WKLO 1963

A dominant Louisville Top 40 AM station (1080), WKLO was in a long-time battle against rival WAKY. Upon graduation from High School, I was offered a summer position at WKLO running a storefront prize headquarters on Fourth Street, downtown Louisville, for a promotion called the Summer Fun Festival. On-Air contest winners came to the store to pick up their prizes. Although I did minimal on-air work, I had access to the studios and met many of the announcers and staff.

WTMT 1963-64

After the Summer Fun Festival ended at WKLO, I started IU Southeast in the Fall of 1963 and with my WKLO experience and audition tape made at its studios, secured a part time-fill in position with country AM WTMT (620), staffed by several notable country singers as DJ's, including Tommy Downs and Ginger Callahan. This was my initial exposure to being on the air in a Country music format. Since the job was only part time and the school year was ending, I sought more hours by looking a few miles down the road to Harrison country where a new station was being built.

WPDF 1964

WPDF was a brand new AM station (1550) in Corydon, IN and was owned by Herb and Mary Arms. As new broadcasters, they could afford only inexperienced talent and paid $1.25 per hour (minimum wage). I was attending Indiana University SouthEast and used the summer months to earn college money by working afternoons. WPDF was a daytimer, with longer hours in the summer months. The studios were upstairs over Conad's Music Store on Capitol Square. Corydon was the first capitol of Indiana. The call letters were named after Paul Dean Ford, a consulting engineer and friend of the Arms Family. The station played a mixture of Country and adult pop music. I did an hour at 6 pm of Teen Time, a top 40 countdown. After the summer ended and the hours became shorter, I needed to return to I.U. and was looking for a position back in Louisville, closer to my home in Southern Indiana.

WLRS 1964

In Louisville, there was a new FM station, WLRS. Named for Louisville Radio School and owned by the Henson family of Louisville (Clarence & Mary), the organization ran a consulting engineering company in addition to the school. The school was (I think) initially a place for radio students to gain experience, but it seemed that soon, the stations eclectic, easy listening format caught on and required some professional talent. One of the announcers I befriended at WLRS was Dale Reeves who was looking for a better job with an AM station, so basically we swapped jobs. He went to WPDF in Corydon and I took his part time position at WLRS, so I'd be closer to school.

WCCF 1964-1965

It was early 1964, I made a decision to lay out a semester from I.U. and jump-start my career by getting a sought after FCC First Class License. A school in Sarasota, FL was offering a 5 week course to get it. Simultaneously, in nearby Punta Gorda, FL, my Aunt, Lynn Stephens, became General Manager of WCCF (AM 1580). Lynn had worked in radio sales back in Louisville and had similarly decided to come to Florida to work for her former manager at a station he'd purchased. Lynn offered me an opportunity to be Production Director as well as Afternoon announcer for WCCF long enough to bankroll myself to attend the radio school (Radio Engineering Institute). Following me on-air at 6 pm every afternoon was Bill Patty who did a Country Show until sundown/signoff. I stayed and worked with Bill on the show, so it would be my 3rd Country music format opportunity. I worked at WCCF about six months before going to REI in June and getting my FCC License in July 1964. One of the best parts of working at WCCF was being on the air every day, doing many jobs, and being able to listen to the great Top 40 stations from Miami (WQAM) and Tampa-St. Pete (WFLA-WALT-WLCY).

WIRE 1965-1967

Mission accomplished. With FCC License in hand and another school semester approaching back at IU, I bade farewell to Florida but not before sending my tape and resume to several stations in Indianapolis. I really didn't want to go back to the Louisville area and since Indianapolis was Indiana's largest market and there was a large IU Regional campus there, I could work and go to school simultaneously. I got two nibbles from the material I sent, both advising me to "Call us when you get here." The stations were Adult Standards WIRE (AM 1430) and Country/R&B WGEE ( AM 1500). Upon arrival in Indianapolis, I was offered part time positions at both. WIRE was a legendary NBC affiliate with Septuagenarian, Wally Nehrling as morning host. The P.D. was Doug Zink. WGEE was a daytime that played country music until noon and the n R& B Music in the afternoon, satisfying two missing niche formats in the market. WGEE P.D. Bob Todd needed someone to run Sunday morning tape programs and fill-in a few hours as Country DJ. I accepted both positions for several months before WIRE offered me a full time position doing some fill-in announcer work and as a newsperson. I worked 4 hours a day doing mobile news (around my class schedule) and then 12 hour each on Saturday and Sunday running weekend NBC programs (Monitor), local weekend shows and a few hours as DJ. Although WIRE played adult standards by day, it had a country music overnight show, originally hosted by Country artist Jack Barlow and later by Bernie Walden. Here again, I had another opportunity to work in a Country format.

