I Know Jack

Anyone who has followed this blog knows of my interest in broadcast radio. When I first got my drivers license, I began to become more active in my interest. By active, I'm speaking of going and meeting local radio people at the stations that broadcast their programs.

One of those I met was John Phillips. John (Jack as he would later become known) was employed by WDLR, a Delaware, Ohio based radio station. But John was located in my home county seat at a remote studio located in Marysville.

Now compared to my dream station of WTVN, WDLR was something of, well shall we say a dump. As my son Brian would note in the late 1980's, it was the junky radio station. But by far, the Delaware main studio was the Taj Mahal compared to the remote Marysville location.

The Marysville studio was located in the former Isaly ice cream shop. Phillips worked there gathering news by calling the local police and fire departments, he read the weather and he would play music on a program called the Marysville Matinee. Every weekday afternoon, Phillips was spending the afternoon with the wives of Marysville according to a want ad placed daily in the local newspaper as the station sought to promote itself and build a listening audience.

The program today would not survive long, as Phillips only had one turntable and fed the Marysville feed back to Delaware where the transmitter was located via a regular telephone line. Literally, Phillips would unscrew the microphone portion of the telephone handset and alligator clip the the feed from the mixer to the phone. It sounded like music being played over a telephone. High fidelity? Old 78 RPM recordings of the Big Bands played over a Victrola often had better fidelity.

I met Phillips sometime in 1972 at the Marysville studio. Prior to the Isaly Shop the station had been located at several addresses. The former Isaly shop location was opened in January, 1971 with Gene Kirby at the helm. That location ended sometime in in late 1972 or early 1973 when Phillips was moved to Delaware to broadcast his show. Other than remotes at the Union County Fair or at an advertiser's location, WDLR no longer would maintain a remote studio in Maryvsille after Phillips was relocated to Delaware.

I began working at the station in May of 1973 and worked with Phillips until he left after the station was sold to another owner. Subsequently, he worked for WNCI, WBBY and WRFD using the name Jack Phillips. The last two stations were jobs that I was able to assist in getting him on the air as they were looking for help and he was available. At WBBY he even became the morning host for a period of time.

He left the business to pursue a career as a respiratory therapist.

Back to our time at WBBY we even shared an apartment. He was working the morning shift at the radio station while I was working evenings while holding a real job at Capital City Products and then spending my evenings at the WBBY studios in Sunbury.

For a period of time he dated Marcie Rogers the program director of the station. That relationship didn't last forever and Jack moved on to another relationship. He subsequently married the new person and moved to Florida. My last contact was a few years ago when he was living in Pennsylvania.

Yes for a period of time, I could indeed say I know Jack.

I'm Roy Harvey------WCOL News

I think my first experience of really listening to the radio was probably 1966. During that summer I was making the transition from 10 to the grand old age of 11.

It was a golden time.

It was the summer of that year and we had a annual pass to the Plain City swimming pool (known as Pastime Pool). Over the loud speaker system, they played the sounds of the New WCOL 1230 am radio. It was the top 40 station in our neck of the woods and frequently at the top of the ratings heap. Lou Henry, Mike Adams and others kept us entertained with the latest music and recurrents on Golden Weekends.

But it was newman Roy Harvey who informed us with the news. I'm not sure if WCOL had switched to the 20/20 news format by that time. I simply can't remember. But I do remember they still punctuated every story with dateline beeps. Three beeps with every story change. It gave each story the sound of urgency.

Roy Harvey had a Ted Baxter type voice. Deep and baritone. Only unlike Baxter, Harvey's voice had authority. No bumbling Ted Baxter was Roy Harvey.

And of course he closed every newscast with "I'm Roy Harvey...........WCOL news!"

As a footnote and as I was writing this, another memeory resurfaced. During this same time there was young lady from Plain City who was for me a tweens dream. Pretty, outgoing, friendly and just enough tomboy to be cool.

Her name was Connie Converse. Connie lived on all streets, Converse Drive in Plain City.

Afer that summer, I never saw Connie again. I did caddy for her father a few times a few years later and he would say she was doing fine.

I read a few years later that she had died. In 1974 I believe in a car accident. For serveral years after her passing, her father would run an in memorium obit in the newspaper. I remember reading of her fathers passing not so many years later.

Connie was never what you would call a girlfriend. At that age a girl who was a friend was just someone neat. And she was that type of friend. And for that she will forever be memorable.

Like Roy Harvey and those WCOL jocks heard over the loud speaker at the swimming pool, Connie will forever be one of those great memories that will never be forgotten.

Remembering Dr. Bop

Local blogger/writer had an interesting piece on Dr. Bop a few weeks ago. For some reason, Minerd chose to archive his blog and it's no longer available for public consumption. His blog inspired me to search out Bop's final resting place and rehonor a great radio talent from radios past.

