"I really enjoyed revisiting lots of memories on your WAKY web site. I was privileged to do 7:00 PM to Midnights in 1958 - 1959. A few of my colleagues at WAKY were Jack Sanders, Jim Light(foot), Chuck Dunaway and Phil Page.

"Following WAKY, I went to KQV in Pittsburgh for 4 years. At that point I returned to my hometown (Evansville, IN) to open my business, Aiken Management. From 1963, until selling my company in 1999, we promoted over 1400 entertainment events all over the country, and in the '80s and '90s designed and operated several restaurants in the Evansville area .

"Far and away, my best business project was the purchase in 1987 of WGBF AM and FM. We were able to turn the fortunes of GBF from bad to good (including becoming the first station to syndicate The Bob and Tom Show). I sold the stations in 1996.

"Thank you again for the excellent work you've done in establishing the WAKY web site."

Larry Aiken (1999)

"When I arrived at WPOC in Baltimore they had a morning team of Rocky Marlowe and Laurie DeYoung. When Rocky's contract wasn't renewed we hired Bill Bailey to be Laurie's new partner. What looked like great creative conflict on paper -- male/female, young/old, liberal/conservative -- didn't work out so well on the air. Bill had his moments; I recall one time when Laurie was arguing with a female caller and Bill was muttering something about 'ovarian lunacy' in the background. But it soon became obvious that we needed to make a change before Bill moved his family to Maryland.

"As it turned out, Laurie didn't really NEED a partner. We made her the star of the show and she just celebrated 20 years at WPOC. Meanwhile, Bill has always been gracious about what must have been a difficult situation for him. Everyone involved had the best of intentions."

Bill Bailey Fans! Bill would love to hear from you!  Send a card or letter to:
Bill Boahn c/o Friendship Manor, 7400 La Grange Road, Pewee Valley, KY 40056

"My WAKY story is fairly long. When I was in junior high, I called into Tim Tyler and Jack Daniels a lot. I got to know 'Rudy Ratfink' who was the all night program. I met Ben Allen who ran the board..

"I spent most Saturday mornings at the studio and helped to set up when Tim Tyler had a remote at Stewart's department store on Saturdays.

"Then when I was 15, there was an opening for the 6-8 PM request line. Bill Crisp called me and hired me on the spot.

"I worked from July 1966 to August 1968. I left to take a job as an announcer at WSTL in Eminence. I was able to get my FCC 3rd class RTO license because so many people at WAKY tutored me before I took the test.

"I was close to Bill Crisp, Bob Watson, Byron Crawford (who I still talk to often), Ron Statzer (who was killed in Cincinnati working for a TV station there I think), John Randolph, Weird Beard, as well as several of the sales people and secretaries. It was a fine group of people who put up with a lot of my immaturity (after all I was 15 and running around a business office).

"We were in the old studios in the Kentucky Home Life Building on 5th and Jefferson.

"I became a Christian while in college and then called to full-time Christian work when in the army.

"Today, I am a pastor. I have worked as chaplain in mental hospitals (working at WAKY was great preparation for that task), jails, prisons, and hospital emergency rooms. I have also pastored several churches around the country.

"I also traveled as a missionary to Costa Rica and Siberia Russia."

"For the past 27 years I have been at the CBS O&O TV station in Baltimore, WJZ. [He uses his real name, Marty Bass.] For 23 of those years I have done a three-hour morning show which was, at the time, the prototype for all the TV morning shows currently on in the country. For the past 17 years I have also been a part of the CMA award-winning Laurie DeYoung Show at Bob Moody's old haunt, WPOC. (The Colonel put me on that show and it has been heaven ever since.)

"To this day I use the lessons learned from, and standards set forth by Johnny Randolph. I also try to keep it fun. That was part of the allure of "The Big 79." (Recently I flew home to visit Bill Bailey, and he stressed to me that if you don't love your job, you will not love your audience, and you are DONE.)

"My brother was a band manager, (and a DAMN good one), in the '60s and '70s. That was my ticket into WAKY. I cut my on-air teeth at WXVW in Jeffersonville, but at that time I was one of a cadre of Johnny Randolph "interns." We did what needed to be done. "Sure, I'll go over to Walgreen's and get you a patty melt and some condoms!"

