Misc. Items About Central Florida Radio
                                       This is the place I will post items of interest. Keep checking back.
Don McNeill's Breakfast Club Broadcasts From Deltona     3-1-08

Don McNeill and his wife Kay were close friends of the Mackle Brothers, developers of Deltona Lakes (incorporated as the City of Deltona). Don was an early promoter of Deltona Lakes and brought his nationally syndicated radio show - the Breakfast Club - to Deltona on its first anniversary in 1963. There were 250 residents living in the fledgling community, set in a corner of 15,000 acres of scrub pine land scattered with oaks and palms, dotted with clear lakes. Nearly 350 homes had been built or were under construction. For Deltona 's first birthday, radio personality Don McNeill brought the world-renowned " Breakfast Club " to Southwest Volusia where he and his entire cast broadcast the radio show for the week of Nov. 18-22, 1963. The cast included Fran Allison as Aunt Fanny, comic Sam Cowling, and vocalists Mary Luckett and Bob Newkirk.
Don was called the "Voice of Deltona" in the community's early years and always showed up to cut the big birthday cake. (20 feet tall one year). Deltona was a "a fine, outstanding baby," McNeill said when he came to cut the first birthday cake. McNeill's visits, and Deltona's birthday celebrations, were documented in local newspapers and the Mackles' monthly newsletter, "The Deltona News," sent to Deltona lot owners around the world. The popular radio show originated in Chicago and was broadcast on more than 400 ABC stations and the Armed Forces Network. For Deltona's first birthday, he broadcast the show from Elkcam Park (Mackle spelled backward) on Lake Monroe for a week.
Some 2,000 fans crammed into the little community clubhouse, which still stands, to see Fran Allison as the gossipy Aunt Fanny, portly comic Sam Cowling and singers Mary Anne Luckett and Bob Newkirk. The show was a corny blend of jokes, inspirational poems and music, including a couple of songs about Deltona. 
Follow-up    Posted 2-1-07
Gary S. Wheeler aka Adam Cook,  former program director at WXXL-FM 106.7 pleaded no contest to charges that he used the Internet to lure a child for sex and send sexually explicit photographs to a Citrus County sheriff's detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. Circuit Judge Ric Howard gave the 49-year-old a suspended 15-year prison sentence, meaning Wheeler won't spend jail time if he successfully completes 15 years of sex offender probation. Judge Howard also ordered him to pay $3,000 in fines, undergo electronic monitoring and register as a sex offender.  Wheeler could have been sentenced to jail for as long as 15 years. Wheeler's wife was in court supporting him.  Wheeler apologized for his actions, saying that he is "looking for a new start."
Radio Memories   Posted 8-10-06
 Bob Lipscomb the assistant Chief Engineer for Salem Media's five stations in Atlanta dropped us an email the other day. He reminisced about his CFLRadio memories.
"...My first exposure to radio was WEUS (now WLBE-AM 790) in Eustis, my home town, where as kids returning from the Saturday afternoon movies in the late 40's, we would stop by the studios and watch a live country-western band
playing on the radio. Later on in the late 50's while living in Winter Garden and in high school,  I met the owners of WGOA (now WOKB-AM 1600) shortly after they started the station which was at that time a full service MOR station.  They did a midday live show from the Citrus Tower over in Clermont five days a week. Another story I recall,  is "Radio Hi Fi",  WHIY, (now WRLZ-AM 1270) in Orlando having an announcer lock himself in the control room and play the song "Personality" (by Lloyd Price) all day long.  After that it was called "Personality Radio" for a while. We later moved to Melbourne where I graduated from high school while working part time at WMMB(-AM 1240) dubbing taped commercials.  This was prior to cart machines so commercials were all recorded on reel to reel tapes.  I was eventually replaced by a new fangled device called a Gates Spot Recorder which put all the commercials on a paper roll size roll of tape and allowed the reel to reel commercial playing to be phased out. After graduating from Brevard Community College I went to work for Harris Corporation in Palm Bay but did a short stint as a weekend announcer/engineer for WMEG (now WMEL-AM 920) working from 6 PM to the 1 AM sign off.  The studios were out in a near swamp West of Eau Gallie and I can recall attempting to read the news live on the air while swatting mosquitoes  with my other hand. 

Before Arbitron There was  Mediastat     
Kris Earl Phillips sent along a sample of the ratings for the Daytona Beach market from 1972.
Thought you might like to remember the days when AM really was the dominant medium. Since Arbitron really was an upstart at that time, Mediastat was the ratings leader and used to do the surveys in the area.  Brief and pretty much to the point...before the days of mega-demographics! BTW, I was doing 6p-Mid at the time on WMFJ.  This was pretty
helpful around 'raise' time."

