored by a local record store), the only time slot for rock music amidst the radio station’s softer Hit Parade programming. Johnny worked the weekend shift at KLEX and worked Saturdays from 1:00 PM until sign-off and Sundays from Noon until sign-off.

Canton's broadcasting journey took him to stations in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Rochester, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and the Twin Cities, in Minnesota. In addition to being an on-air personality he has been a Program Director, News Director and Music Director at various stations.

As a kid with his wooden microphone.

Beginning in June of 1959 at KOKO, Johnny hosted a Saturday evening Top-40 show from 6:00 to 10:00 PM.

The stations mainstays were The Four Freshmen, Peggy Lee, Perry Como and similar artists. Johnny was on the air weekdays from 7:00 AM until 12:30 PM, then went to classes at Central Missouri State College from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM and then it was back to KOKO for a second shift from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. At college, Johnny took taking classes in theater, speech, and drama and also helped put the college radio station on the air.

In late 1960 at KZIX Johnny is once again at a new radio station, this time with no air time allotted for rock’n’roll music. The station played the Kingston Trio, Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, and similar artists. Johnny became the news director and then program director, as well as being an on air personality.

In the WDGY studio circa July 1970.

In 1961 Johnny landed a gig at WNOW in York, Pennsylvania - his first job at a radio station with a Top-40 format - and also became the program director as well as being an on air personality.

In August, 1961 WRAW was a newly purchased radio station by Bill Rust (who also owned WNOW) and was in third place in the local radio stations when Canton came to work for them as a DJ and as program director. He switched the format to Top-40 with all on air personalities and in 90 days the station moved from third place to first place in the local ratings.

Between 1963 and 1966 Johnny worked as an on air personality and program director at both KUDL in Kansas City, Missouri and WIXY in Cleveland Ohio. Sandwiched between was a stint at WHAM in Rochester NY between June, 1964 and December, 1965.

At WIXY with the Beatles in 1966.

During the height of Beatlemania at WIXY the station was playing one song by The Beatles for every three songs played. On August 14, 1966, Johnny added his name to a very small and very elite group of people who had the once in a lifetime opportunity to introduce The Beatles at one of their concerts in the United States.

The show was held at the Cleveland Stadium and including opening acts: The Remains; The Cyrkle; The Ronettes; and Bobby Hebb. A local businessman provided a custom made mobile home that was set up right behind the stage near second base as a “holding room” for The Beatles. In the mobile home, Johnny got to visit with The Beatles and their manager, Brian Epstein, prior to the concert.

While working at WIXY, Johnny received a phone call from George “Bud” Armstrong, Executive Vice President of Broadcasting for Storz Broadcasting. George advised Johnny to contact WDGY Radio in Minneapolis where there was going to be an opening. Johnny called WDGY and talked to Phil Trammel, the GM, and was offered a job over the phone. He accepted, and soon after departed Cleveland, Ohio and relocated to Minnesota.

Johnny started out as music director and on air personality and took over the Noon to 3:00 PM afternoon shift (formerly occupied by Johnny Dollar).

With John Denver (& wife Annie) in '71.

Canton also appeared as the M.C. in the Joe Cocker film, “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” also partially filmed in the Twin Cities.

In 1968, Johnny received a Radio-TV Mirror Magazine Award for radio Personality of the month. Johnny Canton, along with other DJ’s at the station supported the local rock bands, a tradition that went back to DJ Bill Diehl during his tenure at the station.

In 1969, Johnny was selected to play a minor role of a ticket agent in the Ross Hunter/Universal Film “Airport” which was partially filmed in Minneapolis.

Johnny played the records of the local bands on the air and worked as an emcee at local band jobs including shows at the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the PromCenter, the Bel Rae Ballroom, and numerous other venues including events for the Minneapolis Aquatennial.

30 Star 1970

May 11, 1969

Johnny is behind the mic at WDGY. [ LISTEN ] (31:24)

The broadcast includes a 20/20 news, weather, and sports report.

In addition to working with the local bands, Johnny also brought in national talent and emceed their shows. National acts that Johnny brought to the Twin Cities were Aretha Franklin, Tiny Tim, Dionne Warwick, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sonny Bono, and for Christmas shows, Andy Williams and Roger Miller.

A WDGY scoped aircheck with Johnny on June 4, 1973. [ LISTEN ] (12:35)

Hear the WeeGee $10,000 Record Stash promo and Johnny ply "1130 Caret Gold." This is the place where "it pays to listen." Johnny's also does a brief Art Fern imitation.

