CHAPTER 11 THE HISTORY OF RADIO RANDY: BOZO AND PIZZA FACE

Dave Weinfeld

 

Back in Rushford we settled in to living with my mom and dad which was great. Erin was getting some quality time with her grandparents while Vicky and I pondered our future without worrying about death threats.

Then the call came. A call that in fact would change our lives forever.

Hi, this is Dave Weinfeld, and I liked your tape and resume and I’d like to talk to you about a PD job.

David was part owner and General Manager of WECQ in Geneva NY. Vicky and I drove to Geneva to meet with David on a Sunday. I tuned into CQ-102 as we drove into town. I was very impressed with the station.  CQ was a small market station to be sure, but sounded like it belonged in a much larger market. The PD at the time was Pat Gillen. We didn't meet Pat that day, but eventually we crossed paths and got to know each other over the years. People who worked for David formed sort of a brotherhood. Over the years I met many folks who came thru Geneva on the way up in their radio careers. We all appreciated the guidance and support we got from David, not to mention what we learned from him. David has a very distinct voice and many of us did impressions of him. Often in later years, while attending various radio gatherings, it was not unusual to be greeted by a former CQ person, doing a Dave impression.

 We met David at his office at the radio station, and he laid out the situation.

He was considering buying another radio station. WIEZ-FM in Oneonta NY. The current owners had little interest in the station and very little staff. It was being run by their son in law whom we’ll call Bozo. Bozo and the daughter were getting a divorce and she had left town. Bozo was running the station as his own little toy. David told me the owners wanted some folks to go in there and get the station on track. At some point after that David would most likely purchase the station.

I was intrigued, but what really impressed me was a sheet of paper David snagged off the wall behind his desk.

On this yellow legal pad page was a list of names followed by a city name. These are people who have worked for me and the cities they have moved on to after leaving CQ he said. The list was long, and the stations and cities were all much larger. Clearly this was a guy who helped talent move up and that was very appealing. David told me that a manager had been hired and that he wanted to recommend me for the PD job. David seemed like a good guy and his radio station sounded great. I think we agreed on a deal that same day.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this guy would end up playing a big part in my career for many years to come.

So, I was back in. I left Vicky and Erin behind temporally, in Rushford and headed for Oneonta and a new adventure.

Even after the bizarre Kentucky experience, I was ill prepared for the reality that was WIEZ.

Oneonta is a beautiful little college town located midway between Binghamton and Albany NY on I-88. It was home to SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick college and had a robust downtown and bar scene. This is where Bozo comes in. WIEZ was on the second floor of a three- story building downtown. One the first floor there was a college bar. The station and a dance studio were on the second floor.  The third floor had a couple of apartments, one that belonged to the station.

Bozo apparently used the station as a way to pick up co-eds. The line was this, hey wanna go upstairs and see my radio station? If that worked the third floor, where Bozo was bunking was the next stop.

On my first visit to the station, I noticed that there were beer glasses everywhere. They were on every desk, windowsill and flat surface. There were dozens of them. All from the bar downstairs. Left by Bozo no doubt, on his way to the third floor.

As I toured the station, I noticed how dark it was, everywhere. The station was dark. Usually when someone says that a station has gone dark, it means the station is off the air. In this case the station was on the air, but physically dark. there were no light bulbs left anywhere except Bozo’s office and the control room.

There were no employees, except three college students working six hour shifts to keep the station on from 6am to midnight. There was no format they just played whatever they wanted. There were no commercials either. It was a good thing, because there was nothing to play them on. Bozo had sold off most everything except the control board and turntables and one microphone.

After my very brief tour I sat down with John Hogan, the new manager to start working on a plan.

It was mid august and our only three employees were all going back to school full time so we would have no employees in about a week.

We began cleaning the place up and returning beer glasses. Both John and I decided to move into the apartment above the station and sleep on the floor for the time being.

We agreed on a top 40 format and I began salvaging what I could from the record library.

We had no money, no employees and no listeners.

As our entire staff departed for school John and I resolved to keep the station on the air from 6am to midnight. John would sign the station on in the morning and work on the air until 1pm. Then he would hit the streets to try to sell some advertising. I took over and worked on the air thru midnight. 7 days a week. 

In terms of honing on-air skills, 11 hours a day can really do the trick. It was fun. As I fine tuned the music and put some basic format rules in place, our one phone line began to ring consistently with listeners. There was another FM station in town that played Top 40 music, but it was automated with no live announcers, except 10 PM to 2AM, catering to the large student population. It soon became a goal of mine to stay on until 2 AM as well to stay even with the competition.

After a few weeks John and I both started looking for better accommodations than the third floor apartment with no power and no furniture. Bozo, had stretched a utility chord through a hole in the wall into the next door apartment. It was vacant, but had power, so he had plugged into an outlet and pirated power.

I found a single wide trailer to rent, a few miles out of town and soon with the help of my folks, Vicky and Erin and our meagre belongings arrived. My mom and dad became accustomed to helping us move. Over the next 35 years they helped us every-time we moved. They would drop everything and bring their pick-up and help us pack and then move.

We had some furniture for the living room and bedrooms including Erin’s crib. But we didn’t have any kitchen furniture. The apartment we had been in, in Kentucky was furnished. Most meals Erin sat in her highchair while Vicky and I sat on the floor.

We couldn’t afford a phone, but the previous renter had forgotten to turn off service. We didn’t know the number so you couldn’t call us, but at least Vicky had a way to call out when I wasn’t there.

Vicky made the best of it, making friends with folks in the park right away. Often, I would rummage around in the car to find loose change to buy milk for Erin.

We didn’t have much but we made the most of it. The area was beautiful, and we often went for long rides and dreamed of one day owning a home. We saved money so we could go to a movie now and then.

My mom and dad visited about a month after we moved in. They brought us a bunch of stuff out of dad’s garden including potatoes and green beans. After they left Vicky made a big batch of potato and green bean soup. It was delicious and we lived on for a couple of weeks. Years later it made my mom cry when we told her that story.  We were poor but didn’t really know it. We actually have some nice memories from that single wide trailer including watching Erin take her first steps. We also discovered how much we like potato and green bean soup.

John and I were working crazy hours, but the station began to get noticed and John actually had some success selling a few commercials, which we read live (no tape machines).

About this time the owners sent their son (let’s call him pizza-face) to town to evaluate what we were doing. This guy was pretty clueless, but we did get approval to spend a little money. We acquired enough equipment to allow for a production room and cart machines for the on air control room. This gave us the ability to record commercials for playback on the air.

John had managed to put a few thousand dollars on the books in just a few weeks so we also got approval to hire a little help. John found a young lady to be secretary/ traffic director/sales assistant/ receptionist and I hired a DJ from the cross- town station. His name was Bill, and he would soon teach me about how important it was to watch your back.