95 WKAZ Afternoon Drive DJ and Program Director  1973-1980

Great looking web site!  You need more info on the lineups, etc. There is another website by former staffer Ted McKay that tells much more about the early days: lots of stuff I didn't know! You ought to talk to Charles R. "Bob" Turley. He was with the station from the late 1940s until it ceased to exist. He was even General Manager for a while. Bob lives in Hurricane now.

But back to the on-air lineups: you left out most of the people I remember as being part of our principal air staff. When I came to KAZ from WCUE Akron in 1973, I did afternoon drive time. Before my show was The Real Woody Allen (now WQBE's Al Woody), an following me were Bruce Clark and then Sam Rivers ("Lovable Sam's real name was Amy Johns). Frank George was on the all-night show; he had just arrived from Holly Hill SC. Then there were also (in no particular order) Rocky Steele, Kris Shay, "Super Max" Bob Porter, Jack Maverick, Larry Romans ("Jimmy Valentine" and other names), "Cherry Fox" (Geraldine Cipolla), and Cherry's boyfriend Joey Bellow -- I've forgotten his air name but he died of a heart attack not long after he left KAZ.

Jack Maverick married my girlfriend and they moved to Watertown NY where they run a radio station. Darrell Daniels, Jane Drain, Debbie Gibson and Dave Cohen did the news. Dave and Frank George and I were roommates, along with Dave's girlfriend Pat. I could tell you some wild stories about that household, but I won't. Ask Frank: he's selling cars at Capitol Chrysler. There was also a guy named Terry Young, who we brought in temporarily when Al Sahley went on a leave of absence. Terry got a lot of attention with a contest to find what the WKAZ call letters stood for (the winner was Who Killed Arnie's Zebra).

Our General Managers in that period were Harvey Guenther (he once shot a bullet into the office ceiling), Fred Winton, and Bob Turley. And who could forget the indomitable office manager, Vera S. Pennington, with her "blimey" English accent! We worked a six-day week, with a rotating Saturday off. The rotating Saturday shift, and the six-hour Sunday midday, were worked for many years by Bill Radtke.

Now you must immediately correct one error: Bill Hagy never did an air shift on KAZ. He lived (and still does) in Bristol VA, where he was (and is) the head programmer for all the Bristol Broadcasting stations. All of us who had the title of Program Director at WKAZ were only following Butch Hagy's orders. WKAZ Program Directors were more accurately described as Chief Announcers.

The WKAZ request line number in the 1970s was 344-2149.   The business office number was 344-9691.  We also had a "hot line": a private number for management to get directly to the jock on the air.  I don't remember what that number was, but it was very similar to the number for the Diamond Department Store -- Charleston's largest and most glamorous place to shop in those pre-mall days.  When the red phone rang, we would often answer "The Diamond", and then we'd have lots of fun with the wrong-number callers.

You mentioned the "Rhythm of the City" ID package.  It seems to me that we may have had those jingles for a while, but they weren't what I recall as our real signature.  The Rhythm of the City was a package created by TM Productions -- a competitor of the great PAMS outfit.

Most of the top notch stations in those days used PAMS jingles, like the classic PAMS 11 and PAMS 18 series.  As a matter of fact, my "Super Duper Charlie Cooper" name shout was made by PAMS in 1970 when I was with WINW in Canton Ohio. The "Super Duper" was thought up by WINW's traffic girl -- boy did that stick with me!

Anyway, the main thing I recall about the "Rhythm of the City" was that the package came with a customized 45 RPM record that we could sell in local record stores.   The TM folks had the song all prerecorded, and they just dropped in local references that we provided. I still have a copy of the record.  It was a terrible song.

Do you remember the WKAZ record album?  We did a deal with Lost Nite, or one of those oldies record marketers, to produce a 12-inch LP of "oldies".  It had a generic front cover in color, and a double-truck black-and-white spread of personality photos inside.  I no longer have a copy, but I recently autographed one for a waitress at the Wren's Nest restaurant in St. Albans.  Lovell Webb might have one.  

Well, anyway, we had a lot of fun in those years, before music research and programming consultants turned radio into a dull automatic jukebox. It was a great time in our history, but I wouldn't want to go back. I don't think I'd have the stamina!

Once again, my compliments on the website.  It's fun to recall some of those great memories. I enjoyed the website. Thanks for the opportunity to say hello.