Also during his years at WDGY, Johnny was known for interviewing many famous musicians, in person and over the “Hit Line” including: Andy Williams, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Helen Reddy, Tony Orlando, Frankie Valli, Neil Sedaka, and Bette Midler.

Here is Johnny interviewing John Lennon on October 8, 1974 [ LISTEN ] (15:14)

Lennon discusses his new album along with singing background for Ringo and Elton John. Black recording artists have always influenced John's music. He blames the break up of the Beatles on - boredom and lack of musical creativity - more than anything else. But it's quite possible that they could record together again. In closing John records two WDGY promos.

In early 1977, WDGY hired a new program director and General Manager Dale Weber decided to switch the Top-40 format to country music. In December of 1977 the Top-40 format came to an end and all of the employees were let go. Johnny was offered a job as Executive Vice President for Metropolitan Advertising which worked in print and broadcasting. This job led to the formation of Canton Communications, Inc. in 1978, an ad agency and radio-TV production firm, still operating in the Twin Cities.

Sadly, Johnny passed away on December 31, 2016, after suffering a severe stroke. Johnny Canton was a Twin Cities icon and a genuinely nice guy.

Some materials used on this page were originally published by the following: MinniePaulMusic, Radio Tapes, Vintage Pics, Twin Cities Radio Airchecks.

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Casey Kasem

Casey Kasem was born Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, of Lebanese descent. Kasem grew up wanting to become a professional baseball player, but at Detroit's Northwestern High School, he turned to what would become a lifelong pursuit when he joined the school's radio club.

In the 1940s, "Make Believe Ballroom" reportedly inspired Kasem to follow a career in radio and later host a national radio hits countdown show. Kasem received his first experience in radio covering sports at Northwestern High School in Detroit. He then went to Wayne State University for college. While at Wayne State, he voiced children on radio programs such as The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon. In 1952, Kasem was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Korea. There, he worked as a DJ/announcer on the Armed Forces Radio Korea Network.

After the war, Kasem began his professional broadcasting career in Flint, Michigan. From there, he spent time in Detroit as a disc jockey for radio station WJBK-AM (and doing such shows as The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon); WYSL in Buffalo, New York; and a station in Cleveland before moving to California. At KYA in San Francisco, the general manager first suggested he tone down his 'platter patter' and talk about the records instead. Kasem demurred at first, because it was not what was normally expected in the industry at that time. At KEWB in Oakland, Kasem was both the music director and on-air personality.

KRLA circa 1969.

He created a show which mixed in biographical tidbits about the artists' records he played, and attracted the attention of Bill Gavin who tried to recruit him as a partner. After Kasem joined KRLA in Los Angeles in 1963, his career really started to blossom and he championed the R&B music of East L.A.

Kasem earned roles in a number of low-budget movies and acted on radio dramas. While hosting "dance hops" on local television, he attracted the attention of Dick Clark who as a producer hired him to co-host a daily teenage music show called Shebang in 1964.

Casey in The Glory Stompers.

Kasem appeared in network TV series including Hawaii Five-O and Ironside. In 1967, Kasem appeared on The Dating Game, and played the role of "Mouth" in the motorcycle gang film The Glory Stompers.

Casey is playing records at KRLA on June 16, 1967. [ LISTEN ] (8:51).

In 1969, he played the role of "Knife" in the "surfers vs. bikers" film Wild Wheels, and had a small role in another biker movie, The Cycle Savages, starring Bruce Dern and Melody Patterson. Kasem's voice was, however, always the key to his career. At the end of the 1960s, he began working as a voice actor. In 1969, he started one of his most famous roles, the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! He also voiced the drummer Groove from The Cattanooga Cats that year.

In 1964, Kasem had a minor hit single called "Letter From Elaina". A spoken-word recording, it told the story of a girl who met George Harrison after a San Francisco concert.

On July 4, 1970, Kasem, along with Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs, launched the weekly radio program American Top 40 (AT40). At the time, top 40 radio was on the decline as DJs preferred to play album-oriented progressive rock. Loosely based on the TV program Your Hit Parade, the show counted down from #40 on the pop charts to #1—the first #1 was Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)"—based on the Billboard Hot 100 each week.

The show, however, was not just about the countdown. Kasem mixed in biographical information about the artists, flashback, and "long-distance dedication" segments where he read letters written by listeners to dedicate songs of their choice to far away loved ones.

Over time, there were all kinds of Casey dedications. A teenage girl wrote to scold singer-actor Leif Garrett for reading "Playboy" magazine, and Casey played "Does Your Mother Know" by Abba. Another girl dedicated "Babe" to the Raggedy Andy doll she'd had since age two and told Casey, "I'll make sure he's sitting by the radio." A couple in New Zealand were reunited thanks to the song "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray...and would name their daughter after Casey. A mother wrote to dedicate "Tragedy" because the Bee Gees' song helped her young daughter overcome a fear of thunderstorms.