Curiously, WIRE decided to go into a fulltime Country Format under the guidance of new G.M. Don Nelson and with the programming consultants Bill Hudson Associates. Although I had already worked at 4 stations playing country music. I was terminated by WIRE as not having what it took to be one of its Country personalities.

WIFE- WAIV-WTLC-WGEE 1968-1970

After leaving WIRE, I managed to put together a piecemeal schedule of various part time or temporary radio jobs including overnight News at Top 40 WIFE (AM 1310), a stint as manager of soon-to change format WAIV (Classical FM 106.7), and stayed on as DJ when WAIV became WTLC (Urban), and ultimately returned to WGEE when the station finally abandoned its Country/R&B formats, collectively gobbled-up by WIRE and WTLC, offering fulltime service of both formats. At this point, I had five solid years in multiple formats and WGEE was offering a new Adult Contemporary format under the guidance of new General Manager Edd Neilson. We worked together very well and it would turn out to be a fortunate alliance. Regrettably, Edd never relocated to Indiana and rather commuted every weekend back to his family in New Jersey. WGEE was owned by Rollins Broadcasting. In 1968, I had visited New York City for the first time at the invitation of someone I had met in Indianapolis. My two-week visit to New York enthralled me enough that I made it a goal to live and work there one day. I'd figure out how to do that, later. Following Edd's departure from WGEE, Rollins offered me an opportunity to go to its station in Wilmington, DE. I accepted the offer and moved east and said a final goodbye to the Indiana chapter of my career. Of course, Delaware was a lot closer to New York than Indiana, so the first obstacle in winding up in New York had taken care of itself, the relocation to the East.

WAMS (1970)

My first time living and working on the east Coast, I was welcomed to the Rollins' Top 40 station WAMS (AM 1380) in Wilmington. Only 30 minutes away from Philadelphia, PA, WAMS did an excellent job of fending off the Top 40 major stations in Philadelphia (WIBG-WFIL). The station was also starting to lose some audience and soon needed a new P.D., so I was elevated to the position, temporarily, in addition to doing my regular afternoon drive show. One of the most notable times I spent at WAMS was doing a "Wakathon". I stayed awake and on the air in the window of "The Drum Shop" music store for 110 hours. My days and nights on the air became a local media event and had school busses and families driving by the store waving their support. My temporary P.D. opportunity ended after about 6 months and I noted that the new P.D. seemed intent on populating the staff with former associates from his prior markets. Fortunately, at about this time, I got a call from former WGEE G.M. Edd Neilson, who was putting together a group of stations in the Northeast and offered me a chance to join them.

WKIP (1970-1971)

Edd Neilson advised me that a company he had joined owned a few stations in New Jersey and were purchasing WKIP (AM 1450) in Poughkeepsie, NY, and he'd be assembling an entire staff to take over all aspects of the station upon closing. The company owned WMVB AM-FM in Vineland-Millville, NJ, so one by one, as the WKIP staff was hired, we camped out and started practicing working together at WMVB. When the sale closed, we all relocated to Poughkeepsie, changed the station format to the "Fun One", which if anything else, the station was. I did afternoons. Edd Neilson AKA Jack Daniels did mornings; Tim Haskell, middays; Richie Allen, nights. Poughkeepsie is 90 miles north of New York City and of course I could hear all the stations there. Clearly, my goal was still to work in New York one day.

Although we had a whole lot of fun on and off the air at WKIP, the market was still small and the pay not that great. I had no intentions of leaving WKIP, but I did seek some opportunities to supplement my income by sending off my audition tape and resume to stations in the New York City market, casting about for something part time on weekends.

