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truly unique WNY personalities
- Thread starter Steven21
- Start date
The unique personalities, and I mean personalities - not ballsy voice liner card reader jocks, that stand out for me were:
Frank Benny - I first met Frank one day when I applied for a gig at WGR. I had the 'balls' then to walk in as a 19 year old with a 5inch reel of tape, hand it to the receptionist, and my only experience was running a Shure mixer at church and asked to speak to the 'Manager' as my Dad waited outside in the car. I came back 2 years later and I so bad wanted to see the studio and asked if I could see it. Debbie Swan, the receptionist, stuttered for a few minutes and told me that wasn't possible and just then Frank walked out of the air studio and into the lobby. Ignoring Debbie, I introduced myself and he was friendly as could be. He said, "Aw sure, come on in." He didn't know me from the Apostle Paul and he invited me into his air studio and listened to me tell him the experience I had in radio reading the weather forecast. He ran his mic hot so when he pressed the button you could hear me in the background trailing off with my last question and he just rolled it off smooth as silk on the air. I could've stayed there all afternoon for all he cared. I know Frank had his problems and all but he sure made this kid feel important and gave me good advice - in between sips of beer that he kept 'hidden'.
He seemed the same way off the air as on the air.
Mike Roszman: I was so saddened when I got the call ten minutes into my airsift at another radio station that he perished in a helicopter crash. It was hard going through my show. Mike hired me at GR and he patiently listened to my weekly airchecks and gave me advice. I would not be where I am right now at this point in my life if it wasn't for Mike. He had a great voice too. Real genuine person. At least to me....I was using some comedy material on the air that I found in the GR vaults that was out of license. When he heard me playing it, he calmly told me too lay off using that stuff due to license agreements, etc. I did not know. He allowed me to play my own jingles on the air, (year shouts and sings, even some old WGR jingles from the late 50's and early 60's sparingly. Granted, this was overnights. He set me up with Craig Matthews on my first Sunday to train me and Craig was great to work with. He wheeled the big GR mic around to me and talked to me on the air. I listen to those tapes from back then and I wanna barf. So embarrasing.
John Otto: The veteran that he was and to me he was 'big'. I grew up listening to John and loved, loved his voice and style and he's telling me that I've got quite a flair in regards to my on air work.
Skip Edmunds: I remember Skip from the ol' WBNY/WPHD days and I think GRQ days and later JYE. He even did a stint at WDCX in the afternoons. Skip was very smooth and real.
I'll never forget meeting some of the other guys and hearing how they sounded on the air and what they were like in person, well let me just say, wow....That worked both positive and negative and I'll leave it at that.
There are other guys and girls too that were great that I could mention but I don't wanna turn this post into the book of Psalms.
And just a side question:
As anyone ever been concerned about their safety going to and from the studio? I remember one Weekend morning I pulled up in front of WGR to park along the side of the street. This guy pulls up next to me and stops rolls his window down and just started yapping at me incoherently, like he was on drugs or something. Here I am getting ready to get out of the car with my briefcase full of show prep, grocery bag full of carts and Joel Whitburn books and having to unlock the station door to get in and this guy is hollering away at me. Scared the crap out of me. Franklin Street is one way. I put the car in reverse and floored that mother all the way backwards to the previous intersection and hauled tush to the nearest Buffalo cop car I could find. Rapped on her window - scared her for a second. Told her who I was and asked for an escort back to the station which she did just barely making me on time for the news.
I listen to my ol' jingle tapes of KB - The Friendly Place and Radio 1 KB and GR55 the Spirit of America and of course the Name Station in Buffalo - Radio 55 WGR. It sure takes ya back.
Just some thoughts I had as I've read some others recollecting their days in the Statler, Main St., Franklin St., etc.