"In 1971 Michael Lewis Griffin needed a break and Johnny made me production director for a summer. That led to some on air work. I was hooked. I got a job at WVLK in Lexington, then went with Gary Burbank and Len King to start (actually refresh) WNOE in New Orleans. They left for Detroit and I went to college. Herein lays my BEST WAKY story and the reason that I am where I am now.

"I graduated from Southern Illinois University in December 1976 with a degree in R/TV. At the same time I get a call from Johnny Randolph. He had let his primary weekend jock go, he needed help. He was very honest. AM was on the wane, and WLRS was becoming the force in Louisville. I told him I could give him 6 months to a year, but I was SERIOUSLY looking for a job in TV news.

"I had so much fun, and lived out such a fantasy being a 'jock' at WAKY that I turned down at least 6 TV jobs. The headhunter I was working with finally told me that I had to take a job soon, or he was moving on. The next job opportunity was at KENS-TV in San Antonio, which I took. That led to Baltimore.

"Over time I have had a good run, and run into a lot of old radio people, the legendary Ron Riley of WLS to name one. Every time, I mean EVERY TIME I mention WAKY, it becomes the topic of conversation. We all knew at the time it was special. But to those in the know...it was a legend.

"This will sound so geek-like, but I am the broadcaster I am because of time spent in that building. One of the last times I was there the carpet was being replaced, and I took a small square, about coaster size. Every morning at 5 a.m. when the theme for the 'Eyewitness News Morning Edition' rolls, my cup of coffee is on it. 'Put me to work Reed...'"

1963 WAKY "Personality Information" biography of Jerry Barr

The "Jerry Barr Show" is highlighted by such features as the "Jerry Barr Gagster Club," news, weather, time and temperature reports, spiced with Jerry's outstanding wit.

Interest in all areas of broadcasting, the 18-year-old air personality is currently studying electronics in a home-study course of De Vry Tech in Chicago.

Though relatively young in radio, Jerry lacks nothing in enthusiasm and interest in the field. He says he thoroughly enjoys his work and hopes to make broadcasting a lifetime career.

Jerry's proven ability and his enthusiasm for his work make him and outstanding addition to the WAKY staff.

"In 1979 George Francis became manager of WAKY & WVEZ. George had a vision of challenging WHAS for the adult audience. If the out-of-town ownership had left him (us) alone, we would have succeeded. Anyway, George and I talked for a couple of months and I was impressed with his plan. In early 1980, I resigned at WHAS and moved to WAKY/WVEZ as News Director. George committed to increasing the budget commitment and size of the staff and we set up an operation that was indeed respected and competitive.

"I left WAKY at the end of my two-year contract to establish a syndicated program called 'Pondering Kentucky.' We had a successful 13-year run with this broadcast which aired on 85 stations across the state.

"I semi-retired from broadcasting in 1993. I am delighted (and humbled) that I was later presented the Kentucky Mike Award by the Kentucky Broadcasters Association and inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. As you correctly state on your web site, I am now with the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels as Senior Ambassador. (The title is a fancy way of saying I am Chief Operating Officer.)"

"My tenure at WAKY started in 1960 and continued until 1967 or 1968. I worked for Gordon McLendon and was sent to WAKY as Program Director. I had also been informed that McLendon was planning to sell the station. The sale to LIN Broadcasting occurred a year or so later.

"In 1961, after WAKY had been sold by McLendon to LIN I left the station for 3 months. I took a job with Plough at WMPS in Memphis. Plough was not McLendon and I longed to return to WAKY, which I did.

"The staff included Bill Ward(law), who did mornings He later became GM of Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters. Bill died last year. (2004)

"Hal Smith did middays. Hal joined Bill Ward in California and I believe he was the PD at KLAC and later in management in Philadelphia. Hal is retired.

"George Williams did noon-3 and at one time did nights. From WAKY, George went to the Albany, New York market and subsequently, he became one of the first programmers for Satellite Music Network. I have lost contact with George.

