Pluggin the Gaps in Columbus Radio History.

I continue to research and dig out information about Columbus and it's radio history. The personalities and formats of stations like WTVN, WBNS, WRFD, WCOL, WMNI and WVKO.

I've blogged about some of my findings or personal memories. But I have tons of information where I haven't had the time or the creative juices to memorialize. I've got plans for to make this a long term project (and I've already devoted many hours over the past three or four years).

It's been odd. I've found tons of information. But there are times when I hit an information hole. A piece of the puzzle is missing. Some key event, change, movement, format change, call letter change, person coming or person going wasn't reported.

It appears that some stations sought publicity or gave out information more than others. Jo Bradley Reed of the Citizen Journal once replied to a reader in her column that she often relies on the stations to get information in her hands so she can report it. I believe it had to do with reporting the programs in stereo that could be listened to. Stereo radio broadcasting was a novel concept at the time as the broadcast of stereo programming was approved by the FCC in the early 60's. FM stations in Columbus with the exception of WBNS were slow to move to stereo and then for a long period of time only broadcast a few hours a day in the beginning. But that's a different topic.

In some instances, I wonder if formats didn't appeal to the radio/television reporters of the time and they didn't report what they didn't listen to. Maybe a bigger story pre-empted the planned story of the day. As television became more of a focal point, radio seemed to get shunted aside too. But in general, there's a lot of information.

I've been fortunate in that I've been able to find some of the people of those times and the gap was filled from their memories and perspectives. Bill Smith now working in Boston, Keith Curtis who now is in Florida, Bob Cosart (Vernon with a V who worked for a brief time at WTVN-FM)and retired. Pete Gabriel now in Youngstown and retired. Bob North of WNCI and WTVN who now is a busy voice talent. These and other people have been great with their stories and background.

There have been many more. All have given I've found others who knew the person or event in question and they have quickly filled in the back story.

But there are two situations that allow the information hole to continue.

One is that the people associated with the missing information have passed on. People whose memories seem like they were here yesterday, yet have been gone from us for many years.

For example, I have traced former WTVN morning personality Maurice Jackson to Oklahoma City and Phoenix only to have the trail go cold in the mid 1960's. Can't find anyone who knew him or what became of his career.

Another is Tom George who hosted at several central Ohio station in his career. Tom had worked at Wheeling's WWVA and Detroit's WJBK prior to coming to Columbus. And I don't want to forget a stint in New York City.

But his arrival in Columbus came at a time when personalities at the station he landed at (WTVN) was promoting programs and not people. So when and why did he arrive. Was he the immediate replacement for Dave Hull or did someone fill the gap? Where did he go after leaving WTVN in 63 or 64 but before arriving at WMNI to usher in their Country format in the fall of 1965. Or did he simply move to WMNI when he left WTVN? The CJ says he spent some time at WHOK in Lancaster. The Dispatch indicated he was WMNI all along playing beautiful music shortly after departing WTVN.

And then there is another gap regarding Tom. He was gone for a period of time during the late 60's at WMNI but was part of the WRFD move to country music in 1970. And then again he was gone. I found in the mid-late 70's he worked for WDLR's Marysville outreach. And the finally landed at WUCO when it went on the air in the early 80's. And that's where Tom finished his career.But again, a gap between WDLR and WUCO. Unfortunately, many who may have known of Tom are no longer with us and so history is left with a gap. Or as I call it, an information hole

Finally, there is another reason. I've found others who for whatever reason do not want to contribute. Can't explain why. They simply don't respond or won't share some of the information. Sometimes they are someone who was or still is a key player in the market. But for whatever reason(s), there is a lack of reply and interest.

OSU Football

Tomorrow night, Ohio State opens it's 2010 season against Marshall. The game will now be carried on television and one AM/FM combination radio station.

There was a time when just about anyone who had a microphone and a transmitter could broadcast the games from the Shoe. Prior to the 1973 season when WTVN was awarded sole rights to home OSU games, WBNS, WBBY, WVKO, WMNI, WRFD and WOSU all had play by play announcers describing the X's and O's from the Shoe's pressbox.

While the WBNS ad shows Ted Mullins, 1973 would be the first and last year for Ted broadcasting the games. Prior to Ted taking the microphone, the calls were handled by Bill Corley with color provided by Bob Adkins, Irwin Johnson and Les Spencer.  Sherry Wood's "Citizen Journal" radio column described some of the letters she received from readers who were less than happy with Corley missing from Saturday afternoons and replaced with Mullins. Corley and Adkins as well as Irwin Johnson when games were play at home and Les Spencer when the games were away in the early years were probably the most listened to of all announcers.








