EASTERN NC JOCKS..Where are They Now?

[firecop947]

Just wondering what became of some of the jocks that worked Eastern NC radio in the late 70's,80's, and early 90's?

John Peace...WISP/WQDW

Tony Jackson...WQDW

Any WFTC-AM jocks

WFMA-Rocky Mount

Bob Mitchell 9also worked at WEED)
Dan Tanner
Wade Allan Jennings (also from WVOT in Wilson)

WKTC-Tarboro--when it was country.

WRNS in Kinston, NC

WAZZ (when it was country)

Jeff Brown
Leith Hundley

The old WXQR in Jacksonville, NC

Kris Kelly
Mark Lapidus

WLAS (when it was stereo country)

WRCM (when it was country)

Any other ENC radio memories?

Kris

 

[radiostuwright]

Stu Wright here...I worked at WLAS just after it went from daytime to fulltime.
Royal Bruce was the PD...(I'd like to know where he is today) Bud Andrews did
a talk show (Feedback) on WXQR, Kris Kelly was the PD.
I am now mornings/ops person at WORG (100.3)-IN Orangeburg, SC.
[email protected]
or [email protected]
cell 803-614-9900.
listen at worg.com.

 

[DeltaDon]

John Peace went to New Bern (WSFL) after Kinston then to Florence SC where he now runs a production company.

 

[fab4t5]

Kris Kelly (WXQR) is a real estate agent in Wilmington. Royal Bruce (WLAS) is in Florida working in the area of finance. Neither are on the air any longer but both are on facebook! By the way, I worked with these 2 fine gentleman at WXQR in 1976. I wonder ...where is Bud Andrews (Andy Budnick) and Layla (Lisa Garnick), Al Michaels, Bob Maclain

 

[RadioFan2J3]

A handful of names from the old WJNC and WRCM group in that time frame:

Mike Shadeed
Greg Allen
Terry Downing
Tim Downs
Don Shelly
BJ. the DJ
Denise Strickland (news)
Jim Henrickson
Steve Early
Tom Stanley

Mark Lapidus is working for RADIO WORLD, and I'd assume living in the greater DC area.

I had a conversation with Layla, maybe the early 1980s. It was either Jackson, MS or Little Rock, and I am leaning toward LR. I was visiting a flying buddy and we were at a pizza place and casually mentioned Jacksonville, and the guy at the counter said he'd lived in Jacksonville, and I mentioned I'd worked in J'ville radio. Turns out his wife was Layla, so we had a few minutes of conversation. That's almost 30 years ago.

I am thinking that Al Micheals left the Jacksonville market and was down in Wilmington, WHSL, perhaps, but again, that was the mid 70s.



I've been gone from eastern North Carolina since the late 1980s and away from commercial broadcasting since 1978, and had very little contact with anyone in Jacksonville since the mid-1980s.

 

[dosmond]

This is going back in time for sure. I (Don "OZ" Osmond) worked WRCM during hours when it was not automated from 1973 to 1976 and later worked for WLAS on weekends 1976 to 1978. When at WRCM I worked at asst engineer under Jim Hartline. I helped set up a lot of the remotes the guys did till the station sold. Jim was working at full time at WXLV/WMYV as of late 2010 when I last spoke to him. Not sure where Al Michaels is now but he was in Charlotte area for a while.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

Jim Hartline has to be in his late 60s or early 70s. I can't imagine any closer to me in age.

Yea, I guess you got involved in those Tim Downs' remotes from Big Ed's Bowery Club?

Bob Mendelson sold the stations to Beasley Broadcast in 1976 or so.

John Newman was doing news at WJNC/WRCM, in 1976 or so and then he left. Gene Loveall was the manager.

Downs left Jacksonville and went up to some station in New Jersey and we didn't do anymore remotes from Big Ed's after Tim left.

 

[unitron]

The first, last, and only time I saw Hartline was in '68 or so at a remote from the Marston Pavilion Teen Club at Camp Lejune.

Not sure when he left JNC, but he was gone when I got there in '77.

Greg Allen left JNC and went to Greensboro back in about '78 or '79, last time I saw him (early '80s?) he was working for a Curtis station somewhere up there.