WPAT (1971-73)

My tape landed on the desk of easy listening WPAT (AM 930 & FM 93.) Program Director, Curt Hahn. WPAT was a highly rated station playing "Easy Listening" wall-to-wall music, with very few announcements. It was owned by CapCities Broadcasting and the General Manager was Jim Arcara. Curt had some sporadic part time shifts coming available. WPAT had offices in New York City and studios in Clifton, NJ. WPAT played the music from giant tape reels that were produced in New York and taken by a station courier to Clifton for broadcast. In addition to some part time announcing, Curt asked if I'd be interested in assuming the job of transporting the tapes back and forth for a few months. Even though this was still part-time, the pay was greater than what I could ever make in Poughkeepsie. Conveniently, an actor friend of mine I had also met in Indianpolis was doing a show in Mexico and his apartment was empty for a few months. I left WKIP, and relocated to New York City. Although I never worked full-time at WPAT, I had a long relationship with it as a part timer, both as a music announcer and as a news anchor throughout the 1970's and 1980's. I even played on its softball team for a few years. It was my very first New York City station.I got my AFTRA membership in 1971 through it. I still have membership .

WPTR (1981-1983)

Legendary 50,000 watt Top 40 station WPTR (AM 1540) in Albany, New York had fallen on hard times, eventually losing long-standing the Top 40 battle in the market to WTRY. As was the case with many AM Top 40 stations, the one that lost the battle usually switched to Country. Such was the case with WPTR, under the guidance of programming consultants Burkhardt-Abrams-Douglas, with Dwight Douglas being immediately responsible. Almost none of the announcers had worked country before and there was no on-site Program Director with any experience. Everything was mandated from B.A.D. The station was owned by Rust Communications. Bill Rust was an engineer who has developed many radio technology applications over the years. His son, Lee, was sort of an unwilling go-between connecting stations to owner. I interviewed several times with Lee and station G.M. Bob Ausfeld. They were skeptical that a NYC announcer with no prior P.D. experience had the qualifications. Eventually, I wore them down and they hired me as P.D. and also as Morning show host. They still insisted on my taking directions from the consultants as their safety net for my inexperience. After about 6 months it became clear that I had the station well handled. Even the consultants were impressed. The agreement with B.A.D. was terminated and the station was mine to program. The other competitor WGNA-FM had a larger audience and had been in the format for several years. The staff came on board with the plan and direction. We out-promoted, out personalitied, and outperformed the competitor at every level. Arbitron responded with our overall increase from 2.8 in 1982 to 5.0 in 1983, beating WGNA. We also blew by AM rocker WTRY, something WPTR hadn't done in many years. Bob Ausfeld left the station and was replaced by David Leonard. David had been working in NYC at an advertising rep firm, Chrystal, but wanted to be a station G.M. So like me, he had to convince the Rusts to hire him given lack of G.M. experience. In a way, this was a good opportunity for both of us to create a new management environment based upon what we each knew what to do, rather than what someone who'd come before us, had done. WPTR became a successful operation within my 2 year tenure. Was it coincidence? Could I do it again? Opportunity would soon play another important role.

KKYX (1984-1987)

As mentioned, David Leonard had worked for Chrystal in NYC. One of his client stations was KKYX (AM 680), a huge 50,000 watt country station in San Antonio, TX owned by Swanson Broadcasting. The station was faltering in a 3 country station market. The KKYX G.M., Bill Rohde, was casting about for a possible P.D. replacement and contacted David Leonard for any referrals. I think David and I both recognized that I had accomplished what I came to do at WPTR, so he suggested that Bill Rohde talk to me about the KKYX opportunity. I flew to San Antonio after several phone interviews, met Bill Rohde and surveyed the station and listened for a few days from my hotel room. Upon returning to Albany and after a few more phone conversations with Bill Rohde, the KKYX P.D. job was mine, sort of. Out of fierce loyalty to the former P.D. Paul Morgan, Rohde wanted to keep him on for a while and let me assist him with hopes of by working together, we'd get more accomplished. The staff didn't know who to follow or listen to although they were very receptive to my ideas and most had also worked for Morgan for many years and probably felt a change would be a good idea. After about 4 months of the "team P.D." concept, I met with Bill Rohde and expressed that it wasn't working out and that I wanted the sole P.D. title and responsibility for programming KKYX. He agreed, and it was done. We revamped the on-air lineup, fixed the music, got extremely aggressive with huge market promotions including the Great Country River Festival that literally took over San Antonio's famous Riverwalk for a 3 day weekend of Country music with top artists performing at a variety of venues, downtown, including the Arneson River Theatre. Another huge event was the Great Country Chili Cookoff that similarly, brought in thousands of fans for a weekend of country music and hundreds of competing chili cooking teams. I was crazy for live broadcasts, so for the first time, KKYX broadcast the Festival and Cookoff live as well as dozens of other events through the year. If the audience couldn't attend, they could listen, a classic radio benefit. The station took a major upward spike in the ratings after about 6 months of my being sole P.D. Bill Rohde was passionate about KKYX and even though we didn't have any sort of ratings incentive package in addition to my salary, he was so pleased at the station growth and r-establishing it competitively once again, he called me into his office and handed me an envelope containing $1000 cash as a way of saying "thanks". After two years of steady growth and a bright future for KKYX, there were some rather mysterious consultants brought in to advise the station by Swanson Broadcasting. This was both confusing to Bill Rohde and me, as well. The ratings were up, the station was making money. What more could Swanson ask for. Ultimately, they were not very successful at hiding the fact that they wanted to divest all their Swanson radio properties, so KKYX (along with its recently acquired, Lite FM, sister station KLLS-FM) were for sale. The consultants, Lee Bayley and Dan DiLoretto were acquired to trim all expenses and bring the staffing and costs down to bare essentials to attract buyers. I was out and soon thereafter, Bill Rohde was out, as were several of the other management members. I had purchased a house in San Antonio and was quite surprised at the turn of events, having dug in for a longer tour-of-duty. Back in Albany, David Leonard had left WPTR and moved on to be G.M. at WING with an Oldies format in Dayton, OH. I called David to tell him the news about KKYX.

