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Where are they now? Former WDAO 107.9 FM Dayton hosts.

V

VALUERATIO

Guest
Are any of the following still in the radio business:

Langford "The Man" Stevens
Long John Silver
Raymond Graham (used to host "Back Page" on Sunday nights)
Cheryl Heflin
Phillip G. (used to host the overnight "Segway Show")
Gilbert Bays (Spelling?) "Gilbert Bays and his Love Maze"
Sonya the Sophisticated Lady
Beth Harlin (believe she got married to former WDAO PDTurk Logan)
Ronita Hawes (she later owned a couple of Dayton radio stations that went under)
Stan "The Man" (midday shift around 1995-96)
Leon Frasier or Frazier (1960s - later became a police officer in Jefferson Twp.)

Jason Roberts: can you help out with any of these?

Thank you in advance for any assistance anyone can offer.
 
Well, obviously, Ronita is still around...Some of the other folks, I'll have to do some investigating on. Been a long time since I've asked. I did note the passing of Duane "Cisco" Hoard in the past year or two.

Though not mentioned in your post, former PD "Turk" Logan is now Dr. John C. Logan over in Wilberforce at WCSU where he oversees a fine broadcasting program at Central State. I have the opportunity to speak with him from time to time.

I'll ask around to my sources about some of these other folks...or if some of you are around reading my mutterings, please help us out here!
 
Jim Johnson owns the current WDAO, Michael Eckton works there, and Turk Logan, last I heard was in charge of Central State's radio station and program.

Not to pick nits, but it was 107.7, the current WMMX.
 
You are correct, Gr8t. WDAO-FM was 107.7 (The current "Mix")...which is why it was called "10-77, WDAO"

"50 thousand watts...soundin' like a million!"

A lot of people don't realize there were some rating books back then when 'DAO-FM had BIG shares...the late Bud Crowl made far more money off WDAO than he ever could have hoped for with WAVI.

Also another footnote: WAVI/WDAO sales manager Ted Leakas also passed away in the past year or so.
 
You forgot "Shotgun" Pleasant..where is he now??? Shotgun also hosted a Saturday aftetnoon dance show on the former WKTR-TV(now WPTD)...yep, it was a localized "American Bandstand"-styled show..as there were many at that time including "Disc-O-Two" on the former WLWD, Jerry Razor doing a similar show on the former WLWC and Bob Braun doing "Braun's Bandstand" on WLWT.

Ricky Smith WDAO-FM's evening guy did a live R&B dance show (I think) on WHIO-TV in the 80s before moving on to do "WHIO Reports" on Sunday morning as he got older....he is sadly missed.

Never forget "The Ricky Smith Generation."
 
Jason Roberts said:
Well, obviously, Ronita is still around...Some of the other folks, I'll have to do some investigating on. Been a long time since I've asked. I did note the passing of Duane "Cisco" Hoard in the past year or two.

Though not mentioned in your post, former PD "Turk" Logan is now Dr. John C. Logan over in Wilberforce at WCSU where he oversees a fine broadcasting program at Central State. I have the opportunity to speak with him from time to time.

I'll ask around to my sources about some of these other folks...or if some of you are around reading my mutterings, please help us out here!
Click to expand...

Jason:

Is Ronita still in the Dayton area? Does she still have any ownership interest in any stations?
 
Was Bud Crowel also known as "Biggie BC"?

When I was in Dayton for a summer I found myself listening to DAY-OH a lot..and heard Bobbi Montgomery (great female AT)

and stumbled upon Biggie BC doing a remote from some place called "the Tahiti Hut"

Anyone remember them?
 
This is off the track but does anyone remember back in the early days of WDAO that WBLY-FM (now WDHT) attempted to program the late evenings, early mornings al la WDAO? I think it was before the call change to WAZU, but after the frequency shift from 103.9. Before that WBLY signed the FM off at midnight or one. I think they originally went on FM only because they were daytime on AM and they wanted to somehow better compete with WIZE, though FM radios were relatively scarce then.

I vaguely remember some of the DJ's but have never heard of them at all since. By the way this was shortly after the WDAO launch if I recall correctly and only lasted for a short time maybe only up to the call change to WAZU.
 
Jeff Laurence said:
Was Bud Crowel also known as "Biggie BC"?

When I was in Dayton for a summer I found myself listening to DAY-OH a lot..and heard Bobbi Montgomery (great female AT)

and stumbled upon Biggie BC doing a remote from some place called "the Tahiti Hut"

Anyone remember them?
Click to expand...

"Biggie BC" was Bill Carr (real name, William Hausfeld), and yes, he used to broadcast from the Tahiti Hut, a black nightclub where Biggie, who was white, packed the place and was dearly beloved by all. I spent many a night drinking there and elsewhere with Bill, who, sadly, passed away about 20 years ago. He was truly one of the nicest people on the planet and loved everyone, regardless of race, creed or color. I miss him still.

Bud Crowl was the owner of WAVI and WDAO.
 
In fact...

What some folks don't realize about the early days of WDAO...is that some of the early personalities on the station were actually white jocks who looked past the color of the listener's skin. (Biggie and Gene "By Golly" Barry to be exact.) God rest their souls...

And WDAO (the FM version, that is) was smart in a lot of other ways. They were programmed very carefully to play, not only the harder-core "soul" records of the day, but also the "crossover" music from the pop charts that the black audience liked. That's one of the reasons why the station had crossover appeal with white listeners...and helped them get big 12 and 14 share ratings more than few times in the 70's.

I remember doing the morning news on WDAO with Kenny Ray Tevis around 1976-77 or so. We'd often play a game. Kenny would grab some crossover song from the album library in the back of the studio (say, Grand Funk's "Some Kind Of Wonderful"), and not tell me what was coming. I had to guess the song, judge the intro and talk up the end of the news to the vocal, without stepping on it all while reading the news.

As I recall, I rarely ever stepped on the vocal.

I teach a radio class today at the International College Of Broadcasting. The radio textbook claims that "Urban Contemporary" radio was an outgrowth of the disco format. Maybe in other areas. Not in Dayton. I know better. In fact, I refuse to put that question in a test to my students. Why? I know what an Urban radio powerhouse WDAO was well before the days of disco. And, I tell my students that from the very first class.
 
Outgrowth of disco? Whoever wrote that textbook is on crack! Not only WDAO but countless old soul stations around the country were on the air way before John Travolta put on his first pair of tight pants. WJLB, Detroit, anyone? WWRL in NYC?
 
gr8oldies said:
Outgrowth of disco? Whoever wrote that textbook is on crack! Not only WDAO but countless old soul stations around the country were on the air way before John Travolta put on his first pair of tight pants. WJLB, Detroit, anyone? WWRL in NYC?
Click to expand...

Not to mention WDIA in Memphis, WAOK in Atlanta, WVON in Chicago, WCIN in Cincinnati, WVKO in Columbus, etc, etc, etc.?

Now you know why I dispute that point in the textbook. It was, no doubt, written by some guy with a Master's Degree who doesn't know a $^$# thing about the history of radio formats.
 
In the early to mid 60's, when AM was still king, I was busy growing up and going to high school in the Washington D.C. area. There were numerous top-40 powerhouse stations including WPGC, WEAM, WINX, WEEL and WWDC, plus stations from Baltimore, Annapolis and other smaller cities to listen to. But there were magnificent R & B / soul stations too, including WOL (with Bob "The Nighthawk" Terry) and WUST (with "The Moon Man" and Barry Richards) in D.C.. This is many years BEFORE disco. I'm guessing that the term "urban contemporary" means different things to different generations, and that we're really arguing semantics more than formatics here.
 
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