WGR’s 100th Anniversary

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo

WGR is celebrating 100 years of broadcasting and, as WGR Historian, I put together a handful of minute-long stories talking about the station’s rich history.

WGR’s Sign On

Just weeks after Buffalo’s first radio station… WWT first went on the air, On May 21, 1922, WGR broadcast its first programs the Federal Telegraph Company on Elmwood Avenue.

“Buffalo enters into the field of national radio broadcasting with the formal opening of one of the largest and most powerful broadcasting stations in the east….  thousands of dollars (have been spent) to furnish Buffalo with a class of radio service which will be equal to that of stations which have been broadcasting since interest in radio began to assume such proportions as we see today,” reported the Courier.

The original owners started WGR to sell radios… and Federal Radio’s $25 set could easily pick up any broadcast within a 30-mile radius of the city.

“This renders radio reception in homes of Buffalo and vicinity no longer an instrument of the well-to-do, but for almost anybody who cares to use it.”

In 1923, WGR became one of the earliest tenants of Buffalo’s brand new Statler Hotel, where it was a Class B station– authorizing broadcast on reserved frequencies, without interference, at high power. That meant the station could be heard regularly within several hundred miles, but could also be heard on occasion as far away as Hawaii and England.

For a century now, WGR has been the voice of Buffalo heard around the world.

WGR Sign-on

Early personalities at WGR

Bob Schmidt, later known as Buffalo Bob Smith

For 100 years now, WGR has been bringing the great voices of radio to Buffalo.

Before he was Howdy Doody’s sidekick and one of television’s early stars, Buffalo Bob Smith, Masten High School grad Bob Schmidt was one of the stars of WGR in the 30s and 40s as “Smiling Bob Smith”

In the early years of radio, the country’s most powerful stations—like WGR—weren’t allowed to play recorded music. Conductor David Cheskin, the leader of the 18-piece WGR Staff Orchestra, was one of Buffalo’s most popular entertainers and a “one man wonder” during the pre-war Golden era of Buffalo radio.

The WGR Orchestra

Cheskin’s music made WGR nationally famous as he conducted 18 network shows a week— including “Buffalo Presents”— heard all over the country on NBC and CBS as performed live in the WGR studios.

Billy Keaton was one of WGR’s most popular hosts after he, like many early radio entertainers, settled down with radio after a life on the road as a Vaudeville man.

Billy Keaton in the WGR studios with singer Johnny Ray.

After his “Stuff and Nonsense” program took off, his success turned a temporary Buffalo assignment permanent. After the war, Billy’s wife Reggie joined the act, and the two hosted the “Mr. and Mrs. Show” on WGR.

As a long-time WGR Radio fan favorite, Billy was the natural choice to welcome the first viewers to WGR-TV in 1954.

Then and now, the great voices of Buffalo can be heard on WGR.

WGR– Early Voices

Baseball on WGR

For 100 years now, Buffalo’s best sports coverage has been a reason to listen to WGR.

From the earliest days of announcers recreating baseball games from tickertape print outs, complete with broken pencil sound effects for the sound of a hit

Roger Baker

To Bisons play-by-play from Offermann Stadium with Buffalo’s first sportscaster Roger Baker and his protégé who’d spend more than 60 years broadcasting sports in Buffalo, Ralph Hubbell.

Hubbell broadcast the games of Bison Great Ollie Carnegie as he set an International League homerun record which stood for 69 years.

Later it was Bill Mazer who was behind the WGR microphone when another great Bisons slugger—Luke Easter famously hit a White Owl Wallop over the Offermann Stadium scoreboard.

Pete Weber and John Murphy at the Rockpile

In the 80s, WGR was owned by the Rich Family—and with Pete Weber behind the play-by-play mic…

The station was instrumental in helping get Pilot Field built—starting a renaissance for building in downtown Buffalo, and a renaissance for classically designed ballparks all around the country.