WING (1988)

As mentioned, David Leonard had worked for Chrystal in NYC. One of his client stations was KKYX (AM 680), a huge 50,000 watt country station in San Antonio, TX owned by Swanson Broadcasting. The station was faltering in a 3 country station market. The KKYX G.M., Bill Rohde, was casting about for a possible P.D. replacement and contacted David Leonard for any referrals. I think David and I both recognized that I had accomplished what I came to do at WPTR, so he suggested that Bill Rohde talk to me about the KKYX opportunity. I flew to San Antonio after several phone interviews, met Bill Rohde and surveyed the station and listened for a few days from my hotel room. Upon returning to Albany and after a few more phone conversations with Bill Rohde, the KKYX P.D. job was mine, sort of. Out of fierce loyalty to the former P.D. Paul Morgan, Rohde wanted to keep him on for a while and let me assist him with hopes of by working together, we'd get more accomplished. The staff didn't know who to follow or listen to although they were very receptive to my ideas and most had also worked for Morgan for many years and probably felt a change would be a good idea. After about 4 months of the "team P.D." concept, I met with Bill Rohde and expressed that it wasn't working out and that I wanted the sole P.D. title and responsibility for programming KKYX. He agreed, and it was done. We revamped the on-air lineup, fixed the music, got extremely aggressive with huge market promotions including the Great Country River Festival that literally took over San Antonio's famous Riverwalk for a 3 day weekend of Country music with top artists performing at a variety of venues, downtown, including the Arneson River Theatre. Another huge event was the Great Country Chili Cookoff that similarly, brought in thousands of fans for a weekend of country music and hundreds of competing chili cooking teams. I was crazy for live broadcasts, so for the first time, KKYX broadcast the Festival and Cookoff live as well as dozens of other events through the year. If the audience couldn't attend, they could listen, a classic radio benefit. The station took a major upward spike in the ratings after about 6 months of my being sole P.D. Bill Rohde was passionate about KKYX and even though we didn't have any sort of ratings incentive package in addition to my salary, he was so pleased at the station growth and r-establishing it competitively once again, he called me into his office and handed me an envelope containing $1000 cash as a way of saying "thanks". After two years of steady growth and a bright future for KKYX, there were some rather mysterious consultants brought in to advise the station by Swanson Broadcasting. This was both confusing to Bill Rohde and me, as well. The ratings were up, the station was making money. What more could Swanson ask for. Ultimately, they were not very successful at hiding the fact that they wanted to divest all their Swanson radio properties, so KKYX (along with its recently acquired, Lite FM, sister station KLLS-FM) were for sale. The consultants, Lee Bayley and Dan DiLoretto were acquired to trim all expenses and bring the staffing and costs down to bare essentials to attract buyers. I was out and soon thereafter, Bill Rohde was out, as were several of the other management members. I had purchased a house in San Antonio and was quite surprised at the turn of events, having dug in for a longer tour-of-duty. Back in Albany, David Leonard had left WPTR and moved on to be G.M. at WING with an Oldies format in Dayton, OH. I called David to tell him the news about KKYX.

