His move to the United States in 1963 began with a stop in Providence, Rhode Island where he was the evening then afternoon-drive host for Top 40 powerhouse WPRO. In early 1965, he accepted the challenge of putting Beautiful Music WRTH-St. Louis on the air, and by year's end was back to Top 40 as the evening host of Cleveland's new WIXY.
Uncle Sam required Bob's services for the U.S. Army during the Viet Nam conflict, interrupting his commercial radio career but not his involvement in media. He became Chief of Radio/TV for the Army's III Corps, was a writer and editor for Fort Hood's weekly newspaper, created a daily radio show for central Texas soldiers, and moonlighted as the weekend sportscaster, fill-in news anchor and fill-in weather forecaster on the local NBC-TV affiliate, KCEN. It was there in 1966 that he also created, produced and hosted a weekly "American Bandstand" type show that featured local high school students dancing to the top hits of the day plus live, local band performances.
In February of 1968 following the competition of his military duty, Bob accepted an offer to be the evening host and music director of 50,000-watt Top 40 station, WPTR in Albany, New York. It was done with all parties understanding that the stay would be short, just long enough for him to get back on his feet again after being away from commercial radio for two years.
After six months in New York's capital district, Bob moved to Top 40 WKNR-Detroit as its new evening host. He began 1969 by being promoted to the station's morning-drive slot and stayed there for more than a year, consistently top 3 or 4 in the ratings, until the station was sold and the air staff dismissed by the new owners.
In the spring of 1970, Bob took a temporary position with Adult Contemporary WIND-Chicago with their management's knowledge that he was in line to join the air staff of another radio station in the city in the near future. Seven weeks later, in July of 1970, he began a six-year run at "the Voice Of Labor," Chicago's legendary Top 40 station, WCFL.
It's August 28, 1971 and WCFL's nightime jock is Bob Dearborn. Bob was one of the top reasons folks tuned in to the "Big 10." [ LISTEN ] (9:51)
In his six years at WCFL, Dearborn started on overnights in July of 1970, went to late-night a few months later, where he did the American Pie analysis. It’s been said that Dearborn’s analysis of American Pie received nearly as much airplay as the song itself, and the story behind his analysis is as interesting as the song.
There was, immediate, lightning response to McLean’s clever six-verse song. That prompted Dearborn to put his thoughts about McLean’s many metaphors on paper. He shared some of them on the air with his WCFL listeners, which produced an increasing number of phone calls and questions.
Finally, he offered to send copies of his five-page interpretation to those listeners who wrote to him requesting it. WCFL’s mailroom was buried with tens of thousands of letters. It took a team of people several weeks to handle them all. WCFL soon produced a 30-minute American Pie special that featured Dearborn’s full analysis.
Soon Dearborn was famous in his own right. Local, national and international news media outlets wanted his story. By then, more than 100,000 printed copies had been sent to all parts of the world. Before long, Dearborn was taking his famous review into broadcast syndication. He also appeared on the "CBS Evening News" to talk about the "Pie" and analysis phenomena, and expanded on those thoughts for a U.S. Information Agency TV special that was shown in 104 countries.
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Finally, he offered to send copies of his five-page interpretation to those listeners who wrote to him requesting it. WCFL’s mailroom was buried with tens of thousands of letters. It took a team of people several weeks to handle them all. WCFL soon produced a 30-minute American Pie special that featured Dearborn’s full analysis.
Soon Dearborn was famous in his own right. Local, national and international news media outlets wanted his story. By then, more than 100,000 printed copies had been sent to all parts of the world. Before long, Dearborn was taking his famous review into broadcast syndication. He also appeared on the "CBS Evening News" to talk about the "Pie" and analysis phenomena, and expanded on those thoughts for a U.S. Information Agency TV special that was shown in 104 countries.
A friend who'd become program director of Adult Contemporary WDAE-Tampa invited Bob to get out of those awful northern winters and become his station's new morning host in 1976. He did, and was quickly voted "Top DJ in Tampa Bay" in a local newspaper poll.