Baseball on WGR through the years

Ted Darling on WGR

WGR was the long-time home of Ted Darling… whose smooth and exciting style brought gravitas to the expansion Sabres in 1970 and became a trusted uncle behind the Sabres play-by-play mic on radio and TV for the next 21 years.

Sabres broadcast crew, Mid-80s, in the Memorial Auditorium Press Box. Mike Robitaille, Jim Lorentz, Rick Jeanneret, Ted Darling

His genuine excitement for what he was describing on the Memorial Auditorium ice and the stunning pace of his broadcasts helped make listening to the radio almost as exciting as being there for a Perreault rush or a Korab check.

Darling’s voice instantly brings generations of Buffalo hockey fans to a different place and time.

There’s something that feels like home when you hear Ted Darling….

Ted Darling

Rick Jeanneret on WGR

Spine-tingling. Quirky. Explosive. Imaginative.

What can you say about Rick Jeanneret that even comes close to listening to him?

Across a span of 51 years—Rick Jeanneret’s has been an inseparable part of what the Sabres are to us…

And for most of those years, it was WGR that brought you that voice.

Rick Jeanneret

Van Miller calls four Super Bowls on WGR

There were different places around the radio dial you heard Van Miller’s voice through the years, but the only place you ever fastened your seatbelt for Van Miller Super Bowl fandemonium was WGR.

Van Miller, the Voice of the Bills (Buffalo Stories archives)

Thinking of those great teams of the 80s and 90s, our minds flash pictures of Kelly, Bruce, Andre and Thurman—but the sound is undeniably Van Miller.

Another voice that made WGR feel like home during the Bills Super Bowl run…

Van Miller– Four Straight Super Bowls

The Great DJs of WGR in the 70s

The 1970s were the glory years for big personality disc jockeys and rock ‘n’ roll music on WGR.

Shane Brother Shane was “Buffalo’s zany philosopher king.” The Cosmic Cowboy did it all to make smiles across the miles, hoping you fill your night with life, love, laughter, family, friends, fun and music.

Shane Brother Shane

Stan Roberts—whose WGR jingle called him the Corny DJ—is remembered for wearing a lampshade on his head on Royalite TV commercial and Dial-A-Joke, but also as a warm, friendly, and funny presence on morning radio across five decades.

Buffalo Stories archives

Frank Benny was one of the smoothest broadcasters to ever work in Buffalo– as the weatherman on Channel 2 and DJ on WGR starting in the 60s through the 80s.

The DJs of WGR in the 70s

The Commercials of WGR in the 50s & 60s

WGR has aired literally millions of commercials over the last hundred years…

Our sponsors have not only paid the bills, but have made for great memories themselves, like these Buffalo classics from the 50s and 60s:

The commercials of WGR in the 50s

The Commercials of WGR in the 70s & 80s

Hundreds of thousands of sponsors have aired millions of commercials on WGR over the last century…

Through the 70s and 80s, thousands of local institutions used the power of WGR with commercials you can’t forget–

The commercials of WGR in the 70s

The Voices of News on WGR

Sportsradio550 has been Buffalo’s premier source for Bills and Sabres news for decades, but for 80 years— WGR was also the home of some of Buffalo’s most beloved news voices.

Since his time as News Director at WGR Radio and WBEN Radio, Ray Marks (center, seated in the WGR Newsroom in the mid-1990s) had been teaching communications courses at St. Bonaventure, Buffalo State, and Medaille. He died in 2015. (Buffalo Stories/staffannouncer archives)

We also remember WGR personality and Traffic Reporter Mike Roszman and pilot Herm Kuhn, who died when the WGR Traffic plane crashed between reports in 1993.

WGR’s News voices through the years

Artie Baby Boo-Boo & The Coach

Back in 1988, Art Wander got Bills General Manager Bill Polian so mad, he told Art to get out of town.

Instead, Art spent the next decade taking your calls (and East Side Eddie’s calls) on WGR.

Then there was “The Coach,” Chuck Dickerson.

Chuck Dickerson, “The Coach”

He was a coach for the Bills—until Marv Levy fired him after Super Bowl XXVI for being a little too opinionated.