KTSA (1989-1990)

As mentioned, David Leonard had worked for Chrystal in NYC. One of his client stations was KKYX (AM 680), a huge 50,000 watt country station in San Antonio, TX owned by Swanson Broadcasting. The station was faltering in a 3 country station market. The KKYX G.M., Bill Rohde, was casting about for a possible P.D. replacement and contacted David Leonard for any referrals. I think David and I both recognized that I had accomplished what I came to do at WPTR, so he suggested that Bill Rohde talk to me about the KKYX opportunity. I flew to San Antonio after several phone interviews, met Bill Rohde and surveyed the station and listened for a few days from my hotel room. Upon returning to Albany and after a few more phone conversations with Bill Rohde, the KKYX P.D. job was mine, sort of. Out of fierce loyalty to the former P.D. Paul Morgan, Rohde wanted to keep him on for a while and let me assist him with hopes of by working together, we'd get more accomplished. The staff didn't know who to follow or listen to although they were very receptive to my ideas and most had also worked for Morgan for many years and probably felt a change would be a good idea. After about 4 months of the "team P.D." concept, I met with Bill Rohde and expressed that it wasn't working out and that I wanted the sole P.D. title and responsibility for programming KKYX. He agreed, and it was done. We revamped the on-air lineup, fixed the music, got extremely aggressive with huge market promotions including the Great Country River Festival that literally took over San Antonio's famous Riverwalk for a 3 day weekend of Country music with top artists performing at a variety of venues, downtown, including the Arneson River Theatre. Another huge event was the Great Country Chili Cookoff that similarly, brought in thousands of fans for a weekend of country music and hundreds of competing chili cooking teams. I was crazy for live broadcasts, so for the first time, KKYX broadcast the Festival and Cookoff live as well as dozens of other events through the year. If the audience couldn't attend, they could listen, a classic radio benefit. The station took a major upward spike in the ratings after about 6 months of my being sole P.D. Bill Rohde was passionate about KKYX and even though we didn't have any sort of ratings incentive package in addition to my salary, he was so pleased at the station growth and r-establishing it competitively once again, he called me into his office and handed me an envelope containing $1000 cash as a way of saying "thanks". After two years of steady growth and a bright future for KKYX, there were some rather mysterious consultants brought in to advise the station by Swanson Broadcasting. This was both confusing to Bill Rohde and me, as well. The ratings were up, the station was making money. What more could Swanson ask for. Ultimately, they were not very successful at hiding the fact that they wanted to divest all their Swanson radio properties, so KKYX (along with its recently acquired, Lite FM, sister station KLLS-FM) were for sale. The consultants, Lee Bayley and Dan DiLoretto were acquired to trim all expenses and bring the staffing and costs down to bare essentials to attract buyers. I was out and soon thereafter, Bill Rohde was out, as were several of the other management members. I had purchased a house in San Antonio and was quite surprised at the turn of events, having dug in for a longer tour-of-duty. Back in Albany, David Leonard had left WPTR and moved on to be G.M. at WING with an Oldies format in Dayton, OH. I called David to tell him the news about KKYX.

UNISTAR (1990)

There had been a music format of long standing called “Music of Your Life” (MOYL) created by Al Ham. Many stations around the country carried the format, mostly older adult standards and big band favorites for much older demographics. The programming was distributed on large reels of tape, an expensive and time consuming distribution method. I had met Al and his associates on several occasions since we were both servicing music to older listeners and were in general agreement about the artistic value of the older music and its ability to attract audiences. MOYL was about to enter into an agreement with Unistar Radio in Hollywood. Unistar provided live announcers and music formats to be delivered by satellite to radio stations that would then broadcast the formats on their stations locally. This process also allowed the station to have its own local personalities when available and supplement its lineup with service from the satellite. This was a new distribution arrangement and I was being considered as a Program Director candidate to run the MOYL operation in concordance with the MOYL music and personality policies. In order to secure the deal to work with Unistar, MOYL executives entered into a revenue-splitting arrangement, so that any income from stations carrying MOYL would be divided between MOYL and Unistar. MOYL had tapped me to go to Hollywood, do an air shift and be the P.D. to run the operation. I met with them in San Diego and we shook hands on the deal and my start date at Unistar was selected for a few weeks later. I packed everything up in San Antonio and headed west arriving at Unistar studios on the appointed start date.

