Ralph Lockwood

The Birdman

When it comes to the classic Top 40 radio "one-man show" morning host, look no further than to the legendary Ralph "The Birdman" Lockwood on Montreal's 980 CKGM.

Lockwood was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania on December 10, 1939. He got his start in the broadcasting business hosting a nightly polka show in the early 1960s.

He made his Montreal radio debut in 1968 hosting AM drive at Top 40 outlet 1470 CFOX, but left in 1971 and landed a job on a morning show in West Palm Beach, Florida. Returning to Montreal in 1972, Lockwood quickly became one of the city’s top morning hosts at CKGM. His arrival on CKGM mornings was a key element in the station's unprecedented popularity and success during the '70s and signaled the beginning of the end for CFOX.

Ralph with his traffic reporter Mary Ann Carpentier, 1974

He was like a cross-between Groucho Marx, WC Fields and Don Rickles all rolled into one and he didn't have that radio disc-jockey kind of voice, he was kind of the guy at the bar telling the jokes at happy hour.

A fast-talking, cigar-smoking wisecracker, his taglines caught on with Montrealers. How’s your bird? How’s your old oiseau? That’s what she said at the Bell Canada picnic. Don’t forget to put on your Côte des Neiges.

Lockwood is behind the mic at CKGM on July 3, 1973. [ LISTEN ] (5:41)

On this aircheck, along with Ralph, veteran newsman Robert Vairo and sultry traffic reporter Terri Stacey are also featured. Hear Ralph cleverly use a fictional phone call from (then) Expos' baseball hero Boots Day to set-up his latest joke and throw it to Professor Frydock for a couple of laughs as well.

Ralph leads off during this CKGM composite from 1973. [ LISTEN ] (9:33)

Lockwood voiced his own fictional sidekicks — Professor Frydock, Dorion Smith and a caricature of Mad Dog Vachon. An early morning institution, he had a penchant for corny one-liners and double entendres — and doing his show shirtless. One morning, he played Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog over and over, claiming he had locked himself in the studio.

Bar-B-Barn

Lockwood was also known for his quirky television commercials — he donned a barrel for a Dorion Suits ad, and for the Bar-B-Barn restaurant, he devoured succulent chicken and ribs for 30 seconds without uttering a word.

He left CKGM in 1981, but remained a Montreal media mainstay.

He became CFCF radio’s afternoon show host before moving to TV as host of a daily morning show on CFCF-TV. For a time, he was also the the play-by-play caller on the Montreal Concordes’ CJAD football broadcasts, and host of a weekly football highlights show on CFCF-TV. In 1985, CKGM, hoping to revive its flagging morning show, hired Lockwood for five years at a six-figure salary. But the effort failed and Lockwood was fired in 1987.

A year later, Lockwood returned to the United States to host the morning show on WSBA, a station in York, Pennsylvania, not far from his hometown. He worked there for 11 years, going on to do radio consulting and public relations.

Although he eventually leaves Montreal to return home to Pennsylvania radio in 1988, Lockwood is still fondly remembered by all today as the master of the one-liner and of the latest groaner, always delivered with impeccable timing and often with back-up assistance from his zany cast of characters.

Mention "Ralph Lockwood" and legions of Montrealers still today recall the Birdman's daily greeting of "How's Your Bird?", which he also delivered, tongue firmly in cheek, in Greek, Italian, Polish and French.

Ralphie tried to return to Montreal to visit once a year, usually on his birthday, which he celebrated with old friends and colleagues at Montreal's legendary ribs and chicken eatery, The Bar B Barn. Let us not forget that yummy Colt cigar for breakfast either.

In an era when AM radio flourished in Montreal with a variety of legendary morning men like George Balcan, Ted Blackman et al, Lockwood was in a wacky, politically incorrect class all his own.