He often included trivia facts about songs he played and artists whose work he showcased. Frequently, he mentioned a trivia fact about an unnamed singer before a commercial break, then provided the name of the singer after returning from the break. Kasem ended the program with his signature sign-off, "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

AMERICAN TOP 40
June 26, 1971
[ Part 1 ] (1:18:06) [ Part 2 ] (1:08:52)

The show debuted on seven stations, but on the back of Kasem's "always friendly and upbeat" baritone voice it soon went nationwide. In October 1978, the show expanded from three hours a week to four. American Top 40's success spawned several imitators including a weekly half-hour music video television show, America's Top 10, hosted by Kasem himself.

Due to his great knowledge of music, Kasem became known as not just a disc jockey, but also a music historian.

At one point, the show was broadcast to more than 1,000 radio stations worldwide. Also emerging from the show was what would become Kasem's signature sign-off message: "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars." American Top 40 ran for nearly two decades, ending in 1988.

The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant

In 1971, Kasem provided the character voice of Peter Cottontail in the Rankin/Bass production of Here Comes Peter Cottontail. In the same year, he appeared in the low-budget film The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant, in what was probably his best remembered acting role. From 1973 until 1985, he voiced Robin on several Super Friends franchise shows. In 1980, he voiced Merry in The Return of the King. He also voiced Alexander Cabot III on Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, and supplied a number of voices for Sesame Street.

In 1988, Kasem left American Top 40 due to a contract dispute with ABC Radio Network. He signed a five-year, $15 million contract with Westwood One and started Casey's Top 40. He also hosted two shorter versions of the show: Casey's Hot 20 and Casey's Countdown. During the late 1990s, Kasem played host to the Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

With wife Jean at star ceremony.

Kasem was granted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame radio division in 1985, and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1992. Five years later, he received the Radio Hall of Fame's first Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, Kasem was given the Radio Icon award at the Radio Music Awards.

On June 15, 2014, Kasem passed away at St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor, Washington at the age of 82.

Some materials found on this page were originally published on the following: Wikipedia, The Internet Archive.

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Alison Steele

Alison Steele was an American radio personality, writer, television producer, correspondent, and entrepreneur who was also known by her air name, The Nightbird. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Steele was born Ceil Loman on January 26, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York City. She had two sisters, Joyce and Emalie Daniel. She had wished for a career in show business at three years of age. At fourteen, she landed a job running errands for a local television station, and opted not to study at university as she was "too impatient". She married, at nineteen, to orchestra leader and radio and television host Ted Steele who was twenty years her senior. The marriage ended in divorce. The couple had a daughter, Heather, born in South Dakota.

In the 1950s, Steele had worked on her career to become an production assistant and associate producer for various New York City television and radio stations. Among them was Ted Steele's television show, The Ted Steele Show, on WWOR-TV, where she hosted interviews and performed fitness routines that encouraged viewers to take part in. Ted was still married to his second wife Doris at the time.

On July 4, 1966, Steele landed her first radio job when she became a part of the new line-up of disc jockeys for the newly launched rock station, WNEW.

Klavin & Finch introduce Alison and “The Girls” at WNEW-FM on July 4, 1966. [ LISTEN ] (1:57)

An aircheck introducing the girls: Ann Clements, Alison Steele, Arlene Kieta and Margaret Draper.

The station wished to only hire female air staff at first as part of its middle of the road format it marketed "sexpot radio", with Steele chosen as one of the final four selected out of the 800 women that applied. Steele worked the 2–7pm slot, Sunday through Friday. When WNEW abandoned the format after the eighteen-month trial to the increasingly popular progressive rock format, Steele was the only host that was asked to stay at the station.

According to Jimi Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffery, the song "Night Bird Flying", recorded by him and released posthumously on the album, The Cry Of Love, was inspired by Allison's late night Manhattan radio program.
[ LISTEN ] to Jimi and his band. (2:09)

Alison Steele, February 11, 1969 (62:08) The Nightbird, doing her flight till dawn, setting up musical moods and motifs that were suitable to late-night radio in the psychedelic sixties. Part 1 (29:14) | Part 2 (32:54)

Alison was a striking redhead

On January 1, 1968, WNEW placed Steele in the overnight "graveyard shift" which granted her more creative freedom, leading her to develop her personality and rapport with her listeners.