It's probably been at least 20 years or more since I last saw Terry Downing and he was playing in a band and had either already moved down to Austin and come back or I heard later that he went down there.

Last I heard Bob McClain was working for the post office in New Bern, but that was at least 20 years ago, maybe 30.


Mike Shadeed had an out-of-the-blue heart attack back in '98, I believe it was.

His funeral was the last time I saw Tom Stanley and Jim Kelso.

Tom "Last of the Outlaw DJ's" Stanley last I heard is at TXY in Whiteville (might be part owner) and doing the syndicated Sunny Beach show.

I reached Tom in 2008 by email to let him know that Marilyn Peters (JNC/RCM news and RCM mid-day in '77-78) had passed away.

She was married for a time to (air name) Jay Laurence, who eventually got out of radio and went to work for Camp Lejune in MWR or whatever they're calling Base Special Services these days.


BJ died in a house fire in 2004

http://www.jdnews.com/articles/morton-26014-funeral-brenda.html

I don't remember if she was still working at WRNS at the time or not. I know she was back in '94-95, maybe '96.

Jim Kelso went a year later.

http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/jim-13176-kelso-radio.html

For some reason, even though the New Bern and Kinston papers and the Jacksonville paper are all owned by the same outfit, his family didn't bother to put an obituary in the Jacksonville paper, so they'd already had his funeral before I knew he needed one.

He was my first PD, back at 'BBS in the spring of '77.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

Unitron,

thanks for the update on some of the folks from WJNC and WRCM.

I knew about Mike Shadeed's death, but I wasn't aware it was a sudden passing and of course, as discussed here, the death of Jim Kelso.

The deaths of Brenda and Marilyn come as a bit of a surprise.

Brenda was young, per the obit. 51. She was about 5 years younger than I am. I remember her first days at WRCM. We had the old Gates board, then. Then we got the Ramko for stereo.

Marilyn must have been just out of high school when she came to work at WRCM. She and I dated a few times. I remember she was into dinner theater work, and I got invited to one of her performances. Her dad was the manager of the LeJeune Aero Club, on New River, if I remember correctly. Gosh, two folks from my time at WJNC/WRCM who were younger than I am and I am still around.

The Jacksonville Daily News obits aren't very user friendly. I was trying to find an obit for Marilyn, but could not find it. The obit lists for 2008 doesn't cover the entire year.

OK on Terry and Greg.

Jim Hartline left WJNC/WRCM before summer 1976, when I came to Jacksonville. I had met him maybe once or twice, before he left Jacksonville. Never had any contact with him after he left the area.

Ron Brown was the manager, before him, Gene Loveall. Phyllis Mason was the continuity writer and sometime after I moved to Greenville, in 1979, I ran into her at the Greenville downtown post office. She had left Jacksonville and was working on a degree at ECU.

Gosh, that was over 30 years ago.

Thanks for the information and updates.

 

[unitron]

Unitron,

thanks for the update on some of the folks from WJNC and WRCM.

I knew about Mike Shadeed's death, but I wasn't aware it was a sudden passing and of course, as discussed here, the death of Jim Kelso.

The deaths of Brenda and Marilyn come as a bit of a surprise.

Brenda was young, per the obit. 51. She was about 5 years younger than I am. I remember her first days at WRCM. We had the old Gates board, then. Then we got the Ramko for stereo.

Marilyn must have been just out of high school when she came to work at WRCM. She and I dated a few times. I remember she was into dinner theater work, and I got invited to one of her performances. Her dad was the manager of the LeJeune Aero Club, on New River, if I remember correctly. Gosh, two folks from my time at WJNC/WRCM who were younger than I am and I am still around.

The Jacksonville Daily News obits aren't very user friendly. I was trying to find an obit for Marilyn, but could not find it. The obit lists for 2008 doesn't cover the entire year.

OK on Terry and Greg.

Jim Hartline left WJNC/WRCM before summer 1976, when I came to Jacksonville. I had met him maybe once or twice, before he left Jacksonville. Never had any contact with him after he left the area.

Ron Brown was the manager, before him, Gene Loveall. Phyllis Mason was the continuity writer and sometime after I moved to Greenville, in 1979, I ran into her at the Greenville downtown post office. She had left Jacksonville and was working on a degree at ECU.