Ralph (right) and friend Marc Denis, 2014

In a 2002 interview with the Montreal Gazette, Lockwood said: “I miss radio like crazy — except when I listen to where it’s going, with all the bitching and complaining. I saw it as a nice vehicle for entertaining people. I made it like a bubble. It was my escape. And, geez, I miss the Bar-B-Barn.”

Lockwood died on January 12, 2020. He was 80 years old.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Montreal Gazzette, Rock Radio Scrapbook.

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Les Marshak

Les Marshak was born on July 7, 1948 in Toledo, Ohio.

When broadcasting professionals hear the name "Les Marshak", the first image they have is of one of the top voice-over artists in broadcasting today. Les has been the voice for the academy awards, for NBC Sports, for Macy's commercials and for hundreds of other commercials and events. He's also been the voice of the Tony Awards for many years. You've probably heard him much more than you realize. Les started out in radio... at WABC! Not everyone can start at the top, but Les did.

Radio and TV were passions of Les since his childhood. He attended many live radio & TV shows during the 1950's and fantasized about becoming an announcer. From the early days of Buffalo Bob Smith and the Howdy Doody Show to listening to play by play announcers, especially Mel Allen. Les impersonated many of the top on-air stars. So, in the spring of 196l, when he heard about the WABC Star Search, He jumped right in when he was a sophomore student majoring in pharmacy at Columbia University and wasn't thrilled with making suppositories and nearly blowing up the organic chemistry lab.

The Star Search began as a WABC promotion whereby listeners could watch for a mobile unit to visit their neighborhood and then audition. That, for some reason, didn't work out for the station. So, they invited listeners to send in a postcard if they were interested in auditioning in the DJ, musician, or singer category, and his card was one of about 1000 selected. Auditions were scheduled at the ABC Television studio at W. 66th Street. It involved a couple of pages of commercial and promotional copy with some ad libbing.

Les was a wreck for the next few weeks waiting for the announcement. With so many entrants, his chance of winning was quite slim. Also, my already jaded sense told me that a nephew or good friend of management would cop the big prize. A few weeks later he received a telegram stating that he was one of 12 finalists and an interview scheduled for all of us. After the interview, the heart-pounding really began. No news, no word at all for a few weeks. Then on a weeknight in July, a phone call from a man with a gravelly voice. He said it was Scott Muni, and there was Les on the air hearing that he'd won the Star Search!

Scott Muni calls Les on the air in July, 1961 [ LISTEN ] (3:02) and Les announcing more Star Seach winners. [ LISTEN ] (00:53)

When the dust settled, and more telegrams arrived from family and friends, Les found myself living a schizoid life of pharmacy student during the week - and radio personality - on the weekend. First on air assignment: a live broadcast with Muni from Freedomland. His whole family was in the audience watching him in his newly acquired red WABC blazer.

LES & SCOTT MUNI
Live from Freedomland July, 1961
[ LISTEN ] (8:39)

Les assisted Scott on the air for a few months from Freedomland, then in the studio at 39 W. 66th St. reporting on High School football and basketball scores. Then Cousin Brucie, a young legend was hired to do late evenings. He took a liking to Les and put him to work assisting him and appearing at times at Palisades Amusement Park. Ironically, years later he would marry Les's wife's best friend, and they all became very close.

With Leslie Gore

Meanwhile, Les was given a title of Youth Director of WABC Radio and helped out on various promotions. he finished college and jumped right out of his lab coat and back into the studio. He wanted as much experience as he could get so he took a job as announcer at Radio NY Worldwide, a short-wave operation with studios in NYC where he did everything including news, celebrity interviews and every conceivable music format. But his real dream was to get back to WABC with his own show.

In 1969, Les auditioned and won a spot as a summer-relief staff announcer at ABC surrounded by a sea of veteran guys (Milton Cross, Carl Caruso, Joel Crager, etc.). His main assignment was doing overnight news at WABC Radio with Charlie Greer and then Roby Yonge. The rest is pretty well known, and a classic case of being at the right place at the right time. Roby deviated from the format, and took calls live regarding the "Paul McCartney is dead" rumors. He was summarily let go on the spot and for a while Les inherited the all night show. He found out what it was like to read 6 live Dennison Clothes spots every hour for 6 hours.