For a decade starting in 1993, Chuck Dickerson was the loudest football fan in Buffalo.

Art Wander & Chuck Dickerson

John Otto, Buffalo’s first talk show host

WGR has been heading to the phones as Buffalo’s call-in show pioneer for more than 60 years, starting with John Otto in the early 60s…

John Otto, WGR, 1975.

And you’ve been a big part of what makes WGR special ever since, taking part in call-in shows with hosts lke JR & Susie, Paul Lyle, Tom Bauerle, Ann Edwards, Clip Smith, and so many more…

But the brilliant and dry-witted John Otto– and his nearly 40 years overnights on WGR– is the stuff of legend.

Some shows were more legendary than others.

Thursday nights it was Desperate and Dateless, with co-host Shane Brother Shane (and later with Tom Bauerle.)

John Otto & WGR talkshows

This was a fun project and it was wonderful to celebrate so many great broadcasters and friends, but the truth is– it felt a bit funny.

For the first half of my broadcasting career, WGR was a sworn enemy of the stations where I worked– first as a news competitor at WBEN and then as a sports competitor at the now-defunct WNSA Radio.

But many of the guys I worked with at WBEN and WNSA now work at WGR, so I guess we won 🙂

During the decade I worked at Entercom Radio (2003-2013), I primarily worked at WBEN– although you regularly heard my newscasts on Star 102.5, KB Radio, and 107.7 The Lake.

You also heard me occasionally on WGR, filling in at the sports desk, like in this clip from 2003…

Cichon says, remember the time you spent listening…

Of course, my biggest on-air contribution at WGR was as the curator of the Haseoke archive.

Haseoke– Rubber Ducky

Ted Darling and The 1975 Sabres

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

BUFFALO, NY- As the Buffalo Sabres celebrate the team’s 40th Anniversary season, staffannouncer.com celebrates the voices that have brought us Sabres hockey for those four decades, over televisions connected to an antenna, TVs connected to a satellite dish, or from a transistor radio under the pillow for a late night West Coast swing in Winnipeg or with the Golden Seals.

The 1980s Sabres Broadcast Team:Rick Jeanneret, Ted Darling, Mike Robitaille, and Jim Lorentz. (Buffalo Stories archives)

On this page, we bring you the Voice of the Buffalo Sabres, Ted Darling, as he narrates the story of the 1975 Sabres Stanley Cup Season, featuring his own play-by-play calls and those of his broadcast partner Rick Jeanneret.

Ted Darling’s smooth voice and exciting yet still authoritative call of Sabres Hockey was heard on radio and TV from the team’s inception in 1970, through 1991, when illness forced him from the booth. Rick Jeanneret, who for generations of Sabres fans is the voice most associated with the excitement of Sabres Hockey, will to this day demur when called the ‘Voice of the Sabres,’ explaining that title belongs only to Ted Darling.

Prior to becoming the Sabres first play-by-play man in 1970, Darling was the studio host for the English-language Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts of the Montreal Canadiens games. His genuine excitement for what he was seeing on the ice, and the stunning pace with which he delivered the play-by-play certainly added to the buzz and excitement of NHL hockey as it was played in Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium. This was true especially in an era when a play-by-play man’s description was vital: only a handful of games were televised, and the opening day capacity of the Aud before for the oranges were added was in the 10,000 range.

Tim Horton, perhaps now better known for coffee, was a veteran defenceman for the Buffalo Sabres when he died in February, 1974, after a traffic accident on the QEW driving back to Buffalo from Toronto, following a game with the Leafs. Horton was a mentor for many of the young defencemen on the Sabres, including Mike Robitaille and Jim Schoenfeld. The year after Horton’s death, the Sabres made the Stanley Cup Finals. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Like only few other voices, Darling’s is one that uniquely brings Buffalonians back to a different time. Just like hearing Irv, Rick or Tom… Or Van Miller… Or Danny Neaverth… there’s that feeling like home when you hear Ted Darling. His voice is like the gentle whirr of the AM&A’s escalator, or the taste of a Crystal Beach loganberry. If you close your eyes, it’s one of those things that can actually take you back through time for a few moments…

Ted was an original. Ted was a good man and a good friend. Though some in the press reprehensibly said that he was forced from the broadcast booth by alcoholism, it was actually Pick’s Disease, a rare form of dementia which manifests itself similarly to Alzheimer’s Disease, which lead Ted to leave broadcasting. He died from the disease in 1996. Those who knew him, love him. Those who listened to him, loved him. Buffalo loves him still.

