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Joel Sebastian question

L

Lamont Lester

Guest
Just came across a song on iTunes called "Blue Cinderella" performed by Joel Sebastian. It's also on amazon.com along with another song called "Angel in Blue." Is this the same Joel Sebastian that worked at WCFL, WMAQ, etc? It sure sounds like him.
 
Thanks for the links! The song was lame, but the aircheck was vintage top 40 at its best....executed by a slick, smooth pro in his prime.

But it raises a couple of questions.....

First, this evidently was Joel Sebastian's last WXYZ broadcast. Where did he go from here? There was was mention (in a jingle) of him going to New York. But if he was one of the original WCFL "men from ten" jocks, that would've been only a few months away in the future. Secondly, he alludes to four years with WXYZ, but I'm pretty sure he was in Chicago briefly in the early '60s doing evenings and/or fill-in work on WIND. Anyone remember or know anything about that?
 
Ken Draper flew to LA to catch Sebastian on KLAC and offered him the princely sum of $60k to come to WCFL. My guess is he went to the left coast from WXYZ, then to Chicago Ten. The Federation was beyond generous and Draper seldom heard the word "no" when it came to expenses. As the Blore jingle said...."Chicago is a C.F.L. of a town"!
 
Dr. Akbar said:
Ken Draper flew to LA to catch Sebastian on KLAC and offered him the princely sum of $60k to come to WCFL. My guess is he went to the left coast from WXYZ, then to Chicago Ten. The Federation was beyond generous and Draper seldom heard the word "no" when it came to expenses. As the Blore jingle said...."Chicago is a C.F.L. of a town"!
Click to expand...

The story I had heard was that Sebastian left Detroit for WINS, but that they were soon to drop Top 40 & go all news.
Then he was on his way to Minneapolis when he got the call from Draper.
In any event, he did work at WIND in the early 60s for a short time between Detroit gigs.
 
Joel Sebastian was the last music personality WINS hired before going all news. He started in late 64 and WINS went all news on April 19. 1965. so he wasn't in New York long. I think Ken Garland started and ended around the same time.
 
radioman148 said:
The story I had heard was that Sebastian left Detroit for WINS, but that they were soon to drop Top 40 & go all news.
Then he was on his way to Minneapolis when he got the call from Draper.
In any event, he did work at WIND in the early 60s for a short time between Detroit gigs.
Click to expand...

This fits.

After my previous post, I read elsewhere online that Sebastian went from Detroit to WINS and then a few months later they flipped to all news. I didn't know that he worked at KLAC (a station that shared some of the same jingle package as WCFL), and I'm glad that me placing him at WIND in the early '60s wasn't a figment of my imagination! I also remember him at WMAQ, WJMK, and doing overnights at WLS. The thing is, he sounded equally good, equally smooth, and sounding equally at home in all of these gigs...a pro's pro!

But I didn't realize he was also a classical music host at WGN. (Music unlimited?) I still can't get my brain around that....Chicago baby!

I met him very briefly a couple of times in the late '60s when I was in college. He couldn't have been nicer. On one of those occasions I asked him if he could write a few encouraging words to the jocks at my college radio station in Iowa. He immediately took pen in hand and graciously obliged...urging on his "fellow jocks". We kept his note...and the picture he signed to the staff....in the studio.
 
cyberdad said:
radioman148 said:
The story I had heard was that Sebastian left Detroit for WINS, but that they were soon to drop Top 40 & go all news.
Then he was on his way to Minneapolis when he got the call from Draper.
In any event, he did work at WIND in the early 60s for a short time between Detroit gigs.
Click to expand...

This fits.

After my previous post, I read elsewhere online that Sebastian went from Detroit to WINS and then a few months later they flipped to all news. I didn't know that he worked at KLAC (a station that shared some of the same jingle package as WCFL), and I'm glad that me placing him at WIND in the early '60s wasn't a figment of my imagination! I also remember him at WMAQ, WJMK, and doing overnights at WLS. The thing is, he sounded equally good, equally smooth, and sounding equally at home in all of these gigs...a pro's pro!

But I didn't realize he was also a classical music host at WGN. (Music unlimited?) I still can't get my brain around that....Chicago baby!

I met him very briefly a couple of times in the late '60s when I was in college. He couldn't have been nicer. On one of those occasions I asked him if he could write a few encouraging words to the jocks at my college radio station in Iowa. He immediately took pen in hand and graciously obliged...urging on his "fellow jocks". We kept his note...and the picture he signed to the staff....in the studio.
Click to expand...

I never realized he worked the all night shift at WGN, but I do remember him at every other spot he worked at in Chicago.
In fact when he went to WLS he worked mid days & over nights--not at the same time of course.
I believe he was at WMAQ when Jim Stagg & Clark Weber were also there. In fact in July of 72, after Dick Biondi left WCFL, he sat in for Sebastian at "MAQ". So at one time you had several former rock jocks on WMAQ at the same time.
 
Joel Sebastian worked Noon-3p @ WINS the last jock to be hired before the switch to all-news.
In the mid 1980's he worked @ WNBC.
 
He actually came to New York to be morning man on the short-lived "Kick FM," WKHK, in the early 80s. After the station dropped country, he moved to WNBC-AM on weekends.
 
I have distinct memories of Joel Sebastian doing the afternoon shift on Big Ten WCFL in 1968 when I arrived in Chicago. Until Lou Witz toned him down (check me on that) he had a great delivery: "This is your flower man, Sebastian, I've got love in my heart----. Maybe someone can help me with that before I ruin it. Saw him broadcast at CFL studio in Marina City, it was exciting to see him move with the music. I believe during that time frame Dick Biondi & Dick Williamson were disc jockeys there.
 
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