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ROD BURNHAM

B

bobmathers

Guest
I enjoy reading the posts here. Good comments and wonderful stories.

I'd like to offer one now which I hope you'll like.

You would be hard pressed to find any living person who has influenced South Central Pennsylvania radio more than Rod Burnham.

His work and contributions will always be identified with two legendary stations.

910 WSBA featured Rod as both an Air Personality and Program Director. For the better part of two decades, he laid the groundwork for many years of success at the Route 30 Castle.

Rod hired me at WGET in August of '88. I stayed there for five years. It became apparent from the start the man was a visionary. Those of us who go back a number of years recall 107.7 WGTY as a 10,000 watt 'local' station that serviced Gettysburg and Hanover. Rod oversaw the expansion of GTY's signal to 50,000 watts. His goal was to have 'GTY become a player in York.

To say he reached it is an understatement.

Burnham could be tough and demanding, but he succeeded in getting the most out of his people. Rod also had a kind and humble side. We had a number of talks on many subjects which displayed that side of his personality. He also showed a quality not often seen in the sometimes calloused radio biz in the summer of 1994. That's when a guy many of us loved, WGET Sales Manager Al Potena, lost his life in an auto accident on Route 30. Burnham gathered the staff together in the aftermath and prayed for all involved in the situation. I had departed the station a year before, but several who were there related the experience to me.

I see many posts in every area of this site which reference the 'de-emphasizing' of personality radio. Yeah, we all agree that's a bummer. The good news...is that it can always come back again. Until it does, we always have the stories and characters who made radio interesting and helped to shape many a career in this area.

Rod Burnham is one of those people.
 
I've alway liked and respected Rod. I've know Rod for almost twenty five years and we worked together many times with Rod doing V/O work in my studio. I remember one session we were doing and between takes Rod went on a rant concerning his departure from WGET. It's just one of those things that sticks in your mind.

Dennis
 
I believe it is Rod's voice on WHVR's breakers and Top Hour ID. Never worked for the man, met him maybe once or twice, but always respected his outstanding production and voiceover work. What a tremendous talent...

What WERE the circumstances of Rod's departure from WGET/WGTY? From all I ever heard, he did an outstanding job of managing them and made them very successful and profitable. (??)

Give Rick McCauslin of WYCR/WHVR credit, though, for the Country format on WGTY. In 1984, Rick became GM there and took a very sleepy automated beautiful music station with a worn-out transmitter and ancient equipment, took it Country and make it a very popular local station. Dave Cannon was their original PD and Pat Case (may he rest in peace) was Music Director.
 
Well, let's take a look at the other side of Rod Burnham. I was WGET/WGTY's first PD/MD (going under the name Wally Daniels) at that time. Rick McCauslin, GM of WGET/WGTY at the time, came up with the idea of taking WGTY Country and tasked me to fill out the airstaff, as well as build the music library. I recommended we hire Dave Cannon for middays as well as Pat Case, both of whom were a perfect fit for what we were looking to do. Once those two guys were in place, we all worked together to build WGTY into an overnight sensation. The sales dept under Rick's direction immediately increased our billing significantly and within the first 3 months of being on the air, we were already making huge waves in the York market. The move to 50,000 watts was already in the plan and in the works, it was not Rod's "vision" that made that happen. He just happened to be the beneficiary of what had already been started and laid out in the original pitch that Rick had made to the Times & News management.

The Times & News Publishing Company then decided to reward Rick McCauslin for his hard work and his vision by replacing him with Rod Burnham, who then decided to reward me for my months of hard work by firing me, not long after he took over. WGTY's influence in the marketplace and its rise to where they are now was exactly what Rick & I had envisioned. Not sure Rod's expertise was really totally responsible for all of it. I found him to be arrogant, an egotist, and contrary to the post mentioning him as being "kind & humble", I found him to be the exact opposite. He may have been "kind & humble" but only when it suited his purpose.

I'm certainly not going to argue that Rod had influence on a lot of things in the York market back in the day. He was a talented guy, but's let's not give him credit for that which he doesn't deserve.
 