Another who made the gridiron calls at that time was the late Ed Johnson of WRFD. While Ed was known to central Ohioans as the voice of agricultural broadcasting, he also did a year or two behind the microphone doing play by play with his rural drawl. For WRFD's final season to broadcast the Buckeyes, 1972, Stan Savran was brought in. And by the end of the season, management had invited him to move on as WTVN was awarded exclusive home broadcast rights. Savran's talents would no longer be needed.

Back to Ed Johnson for a moment. Ed also broadcast many high school basketball games on WRFD's sister station WNCI and was also sports director for both stations. I personally don't remember Ed on WNCI. But I simply can't picture in my mind Ed, with his rural tone and drawl, giving sports reports on a progressive rock FM station.







Back to OSU. Martin Petree manned the mic for WMNI and for the few years that WBBY carried the games it was Joe Hill. Not to be forgotten was WVKO/WSPO. Station president Bert Charles was the play by play announcer. If I recall, it was OSU sports information director Marv Holman who did the play by play by WOSU. He later would join WTVN along with Dayton broadcaster Tom Hamlin when Dale Conquest left. That arrangement lasted until the 1976 season when Ken Coleman and Bob Conners occupied the press box.

Be Careful What You Portray Because It Can Come Back And Bite You

Probably one of the few newspaper articles that really impacted how I viewed things was printed on February 13, 1973. And a follow up piece just one week later.

It first was a puff piece on radio written by Sherry Woods of the Citizen Journal about WTVN radio. And when I say puff piece, I'm not suggesting it should have been written differently. There was simply nothing negative in the story. And for the most part, probably for good reason.

The headline read "WTVN radio has made its mark" with a sub headline of "A formula for success."

When I first read it, I beamed with pride as this was my favorite station. And I dreamed I would someday work on air there. With these hosts in place and be part of this team.

In a way, it was confirmation and justification of a seventeen year olds thought process.

Ms. Wood's story went on to tell about the success of the station and why it was at that time a ratings leader in Columbus.

One key to that success was the fact the station had a stable talent base, especially in key dayparts. These hosts knew their listeners and they knew Columbus.

Most had been on the station for many years. Two had been in there for longer than 10 years. Both Dave Logan and John Fraim had been with the station over 10 years. the same for news director Bill Patterson. Afternoon host Bob Conners was there just over 7, having joined in January, 1966. A solid bedrock situation.

Except all that was going to change and soon.

One week later, Sherry's column had the headline "Bob Conners joining WBNS Radio."



Readers learned that Bob Conners notified management at the end of his air shift the previous Saturday evening that he was leaving for cross dial rival WBNS and would begin hosting mornings on that station effective March 5th, 1973.

Two things happened with that second headline. The first and probably not so significant was I lost my favorite afternoon host to a station I seldom listened to, as the non daytime signal of WBNS simply couldn't be heard where I grew up.

But more importantly, it left me with the perception never to crow about your situation. In my mind, that article had WTVN bragging about the stability of their hosts which was a big factor in their success. In a weeks time, that bragging point withered away.

Radio is a constantly changeing business. Formats change and hosts come and go.

But since that time, I've always been gun shy about blowing my own horn as lifes situations change. And as that series of events demonstrated, something could and usually does change.

The Perfect Partner and I'm Outta Here

I teased this story several months ago when writing about WTVN radio host Bill Smith.

Long before e-Harmony.com and Match.com, there was a much more "exotic" way to find the Perfect Partner.

One radio station in Columbus decided to do it the old fashioned way in 1976 because that was the only way to do it back then.

A little history.

Popular Columbus radio personality Bob Conners had left WTVN in early 1973 to take a coveted morning gig at cross the dial rival WBNS-AM in Columbus. At first, his ratings actually improved over the previous hosts ratings. But as time went on, they had began to wane back to previous levels.

To many, the move from WTVN where Conners had held forth in the afternoon drive slot when he arrived in Columbus in 1965 to the morning slot at WBNS seemed to constrain him. At WTVN, he had developed characters in his show. Two remembered by me were Sammy from Sammy's Bar & Grill and the Mailman. There was also a third character. The ever silent Jesse. The speaking characters visited daily. All were left behind when Conners jumped to BNS. Conners also had an opening and closing theme song for his show. That too was abandoned with the move to WBNS.