WNEW 1991-1992/h1>

Don Nelson, my General Manager from WIRE in Indianapolis had managed to work his way up through the ranks of being a highly successful General Manager in a variety of radio markets, especially at country stations. While in Hollywood, I met with Don several times when he was in San Diego at country KSON. Although the negotiation were still hush-hush, there was some speculation that he might be heading east for a new opportunity. I’d had enough of Unistar-MOYL and still had a few consulting clients to keep me busy, so I decided to move back to New York, where at least I knew the territory. I put all my personal items in storage in L.A. and drove cross-country, subletting a small apartment in Long Island City, Queens. I picked up a few part time announcing shifts (once again at old standby WPAT) and a few suburban stations. In 1991, Don Nelson was introduced as the new General Manager of New York country station WYNY. Country had always been a difficult format for New York and Don was brought in to maximize the potential revenue from the market. As almost an after-thought, WYNY-FM co-owned the legendary WNEW-AM, a long-standing Adult Standards station. It too, was in dire financial straits with a salary heavy air staff and little direction. Don’s plan was go in and take care of the Country station which was his field of expertise and he’d bring me in to see what I could do to prop up WNEW. Many of the on air personalities at WNEW had been there for years. Most were spoiled, ego-centric, personalities who failed to realize the sun was setting on their little empire. Countless program directors came and went as the always defiant announcers did whatever they wanted to do, protected by expensive talent contracts. I was brought in as Music Consultant. I also got a regular part-time air shift, so it was good to be back on the air in New York. The station music library was massive and there was no rhyme or reason to the format other than everyone played what he wanted. It was also at this time that the WNEW-WYNY combo was being shared by two sets of owners (similar to the Unistar-MOYL mess) and that neither side wanted to yield any management control so every day was a constant stalemate. In less than a year, Don Nelson left in total disgust and I followed shortly thereafter. I am pleased to report that not long after that, WNEW-AM 1130 was sold to Bloomberg Financial (Mike Bloomberg’s company) and the Adult Standards station died a whimpering death it so richly deserved as the call letters were changed to WBBR. With few exceptions, the air personalities at WNEW also garnered the anonymity they too, richly deserved. I set up shop at another apartment in long Island City and decided to hang out my consulting shingle once again, occasionally working on the air wherever an opportunity came about.

WNCN 1993-1994

One of the stations where I found a part time opportunity was at classical WNCN. Many markets don’t have any classical radio, but New York had two stations led by the New York Times owned WQXR, its only radio property and the smaller, quirkier WNCN owned by GAF, its only radio property. I enjoyed working there under Program Director, Mario Mazza, but within a year, GAF had sold the station and the new call letters were WAXQ, switching from classical to (very) hard rock. I did have the unusual situation of staying through the changeover, briefly so I’d begun my WNCE experience by playing Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, et al, and ended the experience playing Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Lenny Kravitz, Smashing Pumpkins, and Arrowsmith.

WYNY 1994-1996

About the time WNCN was vanishing, I’d been in touch with Chris Kampmeier who’d been the Operations Manager at Unistar in Hollywood. Chris had just been named Program Director at WYNY, the country station (no longer affiliated with WNEW and with new owners, Evergreen Media). Chris felt the station needed a link with New York’s country music radio past and had a few of the previous country personalities on the air, including New York legend “Dandy” Dan Daniel. I pulled out my former New York country credentials (WHN-WKHK) and proposed a Sunday night oldies show featuring country hits from the 60s & 70s. Therefore the Sunday Night Oldies Show was born and I was back on the air in New York and back playing country. I’d become the only New York personality to be on the air of all three New York country stations. It was great talking to the fans again, accepting phone calls every week, and playing the same songs I had played when they were new at WHN and WKHK. I had also started getting some interest in putting this show on some other stations in other markets, so I started up another version of the show that I recorded at my own small studio and called it The Country Oldies Show, sending weekly tapes to 5, then 10, then 15 or more stations every week. In February 1996, WYNY gasped its last country breath and the ownership opted to drop the country format and revert to former New York dance station call letters WKTU and go for the Urban-Dance audience. A day-long tribute broadcast on the last day of WYNY had become legendary with all manner of New York country personalities, past and present stopping-by for a final goodbye. Knowing that this day was coming, I’d put out some feelers for programming opportunities in the Northeast, if not in New York City, proper. I’d also been very interested in getting back into the Program Director’s chair somewhere, since I missed the day-to-day activities associated with station operations.

