Gone With the Wind

With a final playing of Wooly Bully, WTVN morning host Bob Conners took of the headsets for the last time as a Columbus Radio host on November 30, 2011.

On October 24, 2011 at 7:45 in the morning, Bob Conners both shocked and gave the probably long expected news that he would be retiring and his last day on the air would be November 30th. In almost 47 years behind a Columbus microphone, Bob grew with Columbus. And he leaves behind many great memories.

He came to Columbus in very late 1964 to host the afternoon show vacated by Spook Beckman who was starting a new TV show called the Coffee Club. Bob received very little press on his arrival yet filled the large shoes left behind when Spook left.

 He maintained that spot until February of 1973 when he left for 3 short years to be morning host on WBNS 1460. Bob left WBNS in February of 1976 on the implosion of a promotion called the Perfect Partner. Whether that was the straw that broke the camels back or his return to WTVN was already in the works, Bob did indeed return to the WTVN afternoon airwaves in March of 76 after a brief Colorado skiing vacation.

Change would again happen in September of 1979 when John Fraim and WTVN management came to an impasse on scheduling issues. At first, Bob was filling in for Fraim as a vacation host. By the end of September, Fraim and WTVN couldn't come to agreement and Bob never left the morning host chair. (Scott Kahler had temporarily taken Conner's afternoon spot and shortly after 1980 arrived, Joe Waldman a former staffer had been permanently hired to fill the PM slot.)

As time went on, Bob would go on to survive several general managers and program directors, other hosts, ownership changed, the addition of talk syndication to the program schedule and the final big transition to an all talk format on the station.

Bob also introduced us to Sammy of Sammy's Bar and Grill, the Mail Man and the always silent Jesse. He ragged on the Danger Brothers at the rally in the alley and Hiney Gate, he playfully played of Wooly Bully and made Hudson and Landry's Frontier Christmas featuring Harlowe and Red Feather a longstanding Columbus Christmas tradition.

He teased us about Monk's Corner, Nerk, samiches and the Chicken Little Day Care calling in to cancel session because of a few snowflakes. He often referred to sports teams by their city name made possessive. For example, Michigan was the Michigan's. If it hadn't been for Bob, I would have never discovered Nancy's. For many years, Bob did a shout out to the guys and gals having early morning breakfast at the popular Clintonville eatery. At one time he collected menus from out of town diners and people would send them in for addition to his collection.

In addition, he introduced us to tele-vote, the Hiney Winery that had people driving to the decaying village of Magnetic Springs in search of the fictional winery owned by Big Red and Thor. There was the Cat Lady, the late Jim from the Northwest, the imperfect perfect partner and sadly Dave from Powell.

And he was the king of graciously bowing out (my wife always said blowing off) of being asked to attend a myriad of ice cream socials, fish fries or bake sales. He even managed to do it to Governor Kasich on his last day on the air.

We knew he was born in St. Marys, Pa., his brother Dan played for San Diego and Oakland pro football teams and he gave us other glimpses of his private life periodically telling us about daughter Kathryn and wife Linda. Yet in general, Bob was a reserved man.

Bob arrived in Columbus before Eastland Mall and the I-270 outerbelt existed. In those days, I-70 only was a few miles long and ran from downtown to someplace west of Hamilton Road. Columbus for all intents and purposes on the north side ended at Bethel Road and just north of Morse Road.

Hamilton Road. 161 and Brice Road were still two lane roads with dirt yet to be turned to make way for the neighborhoods that would grow up around them. Dublin was two gas stations and a traffic light. Westerville, Pickerington, Gahanna, Grove City and Hilliard were all mere villages when Bob cracked a Columbus microphone for the first time.

Even television had a totally different look.  The major tv anchors were Hugh DeMoss, Earl Green, Nick Basso, Bill Pepper and Roy Briscoe. PBS was known as NET. Channel 28 wasn't even in the planning stages for the Columbus market. Cable television was something of a pipe dream.

The Columbus mayor was Sensenbrenner, the governor was Jim Rhodes (his first of 4 terms) and LBJ was in the White House and had just won a landslide victory over Barry Goldwater.

WTVN posted some video clips on the departure of Bob Conners on their web site. Included are a couple of old air-checks including one from his days at WEEP, one from WBNS and one from WTVN circa late 60's or early 70's, a co worker salute and the final hour of Bob's show among other things. http://www.610wtvn.com/pages/farewellbc.html

In a video clip on the site, Bob relates that he knew Columbus would be home. One has to wonder what he sacrificed to do that. In the entertainment world, personalities come and go. It's a very hard and difficult business. And to survive as long as Bob did, it took not only talent, but sacrifice and great savvy. Yet Bob seemed to always have a place. And that is amazing.