I remember listening to Bob's first show on WBNS. It was anything but easy. First, the WBNS signal was a voice in the static at my house about 10 miles north and west of Dublin. Even though I grew up on the other side of Dublin, the BNS signal was so weak that until the day signal kicked in, Bob and BNS was a voice among many voices.

WBNS also aired their news at 25 and 55 billing it as news 5 minutes sooner. As the newscast ended, WBNS played a closing sounder and a top or bottom of the hour legal ID. The music started cold. Bob's first song was a song I never really enjoyed. Roger Miller's "Engine, Engine #9". No theme song, no Sammy, Mailman or Jesse. Just Bob and Roger Miller and a jingle after back announcing the song but before the commercial. Backwards from the way it was normally done.

When listening to Bob at WTVN, you knew he had seen the latest movie, had gone to the latest live performance, had visited the hottest spots in Columbus, had an in depth knowledge of sports and seemed to have read all the major daily newspapers of record. Bob always sounded like the go to guy for all things regarding the cool and current events.

At WBNS that all seemed to be gone. The show seemed more constrained and too tightly formatted. Bob never quite seemed to be what he used to be over at WTVN. Cool and hip while on an adult music based radio program.

Just shy of three years at being at WBNS, all was about to change.

A new general manager had ridden into town in October of 75 to take over the reins of the radio enterprise. The radio stations were overseen by the head of the co-owned but not co-located television station, Gene DeAngelo. Many in the industry thought the new hire was a final admission that DeAngelo had been spreading himself too thin and the radio stations needed someone on site and more involved.

Enter from Denver, Colorado a gentleman by the name of Mike Jorgensen.

Jorgenson apparently also believed there was something missing from the morning show and he decided to fix it with.....a contest.

A contest to in 30 days find Bob Conners a perfect partner to livin up the show. Someone from the everyday world could interact with Conners about music, community events and leisure interests of the target audience. To the left is a scan of a post card that was mailed to the people who responded to the on air promotion. Sort of a picture yourself next to Bob as his perfect partner. It was reported that more than 3000 people from every walk of life applied for the position. As encouraged by the promotion, people needed to respond before this opportunity was Gone With The Wind.

Over 1000 were interviewed in blocks of 6 in 15 minute increments. People were quickly weeded out, but a Central Ohio homemaker survived and had a 15 minute meeting with Conners.

According to area homemaker Dee Barrows, she thought the interview would never go any further. She told Columbus Monthly magazine a few months later that she was "sure he hated me." But she survived that round and eventually made a tape with Conners. And then another taping on January 29, 1976. An hour later, she got a call from Jorgensen announcing she had the job and debuted two mornings later on a Saturday morning dry run.

The following Monday, the show made its official debut. It seemed on the air to be rocky from the start.

Apparently behind the scenes the rockiness was also an issue. Barrows commented in reports that Conners would be sympathetic to her and helpful or withdrawn from her depending on the day. .


The morning duo show concept lasted all of three weeks.

By Saturday the end of the third week, Conners, no longer smiling as in the picture, decided that he had had enough. Tired of daily debriefings after each show, Conners walking into manager Jorgensen's office with resignation papers in hand.

He then headed off to Aspen for a two week respite and skiing trip.

Clearly Bob wasted little time during his discomfort with the the addition of a morning coffee mate and submission of his walking papers. Within a few days of the announcement of his departure, David Drake's Citizen Journal media column headlined that Bob was headed back to WTVN where his personality and characters would once again be used.

And with that, the concept of the Perfect Partner was indeed.........gone with the wind.

As a footnote to non Columbus readers, Bob remains at WTVN and is fondly called the Morning Monarch. He returned to his old afternoon slot for just a few years and by 1979 was appointed host of the morning drive show with the departure of John Fraim. He has held that slot since that time and often maintains the status of Columbus's most listened to radio host.

Growing up, Bob Conners was one of the radio hosts who made an impression on a young man growing up in Central Ohio.

The Perfect Partner-Or When the Monarch Flew the Coup.

I teased this story several months ago when writing about WTVN radio host Bill Smith.

Long before e-Harmony.com and Match.com, there was a much more "exotic" way to find the Perfect Partner.

One radio station in Columbus decided to do it the old fashioned way in 1976 because that was the only way to do it back then.