Frank Benny - I first met Frank one day when I applied for a gig at WGR. I had the 'balls' then to walk in as a 19 year old with a 5inch reel of tape, hand it to the receptionist, and my only experience was running a Shure mixer at church and asked to speak to the 'Manager' as my Dad waited outside in the car. I came back 2 years later and I so bad wanted to see the studio and asked if I could see it. Debbie Swan, the receptionist, stuttered for a few minutes and told me that wasn't possible and just then Frank walked out of the air studio and into the lobby. Ignoring Debbie, I introduced myself and he was friendly as could be. He said, "Aw sure, come on in." He didn't know me from the Apostle Paul and he invited me into his air studio and listened to me tell him the experience I had in radio reading the weather forecast. He ran his mic hot so when he pressed the button you could hear me in the background trailing off with my last question and he just rolled it off smooth as silk on the air. I could've stayed there all afternoon for all he cared. I know Frank had his problems and all but he sure made this kid feel important and gave me good advice - in between sips of beer that he kept 'hidden'.
He seemed the same way off the air as on the air.
Mike Roszman: I was so saddened when I got the call ten minutes into my airsift at another radio station that he perished in a helicopter crash. It was hard going through my show. Mike hired me at GR and he patiently listened to my weekly airchecks and gave me advice. I would not be where I am right now at this point in my life if it wasn't for Mike. He had a great voice too. Real genuine person. At least to me....I was using some comedy material on the air that I found in the GR vaults that was out of license. When he heard me playing it, he calmly told me too lay off using that stuff due to license agreements, etc. I did not know. He allowed me to play my own jingles on the air, (year shouts and sings, even some old WGR jingles from the late 50's and early 60's sparingly. Granted, this was overnights. He set me up with Craig Matthews on my first Sunday to train me and Craig was great to work with. He wheeled the big GR mic around to me and talked to me on the air. I listen to those tapes from back then and I wanna barf. So embarrasing.
John Otto: The veteran that he was and to me he was 'big'. I grew up listening to John and loved, loved his voice and style and he's telling me that I've got quite a flair in regards to my on air work.
Skip Edmunds: I remember Skip from the ol' WBNY/WPHD days and I think GRQ days and later JYE. He even did a stint at WDCX in the afternoons. Skip was very smooth and real.
I'll never forget meeting some of the other guys and hearing how they sounded on the air and what they were like in person, well let me just say, wow....That worked both positive and negative and I'll leave it at that.
There are other guys and girls too that were great that I could mention but I don't wanna turn this post into the book of Psalms.
And just a side question:
As anyone ever been concerned about their safety going to and from the studio? I remember one Weekend morning I pulled up in front of WGR to park along the side of the street. This guy pulls up next to me and stops rolls his window down and just started yapping at me incoherently, like he was on drugs or something. Here I am getting ready to get out of the car with my briefcase full of show prep, grocery bag full of carts and Joel Whitburn books and having to unlock the station door to get in and this guy is hollering away at me. Scared the crap out of me. Franklin Street is one way. I put the car in reverse and floored that mother all the way backwards to the previous intersection and hauled tush to the nearest Buffalo cop car I could find. Rapped on her window - scared her for a second. Told her who I was and asked for an escort back to the station which she did just barely making me on time for the news.
I listen to my ol' jingle tapes of KB - The Friendly Place and Radio 1 KB and GR55 the Spirit of America and of course the Name Station in Buffalo - Radio 55 WGR. It sure takes ya back.
Just some thoughts I had as I've read some others recollecting their days in the Statler, Main St., Franklin St., etc.
"As anyone ever been concerned about their safety going to and from the studio? I remember one Weekend morning I pulled up in front of WGR to park along the side of the street. This guy pulls up next to me and stops rolls his window down and just started yapping at me incoherently, like he was on drugs or something."
If the guy stank of Marlboros, Utica Club, and a Super-Mighty or three...it was probably me going to work across the street.
If the guy stank of Marlboros, Utica Club, and a Super-Mighty or three...it was probably me going to work across the street.
I don't think it was you - WBLK wasn't across the street at the time.
Bill Myers said:
WYSL/WPhD was at 425 Franklin, which was across the street and just down the block from WGR. Depending on the year, of course.
You probably were accosted by one of the part-timers from WYSL. Was he a real skinny kid with a deep voice? It was probably Tom Tiberi, or one of the junkies that lived in the apartment building behind 425 Franklin.
I think that you'd have to add Dan Neaverth, Taylor & Moore, and Norton & Liederman to your list of "unique personalities". In fact, it would be hard for me to ignore any of the guys from 97-Rock.