Gosh, that was over 30 years ago.

Thanks for the information and updates.

I remember that Ramko, painfully.

Marilyn's obit, at least in the print edition, was under the last name of someone I never knew to whom she was married at some point after she and Jay split up, although I don't know if they were divorced at the time of her death or not. He wasn't around toward the end and wasn't at the funeral. When I unearth the program for the funeral I'll try to find a link.

I almost played her husband in a production of 6 Rms Rv View, but it was cancelled when the director developed MS or MD.

The other day I realized that I'm now older than Shadeed was when he passed away.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

I remember that Ramko, painfully.

Marilyn's obit, at least in the print edition, was under the last name of someone I never knew to whom she was married at some point after she and Jay split up, although I don't know if they were divorced at the time of her death or not. He wasn't around toward the end and wasn't at the funeral. When I unearth the program for the funeral I'll try to find a link.

I almost played her husband in a production of 6 Rms Rv View, but it was cancelled when the director developed MS or MD.

The other day I realized that I'm now older than Shadeed was when he passed away.

yes, if you can find the link for Marilyn's obit, please share.

The Ramko was the cheap and esy way of going stereo. Ramko and an Orban Optimod.

Thanks.

 

[Alryan]

This is "Al Michaels". I worked at WJNC between 1972 and 1974. I played album rock and used to start my show with an Emerson, Lake & Palmer song, "Welcome Back my Friends to the Show that Never Ends..." (BTW, I had to buy my own albums. ;D)

When I left WJNC I changed my last name to RYAN because ABC's Al Michaels, the sportcaster, was becoming well known nationally. I was awarded Billboard Magazine's Air Personality of the Year, 1974, for my work at WJNC. This led me to WBT in Charlotte, where I did an afternoon rock show on WBT's FM station, WBCY FM, "Charlotte's Best Rock." Then I went into TV for some years at WBTV, channel 3, in Charlotte. I ended my career at WFLA in Tampa and retired in 2003.

Mike Shadeed was a good friend of mine. I had tried to contact him for many years but did not know that he had passed away. He and I were pretty close and used to tour civil war sights and forts together on the weekends. I also remember Jim Hartline, Jim Kelso and Bob Mendleson. Bob's son, Rowdy Rick Roberts, was my predecessor in WJNC's 6pm to 10pm slot and when he did that gig he used to play beach music. Gene Loveall--I believe--was the sales manager at WJNC when I was there. Jack Butler, who was a country-western music composer, was WJNC's Program Director. He had written some songs that had been recorded by Pat Boone.

We also had a DJ named Charlie Byrd, who had a great voice...Charlie worked primarily on WRCM. And Don Oz Osmond also worked on WRCM at that time. I see he has posted here and I'm sure he will remember helping me move out of Jacksonville. And Steve Shumake was the news director then. He went to WKIX in Raleigh.

I live in Florida and am married to a lady who's a producer at WFLA-TV in Tampa. I was recently back in Onslow County NC. One of our sons who is attending UMASS played collegiate summer baseball for the Morehead City Marlins in the Coastal Plains League.

It was crazy to stumble on here and see references to me and Mike Shadeed on this forum. Mike had been a navigator-bombadier on a Navy A6 aircraft in the Navy Reserve and had developed vertigo and had to be grounded. He loved Sinatra...and in particular a live album with Count Basie and Sinatra recorded at the Sands in Las Vegas...an album I have in DVD form today...and Mike had worn the paint off the broadcast control board from drumming on it with his fingers. ;D

This may interest you. One afternoon, Mike and I were eating lunch at the Western Sizzlin' Steakhouse in Jacksonville and hatched a plot to dress up like Confederate soldiers and recapture Fort Macon. We expanded the plan, brought in a few other conspirators--including a woman named Donna who was a POW-MIA activist, and actually carried out the "attack." We walked up the beach at 5am, crossed the moat, hoisted each other through the windows of the fort (they put steel bars in the windows after our little adventure) and took over the Fort. Meanwhile, we had arranged with Steve Shumake, our buddy in Raleigh, to announce at 9am on WKIX that "heavily armed Confederates had retaken Ft Macon near Morehead City..." (We had toy muskets).