Here's Les on WABC in October, 1969. [ LISTEN ] (11:41)

It's midnight and Les kicks things off The All Night Music Power show with The Foundations and Bobby Sherman, The National Institue of Mental Health reminds us that marijuana is illegal! Three weeks at #1 The Archies Sugar Sugar and then it's Andy Kim's chart debut. A message from the U.S. Department of Labor, and a Dennison's Clothier commercial. And much more on this scoped aircheck.

Les went on to work in New York City radio at WPIX-FM for seven years. He did the morning show at WPIX-FM until 1977. By that time he had so much voiceover work that he decided to concentrate on that career.

Les & Cousin Brucie
then and now

He had started by doing production pieces for the station and then picking up spots for record companies and commercials that were taped at the station. He also occasionally appeared on WCBS-FM. In addition, he assisted his good friend Cousin Bruce Morrow on the "Variety Children's Telethon" each year. But, mostly, it is Les' voice that you hear, almost everywhere.

He was the announcer for the Tony Awards for 21 consecutive years and did the Academy Awards in 1992, ’94 and ’96.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Music Radio 77

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Bobby Dale

Bobby Dale was born Robert Dale Bastiansen in Minneapolis. After a series of "weird jobs," he started in radio at age 25 in Glendive, Montana. From the very beginning, Bobby knew he had an uncanny knack to pick hit records and he loved music.

Bobby went on to KOIL in Omaha, where he replaced Gary Owens and then to KDWB in Minneapolis. In 1961, the disc jockeys at KFWB went out on strike in sympathy for the newsmen. Management and Crowell-Collier sister station jocks were called. Bobby worked his 6-to-9 p.m. shift in Minneapolis, got on an airplane to Los Angeles and was on the air in B. Mitch Reed's shift the next night. (Reed flew to Minneapolis to replace Dale.)

"Big 610 Men", Class of 1966. From left: Royce Johnson, Mike Phillips, Bobby Dale, Steve O'Shea, Howard Clark, Ed Mitchell, Glenn Adams.

Bobby's infamous vibe is on display at KEWB on August 4, 1963. [ LISTEN ] (13:47)

For a brief time Bobby worked at KFWB's sister station, KEWB, in the Bay Area and then returned to the Southland to work at KRLA. According to Dale, that was the biggest he ever was in L.A. He played the Rolling Stones like the others were playing the Beatles. He was huge.

July 11, 1966
[ LISTEN ] (22:29)...

...and another, July, 1966
[ LISTEN ] (9:15)

He also worked at the legendary MOR station, KSFO San Francisco, in the late 1960s and for four more years beginning in 1971. During his years in San Francisco, he hung out with Tom Donahue in North Beach. He claimed to have taken Donahue on his first acid trip. In the mid-1970's, Dale did weekend shows at KSAN. In the early 1980s he worked at KTIM, The Big Band Blend, in San Rafael. Then back to San Francisco to work at KKCY "The City". He gave up radio as a full-time profession in the early 1990's. From time to time he appeared on the KSAN tribute series Jive Radio on University of San Francisco campus station, KUSF.

The KDWB Seven Swingin’ Gentlemen, 1960: Randy Cook, Dick Halverson, Bobby Dale, Sam Sherwood, Bob Friend, Lou Riegert, Hal Murray.

In 1992 he lost his voice and an operation on his nodules was required. In preparation for the operation, it was discovered that he had diabetes, a heart problem and cirrhosis of the liver. A doctor told him that if he had one more drink or one more cigarette, he would die.

So he quit smoking and drinking and worked on improving his health. For much of the last half of the 1990s, he worked with youngsters at a pre-school in San Rafael and volunteered at a shelter that helped the homeless.

