Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Youngstown Airwaves: Part 1

For the blog's latest installment, we remain in Youngstown, but move across town from WFMJ to its onetime rival, WHOT 1330. Jolly Rodger (a.k.a. Rodger Skinner) is featured in this aircheck from June of 1964. While WHOT would successfully move its Top 40 format to FM in the 1980's, this recording dates from a period when 1330 was the undisputed king of the market.
Skinner came to WHOT after previous stints at WBLF and WPIC in Pennsylvania. At 1330 he was a part-time on-air personality, a position he held until midway through 1966, when he was fired for playing Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35" for four hours straight, sans commercials and news. Skinner then briefly held down mornings at WEEP in Pittsburgh as "Johnny Breit" before moving on to evening gigs at WIRK in West Palm Beach, Florida and WQAM in Miami in 1968. He used the on-air name John Paul Roberts in the latter stop. According to a message posted by Skinner on 440int.com, he retired in 2000 after selling his low-power television stations and other businesses in Florida.
Special thanks to Ed Woodward of Williamsburg, Virginia for contributing this aircheck, which includes some recent comments interjected by Skinner himself near its conclusion. Additional material from this period of WHOT, including news coverage of the riot at Geneva-On-The-Lake mentioned by Skinner, will be featured in future posts.



Editor's note: Jolly Rodger should not be confused with another Youngstown area radio veteran who used a similar name. "Jolly Roger" (a.k.a. Roger Luscombe) was the longtime program director of WSOM/600 and WSOM/105.1, the latter now known as country powerhouse WQXK/"K-105". After coming out of retirement, he became Johnny Kay's successor at WSOM/600 in 2007. Luscombe's position was one of several that later fell victim to budget cuts implemented by the stations' current owner, Cumulus Broadcasting.

3 comments:

  1. Hi everybody....this is Jolly Rodger and even though I am retired I still play the oldies but goodies, now from a back bedroom here at home.

    I have no regular schedule but just when the mood hits me. I send out an email whenever I go on the air on 1440 AM in the greater Coral Springs, FL area (near Ft Lauderdale) and I also stream online at the same time so friends the world over can tune into my station WKQV 1440 AM. I no longer use the name Jolly Rodger but now go by the name Johnny Andrews on WKQV.
    Not to be confused with one of my old favorite DJ's Johnny Andrews of WHLO Akron, OH.

    Anyway, if you would like to tune me in, I'd love to see you come aboard...we have a blast on WKQV 1440 AM. To be added to our email on-air-notification list, which I send out as soon as I sign on each time, just send me your email address and say "add me to the list"...send to superoldies@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi everybody....this is Jolly Rodger and even though I am retired I still play the oldies but goodies, now from a back bedroom here at home.

    I have no regular schedule but just when the mood hits me. I send out an email whenever I go on the air on 1440 AM in the greater Coral Springs, FL area (near Ft Lauderdale) and I also stream online at the same time so friends the world over can tune into my station WKQV 1440 AM. I no longer use the name Jolly Rodger but now go by the name Johnny Andrews on WKQV.
    Not to be confused with one of my old favorite DJ's Johnny Andrews of WHLO Akron, OH.

    Anyway, if you would like to tune me in, I'd love to see you come aboard...we have a blast on WKQV 1440 AM. To be added to our email on-air-notification list, which I send out as soon as I sign on each time, just send me your email address and say "add me to the list"...send to superoldies@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
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