International Academy of Broadcasting 1994-2002

As a programming consultant, in 1991, I attended the NAB Radio Show Conference. At one of the exhibit booths, there were some people from Montreux, Switzerland promoting an international radio symposium to be held in their city the following year. Although I’d travelled to Europe many times, it seemed like a great opportunity to expand my horizons within the European radio community. I marked the dates and the following year attended the first annual Radio Montreux event. Every two years (odd numbered years), Montreux hosted an international Television Symposium. It was decided to do the same for radio on even numbered years. I attended the first Radio Montreux and met many influential broadcasters with whom I’d eventually work as a consultant and would know as international colleagues. I also got wind of the idea that a group was about ready to open a graduate-level broadcasting school in Montreux. The city is magnificently beautiful, situated on the north shore of Lake Geneva in the French-speaking part of Switzerland in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. After several meetings and providing my copious background information, resumes, and letters of reference (including one from Walter Cronkite), I was hired as an adjunct instructor to come to Montreux every year for 2 weeks and teach a course in format radio. I continued this practice every 2 years, even during my regular jobs in the United States. In 2002, the school closed in Montreux, but continued to host technical symposium for several years thereafter, from its headquarters in Ireland.

WPTR-FM 1996

One of the places I started making inquiries was back in Albany, New York, where I had some previous contacts and market experience. Albany Broadcasting (WYJB, WFLY, WROW) had acquired a small FM Country station, WDCD and was going to roll it into its new broadcast facility in Latham, NY and offer another format choice to compliment the other stations in the group. In light of the previous success and recognition of the WPTR call letters, the company acquired WPTR-FM. The original WPTR-AM, now owned by another company, had changed its call letters and gone to a Christian format. I rebuilt WDCD into the new WPTR-FM and kept it running under the old owners until Albany Broadcasting could take over, which they did and we moved to the new studios shortly thereafter, become the first station in the group to move to the new place. I met some new talent that I’d keep in touch with over the future years and we did a good job (as a small station) adding listeners to the Albany Broadcasting lineup. I was also handed the title of Operations Manager for WROW-AM, a News Talk station when it moved into the building. During this time, I continued to record and distribute The Country Oldies Show, this time from a basement studio at my house in Cohoes, NY, near Albany.

Radio Ink Magazine 1998-1999

Throughout my career as a Program Director, Air Personality, and Consultant, I’d been frequently asked to write articles for trade publications, speak on radio conference panels, and otherwise offer suggestions to the industry. Radio Ink had long been the premier magazine for radio management and sales. My former general manager from WHN, Chuck Renwick, had been the National Sales Manager for several years, as well. It had come to the attention of Radio Ink management that the staff was rather inexperienced in actual radio experience, so it was determined to create the position of Radio Editor and bring in someone who could look at the articles, the writers, the contributors , etc. to make sure their offerings would ring true in the industry itself. I’d done what I needed to do at WPTR-FM, change it over to the new owners and get it up and running. I opened a dialogue with Radio Ink’s Publisher Eric Rhoads and Financial Officer, John Montani, as well as Chuck Renwick who was pulling for me on the inside. After a visit to Radio Ink offices in West Palm Beach, FL, I was hired as the new Radio Editor, leaving the frigid upstate New York climate for the sun and sand of Palm Beach. I’m very proud of the body of work I did at Radio Ink and I sincerely believe that I centered the publication squarely on issues that were timely and top-of-mind for the contemporary radio scene. The articles and cover stories ranged from Talk Host Susan Powter, executives David Pearlman, Bob Neil, Steve Hicks, owner Jeff Smulyan, programmer Steve Rivers and a revealing cover story on country programming consultant Jay Albright who underwent gender reassignment and today is Jaye Albright, one of the most respect radio consultants in the industry. I’d like to say at this point that although I enjoyed the work at Radio Ink…it wasn’t radio. The deadline mentality of having all production elements collected at the same time from a group of disparate sources could get frustrating versus the feel of live radio where everything is done in real time. I can also say that for some reason, perhaps the on-site absence of Eric Rhoads, the Publisher, there didn’t seem to be anyone running the show other than John Montani, who literally made my time a Radio Ink unnecessarily miserable with nit-picking critiques of almost every daily activity and a staunch resistance to anything new or innovative. John had come from a background in the financial world of Sears. After my departure from Radio Ink, I understand that John got into some legal problems with some financial improprieties. I feel a little better although I’ve always felt that an apology from Radio Ink would have been in order. I left Radio Ink after a year and a half, but remained in West Palm Beach as a consultant and produced my Country Oldies Show.

