I am shocked this week by the sudden passing of Gordy when reading the Ohio board posts at www.radio-info.com. During my years at WMVR, Gordy always encouraged me to "keep on keepin' on" when things got rough in my carreer. I first met Gordy in the fall of 1973 wheh he took over the weeknight "progressive rock" program on WMVR-FM which at the time aired "automated" beautiful music. He remained there until early 1974 when he resigned to take the afternoon drive at WCIT "Great 94" in Lima which recently returned to its Top 40 roots with an oldies format. After WCIT dumped its airstaff in 1975 in favor of automation,he started banging on the front door at Dayton's legendary WING. He eventually landed a gig working "the graveyard shift" (12-midnight-5:30 am) from 1975 to 1976. Although Gordy's gig at WING was a breif one,he had the honor of working with Dayton's legendary "lively guys" Steve Kirk, Ken Warren,Ritchie "Duke of Dayton" Allen and Jerry "The Big D" Dennis among others. Afterwards he joined forces with local record hop DJ Gary Berner doing gigs in and around the area and eventually found an evening gig at Bellefontaine's WTOO "Stereo Too 98" as it was called back then. (WTOO-FM is now WPKO.) In 1981 I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Gordy was invited back to WMVR when I was doing the afternoon/early evening shift. I must say that working with Gordy was one of the most positive experiences of my carreer. The radio broadcasting field is rampantly full of greedy,arrogant self-seeking souls who "use you then lose you." (I've been there...I know!!!!) Gordy always encouraged me to keep my chin up when the going got rough. He remained there until 1984 when he moved into a sales position at Lima's WIMT "T-102",but sales just wasn't his thing so after doing a brief afternoon gig back at WTOO in 1986,he finally became the afternoon personality at T-102 in 1988 where he remained there until roughly around 2005 when new owner Clear Channel Communications started downsizing its on-air work force and Gordy was suddenly without a job. It saddens me how corporate conglomerate radio can do such abhorrent things to regular folks who put their 110% heart and soul commitment to their chosen fields..only to be dumped by the corporate hierarchy...all in the name of bottom lines and profits. Needless to say I am no fan of Clear Channel Communications for this and many other reasons. Gordy's tagline "How's your boogaloo situation?" was a direct inspiration from The Guess Who's 1974 hit song "Clap For The Wolfman"...and we all know who the Wolfman was! At the end of his program on WMVR,he did something most radio DJs don't do anymore..a classic sign-off line which was: "Keep livin'....and keep on lovin'...and thanks for making the hometown kid number one." followed by Elvis Presley's hit song "Are You Lonesome Tonight." That sign off line is practically along the same lines as the one used by the late Gene "By Golly" Barry of WING who passed away in 2001. His sign- off line was the following: "This is yours truly Gene By Golly Barry....Saying gooodbye to all you moms,pops,cats and kittens..thanks for help making a show a show...keep a smile,be shy but be careful,bye,bye,buy bonds...LOVVVVE YOU MADLY! And I gotta go now..got to see a man...about a record...Bye Bye!" Both liners almost bring a tear to my eye in this day and age of obnoxious,pointless non-local personality radio owned by a major conglomerate with an arch-conservative agenda...kinda scary when you think about it and makes me wonder if we are reverting back to the fear factor days of the McCarthy witch hunt era! Eternal rest grant upon Gordy O Lord and let the perpetual light shine upon him and have mercy upon his soul. May his and all the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace..AMEN! Despite some personal problems along his life's journey (which I choose not to elaborate here) Gordy was (all things considered) one of the all too few good ones in the buisiness! Peace be with 'ya Gord...Tell Gene By Golly Barry and John Hall that I said Hi!