                                                                   Click photos for a full sized view

                         Daytona_Ratings_AM_1972.jpg (334610 bytes)     Daytona_ratings_PM_19722.jpg (320851 bytes)

The Passing of a Legend
On January 29, 2005 an Orlando Radio pioneer passed away. John Rutledge was an integral part of  what radio sounded like in Orlando, at WHOO-AM 990, WLOF-AM 950 and he also put WLOQ-FM 103.1 on the air. Visit our Tribute to John Rutledge and read his Biography

Late Night Reception
Gerald Lostutter sends along a video produced by himself and Jeff Steele. Ken Thorne provided the music. The video was sent to Late Night with David Letterman. Unfortunately NBC couldn't use it, but here it is.
What's the radio tie-in you ask? The exterior shots were filmed at the WCOT-AM 950 studios and tower also "appeared" in the film.
                                                                     Late Night Reception
                                                            

WLOF TOUR
On July 30, 2004 we had the pleasure of joining a group of folks that worked at WLOF-AM 950, Orlando, on a tour of the old studios. Wilma (my wife) took lots of pictures and we share those here.

My Daddy the DJ  
Martha Cowell Calloway pays tribute to her dad Brad Cowell of WMFJ-AM 1450.

Bobby Andrews Remembers...
Bobby Andrews, son of radio legend Bob Andrews relays some great stories and personal memories about Central Florida radio and his dad.
On WLOF(AM 950)- "...The "weird beard" (Bill Vermillion) told me a story in the late 70's about the day WHOO(AM 990) changed to country.  He and the others at WLOF caught wind of the move and proceeded to buy and borrow every country record they could get their hands on.  At the time WHOO made the move, 'LOF started playing country too, confusing most of Central Florida."
On Bob's bio and flying-"...One thing your bio didn't include was your pioneering of  "eye in the sky traffic reports".  You got your (pilot's) license from that.  One of the funny clips from 'LOF was their eye Chris O'Condor.  You couldn't understand what he was saying due to prop noise, but it didn't matter.  The engine started to sputter and you heard the plane go into a dive and the DJ would break in "We'll check back with Chris later". 
About WDBO(AM 580)-"...Another great comedy spot ran on WDBO (in) 72-73 called the "Stoned Ranger".  It featured a hippie cowboy "far out, Indian" and his sidekick Toronto.  The traditional roles were reversed.  When entering a country store, the owner states, "I don't talk to your kind" and the Indian replies, "That all right, him with me"  Comedy use to have a big place in radio and I miss that."

"Radio Tales..." Wonderful stories about radio personalities from Anne Jeffries

"WKIS(-AM 740) used to have a morning man named Al Dunaway and the infamous Bud Brewer did overnights. One morning Al was making the drive time "KIS cash call" and boy did he get a wrong number as the dialog went like this:

Al: Good Morning this is the WKIS cash call, what's your name?

Caller: Al?, what are you doing this is Bud.

Al: Well good morning Bud, can you give me the count and the amount?

Caller: Al, I don't think you understand. This is Bud...Bud Brewer...I work here.

Al: Bud? gee, how did I get your number.

Caller: Beats the sh*t out of me AL..!!

It seems that Al had awakened Bud who had just gotten off from his overnight shift. This "phoner" led to WKIS issuing a policy that all phone calls had to be taped in advance of being aired. It was a story frequently told at the media lunch table at Malcolm's Hungry Bear (restaurant) and "beats the sh*t out of me Al" had become somewhat of a catch phrase. One morning while working at WHOO-FM 96.5, Frank Vaught who was doing sports for the AM station, tapped me on the shoulder and called me into the production room. Much to my surprise Frank actually played me an air check of this infamous phoner, proving once an for all it was a true story.

"Being fortunate enough to be an accepted member of the lunchtime media group at Malcolm's (Hungry Bear restaurant on Colonial Drive-next door to the old Dancing Waters restaurant) I have many stories I can share. Back when Carole Nelson was doing news at WDBO-AM 580) she was having lunch one day at Malcolm's with the media group. (One of the nice things about Malcolm's were those comfortable captains chairs with arm rests at the tables.) Well one of the fellows at the media table was on the OPD (Orlando Police Department) force and as a prank, handcuffed Carole to her chair. After making a couple of jokes he got up, paid his check and promptly left. After about 10 minutes or so it became apparent that he was not returning and Carol needed to get back to the DBO studio for her newscast. Quickly running out of time they called a cab, loaded Carole and the chair in the back and headed for the studio. As luck would have it they made it back to WDBO just in time for Carole (still handcuffed to the chair) to grab her copy and do her newscast! From what I understand it was completely hysterical and proved Carole once and for all to be a "good sport".
              What's New    Biographies    In Memory    Sounds    Misc.    Links    Chronology    What's News?