When he was doing mornings by himself in late 1972, it marked the first time WCFL ever beat WLS (the station's chief nemesis) in morning-drive. To be fair, Super 'CFL really was super -- they were #1 in every daypart except morning drive, where Dearborn was #2 behind Wally Phillips on WGN. "World Famous" Tom Murphy was added to the morning show in early 1973. When the team concept failed, it was decided to break up the team, have Tom stay on mornings and send Dearborn back to middays where he had had 20 shares in the summer of '72.
And that's where he stayed until March 15, 1976, when WCFL abandoned contemporary music for a "Beautiful Music" format. Dearborn was offered the morning-drive and operations manager at the new WCFL, but refused it.
At friend Larry O'Brien's suggestion, Dearborn left the Florida Suncoast's 1250 WDAE for Pittsburgh's 1250 WTAE to host the afternoon drive-time show - bookend to the highly successful O'Brien & Garry morning show.
Bob at the WTAE studio in 1977.Dearborn remained in Florida for most of 1980 as General Manager of cable channel WPAT-TV in St. Petersburg and wrote a weekly, syndicated, showbiz column that appeared in a number of Florida newspapers.
Night Time America, the first live, daily, nationally-syndicated satellite-delivered music and call-in show in the U.S.The first "Night Time America" show was on the early morning of January 2, 1981, and Dearborn was hired to be the host/producer.The show was live from studios in mid-town Manhattan five nights a week, Tuesday morning through Saturday morning.
It was heard in major markets, too, including Pittsburgh (FM 97, then WTAE), Chicago, Detroit, Houston, St. Louis, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, Cincinnati, Memphis, New Orleans, Hartford and Denver. Bob remained with NTA until the end of 1984 when the punishing hours and schedule convinced him to not extend his expiring contract.
Dearborn joined three friends in radio station ownership for the remainder of the 1980s. They owned ten stations, AM-FM combos in Portland, Maine; Utica, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Knoxville, Tennessee; and in Nashville, Tennessee where they lived and set up their national headquarters.
After the partners sold off the stations and went their separate ways, Bob returned to on-air work, first for WJJD-Chicago for five years. Then it was off to the Pacific Northwest for mornings at the Oldies station in Portland and five years at Soft Oldies KIXI in Seattle where he was the station's program director and music director as well as being on the air.
Bob's parents in Canada became quite ill in late 1999. Feeling there was no other choice, Dearborn resigned from KIXI and moved his family back to Canada to care for his mother and father during whatever time they had left. His mother passed away five weeks after their arrival, his dad lived until March, 2002.
A return to Chicago and hosting afternoons at Oldies WJMK followed. In the spring of 2003, Dearborn was offered the morning-drive host position at the Adult Standards radio station in Toronto, CHWO. Reluctant to leave Chicago but seeing the opportunity to take his life and career full circle, he accepted their offer, and stayed until the station's financial problems led them to reduce expenses "in order to survive" by dismissing several staff-members, Bob included.
The Dearborns returned to Pittsburgh in 2004 and stayed until the summer of 2007, but it had nothing to do with radio. Mary Ann, Bob's wife and a Pittsburgh native, wanted to be near her ailing sister who was battling cancer at the time. After that battle was won, Bob and Mary Ann returned to Ontario to be near their daughter and granddaughter.
Settling in the southwestern part of the province and begrudgingly accepting the idea of retirement, Bob "fell into" a morning host job at the local community radio station, Gold-based Soft AC formatted CKWR. That lasted for two years (click here) and the experience left him wanting more. But the radio landscape is as bleak as he's ever seen it and particularly hostile to listeners over the age of 40 as well as to the broadcasters who know how to serve and appeal to them. Still, he hopes one day he'll again be able to feel and be a part of "The Magic Of Radio."
As Bob used to say at the end of each of his WTAE shows, "That's all the Bob Dearborn there is until tomorrow afternoon at 2:00. Thank you ... for attending the services here this afternoon. Young Johnny Williams is next ... with more of Pittsburgh's FAYYY-vorite music! (whispered) Hey! I ... love ... you, Pittsburgh."
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L to R: As Mark Allen in 1963 at WIXY in Cleveland. At WCFL in 1970. WTAE in 1977. At NTA in 1981. WJJD c.1994. CHWO in Toronto in 2003.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Jeff Roteman's Radioville.