1960-61

Chuck Blore was the Program Director at KFWB who brought Bobby from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, where he brought a whole new color to Color Radio with a quiet wit, and with giant talent.

Bobby had a jazz soul, a love of music ranging from pop to blues, folk & jazz. He loved breaking away from Top 40 and into the freedom he found at KSFO on the all-night shift and at KSAN and KOFY. But even at Top 40, he was always his own guy, totally improv and off-the-wall, doing WC Fields/Lord Buckley-inspired riffs, goofing with live spots, and being so unpredictable that Chuck Blore once called him the worst DJ he'd ever heard, and then, months later, hearing him again, declaring him one of the best.

KGBS PD Ron Martin gave him virtually free reign in his choice of music on his show, because Ron knew, as did we all that Bobby was a better judge than anybody of what to play at night. One night Bobby put on some song that was pressed off center. About a third of the way through it, he got pissed, opened the mike, took the record off, smashed it on the turntable and said: 'If the record distributors can't send out a quality product and have more respect for their artists, don't send us anything at all, this is garbage.' He was playing Beginnings off the Chicago album before anyone else would touch it. When KRLA put it on their playlist, Bobby dropped it. He would play a song until it went commercial, then he'd go on to something else.

With Normi 1968

When the GM at KGBS started putting 'guidelines' down for his show, he said he was leaving, and he did. For those that never heard Bobby Dale, you really missed one of the true personalities of Los Angeles radio.

He is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Top 100 Disc Jockeys. He is given credit for breaking a national hit, Phil Spector's To Know Him Is To Love Him by the Teddy Bears out of Fargo, North Dakota. He also had a major role is exposing Mickey Newbury and his music to the world. Don Sherwood once called him, "the Disc Jockey's Disc Jockey."

Bobby Dale succumbed to liver cancer on January 17, 2001, in San Rafael, only three weeks after he was diagnosed. He was 69. Bobby was survived by his wife, Norma Dale of San Rafael and their two sons, Joey and Tommy, and John Bridell, a son from a former marriage.

WHERE DID BOBBY WORK? Here is the list: KDWB, KEWB, KFRC, KFWB, KGBS, KKCY, KOFY, KRLA, KSAN, and KSFO.

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

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Duff Roman

Duff Roman is the former on-air name of David Mostoway who was born 1938 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. He is best known as a Canadian radio personality and executive.

He worked as an on-air personality for a variety of radio stations in Western Canada before moving to Toronto, Ontario, where he became most famously associated with CHUM-FM. He was promoted to program director of the station in 1974, and to operations manager of the station in 1984. As operations manager, he oversaw the station's transition to an adult contemporary program format which made it the most listened-to station in the Toronto radio market. In the 1990s he became vice-president of industry affairs for CHUM Limited.

Roman is doing a remote broadcast at Speed Sport '68 on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition on January 27, 1968. [ LISTEN ] (52:30)

DUFF'S ROMAN EMPIRE

During the 1990s, he served as chairman of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and oversaw Digital Radio Research, a joint consortium of the CAB and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to review and develop policy around the emergence and development of digital radio in Canada.

He was the head of Roman Records, an independent record label most noted for releasing early singles by The Hawks, The Paupers and David Clayton-Thomas. He was also a producer of recordings for the label, credited as David Mostoway. One of the bands that he managed were The Paupers.

Roman was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 2006. He was also named by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as the winner of the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the Juno Awards in March, 2019 for his contributions to the Canadian music industry.

The Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award recognizes individuals whose work has significantly impacted the growth and development of the Canadian music industry. The prestigious award is named after Walt Grealis, legendary Canadian publisher and music industry leader. The 2019 award was presented to Duff at the 48th Annual JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards on Saturday, March 16 at the London Convention Centre in London, Ontario.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: FYI Music News.

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