The passing of John "Roman" Domanski

[alandavidstein]

John was also at one time PD and air personality at WKXW. http://www.flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=42249

 

[jaypea]

he was there well prior to the NJ101.5 days. he replaced Hy and Sam Lit to take "KiX101.5" adult top40. he was an ok guy. I didn't much care for him at the time because he took me off the air when he came in.

he could be kinda gruff at times. I was doing an airshift on the AM standards station next door (WBUD) when he came in to ask if he could listen to a new record in cue because the other studios were all in use. I put it on for him. as he listened he asked what I thought. I said I kinda liked it. he took it off the turntable and threw it in the trash saying, "You liked that [crap]?!?!" the song was Lindsay Buckingham's "Trouble." one of the bigger hits of 1982.

I did feel sorry for him because he wasn't very much liked by anyone else either. remember though that he came into the place to find quite a few people loyal to the old regime. several years later I was in a chat room on the old CompuServe service (well before the web) and he saw my name and tried to chat with me. I was still mad at him for taking my airshift away so I ignored him. I felt bad about that ever since, which has prompted me quite often to "turn the other cheek" in similar situations.

sad to hear of his passing. too young.

 

[rahendler]

I did the morning sports with John "Roman" Domanski during his tenure at Kix 101 and 1/2 during 1981-82. He was a terrific guy and my late wife and I became friends with John and his wife Candy. We had a terrific time at the old Atlantic City Race Course broadcasting Kix and BUD Night at the Races. John's competition was none other than Tom Taylor at WPST. Talk about talent. John had a tough time competing with Tom and he was succeeded by Bryan Toft and Ted Kelly in the mornings. It was a terrific period. The legendary Jack Pinto was the PD and Morning Man on sister station WBUD both owned by Fidelity Communications. Frank Hillman and Alan David Stein were Account Execs along with doing on air work and Alan was our Yankees beat reporter.

The last I heard from John he was working in Florida. His passing is sad and he was too young.

 

[qtpieislit]

I was programming WKXW FM which I had launched from scratch and named in 1979. In 1981 the General Manager Bill Musser was fired for a strange infraction and subsequently Terry Watts was hired as the new GM from New Orleans. He was just a pure southern strapper. The first thing he did was sit me down and tell me he wanted 20% of my gig money. I was booked 6 of 7 nights a week and was making 10x what I was being paid to program and jock WKXW FM. I was only being paid $300 a week for my services at WKXW but was getting $500 a night for my gigs. And I was booked. I was the hottest ticket in town. Basically as a result Terry Watts was attempting to actually have me pay him a percentage of my gig money. Naturally I told him something that he would have no trouble remembering. So in his attempt to take control of the station he fired me as program director, and hired John Roman as PD. John immediately came in, bullied me and switched my shift to 7-midnight therefor destroying my nighttime gig bookings. Needless to say Hy and I were gone in two weeks. John Roman was the original amateur hour pure and simple.

I left WKXW with solid number 1 rating in all dayparts, in a market of 77 signals, the most congested radio market in the US. John Roman singlehandedly destroyed WKXW FM's ratings and was fired in 6 months. WKXW never achieved, even a respectable position again until years later with news/talk.