"Afternoon drive was handled by "Jumpin' Jack Sanders." Jack was one of radio's first mega personalities. When he left radio, he worked briefly for Audrey Williams (Hank Williams Senior's ex-wife). Jack died in his early 30s.

"Jay Reynolds did evenings at WAKY. Jay later did overnights at WABC in New York. When he left the Big Apple, he returned to his native Indiana and has held a number of management positions in Indianapolis.

"Our overnight man at WAKY was Jack Grady (Anderson). Jack is still broadcasting as the overnight host of ABC's Stardust format out of Dallas.

"Two other 60s era WAKY deejays were Bill Crisp, who came over to us from WKLO and Rusty Reynolds, who replaced Jack Sanders. Bill owned stations in Rhode Island or Delaware and Rusty has owned stations in Texas and Mississippi. I am not sure whether Bill Crisp is still active in broadcasting, but I know that Rusty was a few years ago.

"Two names from the WAKY origin that are missing are Phil Page and Chuck Dunaway. These were two of Don Keyes' original staff members. Page did mornings and Dunaway was the midday man.

"Tom Perryman (Tom Perry) left Louisville to move back to Dallas and worked for the NBC affiliate at the time John Kennedy was shot. He later was offered a network position with NBC (as Dan Rather received from CBS), but turned the offer down.

"Another legendary WAKY newsman was Bill Gill. In later years, Bill was a TV newsman for ABC.

"Don Keyes and I were roommates in college at SMU. Don owned stations in Canton, Ohio and Tallahassee, Florida. He now resides back in Dallas.

"When Bill Ward departed WAKY, I moved into mornings and served in the dual role of jock and PD. I stayed with LIN Broadcasting as Group PD and later as manager of WIL-FM (the only mono FM station in St. Louis). In 1968, I joined WLEE in Richmond, Virginia and the following year, I was hired by Max Richmond to be a co-PD of WMEX in Boston.

"About a year later, a friend of mine from LIN purchased a station in Gainesville, Florida. He urged me to join him to switch the station to a country format. I've been in this market and in one capacity or another associated with WDVH AM and FM for 35 years."

1963 WAKY "Personality Information" biography of Jim Brand

Jim, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, attended Southern Methodist University and the University of Kansas City, where he majored in Radio speech. He was a part-time announcer for KGKO in Dallas, but launched his full-time professional radio career when he joined the staff of KDOK in Tyler, Texas in June, 1958. From there he went to KOKE, in Austin, Texas where he served as disc jockey and Production Manager. In search of more experience, he joined KICN in Denver, Colorado; and in February of 1960, he became program director of KDOK. He joined the staff of WAKY in September 1960.

Jim's trained air voice and his easygoing style make him both an effective air salesman and a popular air personality. He is an important link in the family flow programming of WAKY.

Gary Burbank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary Burbank (born Billy Purser in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American radio personality. He currently appears on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he has hosted the station's afternoon drive time programming for more than two decades.

Burbank began his radio career in his hometown at WMPS in the mid 1960s, where he was known on the air as Johnny Apollo. In 1968 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he became an instant hit on WAKY-AM. It was at WAKY that Billy Purser officially became Gary Burbank, a name taken from radio and television legend Gary Owens, who as a regular on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In would announce that he was broadcasting from "beautiful downtown Burbank." (Burbank's natural voice is remarkably similar to Owens' on-air voice.)

Burbank stayed at WAKY until 1973, when he moved to New Orleans for a brief stint as program director of WNOE. From New Orleans, Burbank went on to CKLW in Detroit/Windsor, and then back to Louisville for a successful, lengthy afternoon gig on WHAS-AM.

Burbank left Louisville again for a brief spell in Tampa, Florida, but returned to the Ohio Valley in 1986 when he signed with WLW. It is there that he has enjoyed his greatest success, developing his best-known characters: Earl Pitts Uhmerikun, Gilbert Gnarley, Eunice and Bernice, and the Right Rev. Deuteronomy Skaggs (the latter two carried over from his WHAS days). Burbank regularly satirizes former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer, local newscasters, and the Cincinnati Bengals, among many others.

