My (current) greatest (silly) fear

I have this one nagging fear, and for some reason, it has really come after me in the past three or four months:

I am deathly afraid of my eventual obituary being listed in a local newspaper under "Other Deaths."

Pretty silly, eh? But after 29 years in radio and TV [I retired in 1993], 34 years in the airshow industry [I have not retired just yet] and 45 years of performing voice-over work in radio and TV, I just don't want to be listed as, "oh, yeah, and this guy died, too."

I still get calls and email from people referring to me as a "radio living legend". That's nice, but although I was honored to have worked at some pretty good radio stations with some pretty heavy talents, I view it as guilt by association. In Philadelphia in 1966-67, I was one of the original "Super Six" bringing to life the Pop Oldies Explosion. Chuck Browning, Jay Cook, Jim Nettleton, "King" George Michael, Dave Parks and me. Dave and I are the only survivors of that crew, and neither of us are in radio any more.

In Providence, RI, on WICE I worked with Bob DeCarlo, a fine air talent and PD. In Boston at WRKO, I was re-named "Bobby Mitchell" (not my idea), and I worked under the direction of Mel Phillips. I was the first hire after Bill Drake took over the consultancy of the RKO General stations. What a great place! The what used to be WIBG Philadelphia with Joey Reynolds, John Records Landecker, and Bill Gardner. At WABC New York I struck gold working next to, and sometimes for, Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Cuzzin Bruce Morrow, Chuck Leonard, and Jay Reynolds. Back in Boston I worked with Jess Caine, The Magic Christian, EVERYBODY on WBZ, Charlie Van Dyke, and the list continues. THESE are (were) living legends. I just got lucky enough to have the mike, the station and the signal.

The airshow industry? An interesting business where nobody knows your name except those on 1,000 acres in one town for one weekend. Three of my friends in airshows are HUGE names: Bob Hoover, Patty Wagstaff and Sean D. Tucker. But as much as we'd like it to be, airshows will never be like NASCAR. Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Snowbirds, sure. Most people have at least heard of them, but the rest of us… I don't think so.

In the world of radio and TV voice-overs, there are some real stars, but not that many. I was fortunate to have earned quite a bit over the years, standing behind a mike in an air-conditioned studio. But I was never a "star". I'm proud to say I have been union all the way; Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. On a couple of occasions they were solidly behind me when someone tried to screw with me, and I thank them for that.

So I don't really know what an obit writer could say, other than: "He had a fear of being listed in here alphabetically."

What did you USED to do, Grampa?

In my previous life, waaay previous, I was "radio personality." That always sounded better than "disk jockey." Pretty lucky to have worked with some of the true heavyweights in broadcasting. Three of my 29 years were spent with the monster of all monsters, WABC New York. That's when it was Musicradio77 WABC.

That powerhouse has been talks/news since the early 80s, but Mark Simone, who holds forth on a talk show, has a Saturday night oldies show. He brings back musical stars of the era when WABC was THE radio station everyone listened to, and he talks with them from 6 to 10 PM on Saturday nights.

Some people seem to think I'm a larger deal than I think I was, and last May Mark had me on the air for a half hour, talking about what radio used to be (when it was fun.) I'm coming baaaack. Saturday night, April 11, from 8:15 PM New York time (5:15 PM in Arizona) I'm going to be back on the air with Mark. I have no idea of what we're going to talk about, but I never knew what I was going to talk about when I went on the air, anyhow. Check out Saturday Night Oldies on April 11th.

Thanks!