Chris Bailey? WNAP?

[history]

I remember things that either nobody else does, or they totally forgot about until I bring it up. I wrote Chris Conner awhile back and told him that my fondest memory of Him at the Buzzard was one night in the Winter of '81 he stunted the station by playing 4 hours of Chris Bailey when Bailey did a stint at WNAP back in 1969. He played an actual show that was aired in 1969. Bailey was simply awesome. I was struck by his ability. During the commercials breaks Conner did some "organic classifieds" (something the station had done before) and read cars people had for sale, clothes people had to give away,etc. When he was finished, it was back to Chris Bailey.

Chris Conner told me he doesn't remember ever doing that, and he has never heard of a Chris Bailey.

We didn't hear from Chief Engineer on this one, so...

The blogger formerly known as Hot Coffee (brave man for coming out from behind the curtain on that screen name, Keith) wrote that he remembered hearing Chris Bailey on WNAP.

But, Moto is right. Chris Bailey never worked at WNAP. The WKRQ Cinti, WIFE and WNDE Indy PD and AM top 40 screamer Chris Bailey, that is.

What Keith / HC heard was a Chris Bailey impersonator. Not long after Chief Engineer, aka Marty Hensley, aka Chuck Larson left his WENS gig for the night shift at the stereo Buzzard, ol' Mother Buzzard did what might now be called a retro week. Went back in time, figuratively speaking, and played at top 40 radio like you'd hear on AM in the late 60s. Complete with an occasional Organic Classified.

Their new teen killer night jock...aka our dear Chief...decided that he'd pay tribute to the classic AM top 40 screamer style of Mr. Bailey. Air name and all. For awhile, at least. A few hours into the shift and Chief / Marty / Chuck's voice started to give out. I'll never forget sitting with Bernie Eagan in the WENS air studio, listening to Marty and digging every break, while we blithely "let our music do the talking."

As I recall, Marty finished the shift with little more than a raspy whisper. By the next night, the voice was gone completely. He missed the shift. And swore off ever again doing that kind of screamer delivery.

Oh, how I wish I had tape...

And don't get me started on how someone, using the name Chris Bailey, did traffic for Dave Wilson on WNDE back in 1992.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Yes this was retro week.

Some of the things I remember about the 70's are not so good : Pukers. "Let's smile while we say everything" This always seemed to be the preferred delivery of the sales staff. Gordon Lake in Columbus always liked to tell the "announcers" to smile when they talked recording his commercials. "Willlllson mooootors in Coolumbus..." I ran into so many sales managers over the years who would bring this horrible thought to life that I even learned to "smile" without puking and act as if I just didn't get what they said.

Don't you just miss this part of the 70's??? @#$@))$

One of the good things was Chris Bailey and Screaming. Some of the airchecks are just amazing. As I recall one of the WNDE airchecks was recorded by someone driving from Cincy to Indianapolis and you could hear it on the recording as the signal gets better towards the end of one recording.

The real Don steele on K T N Q ! So loud they have to be separated.

By far Bailey was bigger than life. One of the other jocks also memorable is now in Terre Haute. Brother Barry Kent. It was the 70's. We were all Brothers or Cousins or some demented half breed family member. I used the name Chris bailey. I think I even did news as Bruce Eric Smallwood that night.

When you heard Bailey talk up KC and the Sunshine Band (That's The Way) it was bigger than Landecker and a Boogie Check.

I had tape and decided to can all my airchecks years ago as water under the bridge. My kids found a cassette aircheck a few years ago. I kept the energy without quite the level at WLW. I also did the same delivery on WGBF in the mid to late 80's.

The only screaming i do these days is at the 2 year olds over the house phone system. "Hey babies get your butts out of the dog bowl, right now!" I'll begin adding call letters and time checks to remember those days.

They are 2 now (Ruth Grace , John Paul, Zion). Along with the 3 older kids I try for the warm Alan Alda delivery.

I spend my time these days with a more humble delivery but will come out of retirement for a retro shift if someone decides to make a go of it.

Thanks for the memory of that era. I hadn't thought about this in over a decade....

 

[Betelguese]

Ahhhh..the good old days...?

 

[Hoosierky]

Ahhhh..the good old days...?

I have a 1978 aircheck of Chris Bailey and his brother "Smokin'" Greg on WAMX in Ashland,KY/Huntington WV. The guy was on Jolt before there was a Jolt.

GREAT JOCKS! Personality, knowledege of the song, freedom. Indeed..the good ole days ;D

If anyone wants a listen/copy..PM me and I will send the files to you.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Smokin Greg Schaeffer was PD at WGBF during one of my visits there. Same time Bwanna Johnny was doing nights.