Burbank often does his show from a home in north central Florida, while the rest of his show's cast and crew is in the WLW studios in Cincinnati.

Burbank's Earl Pitts daily "commentaries" are syndicated throughout the country on about 200 stations. Burbank's show is also heard, along with the rest of WLW's programming, on XM Satellite Radio Channel 173.

Burbank has won several major awards, including back-to-back Marconi Awards as Large Market Personality of the Year in 1990 and 1991.

On March 7, 2007, Burbank announced that he would retire on December 31, 2007, at the expiration of his contract. The last show was broadcast on Friday, December 21, 2007. Despite Burbank's retirement, Earl Pitts' commentaries will continue to broadcast on its network of affiliates including WLW.

"As time moves on, things are changing; music, formats and yours truly. It was 1984 and I was now an account executive and doing weekends on the air at the very station my dad and I had pulled in on that little piece of crystal out in Shelby County all those Summer nights ago. I was now working for the Bingham family at 84WHAS, where I remained until the mid '90s.

"During this period my musical interests led me to form a country-rock group just for the fun of it all. Over the next five years as lead singer, I would perform with them at Rupp Arena, Cardinal Stadium, Louisville Gardens, county fairs, street fairs and the Kentucky State Fair, as well as do personal appearances from New York City to Nashville, including guest spots with Ralph Emery on his #1 rated Country Music TV show 'Nashville Now' seen on the Nashville Network. We shared the stage as the opening act for over 30 national touring artists including: Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Tanya Tucker, Eddie Rabbit, Exile, Steve Wariner, Highway 101, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Michael Martin Murphy and Ricky Van Shelton.

"In late 1997 after spending nearly four months at University Hospital and Frazier Rehab with my daughter who had been seriously injured in an auto accident, I needed a break from the business and resigned my position as an account executive at the Number One Country station in the U.S., 97FM WAMZ."

"At one time or another during my three year stint at WAKY during the mid to late '60s, I think I did news through the window opposite Rusty Reynolds, Jim Brand, Bill Crisp, Tim Tyler, Weird Beard, John Locke, Johnny Dark, Al Risen ('Jack Holiday'), Farrell Smith, Jim Fletcher, Tom Dooley, Ken Douglas, Steve Baron, Dude Walker, Mike Smith, Mark Clark, George Williams, Buddy Kaye, Gary Burbank and Johnny Randolph -- to name most, but not in that order, of course.

"We used an old Morse Code key -- actually keyed with our thumb -- to make the 'rat-a-tat-tat' tone as a breaker between our news stories when I first went there -- the reverberating tone almost like a cell phone ring of today. It was a McClendon thing -- just a little bit more conservative than KBOX in Dallas, which used a McKenzie Repeater to break up the stories with dramatic music. The station never quite sounded as good after it moved.

"Bill Crisp, whom I thought was a really good jock, finally took me off the news-writing chores in the mornings to banter in the studio with him during morning drive as a straight man and funny voice -- but I actually delivered the newscasts.

"Tim Tyler, on whose show I started as a newsman in 1966 at night, had to help me find my car the first night I was there, because I was from a small town. I had come there from Richmond, Kentucky, and couldn't find my car in the parking lot where I parked it. Tim got me in his new T-Bird and drove me around till we found my Chevy Impala in a parking lot near the Kentucky Home Life Building. That first Christmas I was at WAKY, he and Sandy had my wife Jackie and me to their home, in Jeffersonville or Clarksville as I recall, and gave us gifts. They were great folks to us, and I will always have fond memories of them. Tyler was a terrific jock -- always did his show in his sock feet, ran a tight board and was a complete pro both in music and in business.

Byron Crawford Today

"After Tim booked the Beach Boys into Freedom Hall, some of the band came to the station and I recall that Brian Wilson took off his sweat soaked, signature blue and white striped shirt and left it in Tim's office. A few days later, Tim cut it up and gave pieces to some of us around the station. I got a pretty good swatch of it and gave it to my sister-in-law, a huge Beach Boys fan. She still has it.

