Conversations.buzz

Greg Tantum is one of the most successful radio programming executives in the U.S. He's also one of the happiest and most beloved human beings on the planet. That's not a coincidence. Through his decades of building great radio stations he has also built great people whose passion for the business he developed and nourished as if they comprised his own garden. Radio and people. To hear Greg tell it makes you wonder why the whole world doesn't work this way.

Andy Ludlum spent decades learning his craft and teaching it to others. He was my boss at KFWB, Los Angeles, and is still a special friend. I learned from him, I respect and like him. Andy Ludlum is a true Radio Master.

Chuck Blore was the most celebrated radio programmer and advertising genius in history. Everything he created sang of heartfelt emotion. His daughter, Jessica, was his most beloved creation. In this conversation, Jessy talks lovingly about her life with Daddy and his passing.

Audio and video bonuses, including the Master, himself, talking about his favorite ad. Special thanks to Dan O'Day for sharing his copyrighted video. And to my old friend, Zack Boles, for reading Chuck's words with the honesty they deserve.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

SPIKE O'DELL is one of the legendary personalities who owned the airwaves of WGN, Chicago when it was simply the best small-town radio station ever to dominate a major metropolitan city. WGN Radio and Spike were rightly branded, "Chicago's own..." and today, nearly 20 years after he retired at the age of 55, he is still beloved in the Windy City and in Davenport, Iowa, the first city he he graced his remarkable talent. We start this conversation with "Spike at the Mike" at KSTT and conclude with a hilarious collection of bits he performed on WGN. Enjoy!

This episode opens with a wonderful recording of BOBBY OCEAN at his dynamic best on San Francisco's iconic Big 610, KFRC. It was 1983, forty years ago and nearly twenty years after the golden age of music radio was forged by Bill Drake and starring legendary deejays Bobby Ocean, The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Charlie Van Dyke, and many others. Together these brilliant performers combined their unique individual talents with Drake's "More Music" branding to create the tight, high-energy sound still revered today as Boss Radio.

Now in his seventies, Bobby Ocean is healthy, happy, grateful for his blessings, and in awe of the Universe.  Here, we talk about his Boss Radio days but we also veer off into astrology, metaphysics, and the Zen of billiards.

Don't worry, KHJ fans, we go there, too, with a trip back to 'Osh' in 1977.

-- Dave Williams, March 2023

* ALSO ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@conversations-buzz/featured

"Hear ye, hear ye! Let it be known to all that a wondrous spectacle doth unfold. Lady Penelope, a veritable muse of the arts, shall now regale us with one of her own original sonnets!"

Stage and screen actress Penny Peyser has a fancy for iambic pentameter and has written a book of very funny sonnets. In this episode of Conversations.buzz we begin with Penny as Lady Penelope appearing in one of her wonderful YouTube performances from her book, Sonnets From Suburbia. Then, we talk.

In 1975 I was the program director for RKO Radio's Memphis radio station, WHBQ. I hired a talented, high-energy air personality named SHEILA, who, at the time was one of the few female pioneers into the man's world of top-40 deejays. Now, 47 years later, she is a successful novelist known as SHEILA YORK. https://sheilayork.com/welcome/ I caught up with her, proud of the fact that I had brought her to WHBQ. This episode includes airchecks, actual recordings of Sheila doing her thing on the radio in 1976. - Dave Williams

(Thanks to Rob Grayson for the aircheck!) 

ROBYN FIVUSH, PhD, is the world's leading authority on autobiographical memory and its connection to parent-child conversational practices, gender, and self-identity. Her decades of research have concluded that storytelling, especially among families, is how humans maintain generational development and well-being.

A licensed clinical social worker spent 20 years helping people survive personal traumas; when her son was killed by a friend she suddenly had to help herself and her family. JAMIE WEHMEYER tells her moving and inspirational story.

WARREN ECKSTEIN has spent his life helping people and animals bond and communicate through his unique “Hugs and Kisses” approach to animal behavior, care, and training.

He has hosted a call-in syndicated radio show for forty years, worked with the biggest Hollywood stars, has been featured on too many network TV shows to list, and has written many books.

Warren has also developed Warren Eckstein's Hugs & Kisses vitamin and mineral supplement/treat for dogs and cats, which funds the Hugs & Kisses Animal Fund, a not-for-profit organization he founded in memory of his wife Fay who died in 1990. Its mission is to fund hundreds of small animal organizations across the US.

Learn more about Warren here, on his home page.