With regard to Rod Burnham I agree with Bob Mathers that Rod's contributions to radio in
Central PA were huge. I have always had a great deal of respect for Rod and he was a mentor
to me in this business. He always believed in having the best quality personalities on the air
and for the stations to have a polished sound. One thing is for certain you didn't get away with
giving anything less than your best when you worked for Rod. His production work is among the
best this market has ever seen. And Ray you are correct when I took over as station manager
at WHVR Rod is the first call I made to cut the liners and Id's , and he also did them for me
when I managed WOYK years back.
 
karlyle said:
Well, let's take a look at the other side of Rod Burnham. I was WGET/WGTY's first PD/MD (going under the name Wally Daniels) at that time. Rick McCauslin, GM of WGET/WGTY at the time, came up with the idea of taking WGTY Country and tasked me to fill out the airstaff, as well as build the music library. I recommended we hire Dave Cannon for middays as well as Pat Case, both of whom were a perfect fit for what we were looking to do. Once those two guys were in place, we all worked together to build WGTY into an overnight sensation. The sales dept under Rick's direction immediately increased our billing significantly and within the first 3 months of being on the air, we were already making huge waves in the York market. The move to 50,000 watts was already in the plan and in the works, it was not Rod's "vision" that made that happen. He just happened to be the beneficiary of what had already been started and laid out in the original pitch that Rick had made to the Times & News management.

The Times & News Publishing Company then decided to reward Rick McCauslin for his hard work and his vision by replacing him with Rod Burnham, who then decided to reward me for my months of hard work by firing me, not long after he took over. WGTY's influence in the marketplace and its rise to where they are now was exactly what Rick & I had envisioned. Not sure Rod's expertise was really totally responsible for all of it. I found him to be arrogant, an egotist, and contrary to the post mentioning him as being "kind & humble", I found him to be the exact opposite. He may have been "kind & humble" but only when it suited his purpose.

I'm certainly not going to argue that Rod had influence on a lot of things in the York market back in the day. He was a talented guy, but's let's not give him credit for that which he doesn't deserve.
Click to expand...

Wow. Bitterness after all these years. Oh well. One thing I think everyone will agree with is how WGTY sounds today. Horrible. Not even close to the station you and or Rod were responsible for. They are continuing to succeed because they have no competition in the York market. (No shot at HVR here...they're a good sounding local station on AM) Somebody really needs to do something about that.......
 
bossjock 56 said:
On or around the 1st of the year SOMETHING is about to happen! Stay tuned!
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like 1067 has to be in the mix here somehow....either as a new country station or perhaps a frequency swap with another station that would open up a York signal to country.
 
I worked for Rod for a few years in State College. Tough guy and a perfectionist, but he taught me a lot about being a professional. Not just in radio, but just generally about how to do a job the right way.

I remember him telling me that the true test of a station is whether it sounds good at 3:00 am on a Sunday morning when no one is listening. That's a pretty good metaphor for life, when you think about it.

We didn't see eye to eye at first and I'm pretty sure he came close to firing me on more than one occasion. But we developed a healthy working relationship and as time passes I value what he taught me more and more.
 
Sorry for chiming in a bit late, but I've been away from these boards for a while!

I worked for Mr. Burnham at WGET in the late '80s. As I recall he was very particular about the air sound and presentation, but he was working to make an excellent product and in that I believe he succeeded tremendously. IMHO he also has one of the finest production voices in the business. Although I didn't make a ton of money working at 'GET I did get to work with some of the most outstanding people in broadcasting and received experience and education that no amount of money could buy, and for that I am very grateful to Rod Burnham.

Now for the "but...." part. Soon after I left the station for a non-radio job I was asked to stop by to see Mr. Burnham. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but apparently some kind of financial irregularities had been discovered and I was accused of causing them. I explained that I had nothing to do with it, but my protests fell on deaf ears. I ended up being denied some final pay that I was due and told never to return to the radio station. I never heard from Mr. Burnham again, never learned the final outcome of the financial issues, and of course never received any kind of apology (or my back pay.) That day I lost all respect for Rod Burnham. My opinion is that he needed a "fall guy" to take the blame for a money problem, and since I had just resigned, I was it.

(Yes, it was a long time ago, but seeing this thread really brought a lot of bitterness to the surface. I'm glad I could vent here.)
 
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