Dan Daniel was born Vergil Glynn Daniel in Buffalo, Texas on December 18, 1934. "Dandy Dan" started as a disc jockey at age seventeen on Armed Forces Radio with the US Navy. His first commercial job was at KXYZ in Houston in 1955 and he then worked at WDGY in Minneapolis before making his big move to New York's WMCA in 1961.
Daniel came to WMCA just as The Good Guys were launching a decade-long duel with the Goliath of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll radio, WABC.
WMCADaniel's first broadcast at WMCA was on August 18, 1961. He started on the graveyard shift overnight but from 1962 to 1968 he played the top 40 hits from 4 pm to 7 pm — the evening drive home slot. The station produced a survey of the current sales in New York record stores and Dandy Dan gave the countdown of the week's best sellers every Wednesday.
Mr. Daniel at WMCA on April 22, 1963. [ LISTEN ] (16:42)
"Dandy Dan" moved to afternoon drive in 1963 as part of a stellar lineup that included Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector and B. Mitchel Reed. This aircheck begins with a WMCA news report.
In 1966, he participated in a tour of Africa to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Peace Corps. Then, from 1968 to 1970, he did the early morning drive-to-work slot before leaving WMCA after nine years. Dan's first show was August 18, 1961 and his last WMCA show was July 11, 1970.
Daniel was heard coast-to-coast on NBC Radio's Monitor in the summer of 1973 and was the announcer on the 1974–1975 game show The Big Showdown.
Dan was one of the personalities promoted as the "Good Guys" while working for the New York Top 40 radio station WMCA in the 1960s, when bands like The Beatles were transforming the music scene. He performed too and was the first to record the song "Is That All There Is?" He was tall (6 feet 5 inches), and his theme tune was "Big Boss Man", by Charlie Rich. Often used, was one of his catchphrases "I love you, and especially you, size 9." "Size 9" was once revealed to be his wife, Rosemary.
One technique used by Daniel was to research his audience. He felt that it was important to communicate in a personal way with them: "A deejay can be excited, use sound effects, voices, whatever. But when you talk to people, you've got to relate to them ... I make it a point to spend time with the average type of people to learn more about them ... to improve myself."
Daniel didn’t have the sharp-edged personality of a Dan Ingram, the bravado of a Murray the K, or the gimmick of a Mad Daddy.
He had an easy, relaxed tone that felt just a touch Southern. He identified himself as “Dandy Dan Daniel” or “Triple-D.”
He made listeners feel like they were in his living room, chatting and enjoying his records. It sounds easy. It’s hard. It’s a style that had been around for a while with announcers like William B. Williams, but was polished and honed in the early rock ‘n’ roll era, when fast talkers like Alan Freed, Jocko or Cousin Bruce Morrow were balanced with the smoothness of a Daniel, a Harry Harrison or a Chuck Leonard.
A WMCA montage with on air personalities heard from 1963 until 1970.
[ LISTEN ] (43:52)
[ LISTEN ] (43:52)
Dan Daniel is among the featured deejays, along with Joe O'Brien, B. Mitchel Reed, Ed Baer, Jack Spector, Gary Stevens, Dean Anthony, Lee Gray, Harry Harrison, Murray "The K" Kaufman, Frankie Crocker, Alex Bennett, and Johnny Michaels.
After WMCA turned off the music, the tall-and-handsome Daniel spent some time in television. In 1972 he hosted AM New York, a two-hour local morning television show on WABC-TV that became one of the prototypes on which Good Morning America was eventually built.
He hosted other TV shows as well, and appeared in commercials for the likes of Colgate toothpaste, Korvette’s and Chase Manhattan Bank. In his last TV ad, he drew Xs and Os on a chalkboard for a coffee-sipping Joe Montana.
Daniel liked television, but he was also glad to get back to radio. And in 1979 he resurfaced at New York’s WYNY. He played country and adult contemporary music there and at WHN until February 1996, when WYNY switched to rhythmic dance.
WYNY management let the country staff have one final weekend on the air, and Daniel served as the conductor and godfather, with other DJs talking about how much his professional style and personal friendship had meant to them.
Shortly thereafter, Daniel joined oldies WCBS-FM, playing much of the music he had played on WMCA three decades earlier. “It was a thrill for me to add him to the staff,” said former WCBS-FM program director Joe McCoy. “He was the perfect fit. I’ll always remember that infectious laugh and big smile.”
Daniel left full-time radio on Dec. 31, 2002, and made his final WCBS-FM appearance on a Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio Greats Reunion weekend in 2012.
On his last 2002 show, he played “It’s All Over Now” by the Rolling Stones and finished up by saying, “The reason I show up for work every day isn’t me. It’s you. I’m Dan Daniel and I love you a bunch, especially you, Size Nine.” He closed with Sonny and Cher’s “All I Ever Need Is You.”
WCBS-FM
40th Anniversary
40th Anniversary
Asked a while later if there was anything he never got a chance to do in radio, he said just one thing came to mind.
“I like so many kinds of music,” he said, “that I always wanted to do one freeform show, where I could play it all, anything I wanted. Radio just doesn’t work that way.”
No, it doesn’t. But what Dan Daniel did play and say left him well-remembered.
“I like so many kinds of music,” he said, “that I always wanted to do one freeform show, where I could play it all, anything I wanted. Radio just doesn’t work that way.”
No, it doesn’t. But what Dan Daniel did play and say left him well-remembered.
Dan passed away on June 21, 2016 in Larchmont, New York, after a fall the previous day. He was 81. He was survived by two sons, Chris and Paul, a daughter, Jennifer, and Size Nine.
WHERE DID DAN WORK? Here is this list: KXYZ, WDGY, WMCA, WYNY, WHN, WYNY and WCBS-FM.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Rock Radio Scrapbook, Musc Radio 77.