Close your eyes now, for a moment, and remember Sabres hockey the way it was…..

Listen to Ted Darling!

 Narrated by Ted Darling, these two tracks are Side One and Side Two of an album put out by the Sabres and WGR Radio celebrating the Sabres 1975 season.

Side One is a recap of the regular season.
Side Two is a recap of the 1975 playoffs, including the Stanley Cup Finals vs The Flyers.

You also hear Ted’s voice along with Rick Jeanneret and Stan Roberts on “Memorable Sabre Highlights,” the 45rpm single record put out by WGR Radio following the 1975 season.

The highlights were on the “B” side of Donna McDaniels’ “We’re Gonna Win That Cup.”

Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com
Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com

Rock ‘Em Sabres on WNYB-TV 49, and We’re here, we care, WBEN

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

With the Sabres flying high, rest assured I’ll be dipping into the Sabres Archives quite a bit on this blog… This time, we’re going back to the late 80’s with a pair of sound files.

bells-sign

This is a 60 second verision of the Rock Em Sabres Jingle, paired back-to-back with WBEN’s “We’re Here, We Care” song. That edit is taken directly from the reel that used to play over the Aud Speakers before game time.

sabreswnybsm

The second sound clip is a commercial for WNYB-TV 49– the Television Home of the Sabres before the Empire Sports Network. This spot promos a West Coast Trip, with a game against the Stanley Cup Champion Oilers, as well as a game against the Flames. The announcer voice on the spot is that of Steve Mitchell… And of course the play-by-play clips feature Ted Darling.

Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com
Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com

Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers: 6th Annual Hall of Fame Inductions

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

This story was published in Living Prime Time magazine.

may02Spring is in the air, the lilacs are in full bloom, and that means it’s time for Buffalo’s premier radio and television event…The Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame Induction. This year’s slate of honorees continue in the tradition of representing Buffalo’s amazing broadcasting past, present, and future.

Broadcasting is strange in that often, at the end of an 8-hour work day, one might have nothing to show for it all; no tangible proof of that day’s toil. By definition, one speaks into a microphone, or looks into a camera, and images and sounds go up and off an antenna, and are gone forever.

Each year, the Tralf is the location where pulled from the ether are entire life times’ worth of accomplishment. It’s with induction into the Hall of Fame that we make tangible the superlative informing, entertaining, and friendship these select broadcasters they have provided us with over the years.
The following are this years’ inductees:

 

Henry BRACH

BBP-brachThe rock steady pulse of KB’s Pulsebeat news, Henry was the heart of KB… not only as the mainstay news anchor, but as everyone’s gruff but lovable uncle.
As Buffalo’s own version of Lou Grant, Hank’s crusty newsman personality could be counted on by KB staffers to drive in from West Seneca during the ‘77 Blizzard or hop in a news cruiser to cover the Attica Prison Riots. It was his big heart, though, that leaves him remembered as everyone’s favorite person and best friend.

Listeners saw both sides of his personality indirectly: It was his never-contrived voice of reason that warmed the radios of Western New York by talking to each listener individually.

Brach’s career began at WBNY, where as news director he was the first man to hire a fresh-faced Dan Neaverth as an announcer. Though his on air persona was that of a straight-laced newsman, Henry did music shifts at both ‘BNY and beautiful music WYSL-FM before joining KB. Brach died in 1983.