Greg is still in the South somewhere as owner of an AM station. Dont remember the calls.

 

[Keith Kidd]

Oh, this is wild... you mean it was you doing that??

The show was centered around the date. I believe you did this in late 1981, so let's just grab a date here for the sake of an example, November the 19th. So, it was November the 19th 1981, and you were Chris Bailey on November the 19th 1969. No wait, I wrote that wrong, you were Chriiiiiiiiiiis Bailey! You stretched the name out a few times like Ed Mcmahon stretched out "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!"

The format was a playlist of songs that corresponded with that date. I remember you playing tunes mainly from around 1964 up the "present" 1969. "A big number ONE for the Fifth Dimension this year, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in!" I remember when you introduced Walk away Rene', you said something like "Let's go back 3 years ago with this one from the Left Banke..." To you it wasn't Walk Away Rene' though, it was Walk Away Reenee.

I remember you being time sensitive to what was going on in the world in 1969, by toning down the vocals and calling for love and peace (making reference to the Vietnam war). It was a cheesy sort of, but a needed element for the show. It was great!

I don't really remember the actual sponsors. The only one I remember was for Channel 8 News. I remember Chris Conner reading off some organic classifieds during the breaks, cars for sale, etc. If that wasn't Conner then someone was doing a REAL good impersonation of him as well.

You're pipes were fantastic! GREAT delivery, very believable. You sounded like a Chris Bailey from 1969, NOT a Chris Bailey from 1975. You had that whole DJ from the 60's thing going on. You sounded like Bailey would have sounded had he worked at WNAP in the 1960's. That's why I thought it was an actual recording of the times, because it was that believable. It was awesome. You did what WNAP was so good at in the late 60's and all through the 70's, and that is you took your audience on a journey. You were equipped with a MIC and a steering wheel, and you drove us through an experience. THAT'S what WNAP did so well in so many different ways for so many years.

 

[bigtime]

WNAP may have done lot of things but they never had a Chris Bailey screaming approach on the air from any of the regular jocks. They were a little too hip for that approach.

 

[Keith Kidd]

I remember Boomer Dinkins (79-81) having a loud and happy delivery. It wasn't the Bailey scream for sure, but his delivery was "booming" and out there. He was in prime at WNAP with that loud voice as a matter of fact. The audience loved him. The people I've talked to about him these days say that he was no more than a liner card reader at the Buzzard. I don't remember him that way at all. He had opinions about a lot of things going on at that time and he voiced them (most of the time in a comical fashion) and he was great on the phone with the listeners and talked with them on the air. I was told he packed up and went back to Georgia. I wonder what ever become of him?

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Worked with Greaseman at WAPE. Sat in the bomb shelter with him on N Illinois listening to Greaseman airchecks.,,ask about the rat on a string.

packed up the dog in his pickup. I talked with him a couple times after he moved back.

Always personality and not a card reader. He saw what radio was becoming.

 

[japman]

Didn't Boomer Dinkins, Panama Jack Red and Simon show up at WNAP around 1980 ? ... they'd all moved up from Panama City, FL to WQLK in Richmond sometime in the late 70s to start up that station (Sunny FLA to small town midwest, doesn't make much sense) ... not complaining, but as they came inand Buster Bodine & Co. moved on I began to tune out of NAP and onto WFBQ.

 

[Keith Kidd]

Boomer Dinkins arrived in '79, I'm pretty sure of it. I believe he did early afternoons when he was hired in and then went on to do the 3-7 shift before leaving in 1981. Buster Bodine took his shift over when he quit, and then Bodine left a few months later.

As far as Dinkins being at K-96 in Richmond, I don't know. If he was there, it was before '79.

Dinkins was a good talent, my all time favorite DJ. That dude made anyone with an ambition for radio love it even that much more. He was a good personality, his voice flowed on top of the music intros, and his chords were unbeatable. I was listening to the tribute to WIFE on XM yesterday, and I heard all of the loud DJ's from that era pelt out awesome delivery's, but I must say Dinkins sounded just as good, if not better then those guys did.

 

[pwayne1]

I met Chris Bailey in '75 or '76... while driving thru Indy I heard him on 13/WIFE, so I took the quickest route to 1330 N. Meridian to see if I could meet him. After a few compliments and some small talk, he began to
reveal what a headache it had been for the last few weeks as PD. Everything was union-controlled, the older jocks resented his high-energy approach, he remarked that he was told "Don't tell me what to do... I worked at WABC" He had never realized what he was getting into. We talked about radio and were just ending our conversation on the sidewalk in front of WIFE when this attractive blonde came out of an adjacent business.
Chris did a quick goodbye and was off after her, running like a jackrabbit. About 2 weeks later I heard he
jumped over to WNDE.

