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New Haven Register
(posted without permission)
09/27/2005
Longtime radio voice Ron Rohmer dies at 74
Joe Amarante , Register Staff
Ron Rohmer, the Canadian hockey player who came to Connecticut to play for the New Haven Blades and stayed to become a legendary local broadcaster, died Sunday of a heart attack at age 74.
Rohmer collapsed from a massive heart attack at his favorite breakfast place in Hamden Sunday morning, said Kurt Rohmer, one of Rohmer’s four children. Rohmer had had two heart-bypass operations and a stroke.
"He had been feeling a bit tired lately," said Kurt Rohmer, who lived with his father.
Rohmer’s radio show featured a mix of music, chat and folksy humor delivered in the dulcet tones that made him a top personality at WELI-AM (960) for more than three decades.
He had a mischievous sense of humor ("cunning wit," said his son) and a hockey rink full of voices at his disposal from a nasal French Canadian to a terse German to a squeaky cartoon character named Jose.
Rohmer acted as host at many community events over the years, including the Walter Camp dinner. He was a former honorary chairman of the Register Fresh Air Fund, a Humanitarian Award winner from the Knights of Columbus, and was also a play-by-play announcer for the New Haven Nighthawks.
In a Register feature story in 1999, Rohmer was asked why he had settled in New Haven after his days with the Blades. "Because (Blades owner Nate) Podoloff didn’t pay us enough to get home," he quipped.
Rohmer took over the morning radio job in 1961, helped by the morning host (and station official) he replaced, Merritt "Bud" Finch of Hamden.
"He was a great hockey player at the time," Finch said Monday. "He wanted to get into radio; it’s a lot easier on the teeth, you know. So I put him in touch with a guy I knew in Meriden. He worked up there for a couple of years.
... So later he came down and I hired him at WELI."
Rohmer was a morning staple for a few generations of New Haven area listeners. For most of that time, WELI was a general-interest station airing music, talk, news and commentary from people such as John Birchard, Jerry Dunklee, Bob Schulz, Shirlee Schaffer and Ed Flynn.
But Rohmer was the biggest, in stature and voice.
"He was a great talent," said Finch, "just a naturally funny guy with great voices and ideas. He was copied by the competition with his Jose character."
Schulz, who lives in Woodbridge and reported news for WELI from 1954 to 1970, said, "Institution is a trite word perhaps, but other than Bud Finch, Ron was on the air longer than anybody in this area."
Rohmer was forced out of WELI in 1995 by then-program director Glenn Beck, and longtime listeners protested.
After suing WELI’s behemoth owner Clear Channel over age discrimination, Rohmer was brought back to do another version of his show on 1,000-watt sister station WAVZ-AM.
A rare local voice on WAVZ during the late 1990s, Rohmer retired for good in 1999 after local officials of Texas-based Clear Channel replaced him with syndicated talker Rush Limbaugh.
Rohmer stayed in Hamden, and was known for tooling around on a 1990 Yamaha motor scooter, in a red Porsche and a motor home he would take to Yale football games. "We were just there at Yale Saturday, cooking hot dogs," son Kurt added.
Rohmer was an accomplished weightlifter, and loved working out at World Gym in Hamden. He was a world record holder in the Masters 65-69 age group at one point, and Kurt Rohmer said his father was still training every day until his death.
Ron Rohmer never became an American citizen, keeping his alien registration card. Why?
"He loved America," said his son, "but I think in his heart, he was an old Canadian hockey player, just a 17-year-old playing hockey."
(posted without permission)
09/27/2005
Longtime radio voice Ron Rohmer dies at 74
Joe Amarante , Register Staff
Ron Rohmer, the Canadian hockey player who came to Connecticut to play for the New Haven Blades and stayed to become a legendary local broadcaster, died Sunday of a heart attack at age 74.
Rohmer collapsed from a massive heart attack at his favorite breakfast place in Hamden Sunday morning, said Kurt Rohmer, one of Rohmer’s four children. Rohmer had had two heart-bypass operations and a stroke.
"He had been feeling a bit tired lately," said Kurt Rohmer, who lived with his father.
Rohmer’s radio show featured a mix of music, chat and folksy humor delivered in the dulcet tones that made him a top personality at WELI-AM (960) for more than three decades.
He had a mischievous sense of humor ("cunning wit," said his son) and a hockey rink full of voices at his disposal from a nasal French Canadian to a terse German to a squeaky cartoon character named Jose.
Rohmer acted as host at many community events over the years, including the Walter Camp dinner. He was a former honorary chairman of the Register Fresh Air Fund, a Humanitarian Award winner from the Knights of Columbus, and was also a play-by-play announcer for the New Haven Nighthawks.
In a Register feature story in 1999, Rohmer was asked why he had settled in New Haven after his days with the Blades. "Because (Blades owner Nate) Podoloff didn’t pay us enough to get home," he quipped.
Rohmer took over the morning radio job in 1961, helped by the morning host (and station official) he replaced, Merritt "Bud" Finch of Hamden.
"He was a great hockey player at the time," Finch said Monday. "He wanted to get into radio; it’s a lot easier on the teeth, you know. So I put him in touch with a guy I knew in Meriden. He worked up there for a couple of years.
... So later he came down and I hired him at WELI."
Rohmer was a morning staple for a few generations of New Haven area listeners. For most of that time, WELI was a general-interest station airing music, talk, news and commentary from people such as John Birchard, Jerry Dunklee, Bob Schulz, Shirlee Schaffer and Ed Flynn.
But Rohmer was the biggest, in stature and voice.
"He was a great talent," said Finch, "just a naturally funny guy with great voices and ideas. He was copied by the competition with his Jose character."
Schulz, who lives in Woodbridge and reported news for WELI from 1954 to 1970, said, "Institution is a trite word perhaps, but other than Bud Finch, Ron was on the air longer than anybody in this area."
Rohmer was forced out of WELI in 1995 by then-program director Glenn Beck, and longtime listeners protested.
After suing WELI’s behemoth owner Clear Channel over age discrimination, Rohmer was brought back to do another version of his show on 1,000-watt sister station WAVZ-AM.
A rare local voice on WAVZ during the late 1990s, Rohmer retired for good in 1999 after local officials of Texas-based Clear Channel replaced him with syndicated talker Rush Limbaugh.
Rohmer stayed in Hamden, and was known for tooling around on a 1990 Yamaha motor scooter, in a red Porsche and a motor home he would take to Yale football games. "We were just there at Yale Saturday, cooking hot dogs," son Kurt added.
Rohmer was an accomplished weightlifter, and loved working out at World Gym in Hamden. He was a world record holder in the Masters 65-69 age group at one point, and Kurt Rohmer said his father was still training every day until his death.
Ron Rohmer never became an American citizen, keeping his alien registration card. Why?
"He loved America," said his son, "but I think in his heart, he was an old Canadian hockey player, just a 17-year-old playing hockey."