Frankie CROCKER

BBP-crocker

Frankie Crocker… Chief Rocker… The Eighth Wonder of the World!!! Revered as the man who changed the rules for African-Americans as both disc jockeys and musicians, Frankie Crocker started down the road to Gotham fame and nationwide reverence in his native Buffalo.
He was studying pre-law at UB, when he was bitten by the radio bug, joining WUFO as News Director. There, he tasted early success spinning urban wax and never turned back. As a jock at WMCA in the Big Apple, Frankie began playing album cuts and extended mixes from Urban artists, helping to pave the way for the more diverse sound heard today… When Crocker started in radio, music played by Black artists was lumped by mainstream circles into the category race music.

The Chief Rocker’s resume is that of a true broadcast pioneer: He helped to bust the stereotypes, and bring the music of an entire race from the remote corners of the music world to the popular choice of hip New Yorkers. Crocker passed away in 2000.

Ted DARLING

BBP-darling

The career of Edgar Lee “Ted” Darling, the long time Voice of the Sabres, can be best summed by the number of honors he received in a life and career cut short by Pick’s Disease. He was inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame; is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, having been honored with the prestigious Foster Hewitt Award; and has the press box at HSBC Arena named in his memory.

Ted joined the Sabres in their inaugural season after having spent time with CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada as an intermission host. Darling spent the next quarter century in the gondola high above the aud ice, entertaining Western New York’s hockey minions with his play-by-play over WGR, WBEN, WNYB-TV, and several cable outfits, including the Empire Sports Network.

Jeff KAYE

BBP-kaye

Jeff Kaye is a radio renaissance man…. A brash yet steady voice of gold, a masterful way with both the written and spoken word, and a producer par excellence, Kaye blazed into Buffalo in the mid-60’s as KB’s nighttime teeny-bopper leader and soon was at the rudder of the K-Big giant ship as the station’s program director.

Jefferson was responsible for bringing western seaboard phone operators to their collective knees with his 1968 adaptation of Orson Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” with folks calling from all points on the map to see if Grand Island was indeed under Martian control.

In 1977, he took over the most hallowed slot in Buffalo radio, morning drive at WBEN, as only the 3rd man to sit in that announcers chair. Jeff’s decades worth work as the radio producer for Buffalo Bills Football set him up for a job at NFL Films, which he has held since leaving Buffalo, voicing countless NFL video
compilations.

Jim FAGAN

BBP-fagan

His diction, energy and news judgment with just a touch of pageantry made Jim Fagan the quintessential intoner of Pulse Beat News. His sybarite swagger was as much a part of 1520 as were the K and the B from the time he joined the station in 1960 until he went down with the ship in 1988, when the station went to the birds and to the bird… satellite, that is. Fagan was so much a part of KB that he was brought back in 1989 and stayed on until 1992.

Fagan repeated the K-Big story of the moment at only after his days as a disc jockey at Buffalo’s WINE Radio; where he keyed the mic with such names as Mark Hall and Tommy Thomas. Also active as a shop representative, he was President of NABET Local 25, the broadcaster’s union, from 1970-89. He remains active in union affairs today, and is always willing to lend his voice to a worthy project, like Channel 2’s recent look back at the 1901 Pan-Am Exposition.

John ZACH

by wippert 1/21/02 John Zack and Susan Rose at WBEN Radio in their Amherst studios.
by wippert 1/21/02 John Zack and Susan Rose at WBEN Radio in their Amherst studios.

If you’ve listened to top calibre radio news in Buffalo anytime over the last 40 years, chances are good that you heard John Zach dictatorially caressing the airwaves, delivering the news with a style and passion like none other.

First renowned in Western New York for fronting the rock n’roll band “The Furyies” in the late 50’s, Zach’s news skills were first exercised on the Niagara Frontier at KB in 1961. The reigning Dean of Buffalo Radio News, John also spent time at WGR before joining WBEN in 1998, where you can now hear him along with Susan Rose as the station’s morning drive team.
Zach is also the Queen City’s top radio and television historian and scholar, and is active in the affairs of the BBP.

Zach is also the Queen City’s top radio and television historian and scholar, and is active in the affairs of the BBP.