"Bob on the Job" and I arranged to stop in to say hi when he was at WNDE. I remember he raved about the WNDE staff, saying he had never worked at a station where the entire staff was so energetic and enthusiastic
about making WNDE sound so much better. He also revealed that WFBQ was soon going album rock.
And, WIFE was suing him over breach-of-contract.

Supposedly, management opposed his plan to bring in Chicago to the Speedway for a free concert, which would have been one awesome station promotion. That led to his undoing, I was told.

By the way, I was the guy who drove from Cincinnati to Indianapolis for that one aircheck... I had called Chris to ask if I could stop by the station, but he said that was not a good idea. I wasn't going to miss this
broadcast, so I made the drive in my '74 AMC Javelin. The trip ended with me finishing the last 30 minutes or so of that aircheck in WNDE's parking lot, just under their towers.

Thanks for the memories...just thought I would add a few things. Should any of my old radio friends be paroled by now and wish to say "hi", you can e-mail me at [email protected].

 

[[email protected]]

The Greaseman never worked for WNAP on my watch. Boomer Dinkins was just plain great - knew that when I got his aircheck and had to have him. He was short-lived because he had difficulty with our pushing him to new freedoms and risk-taking on air (just not done in radio...). The Fairbanks experience really was too much for a lot of good personalities to handle and they didn't have the confidence to 'push it', fearing the hotline would light up - which it wouldn't. There was never hollering or denigrating conversations. Making good radio doesn't come out of confrontation. The same issues for Panama Jack Crabbe and I loved him. Man how I loved jocks like that! Mike Charles - RIP, BoBoDine, Major Tom Lewis, Benevolent Bill Freeman, Mr. Below, Freddie, Griff, too to many to mention and I am humbled by them still today.

 

[[email protected]]

Cat Simon worked for Fairbanks in Dallas. ChiefEngineer may have listened to Greaseman airchecks in the bomb shelter unbeknownst to me, but my recollection is he never worked for us, though considered, he just didn't fit the profile.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Dinkins hero was Greaseman. We spent time in the bomb shelter listening to those airchecks from WAPE.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

The Greaseman never worked for WNAP on my watch. Boomer Dinkins was just plain great - knew that when I got his aircheck and had to have him. He was short-lived because he had difficulty with our pushing him to new freedoms and risk-taking on air (just not done in radio...). The Fairbanks experience really was too much for a lot of good personalities to handle and they didn't have the confidence to 'push it', fearing the hotline would light up - which it wouldn't. There was never hollering or denigrating conversations. Making good radio doesn't come out of confrontation. The same issues for Panama Jack Crabbe and I loved him. Man how I loved jocks like that! Mike Charles - RIP, BoBoDine, Major Tom Lewis, Benevolent Bill Freeman, Mr. Below, Freddie, Griff, too to many to mention and I am humbled by them still today.

I moved here in 1977, so I missed much of what was WNAP, but thanks for some great radio just the same. Who made the decision to blow up the good WNAP & presumably use the frequency to protect WIBC?

 

[317C50KW]

Neat thread. It sounds like the Bailey stunt ranks right up there with 1977's "Neural Audio Performance mode" weekend!

 

[bigtime]

Wasn't WNAP used to defend WIBC from the start? IN 1968 WIFE had huge numbers & WNAP's goal was to bring them down a bit. From an artistic standpoint WNAP's peak years were probably '68- '73. Their financial peak probably came later as their numbers weren't so big early on.

 

[Keith Kidd]

Dinkins pushed a few limits. The House of Prayer (Lewisville, Indiana) record burning ordeal comes to mind. The record burning event was all over the news. The nearby community was outraged that this church was filling the air full of poisonous smoke just because they didn't like rock n' roll. Dinkins wanted to know what was wrong with those people so he talked with listeners about what they were seeing at the event and what they knew about the place. He slapped the church around a little bit for about 2 hours of his shift. They deserved every bit of it. The show was funny, and for that day in age somewhat of a risk.

I personally thought it to be an exceptional show since some of MY childhood was spent raised on House of Prayer Grounds. I can tell you stories about the place. Not good ones either. I didn't call in with my 2 cents that night but I sure got a kick out of listening to his.