"On the Air"
I spent many of my younger years in radio.
Up and down the dial, etc. You know, just like WKRP in Cincinnati.
Over the course of an all too short career I was fortunate enough to work in Toronto, CKLW in Detroit/Windsor, and CKLG in Vancouver.
Some of the people I admired and tried to emulate were such notables of "Top 40" radio like Cousin Brucie at "77 WABC," New York. Dick Biondie, New York. Bill Bailey, "WLS, Chicago," Wolfman Jack. The Real Don Steele, Robert W Morgan and Charlie Tuna, KHJ Los Angeles. Brother Bill Gable, CKLW Detroit. and John "Records" Landecker, Chicago.
These top 40 Disc jockeys were the hero's of my youth but two people that really made the biggest impression on me were talk show hosts J.P. McCarthy on WJR in Detroit and Peter Gzowski on the CBC.
For anyone living in the Great Lakes area their daily programs provided many hours of thoughtful and provocative entertainment.
All I can say about them is that they were two of the finest radio personalities I have ever heard and today marks the fifth anniversary of Peter's death as well as about the same amount of time since J.P.'s passing.
They will be missed by their many fans!
(Smoking got them both!)
Your "live on location" Scribe;
Allan W Janssen
Up and down the dial, etc. You know, just like WKRP in Cincinnati.
Over the course of an all too short career I was fortunate enough to work in Toronto, CKLW in Detroit/Windsor, and CKLG in Vancouver.
Some of the people I admired and tried to emulate were such notables of "Top 40" radio like Cousin Brucie at "77 WABC," New York. Dick Biondie, New York. Bill Bailey, "WLS, Chicago," Wolfman Jack. The Real Don Steele, Robert W Morgan and Charlie Tuna, KHJ Los Angeles. Brother Bill Gable, CKLW Detroit. and John "Records" Landecker, Chicago.
These top 40 Disc jockeys were the hero's of my youth but two people that really made the biggest impression on me were talk show hosts J.P. McCarthy on WJR in Detroit and Peter Gzowski on the CBC.
For anyone living in the Great Lakes area their daily programs provided many hours of thoughtful and provocative entertainment.
All I can say about them is that they were two of the finest radio personalities I have ever heard and today marks the fifth anniversary of Peter's death as well as about the same amount of time since J.P.'s passing. They will be missed by their many fans!(Smoking got them both!)
Your "live on location" Scribe;
Allan W Janssen
posted by Allan W Janssen | 4:09 p.m.
5 Comments:
Wolfman Jack - now there is a name I remember. First heard him in Southern Cal. If memory serves he was working at one of those AM stations just across the border in Mexico. As the sun went down they kicked the hell out of their signal until it bounced to the furthest reaches of the universe. Ol' Wolfman would howl and rap and the music....the music was.
If you want to hear the epitome of top 40 radio boss jocks from the sixties see if you can get an "aircheck" of "the real don steele" on KHJ, los angeles.
the guy was totaly on top of his game!!!!!! (He died ten years ago - smoking)
Now that I think about it, the whole time you are "on the air" you are pumped so much that you chain smoke!!
By the way,. do you remember Shadoe Stevens. he was on some sort of game show and I kept asking myself, who the fuch is this guy.
Turns out he was a local DJ celebrity who looked good so they stuck him on TV>
Radio was a whole different thing back then. A DJ was a whole lot bigger than life. They made this country boy dream large dreams of a world that existed just outside the one in which I lived - a world where everything was possible.
Clap for the Wolfman...
I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Gzowski several years ago. I think I sold him a new television, and delivered it to his home in Jackson's Point. He was a true gentleman, and a man whose intelligence shone through in every word he spoke, even when discussing entirely mundane topics. Yet, he never sounded pretentious, or condescending.
He did smoke like a chimney, though. I think he smoked about ten cigarettes in the half an hour or so I spent in his home.
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