"I thought there must be a lot of people ... that need something to relate to in the middle of the night, and if I could create some kind of camaraderie, a relationship between myself and the rest of the night people, then it would be more than just music". She thought of a new air name, based on the gender ("bird" being slang for a girl) and her night owl hours of work, and chose The Nightbird.

Steele would begin her night show by reciting poetry over music, before introducing her show in her distinctive soft and sultry voice, aided by her preference of smoking small cigars. She often hosted with her dog, a French poodle named Genya.

Her introduction was: "The flutter of wings, the shadow across the moon, the sounds of the night, as the Nightbird spreads her wings and soars, above the earth, into another level of comprehension, where we exist only to feel. Come, fly with me, Alison Steele, the Nightbird, at WNEW-FM, until dawn."

She then made a transition to recordings of some of the more exceptional and experimental music being recorded at the time, as well as featuring the best of the familiar favorites of her audience. As well as music, Steele also recited poetry.

The wonder and beauty of WNEW-FM’s format was that the DJ’s were far more than disc jockeys. While playing music, they also spoke to the listener. They commented on current events. They read poetry. They told stories.

Vintage WNEW and Alison Steele from the prime years of commercial free form radio in New York. The first clip is from September 6 1972 and the second from July 11 1975. The music is fantastic as Alison plays King Crimson, The Nice , The Moody Blues and more.

February 17, 1974

She was a supporter and promoter of the English rock bands Yes, Genesis, and The Moody Blues. By 1974, she had over 100,000 listeners at any given average quarter hour of her show, and hosted a syndicated rock radio show to 600 stations nationwide, a radio show for women, and a cable television talk show.

According to Jimi Hendrix's manager Michael Jeffery, the song "Night Bird Flying", recorded by Hendrix and released posthumously on the album The Cry of Love (1971), was inspired by Steele's show. Steele also became known as The Grande Dame of New York Night.

By 1971, Steele had acquired approximately 78,000 nightly listeners, with the majority being men between age of 18 and 34.

Away from radio, Steele also did charity work and was a member of the board of the New York City chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation, worked for the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, and was on the credit committee of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

"The Tea House" featuring Alison Steele with Lou Reed c.1973

This piece seems to be sponsored by an organization that encourages people to drink tea, although no organization or sponsor is actually mentioned. Or, perhaps Alison thought it was simply an interesting concept. In either case, this complete but very short aircheck is of Alison interviewing Lou Reed. It's unknown if this every played on WNEW-FM. [ LISTEN ] (3:02)

At one point, Steele served as the station's music director. In 1976, Steele became the first woman to receive a Billboard Award for FM Personality of the Year, and the magazine also named an award in her honour, The Alison Steele Award for Lifetime Achievement, which was awarded to Casey Kasem in 1997.

February 14, 1977.

After her departure from WNEW, Steele focused her career around television and writing. From 1982 to 1984, she was the announcer for the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and produced/corresponded for Limelight on CNN.

In 1984, Steele returned to radio on WNEW–AM which lasted until 1986. For a number of years, Steele was also the disc jockey for the pop/rock in-flight audio entertainment channel on board Trans World Airlines.

Here is a generous portion of another classic WNEW-FM broadcast dated October 18, 1982. Alison's popularity coninued to generate a loyal listening audience. [ LISTEN ] (49:54)

Larry Fine at Woodstock

Steele's final radio job was working overnights at WXRK from 1989 to 1995. She also did some work for VH1, as well as running the cat boutique Just Cats with her sister in Manhattan.

Steele did much voice-over work for radio and television commercials, and she provided the narration for one of Howard Stern's most popular radio bits, "Larry Fine at Woodstock", featuring impressionist Billy West.

Alison once said to explain her popularity, "I've never called in sick; I've worked hard and built my own following."

Unfortunately in June 1995, Steele was forced to leave WXRK due to a serious illness. She died from stomach cancer on September 27, 1995 in New York City. She was only 58 years old. In addition to her sister Joyce, she was survived by a daughter, Heather Steele, another sister, Emalie Daniel, and a granddaughter.

"The flutter of wings, the sounds of the night, the shadow across the moon, as the Nightbird lifts her wings and soars above the earth into another level of comprehension, where we exist only to feel. Come fly with me, Alison Steele, the Nightbird..." With these words Alison Steele began her overnight radio show on WNEW-FM in New York City.

"Flying"

Alison always ended her shows with The Beatles instrumental song, "Flying", over which she would say her goodbye message.

Some materials used on this page were originally published on the following: Woodstock Whisperer, New York Radio Archive, Paul Scelzo-Youtube.

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