Well, he announced it. And around noon, a column of State Troopers and a couple of truckloads of NC National Guard troops came up the road to the Fort. Luckily, we'd mounted a POW-MIA flag on top of the battlements and Donna told the authorities that we'd "taken" the Fort to publicize awareness for POW/MIAs and we were not hauled off to jail. A few weeks ago, I took my wife and kids to revisit Fort Macon...the scene of Mike Shadeed's and my Confederate adventure.

Al Ryan

 

[dosmond]

I still have the pictures I took when Al and Mike took the fort. Remember that like it was yesterday. Recall when Al moved I followed him up north in my car and we were stopped in the Garden State Parkway. When the officer asked to look in the back ot Al's car he saw a row of rifles. The officer turned to me and asked how many I had in the back of my car. The gold old days. Shortly after that I moved to Charlotte and heard Al on the radio. Spoke to Jim Hartline via email a while back. He was at that time working full-time at WXLV, ABC-45 in Winston-Salem, NC and director of engineering for two stations, WXLV and WMYV. Some of you may recall JoAnn Harrington who passed away. She became the program director after Jack Butler.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

Al,

thanks for sharing.

I met Mike when I moved to Jacksonville in summer, 1976.

Gene Loveall was station manager by then, but was replaced by Ron Brown. Loveall was "asked" to leave in what I understood were some issues with the winners of the yearly WRCM Nashville bus trip contest. A number of the winners duplicated from the year before and interesting, those duplicate names were individuals involved with the businesses which advertised on the stations.

I never knew about Mike's Navy Reserve gig, or if I did, I certainly don't remember it. Mike knew I was in an Army Reserve unit, but I just don't remember us talking Reserve stuff. Could be that 35 years of life has caused some data dumps along the way.

The POW-MIA lady was Donna Long. I met her a time or two, in passing, when she was in the WJNC building, doing an interview or two with Mike.

The Fort Macon story is a hoot.

I guess Mike was one of the few old team folks still at WJNC/WRCM when I moved the Jacksonville.
Never met any of the Mendelson family, although Bob still lived in Jacksonville after being bought out by Beasley. Loveall was still then and then he left. John Newman was doing news and then he left Somewhere along the line Glenn Hargett started doing news, but that would have been 78-79. Denise Strickland was also doing news, between Newman and Hargett. Denise was a fine lady and married to a MArine aviator in that time period.

Bulter and Byrd were gone by the time I got there and if there was some overlap with OZ Osmond, I just don't remember.

 

[Alryan]

That's funny about Gene Loveall and the contest winners...somehow that doesn't really come as a shock. And thanks for that memory boost about Donna Long. She was a friend of Mike's. She eventually became involved in the Robert Garwood case...he was the Marine POW who was court-martialed in J-ville for collaboration with the North Vietnamese.

More trivia--

Mike, incidentally, was getting divorced when I first met him and about the only thing he got out of it was a cat named Percy. (The silly crud you remember after 40 years!) He could look at the cat, say Mercury Cougar, and the cat would meow.

I remember JoAnne Harrington very well and the name Denise Strickland rings a bell, too.

I started at WJNC as a Project Transition Marine and ended up getting hired (for $80 a week!!!) when I was released from active duty. My first job was to run the board and play the pre-recorded Bill Balance Show in the mid afternoons.

When I first started, Mike Shadeed did a morning show called Ask Your Neighbor, I ran Bill Balance from noon to 3...Jack Butler did afternoon drive (his sign-off was, "Well, I've got to make like a tree and leave..." ;D) and Rowdy Rick, Mendleson's son, did the 6pm to 10pm top 40 show. There was a pre-recorded big band music program, The John Doremus Show from 10 to 11, and another pre-recorded romantic music/poetry show that JoAnn Harrington hosted between 11pm and midnight. Then the transmitter was shut down until Shadeed came in in the morning.

When Rowdy Rick left, I took over his top 40 gig but decided to upgrade it to Album Oriented Rock. Nobody cared what I played. I programmed my own show. It was great. When Charlie Byrd was doing nights on WRCM and I was doing the same slot on JNC, we'd have girls call up...and we'd invite them up to the station, but we'd keep the front door locked and the curtains drawn. When they'd drive up, we'd peek out the curtains. If they were ugly we wouldn't answer the door ;D ;D --I know Don Osmond remembers stuff like that. Rowdy Rick had had a girlfriend named Sharon Mathis...and after he left she eventually she became my girlfriend.