Being a fan of radio in general and Bob in particular, it would be interesting to spend some time over a cup of coffee and talk about radio, his career, his high points and yes probably some of the low points as he made Columbus someplace special.










Bob turning the reins over to his heir apparent Joel Riley.

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.

Finally 24 hours

It's funny how we take for granted that our entertainment world is available to us 24/7. And even that in many cases is not good enough as personal players, audio and video equipped cell phones and other devices can now play on demand much of what can heard or seen over the air.

Yet in reality it wasn't that long ago that radio and television stations would leave the air for portions of the overnight.

Such was the case with WTVN.

The station left the air at 2 in the morning only to resume broadcasting in time for the morning drive. That all changed on January 17, 1966.

Jonny Green (yes no h in the name) became the first host to sit in the overnight chair at WTVN. Green was already on staff doing some weekend work and came to Columbus to do studies at Ohio State. He had previous experience at WLEC in Sandusky.

Jo Bradley Reed in that days edition of the "Citizen-Journal" announced that the overnight hours would be staffed by Green from midnight to 5:30 am. Well that was caption under the picture. The portion of the article dedicated to announcement had Green being on air from 2 am to 5:30 am. And also from 2 am to 6 am. Proofreaders anyone?

It was the same seat I would occupy for about a year weekends on 610 some 12 years later.

Reed noted that Jonny would call his show the "Greenhouse Show" and take requests. Oh, and he had pretty red wavy hair. Yes, she noted that.

Green, according to the WTMJ website where he currently hosts afternoons, joined the Army that same year, worked on Armed Forces Radio and upon leaving the Army in 1969 moved to Milwaukee. He joined WTMJ. Besides a short stint in Florida and another station in Milwaukee, Green has been with WTMJ ever since.

He currently hosts the Green House in afternoon drive on the station.

But what happened to all the pretty red wavy hair?

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.

Another Passing? BC Hangs up the Headphones on Saturday Morning Open Phones

I didn't actually hear it. But according to some reports, WTVN morning host Bob Conners announced he was giving up his popular Saturday Morning Open Phones program. He still plans to host his Monday through Friday morning gig.

Saturday Morning Open Phones began as something of an anomaly and until this weekend remained one. The former reason was at the time, WTVN was for the most part playing music when this show began. The latter one is that largely the callers could have their say without much moderation.

Indulge here while I stroll down memory lane for just a moment to give some background.

Sure, WTVN had began to make the transformation to talk radio (other than the Speakout public affairs program that aired Sunday evenings)in the late 70's when Dale Ulmer , just released from WBNS was named evening host at the station. Dale was to begin blending music and chat. Ulmer stuck around for a few months and returned to his native Minnesota. He was replaced by Paul Davidson, who was overnight host of the station at the time. Paul was a nice guy. He wasn't cut out to be a talk show host. Talk radio didn't really take hold at the station until Steve Cannon came south from Akron to host the evening show at WTVN about 1979 to begin playing phonograph records and to share fancy patter. Cannon, then using trivia and star interviews instead of politics struck a chord with Columbus audiences. For an evening radio show, Steve brought the station a lot of attention.

Sometime after that Bob began opening the phones to Central Ohio on his Saturday morning show. I can't remember for sure, but my guess is sometime around Desert Storm.

What came after that was a eclectic collection of callers and listeners. Callers promoting everything from the latest from the John Birch Society to the Cat Lady with pets to adopt to someone promoting a local ice cream social, spaghetti dinner, church yard sale or community festival. Politically it was libertarian/fringe in terms of tone, however there were more people from both sides using the show to "showcase" their political leanings.

All came on, all had their say and were largely left unchallenged. Even those who were talking events on the political fringe. It actually became something of the charm of the show.

Fast forward to today. Bob was one of the few major market talents still holding down a 6 day per week shift. Old timers like me will remember that the man who held the morning show shift, John Fraim, exited WTVN in part because his demand to only work a 5 day week was pushed back. (Maybe Bob figured the dust had settled after more than 30 years and he could finally get the day off!)

Listeners reportedly heard Bob say he could now take his wife out to dinner Friday night like most others do without having to worry about getting up early Saturday to make the show by letting the Saturday show go.

