As a listener, perhaps connoisseur, of WKBW and night guys especially, this little poll intrigues me no end.
First, in defense of Warren Miller, aka, The Janitor. How would anybody like to be the poor bastard that came in to do nights after the legendary Jackson Armstrong?
Nuh-uh!
On good word, it was the Greaseman who actually won the Great America Talent Hunt. But Doug Trecht was no dummy. He wanted substantial bread and it wasn't being offered. Armstrong himself said that he did nights at KB for about 20 grand a year. By today's standard, that's pocket lint. But back in 69-70-71, it was a pretty decent wage for a night guy.
Armstrong set the bar so high, that anybody that followed him would have appeared "not up to snuff."
The Janitor didn't help matters by not always bringing his A-game, but he was quite a successful night jock with a solid following at WLOF, Orlando before he walked into the vortex of Armstrong's departure from KB. And to his credit, he was a decent fellow.
Shane? Brilliant showman with a ten ton ego and an act that people in Buffalo still remember, most of them fondly. His was a love it or hate it act. Probably won the lottery going to KB after the Janitor's trainwreck.
Reynolds? Set the standard for many of today's morning shows and shock jocks. L-E-G-E-N-D. Sometimes in his own mind, but legend nonetheless. Just voted for Joey and Van Miller in the 2009 National Hall of Fame Balloting. BTW, no way was Joey born in 1950. Just Joey bein' Joey.
Jeff Kaye? Followed Reynolds and made nights his own show, which is what Janitor should have at least tried to do when he got to KB. Jeff was a masterful writer, producer... and some would offer, self-promoter, which, with hard work, is how he got to be PD of KB, replacing Dave Sennett.
Bud Balou? Mid to late 60s shtickmeister from Syracuse who was quite entertaining and did well in the time slot, but left for a major market gig at the snakepit that was WMEX under Max Richmond. Just about anybody who was anybody seemed to work for the Richmonds at WMEX... for a few months. Even Armstrong worked at WMEX.
Sandy Beach? Another strong personality from WDRC (where he could have been called Bradley Field) who made his mark by doing it "his way" at KB. Originally hired to do middays but was given the hipshake and assigned to do nights a few weeks after arriving at KB.
What about Tim Kelly? He made his mark doing nights at WYSL and was a stone in KB's shoe. Kelly, now a wealthy man having been at the helm of Premiere Networks, left WYSL for McLendon's KTSA, San Anotonio, then returned to Buffalo to do nights at KB. Always a solid jock and one who blended many of the album rock artists with KB's Top 40 at night.
One of the best night guys on KB, in the Jeff Kaye and Bob Harper eras was Don Berns. Uh-oh... here comes dat man again. Without a doubt, Berns could cook with the best of them, knew the music inside-out (which by the way, was a Sunday night Folk-Progressive show on KB) and had plenty of night-jock shtick too. Arguably as good as Armstrong, without Jack's speed. They should have had a "cook-off."
Jim Quinn made his mark in Pittsburgh working for Bob Harper at KQV, which was decimated by Heftel's 13Q. By that time, Quinn had departed for WPIX-FM, a Top 40 in NYC that was doing battle with RKO's 99X. Harper brought Quinn to Buffalo after Berns left for WPHD.
Jay Fredericks did stand up comedy, worked nights at KB doing a fine job. Jay has been parked in LA as the weatherman for KNBC Los Angeles since forever.
Banana Joe Montione was another notable Philly jock who did a fine job at KB.
Al Bandiero came to Buffalo from NYC. Heard Sandy walked him out of the building with his stuff in a box.
How can anybody forget The Laker? Chuck Lakefield. Terrific jock with a great sense of humor.
Going back to the 60s, there was the night guy from Dallas who many KB fans might have forgotten, or never quite heard of. His name was Frank Jollie. As the story goes, Frank was hired to do nights after Jeff Kaye moved from nights to PD. He was hired because the son of KB's GM at the time lived in Dallas and vouched for the guy. Essentially, the GM hired him. KB set up a promotion centered around a "big box" being delivered to the studio marked "do not open until..." ostensibly, the date Jolly was going to start doing nights.
So the jocks talked up the "box in the studio." Neaverth, then doing afternoon drive, talks about the box "moving around by itself." It's really an entertaining, listener-involved promotion. The big night comes, the box is opened (obviously, the guy wasn't in the box) and the jock springs forth and falls flat with one of those classic "How ya doin' everybody..." routines and it doesn't get much better.
In fact, it gets more crazy when Jollie does the call letters and calls the station K-B-W. Because he worked in Dallas, where every call sign was a K-call sign, Jollie couldn't get his head around "W"KBW.
It goes downhill from there. Two weeks later, the guy goes to Jeff and says, "this ain't workin'." They both breathed a sigh of relief. Jollie went back to Dallas and his comfort zone and word is he did quite well.
Nights at KB. Amazing what we were witness to.