Saturday morning August 8th I came up to WRPO once again to say "Hi!" to Gene.Robbie and Dale Madison. Gene invited me up to the studio earlier this summer to help promote the Russells Point Car Show. Originally scheduled to take place in the WRPO studios parking lot but due to some construction taking place near the entrance to the Municipal Building's vehicle parking garage,it was moved to a nearby church located across the street. Also taking place was the Russells Point Neighborhood Watch Program Picnic with lots of food and information booths along with local fire,police and other public service personnel answering questions for the locals about home safety. A great day at the lake for a successful event! Gene did a little DJ work from 6am until 7am but had some office chores to handle so I stepped in and pinched hit for Gene from 7 am until about 11:45. Had a lot of fun with the upgraded oldies database on the studio console computer now with professional on-air production values (almost similar to that of Huber Heights/Dayton's WSWO- LP "Ultimate Oldies 97.7 and 101.1") and the new on air computer software courtesy of Jason Michaels who works for Cox Radio which owns News/Talk WHIO AM/FM, WHKO "K-99.1 FM" and WZLR- FM "The Eagle" in Dayton. Gone are the days of turntables,multideck tape cartridge machines and 15 inch reel to reel tape decks. WRPO now boasts a high-tech oldies database. If I am not mistaken here,Jason was also known years ago as "Jason Roberts" when he was an on air personality at Dayton's WTUE when it had a contemporary hit format called "Solid Rock" for several years before switching to album oriented rock (now classic rock)...so that voice you hear on "liners" and "sweepers" between songs may sound familiar if you were a teenager in the early 1970s (as I was) when WTUE was Top Forty.. Thanks Jason for your volunteerism and years of radio experience and expertise for WRPO...needless to say I had fun being live on the air once again after a twenty some odd year absence playing with (and getting some hands-on experience with)WRPO's new on-air software. WRPO now has a new professional major market-like sound and on-air image thanks to Jason's major contribution....We're only 100 watts but now we almost sound like a 50-thousand watt giant..so tune in at 93.5 whenever you're at the lake. While Dale Madison substitued for Vernon McIntyre with FOTMC's co-host Larry Roose, Gene invited me to his summertime weekend retreat where he and his wife reside and has a spectacular view of the lake. Since I had to leave early due to other local commitments with Radio Maria, I was unable to stay and meet with Jason,but I just want to say "Thanks!!!" for your help with making WRPO sound more professional...Maybe we can meet sometime in the future. Enjoy the oldies at the lake..and don't forget MY show at 9am on Saturdays.

Come to the car show on Saturday morning August 8th in the WRPO studios parking lot. Gene,Robbie along with Kelsie Ross,Dale Madison and myself will be there for all the fun. No blues show will be on that morning but I'll try to "sneak-in" a little bit of B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt or Yardbirds if Gene lets me...I also understand that a veteran Dayton area broadcaster who's been helping us with our new oldies format among other things will be here too....Who is he? Come to the WRPO car show and find out on Saturday morning August 8th!

Michael's sudden and tragic death on Thursday June 25th 2009 has sent shockwaves throughout the music and entertainment world. From his beginnings with the Jackson Five in 1969 performing "feel good" R&B,soul and Top 40 pop,Michael climbed his way up the charts throughout the last three decades of the 20th century. Although no blues artist by any means he lived the blues through an abusive childhood and was continually dogged by the cut-throat tabloid trash media in his adult life. You may like him or passionately hate him..but his music will live forever. His suffering is over. By God's mercy may he rest in peace. There is a You Tube channel of Michael Jackson's music videos including the ground breaking "Thriller" among others at www.youtube.com/michaeljackson . In December of 1969, Ed Sullivan remarked to fellow Motown artist Diana Ross sitting in the audience: "Those youngsters are amazing...and that little fellow in front is incredible!" following the Jackson Five's live performance of their first hit single "I Want You Back" on The Ed Sullivan Show. You can also find a video of that performance on YouTube.com as well. Mr.Jackson (not "Wacko Jacko" as the tabloids labelled him) will be equally iconic in the popular music world along with Elvis Presley and The Beatles. His musical contributions in due time will outweigh his exaggerated tabloidized exploitations...as did Elvis.

Contrary to what the pencil pushers and bean counters in corporate commercial radio claim...oldies radio is still alive and if you don't believe me,just scout out the internet. You'll find such internet based stations as Oldies America based out of the Cincinnati area...and even more so there's the Ventura,California-based Rock-It Radio which started out as a micropower FM and has since grown by leaps and bounds where they cover almost everything within the "first generation rock" genre from vintage blues and doo-wop to rockabilly...stuff you will NEVER hear the commercial stations play because of their tight repetitive playlists judged by facts and figures..and of course..profits. You'll also find micropower stations here and there and almost everywhere that also play oldies. Maverick Media up in Lima made a major decision recently to move "ESPN 940" to 93.1 FM...the former Froggy 93 to "93.1 The Fan" and bring back heritage Top 40 "Great 94 WCIT," now with an oldies format as of Monday June 1st,2009 as: "940 WCIT..Lima's Greatest Hits." And if you tune in frequently by chance you'll find that it's "groovy" to hear on occasion Lima's sports guy Vince Koza talkin' about his favorite oldies when he fills in for "Talkin' with Ron" on Fun Fridays. WCIT is back! Thanks Maverick Media! Dusty Rhodes the undisputed King of Tri-State Radio didn't give up the ship when "Real Oldies 1530 WSAI" became a progressive talk format in 2005 with the WCKY calls moved back to 1530 and later an affiliate of Fox Sports Radio as "1530 Homer." Dusty teamed up with Cincinnati buisinessman Brian Kauffman one year later and leased the former talk station WBOB in Florence,a northern Kentucky Cincy suberb and transformed it into "Oldies 1160 WDJO." The oldies format there became so succesful that Dusty and Brian had enough money to buy their own station which they did in May of 2009 purchasing the former Smooth Jazz WCIN and moving their oldies format to 1480 and their internet audiostream with it. Way to go Dusty...you STILL rock after all these years. Oldies radio is definately not dead!