In the mid 50's through the early 60's Columbus was abuzz with the music and dj talents of Hoyt R. Locke, known to his WCOL (and for a short period of time WMNI) listeners as Dr. Bop.

The good Dr. set up shop in Milwaukee after leaving Columbus and remained there until his death. He is buried in Columbus at Greenlawn Cemetary.

The Friendly Giant Was Anchored By A Fraim

For about a decade, John Fraim was the morning host for WTVN radio in Columbus.

Since Columbus radio was my broadcast reference point, and WTVN was the strongest of signals in my neck of the woods, I cut my teeth on Fraim's morning show. I first became aware of Fraim probably about 1968. My understanding was Fraim came to Columbus in the early 60's, maybe around 1961 from Indiana. His first job was in the news department and prior to becoming a music host he was news director. I believe the change to morning host started around 1965 taking over for Maurice Jackson. Someone with more information or a better memory may have fimrer information. I also seem to recall at one time, Fraim was involved in racing cars. The type escapes me.

I would often brag on Fraim's popularity in Columbus, but was often told that JP McCarthy of WJR and Wally Phillips on WGN were far better personalities. You can have your favorites; Fraim at the time was mine.

I always enjoyed the Special Reports (short piece usually written by Fraim discussing a news item or other information pieces) and his The Way They Were segements featuring a song by a Big Band artist complete with background information about the piece or the artist. Fraim also bantered with news director Bill Patterson after the 6:30 news segment, usually ending the segment with a joke or pun that segued into a jingle and back to music.

In 1976 I had the honor to be hired by WTVN hosting the overnight weekend shifts. I handled Friday night from midnight until 6 am Saturday morning, Saturday night from midnight to 9 am Sunday morning and Sunday night from midnight until 5:30 Monday morning. I would be the first person to welcome Fraim to the studio on Saturday and Monday mornings. (I've often wondered if he felt welcomed by this young radio rube!)

Fraim had the reputation among the air staff of being difficult. Many of those before and after me in the overnight slots would often find negative ways to portray him. Personally, either I was a fool and never noticed it or because I went out of my way to be decent to him, he returned the favor.

I also worked with him at the time his wife was dying from cancer. On more than one occasion, he would phone from his White Oak farm stating he would be late because his wife had been ill or needed his attention. What a thrill it was to do a half hour or so of his show with his numerous listeners. Yet I knew his heart was aching as he watched his wife lose her life.

In 1978, I was let go by WTVN and migrated to WRFD to host a big band show. A year or so later Fraim too left WTVN over a reported tiff with management over working Saturday mornings. At that time, many major market hosts were beginning to only work 5 day work weeks instead of the previous normal six day load. Fraim too landed at WRFD as morning host and general manager. While I was only a weekend staffer, Fraim would pop into the station to catch up on paperwork. He would stop by the studio, express some pleasantries and then be off to his work.

Fraim's tenure at WRFD wasn't long as he left to join WCOL as morning host, broadcasting from the former observation deck of the Lincoln Leveque tower that had been converted into an apartment for him. After a few years, he joined WBBY as news director and even later owned a radio station between Logan and Athens, Ohio.

The last I heard of Fraim was that he was living in the rural Laurelville area and doing some free lance writing.

During his many years at WTVN, he was our morning friend.

More Than a Name on a Wall

This past Memorial Day weekend, we visited Virginia. One of the side trips was an afternoon spent in Washington DC. We went to Arlington Cemetery and journeyed across the Potomac to see the White House and the eastern third of the Mall.

Washington DC is a history buffs dream come true. It contains in one setting probably the largest collections of tributes and memorials to our country's heritage and history.

From the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, from the Jefferson to the White House to Capital Hill, it's all there and more.

One of the more touching places on the mall is the Vietnam Memorial. The memorial is essentially a wall containing the names of United States men and women who gave their lives during the time the United States was engaged in Vietnam. The wall contains the names of 58,261 men and women.

The US engagement in Vietnam became at the time one of the more divisive events in our history and certainly in my lifetime. When the Memorial was first proposed and building began, there was a lot of chin music as to why it was necessary, cost and such.

Since it's completion, the memorial has been one of the healing places where people come to remember or for closure.

Bake Sales

It was 16 years ago today that probably the world's largest bake sale took place. Possibly 50 or more thousand people descended to Fort Collins,
Colorado for Dan's Bake sale to see Rush Limbaugh and help Dan get enough money to buy a subscription to Rush's Limbaugh letter.

I wonder if listeners would respond to Rush's call in the same numbers today?

And what ever happened to Dan Kay of Dan's Bake Sale Fame?

Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope Can Now be Viewed Here

Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope. Check it out.

Dave Ramsey - Town Hall for Hope 2009 from Central FPU on Vimeo.