I met Ron years ago, probably in the mid-70s. Ron was a guy with a great work ethic and passion for radio, but he had a problem...ego. His ego wasn't vicious, but it was enough to keep him from improving his on-air abilities. RJ was competing at a time when Philly had some great sounding air talent. It was long before the corporations devalued good, creative talent as bottom-line problems. If Ron were in his 20s today, and seeking work, he could probably obtain an on-air job at a major station, because today's benchmark for talent is "mediocre". Ron could not get past the issue in the 70s of "getting good" on the air. He was into doing the record hop circuit like many others who couldn't grab a good gig in a good market. I think RJ felt doing hops and dances, and lots of them, would be his ticket to working at one of the majors at the time, like WFIL or WIBG, or WCAU-FM. Sadly, Ron was destined to work at little, peripheral stations around the Philly metro, meaningless in the scope of real Philadelphia Broadcasting. Yes RJ has been a hardworking record hop jock for years. Yes, he is known through that backdoor conduit of radio, but was he ever an important part of Philly radio? Never. I don't want to bring the guy down, but quite frankly, there are way too many "legit" unsung heroes of Philly radio to even consider for more than a second RJ's introduction into that group.By the way, in answer to the original post by Captain Happy, Joe Niagara was at quite a few stations in Philly. WIBG, WFIL, WIFI92, WCAU-AM, WCAU-FM, WPEN, WDAS. In relation to the years Niagara worked in radio, and the stations available at the time, I think this one example would qualify as a definite unsung hero. How does RJ compare to this resume? How could he even come close?