There was also black DJ at WJNC who used to do an oldies show on the weekends...his name was Ray, but I can't remember his last name.

I also remember some of the guys on WXQR, I used to listen to them and they used to listen to me--but I can't remember their names either.

Don Osmond had a yellow Chevy Vega...am I right? I had a yellow MG Midget and Mike Shadeed had a green Fiat X-15.

Sorry for the long posts, but you guys have really triggered the memories for me.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

I'd left Jacksonville by the time Bobby Garwood made his arrival in town.

Harrinton's name I remember, but I do not remember her. WJNC/WRCM had a bookkeeper/account, Eva something....don't remmber her family name. Single mom with a small kid at the time.

Yep, Mike was doing Ask Your Neighbor, when I got to Jacksonville, and was still doing it, when I left. He was the AM sign-on, did the music 6-9 and then AYN until noon or so, then a little production work and he was gone. Golden Corral opened down the road and we'd hit the salad bar there a few times a week.

Was that black DJ Greg Allen? Greg was his real name and I think his family name was Ogle or something like that. Really good guy. Terry Downing was there and Tim Downs left shortly after I got to Jacksonville, maybe winter 1979.

Al, did you work in Wilmington at all?

Denise came in WJNC after John Newman left. Newman did news, but it was mostly recorded in the morning and I never saw him very much.

WRCM had the old mechanical automation system in the basement, and WRCM was live in the morning and automated during most of the day. That was taken out of service about the time BJ the DJ came to work.



That's all almost 35 years ago.

 

[Alryan]

Nope, I never worked in Wilmington. Went from JNC to Connecticut, worked for a couple of stations up there, and then down to Charlotte. I worked in Charlotte from '78 to '87 and from there to Tampa. I'm afraid I don't remember the black DJ's name--and we may be thinking of two different people. Oz Osmond just reminded me that the man I'm thinking of called himself The Nighthawk. Apparently he had a Sunday night gig and I had to fill in for him one night. And instead of playing his music, I played my music, and Oz says he and I had to park our cars around back because the Nighthawk's fans had called up threatening to come and "beat our a**es." My memory of that is pretty vague. ;D

When I worked at JNC, the control board was very old...the mikes were those old hanging perforated box-like mikes from the 40's. WRCM was automated and that old automation system (with the sliding pegs and the cartridge carosels) was on the same floor as the main studio and offices. The newsroom and production room were downstairs.

Speaking of restaurants, I don't know if the Pig Diner was still in business when you were there, but that was a late-night snack stop for me after work. And there was a donut shop right near the station that we gave considerable business.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

The AM console was a Gates SA-40.

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates-SA-40.jpg

The automation was upstairs on the main floor? I haven't been in that building since some date in 1978 and I'm having a bit of time trying to think of where it might have been on the main floor. There was some kind of studio area in front of the AM control room and off the main hallway. Yea, I guess it could have been in that room. I suppose Hartline must have moved it downstairs, as it was in the middle of the engineering workshop.

Production room was at the end of the basement hallway. Don't remember much else downstairs. Yep, I do remember that old automation system Hartline did a nice job building it.

Don't remember the Pig Diner. As you remember, WJNC/WRCM building and lot was set back off LeJeune Boulevard. Sonic built one of their hamburger places between the radio station and the highway. We had their telephone number and we'd place orders with them, for takeout. Jump the fence and get food, all during a long record.

 

[Alryan]

The AM console was a Gates SA-40.

Yep, that's the one. The mikes--I found them online--were AEA R44c's. Shadeed had dented the one in the AM control room drumming on it with pencils.

 

[dosmond]

I still have the BW pics of the automation for RCM. If you were looking into the large room from the hallway JNC was the room on the far right (largest of them all) and the transmitters were in a room next to it and in front of the RCM control room. To the left was a small room that had the automation for a long time. Later Jim and I moved the racks to the engineer's office in the basement. And yes Al, it was a yellow Vega hatchback. Do you guys recall when we started sell FM converters and installing them in the parking lot?