A little history. Popular Columbus radio personality Bob Conners had left WTVN in early 1973 to take a coveted morning gig at cross the dial rival WBNS-AM in Columbus. At first, his ratings actually improved over the previous host of the show. But as time went on, they had began to wane.

To many, the move from WTVN where Conners had held forth in the afternoon drive slot when he arrived in Columbus in 1965 seemed to constrain him. At WTVN, he had developed characters in his show. Two remembered by me were Sammy from Sammy's Bar & Grill and the Mailman. There was also a third character. The ever silent Jesse. The speaking characters visited daily. All were left behind when Conners jumped to BNS. Conners also had an opening and closing theme song for his show. That too was abandoned with the move.

I remember listening to Bob's first show on WBNS. It was anything but easy. First, the WBNS signal was a voice in the static at my house. Even though I grew up on the other side of Dublin, the BNS signal was so week that until the day signal kicked in, Bob and BNS was a voice among many voices.

WBNS also aired their news at 25 and 55 billing it as news 5 minutes sooner. As the newscast ended, WBNS played a closing sounder and a top or bottom of the hour legal ID. The music started cold. Bob's first song was a song I never really enjoyed. Roger Miller's Engine, Engine #9. No theme song, no Sammy, Mailman or Jesse. Just Bob and Roger Miller and a jingle after back announcing the song but before the commercial. Backwards from the way it was normally done.

When listening to Bob at WTVN, you knew he had seen the latest movie, had gone to the latest live performance, had visited the hottest spots in Columbus, had an in depth knowledge of sports and seemed to have read all the major daily newspapers of record. Bob always sounded like the go to guy for all things regarding the cool and current events.

At WBNS that all seemed to be gone. The show seemed more constrained and too tightly formatted. Bob never quite seemed to be what he used to be over at WTVN. Cool and hip while on an adult music based radio program.

That all was about to change.

A new general manager had ridden into town to take over the reins of the radio enterprise. The radio stations were overseen by the head of the co-owned but not co-located television station, Gene DeAngelo. Many in the industry thought the new hire was a final admission that DeAngelo had been spreading himself too thin and the radio stations needed someone on site.

Enter from Denver, Colorado Mike Jorgensen.

Jorgenson apparently also believed there was something missing from the morning show and he decided to fix it with.....a contest. A contest to in 30 days find Bob Conners a perfect partner. Someone from the everyday world could interact with Conners about music, community events and leisure interests of the target audience. To the left is a scan of a post card that was mailed to the people who responded to the on air promotion. Sort of a picture yourself next to Bob as his perfect partner. It was reported that more than 3000 people from every walk of life applied for the position. As encouraged by the promotion, people needed to respond before this opportunity was Gone With The Wind.

Over 1000 were interviewed in blocks of 6 in 15 minute increments. People were quickly weeded out, but a Central Ohio homemaker survived and had a 15 minute meeting with Conners.

According to area homemaker Dee Barrows, she thought the gig would never go any further. She told Columbus Monthly magazine a few months later that she was "sure he hated me." But she survived that round and eventually made a tape with Conners. And then another taping on January 29, 1976. An hour later, she got a call from Jorgensen announcing she had the job and debuted two mornings later on a Saturday morning dry run.

The following Monday, the show made its official debut. It seemed on the air to be rocky from the start.

Apparently behind the scenes the rockiness was also an issue. Barrows commented in reports that Conners would be sympathetic to her and helpful or withdrawn from her depending on the day. .


The show lasted all of three weeks. By Saturday the end of the third week Conners, no longer smiling as in the picture decided that he had had enough. Tired of daily debriefings after each show, Conners walking into manager Jorgensen's office with resignation papers in hand.

He then headed off to Aspen for a two week respite and skiing trip.

Clearly Bob wasted little time during his discomfort with the the addition of a morning coffee mate and submission of his walking papers. Within a few days of the announcement of his departure, David Drake's Citizen Journal media column headlined that Bob was headed back to WTVN where his personality and characters would once again be used.

And with that, the concept of the Perfect Partner was indeed.........gone with the wind.

As a footnote to non Columbus readers, Bob remains at WTVN and is fondly called the Morning Monarch. He returned to his old afternoon slot for just a few years and by 1979 was appointed host of the morning drive show with the departure of John Fraim. He has held that slot since that time and often maintains the status of Columbus's most listened to radio host.

Growing up, Bob Conners was one of the radio hosts who made an impression on a younr man growing up in Central Ohio.