"Although I missed working with Mason Dixon at WAKY, he and I nearly started in radio together at WRSL in Stanford. He had been in Irvine at WIRV before that, but WRSL, a new 500-watt daytimer, was my first job and we both started there together when he was still a teenager. He was a jock, and I started doing news after school as a high school junior. Even then, he was immensely talented. He did all kinds of produced bits, ran an air-tight board, had a fantastic voice and made afternoon drive on that little 500-watter in the middle of nowhere sound like 50,000 watts of bright lights in the middle of everywhere...until sundown.  He drove an Austin Healy Sprite and I drove a turquoise '55 Willys turquoise Jeep.

"I could drive on and on down Memory Lane with the radio set on 790 -- as everyone could who ever worked at WAKY. Thanks, John Quincy, for giving us a place to remember."

"During my tenure we added a number of people and lost a few, most of which I don't remember. Among those we added during that time were Farrell Smith from KLO, and had also worked at WABC in New York; John Randolph, who had been music director at KLO and part-time jock; and Steve Barron. I don't remember where we got Steve but I do remember he got drunk one Christmas day and I finished his shift and we never saw him again. I was accused of being a real Scrooge for firing somebody on Christmas day, but I didn't -- he just didn't come back.

"We also added Jim Fletcher, who had been production director and on air personality at KLO, and was probably the best production man I ever encountered before or since. Bert Markert a.k.a. Weird Beard came to us from WINN. We also a kid we called Johnny Dark and I don't remember his real name, but I later heard he was killed in a plane crash.

"Another guy who joined us during my tenure was Tom Dooley, a real whack job, but one of the best jocks I ever heard.

"I would like to add one thing: A lot of people left WKLO to work at WAKY, but to my knowledge, nobody ever left WAKY to go to WKLO."

"At some point Jack left and Bob Moody, who was doing afternoon drive, became PD and we shifted to an oldies format. What a fun time that was! Steven Lee Cook and B.J. Koltee were other buddies who worked on-the-air at WAKY.

Liz Curtis Higgs Today

"I left WAKY in Spring 1984 because WHAS-AM had a midday opening and because WAKY was in the process of being sold. The new owners assured me they would be happy to keep me on the air-staff, as long as I could accept a sizeable pay cut! NOT! :>)

"I worked at WHAS from April 1984 to August 1988, when I left radio altogether to concentrate exclusively on mothering and speaking."

"And they didn't call the station 'WAKY' without reason. Other memories include gags we played on the evening newsman who shall go unnamed just in case he or his wife may ever read this. We hired a girl to stand on the other side of the newsroom glass and strip while he was doing a live newscast. We thought it was so funny that we decided to do it again a few days later -- only this time, someone let the cat out of the bag and the newsman was tipped off. Not being one to throw a monkey wrench into our fun, he didn't let on he knew...but he surreptitiously recorded the news. After the normal live teaser and intro, we brought in the girl again and she began to strip---this time, however, he simply grinned after his lead story and punched up a cart on which the rest of the news was recorded. Without saying a word to us, only smiling, he walked from the newsroom around to the control room, took the young lady by the hand and escorted her away to an office.

"I had the 9-mid shift, behind Tim Tyler, who was 6-9pm at that time. Since I had a First Class FCC license and Tim didn't, I was essentially hired to be the 'licensed operator on duty' to take the transmitter readings every half-hour, as the regulations then required. (Sounds so archaic now, doesn't it?) George Williams was doing middays and he ended up being a close friend during the time together at WAKY. Jim also told me that he hired me because of my knowledge of the 'new' 'Drake Format.' I was one of three people (Bill Drake and Jayne Swain being the other two) who first laid out the concept of the format...we were at KSTN/Stockton at the time, and that was before Bill hooked up with Gene Chenault at KYNO.

"Most of my efforts were West Coast and my only gigs East of the Mississippi River were as a jock at WAKY and GM at WGIV/Charlotte for Tracy Broadcasting. I was working at their R&B outlet, KGFJ/Los Angeles, when they bought WGIV and sent me there to oversee the set-up and operation.