CD Radio/SiriusXM 1999-Present

At radio Ink, I worked with Tom Elmo, who had a good friend, Jim Kressler, in the New York area with whom he’d previously worked. Jim had worked for Music Choice and had accepted a new position with a company proposing to deliver radio programming directly to the consumer from satellites with special satellite radio receivers. The company would be called CD Radio. Jim was looking for someone to help program several country music formats for the new service. Tom knew of my country background and brought up my name. As it turned out, Jim Kressler was a regular country listener to the New York City country stations over the years and readily recognized my name from listening to WHN, WKHK, and WYNY. I flew to New York to meet Jim and was offered an opportunity to begin building the country channels for CD Radio from its temporary offices at 1180 Sixth Avenue. I flew to NYC almost every month to start building the music library, developing relationships with record companies and artists. In 1999, I got a call from an apartment building in New York where I had put my name on a waiting list to get an apartment 6 years prior. To my surprise, an apartment was coming available in August of 1999. The building allowed prospective tenants to take a look at the property and decide within 30 days to accept or decline. I flew to NYC, saw the apartment, accepted it, went back to West Palm Beach, had a yard sale from hell, and packed up for the move back to New York. I drove back with a parallel path as the moving van. The move out date in Florida was delayed a day by a hurricane moving up the east coast and ironically, three days later, the move-in to the New York apartment was also delayed by a day because of the same hurricane being off the coast of New York. In 2000, CD radio offered me a full-time position to be its Country Format Manager. Later the company would move to new studios across the street at 1221 Sixth Avenue (where it remains today) and the company also changed its name to Sirius Satellite Radio at a gala name-change kickoff at the Beacon Theatre, featuring a performance by Sting. There was a small bump in the road in 2004 when an alleged radio consultant Walter Sabo was hired by one of the financial partners at Sirius to critique the formats. His idea was to terminate about 13 program managers who’d been with the company from the beginning and who’d built it all from scratch, and replace them with his hand-picked team of far less experienced personal choices. Mr. Sabo is no longer with the company as are few of his hand-picked choices. I left the country programming side at that time to concentrate on writing and publishing RADIO: The Book, (Focal Press) now one of the best-selling books on radio programming. Later, I’d return to Sirius to work for the Martha Stewart channel co-hosting a weekly technology show. The company executed a successful merger with rival satellite company XM Radio and became SiriusXM as it is known today. In 2010, I joined the Howard Stern Show as a News Anchorman on a part time basis.

2011

MOR Media International, Inc. maintains an office and studio in Long Island City, New York, from which I produce and host The Country Oldies Show (syndicated nationally since 1994). The show is now distributed by the Envision Radio Network of Cleveland. We’ve also started Chinamerica Hit Radio in 2007 along with Chinese partner, Bo Qiao, as a full-time internet/online station featuring pop music from top Chinese artists, hosted in English, targeting Chinese-American young adult audiences. I also continue to speak at media events and conferences, produce commercials and voice overs. In addition to our 24/7 Chinamerica Hit Radio, we produce a Chinese music channel for a major airline. We also sold books and records from our eBay store and have future plans to start a Korean internet version of Chinamerica radio in the near future. In August of 2011, I travelled to Beijing, China and spent two weeks with Bo seeing the sites of the city and developing more plans for Chinamerica Hit Radio. I also continued into my second year as News Anchor for the Howard Stern Show in SiriusXM.

2012

This was mostly a full year of rolling out sales and Promotions for Chinamerica Hit Radio. The Country Oldies Show continues into its 18th year, now syndicated by Envision Radio Network. In October of this year, I started my third year as News Anchor for The Howard Stern Show. Although suffering no personal injury or damage from Hurricane Sandy, Chinamerica Hit Radio was off the air for nine excruciating days. We’ll be upgrading our distribution method in December and not be at the whim of Verizon DSL. I was also nominated as a candidate for the Country Radio Hall of Fame, but was not selected for induction…this year.