The "real Mike Steel" and Mark "the Shark" Richards were both great in the Magic vs. Kiss days.
Price Communications and that other company sure knew who to hire. (sorry...drawn a blank: who owned Magic 102 in the late 80's again?)
Price Communications and that other company sure knew who to hire. (sorry...drawn a blank: who owned Magic 102 in the late 80's again?)
B
Bob1370
Guest
"who owned Magic 102 in the late 80's again?)"
Back then, that was still property of Larry Levite's Algonquiin Broadcasting.
I can understand why Larry sold out and semi-retired...the early 90s were a time when even large market owner/proprietors had to make a decision either to take the risk of growing and spreading out to other markets and other states, or sell out to those who had. If you had a chance to walk away a multimillionaire in your early 50s and enjoy the good life you'd earned rather than battle in the hypercompetitive rat race that broadcasting was becoming in the 1990s, you'd probably have done what Larry did, taken Keymarket's money and kicked back, too. (I also heard that another major factor in Larry's decision to sell, was that his children were choosing other professions and weren't interested in carrying on the broadcasting business, or he'd have probably held on and handed the reigns to his kids somewhere down the line.)
But it's nevertheless sad that broadcasting doesn't seem to have room for many truly local and community-minded people trying to put a quality product on the air these days. The Langstons at WDKX in Rochester come to mind, but there are too few like them...
Back then, that was still property of Larry Levite's Algonquiin Broadcasting.
I can understand why Larry sold out and semi-retired...the early 90s were a time when even large market owner/proprietors had to make a decision either to take the risk of growing and spreading out to other markets and other states, or sell out to those who had. If you had a chance to walk away a multimillionaire in your early 50s and enjoy the good life you'd earned rather than battle in the hypercompetitive rat race that broadcasting was becoming in the 1990s, you'd probably have done what Larry did, taken Keymarket's money and kicked back, too. (I also heard that another major factor in Larry's decision to sell, was that his children were choosing other professions and weren't interested in carrying on the broadcasting business, or he'd have probably held on and handed the reigns to his kids somewhere down the line.)
But it's nevertheless sad that broadcasting doesn't seem to have room for many truly local and community-minded people trying to put a quality product on the air these days. The Langstons at WDKX in Rochester come to mind, but there are too few like them...
S
SSSKub
Guest
Bill Myers said:
I don't know if Norton and "unique" really belong in the same sentence, but I do agree about the guys from 97 Rock. That skinny fella you mentioned, Tom Tiberi has an extremely unique brand of radio going on during the nights, and JP the "Professor" is not only a knowledgable and solid DJ, but a stand-up guy, and class act. Other than the suggestion of Norton, completely agree with the post.
Bill, Thanks for your post about WGR and the people who made it an amazing place. While KB was my favorite station in the '60's I think WGR would have been my favorite in the '70's if I had still been living in WNY. I always enjoyed WGR on my trips back to Buffalo.
I got a quick tour of WGR and WYSL back in the '70's. I was also on WGR briefly while working in Florida. The station I worked for WFTL in Fort Lauderdale carried John Otto's show one night via phone line. John and I got to talk for a little while, it was fun. This was all done to promote the new night time talk show we were going to start on WFTL. The genius of the idea was most everyone in South Florida was from other parts of the country so we did a different city each night, (New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Buffalo come to mind). This was before the network talk shows (other than Larry King).
I got a quick tour of WGR and WYSL back in the '70's. I was also on WGR briefly while working in Florida. The station I worked for WFTL in Fort Lauderdale carried John Otto's show one night via phone line. John and I got to talk for a little while, it was fun. This was all done to promote the new night time talk show we were going to start on WFTL. The genius of the idea was most everyone in South Florida was from other parts of the country so we did a different city each night, (New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Buffalo come to mind). This was before the network talk shows (other than Larry King).
Debaser said:
Speaking of "truly unique WNY personalities"...
How about that "Berns with an E"...
A couple of the most unique of the unique...In Rochester, there was the Greaseman at WAXC in 1973. And in Buffalo, let's not forget Shane, Brother Shane!
Call Me Sherlock said:
Imagine those two in the same room with only one mic...
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Bob Lonsberry. Second thought I'm not surprised. ;Ddustintv said:
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