"I eventually found my way to KRUX/Phoenix and sister station KTKT/Tucson as group program director, where we set ratings records which still stand. When KRUX was sold to Lotus, I went to Australia as a consultant for 3 years and oversaw operation of 5 stations there.

"After returning to the States, Rick Sklar hired me as program director for ABC's O&O KXYZ/Houston."

Rich Gimmel Today

"After leaving WAKY in May, 1969 I went to WLAP in Lexington where I was News Director while I finished up at Georgetown College. After getting fired at WLAP in 1972 (right after I helped start a union) I wound up in Alabama at WHHY as ND there (the only "unions" they had to worry about in Alabama were the guys they had fought in the Civil War.) I came back to Kentucky as PD at WEKY in Richmond. Finally wound up as anchor and then ND at WTVQ-TV in Lexington 1973-78, then at WAVE-TV in Louisville as Associate News Director until 1985.

"After getting my MBA in 1985 I joined our family manufacturing business where I'm now president.

"I have a bunch of GREAT memories from WAKY... many of them from that old facility in the Kentucky Home Life Building (old RCA board, a vertical Presto reel-to-reel machine, the production facilities that still used engineers, and some of the incredible antics we used to pull).

"We really had to clean up our collective acts when we moved to the showcase studios on 4th Street in 1968. We finally had new equipment, but it wasn't nearly as much fun."

Dude Walker writes: "I knew his family well. He and his father and I used to go to harness races all over the tri-state area. The last time I saw Kevin was when he was passing through Chicago and spent a few days at my place. I was at Louisville Downs the night he called his first race. He did a good job."

*went to WSAI in Cincinnati

Bill Ward Midnight to 6am
Al Risen Morning Drive
Bob Russell Midday Mornings
Art Keller Midday Afternoon
Jack Sanders Afternoon Drive
Jack Grady 7pm to Midnight

Bill Ward Morning Drive
Bob Russell Midday Mornings
Art Keller Midday Afternoon
Jack Sanders Afternoon Drive
Jack Grady 7pm to Midnight

Bill Ward Morning Drive
Hal Smith Midday Mornings
Art Keller Midday Afternoon
Jack Sanders Afternoon Drive
Jack Grady 7pm to Midnight

Bill Ward Morning Drive
Hal Smith Midday Mornings
Jack Grady Midday Afternoon
Jack Sanders Afternoon Drive
Jerry Barr 7pm to Midnight

Other staff:

Wick Morrison, Chief Engineer
Johnny Workman, Production Engineer
Marijo Rison, Secretary to the Manager

Managers:

Jack Lee
Bob Franklin

Sales:

Al Grosby
John McCarthy
Willis "Scooter" Duff
Bob Franklin

Copy writer:

Bitt Sullivan

Mike Griffin at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles

"I left radio in 1977 and went to work in engineering at WDRB-TV in Louisville. From there I moved to WHAS-TV-AM-FM also in engineering. While there, I had the distinct honor and high privilege of having constructed WAMZ's first on-air studio when it went fully live with Coyote Calhoun in '81 or '82. In 1982 I left WHAS and became a Field Engineer for Sony Electronics. I was with Sony until last year when I left to start a company with a couple of friends. We do diagnostics, monitoring, and consulting for IT-based TV automation and newsroom systems."

Dave Jacob (2006)

"Today, I am CEO of APSI (Alternate Power Systems, Inc.), a solar/wind/renewable energy company based in Atlanta and doing business worldwide."

"We plan to get together soon and drain Austin of its beer supply...and tell radio lies all evening long.

"George is a great broadcaster and super gentleman. I'd hire him again...probably!"

"I was hired by Bill Crisp. When I was there we were in the Kentucky Home Life Building. I started doing overnights, then moved to PM drive for a short few months before I left to go to Oklahoma City.

"While I was there, Bill Crisp was AM Drive/PD, Jack Murray was Early Middays, Steve Baron was next, followed by Tim Tyler and then Weird Beard.