Now well into his 70's maybe Rockin Robbin and Don Howard as Bob was known in his days in Pittsburg at WEEP and KQV is slowly beginning to hand over the reins of the morning show. If so, then so be it. Columbus loses what is possibly one of its most identifiable radio personalities when that happens. Bob has became our Walter Cronkite and Paul Harvey all rolled into one.

Bob has created a legacy here in Columbus. As entertainment and radio especially begin to become more of a homogenized commodity, standout local personalities/entertainers like Bob will become fewer and fewer.

Bob, all the best in whatever lies in your future.

The Friendly Giant Was Anchored By A Fraim

For over 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 via WSAI in Cincinnati. His first job was in the news department and prior to becoming a music host he was news director and Taft Broadcasting's Washington Correspondent. He took over morning duties at WTVN in December, 1965.  For years, I believed that Fraim replaced Maurice Jackson, but further research found that a handful of hosts handled the morning position between Jackson and Fraim.  (Edited update: Jackson left the morning show in August of 1960 and a number of people filled the slot between Jackson's departure and Fraim's taking over in the morning. Among morning hosts after Jackson were Bob Ancel, Dave Hull, Tom George, Johnny Dollar and Dave Logan)  Someone with more information or a better memory may have additional hosts I've over looked.  

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.  Below is John Fraim today. 

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.

The World of Radio

I was thinking the other day of the things that made an impression on my life. One thing I can point to was my portable radio. I loved listening to it.

In the summer, I worked for a country club and would often walk home after an evening of work. My radio would keep me company as I walked the miles through the country to home.

I would listen to the out of state signals. I remember most especially WCFL from Chicago. While I was never really into to top 40 music, even as a young man, WCFL captivated me. There was Big Ron O'Brien and a man who had a funny voice. I believe that was Barney Pipp. I can still remember their top of the hour ID, listening to the voice of labor. And weather was always concluded with the temperature downtown at Marina City it's X degrees at WCFL. The Voice of Labor was larger than life and living in small town Jerome, Ohio, it seemed Chicago was a land where the big life was.

But the station that became a goal for me to work at was much closer to me than WCFL and Chicago. The station was WTVN. None of the other Columbus stations came in well at night in the area where I lived, so WTVN was like the 50,000 watt stations to me. Little did I know that in certain parts of the area, WTVN also had signal short comings. But in my world, the Full Service Giant was that.....a giant. It's signal boomed into my neck of the woods.

My first recollection of the line up had John Fraim doing mornings, Dave Logan middays, Bob Conners afternoon, Dave Parr evenings (and possibly Jim Lohse before him, I just can't remember), then Pat Lucas at 10 and Jack Stewart the grave yard shift. Weekends featured some guys that are long forgotten with the exception of Gene Warman (the world's greatest trumpet player) and Saturday overnight guy Ed Eppley.

As announcers in the lesser dayparts came and left a new voice was hired that captivated me. I don't remember where he came from. His name was Bill Smith.

Bill sparked something that no one else could ever spark. Bill sounded cool. Bill was hip, but not so hip as to drive away his mostly adult audience.

His voice was so friendly. WTVN imaged itself with a jingle package called "Friends" and Bill oozed it. As time went by, Bill was promoted into the spot held by Dave Parr. Parr had been upped to afternoon drive host when Bob Conners made his ill fated move to crosstown WBNS. Bill Smith was now my evening friend on WTVN.

When I got old enough to drive, I would head to Columbus and Bill would let me in the studios on the 16th floor of the Buckeye Building to spin records. For me, it was nirvana. Here I was in my favorite radio station with a guy who spoke to my soul.

I so wanted to become the next Bill Smith.

Bill left not too long after he got his evening gig for Boston and a weekend gig at WBZ. In my world, radio was never the same. I sometimes got to hear him when WBZ blew into this part of the world in the evenings or overnights when he was filling in. The last time I heard him was in 1976 or so. I think he was filling in for Robin Young on the overnight show and I was listening having just finishing an airshift at WBBY.

I envied his opportunity, felt proud that I had known a radio winner, but inside I never forgave that he left my world. As time moved on, Bill left WBZ and went to work for stations in the Boston market that didn't hit skip into the clutches of my radio dial.

The last I heard, he was working in production at WRKO in Boston.

Boston is a better radio market with Bill Smith there. And 30+ years later, I still remember the joy he brought to my ears and still wish was available to me.