"After leaving Louisville, I jocked at KOMA in Oklahoma City, KRUX in Phoenix, WIFE in  Indianapolis, KCBS-FM in San Francisco, WKRQ in Cincinnati...and programmed in Evansville, Dayton, Columbus, Milwaukee, Chicago, Louisville (KISS 104), and Pittsburgh before I became Senior VP of Programming for what used to be called SFX (which became Capstar, AM-FM and Clear Channel). Did that for 7 years and now program KHMX in Houston.

"I'm from Kentucky (the mountains). WAKY was one of the greatest and most exciting stations in America. I owe a lot of my programming beliefs and fundamentals from both listening to and working at WAKY."

Update: Buddy left the Houston gig in June 2006 and now lives in Chicago.

"I don't remember what time we came in on Saturday nights, but the shift ran to around 10 a.m. After 4 a.m. we did it from one of the back production studios, while the engineers did maintenance in the main control room...so I guess that means we had Friday nights off.

"Ed had Brailed the entire wall of music carts -- something like 1200 or so songs! -- and he would send me out to help pull music for the 5-to-6 a.m. music segment of the shift, as well as the Saturday night shift, which was all music until the religious/public service programming and Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" began around 4 a.m. or so.

"The lineup I recall at that time was: Bill Bailey from 6 to 10 a.m.; Gary [Cox] King, middays; not sure, but I believe Lee Gray did afternoon drive; Coyote did 6 to 10 p.m.; and "The Boogieman," Chuck Jackson, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. -- and Karl [Schmidt] Shannon was the Production Director. Overnight news was pre-recorded on cart, and I believe it was usually the voice of Ralph Dix.

"I worked with Ed from sometime in the early summer until about the end of October, when I left WXVW; I worked with Ed occasionally after that, but it was seldom, because I got married in the spring of '78 and my wife decided I ought to have a 'real' job. I believe it was about that time that Ed left.

"But for a brief, shining moment, I was part of the excitement that emanated from the 'Engine [rhymes with "nine"] Room of the Sooper 79,' as Bailey liked to say. Never before, and never again in my radio career, have I worked with as many Louisville legends. Besides Ed Phillips' approval, I also had to have Johnny Randolph's to work there, and Randolph always spoke when we met in the hall. Reed Yadon, I discovered, was all business until he sorted thru the overnight wire service copy and got his first newscast together. Bailey could be counted on to arrive anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 to begin his 6 a.m. shift, but the man had a style that was often copied but never duplicated. Here's how an average off-air exchange went:

[Bailey] Hey, Ed...I got a question for ya.

[Ed]: Yeah Bill?

[Bailey]: Is this sh*t absolutely necessary? [meaning the routine of having to actually work for a living]

[Ed]: Yeah, Bill, 'fraid so.

[Bailey]: Then, by God, let's get on with it!

"And with that, Bailey became 'YOUR Duke of Louisville' for another day, reigning over all he surveyed.

"I began my radio career at WPDF-AM in Corydon, IN [same place Burt Markert/Weird Beard began] in the summer of 1976. In late '76 I was at WMMG-FM in Brandenburg, KY, and by April '77 was at WXVW in Jeffersonville. I was hired to fill the vacancy created when Rollye Bornstein ['Rollye B.'] left to write the 'Vox Jox' column in Billboard Magazine. I left 'XVW in late October '77, and went back to WMMG...until I left radio for the auto parts business in early 1978. In April 1983, I went back to the Corydon, IN AM station -- now called WJDW -- and from '83 thru '88 I worked weekend mornings at WJDW and weekend afternoons at WMMG. In June of '88 I left radio for good to become parts department manager at then-new Blue Grass Hyundai in Louisville. In 2000 I left auto parts to work at Tower Automotive, making frames for Ford Explorers in Corydon, IN.

"There are stories from my days [nights, actually] at WAKY that are better left untold...like the all-nighter half the staff pulled for Gary King's birthday, and the leftover case of 'Old Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale' that Gary sent home with me because, frankly, the stuff was downright awful...but for the sake of decency and propriety, I'll spare you those details and hundreds more.

"These are memories of people and times that I'll treasure forever...because, even as a 'footnote' in WAKY history, I was part of a legend as magical as Camelot, and just as unlikely to ever be seen again in our lifetimes."