A new voice for Buffalo’s Black community: WUFO

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo


Excerpt from 100 Years of Buffalo Broadcasting 


“Buffalo’s newest radio voice spoke in its debut with a sound of moderation and sincerity, and promised an ambitious public service program,” reported Jack Allen in the Courier-Express as WUFO signed on at 1080am.

WUFO’s original on-air staff, 1961, including Eddie O’Jay, Jimmy Lyons, The Hound– George Lorenz, and Joe Rico.

Since 1961, WUFO’s programming has remained 100% dedicated to Buffalo’s Black community, which had grown 143% from 1950-1960.

“The only Black-owned and operated radio station in Buffalo and the only source of music and information reflective of the black experience,” said a 1981 station promotional piece.

Jimmy Lyons with Sammy Davis Jr.

In signing on, WUFO brought to the airwaves Buffalo’s first two full-time African-American disc jockeys.

The Courier-Express called Jimmy Lyons “the Jackie Robinson of Buffalo Broadcasting.”

 When this photo of Jimmy Lyons was taken in the WXRA studios on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Amherst, he was Buffalo’s first (and only) black disc jockey.

By the time WUFO signed on, Lyons was a Buffalo radio and entertainment veteran who was first heard on local radio in 1937, when he won the Shea’s Buffalo Amateur show on WBEN in 1937 at the age of 17.

Through the ’40s, Lyons was a singer and dancer at nightclubs in Buffalo and across the northeast with a stint as an Army lieutenant in between, serving in Italy and Germany during World War II.

After settling back in Buffalo, Lyons became a draftsman for Bell Aircraft, while also entertaining in nightclubs and picking up weekend radio work at small stations around Buffalo like WWOL, WXRA and WINE where he was a pioneer in playing a mix of rhythm and blues and gospel music.

On WUFO, he hosted “The Upper Room” with gospel music twice a day and “The Lyons Den,” with R&B music middays.

Bob Wells wasn’t the only deejay to host dances at the Dellwood Ballroom. Jimmy Lyons with Sam Cooke and fans at the Dellwood, Main at Utica.

Ellicott District Councilman King W. Peterson, WXRA owner Ted Podbielniak, Jimmy Lyons, and attorney (and future councilman and judge) Wilbur Trammell celebrate Lyons’ work in the African-American community.

Eddie O’Jay came to Buffalo from Cleveland as WUFO’s program director and daily “Blues for Breakfast” host.

Eddie O’Jay (left).

He would later hold the same on-air job at New York City stations WWRL and WLIB. His fast-paced pioneering style in Buffalo and then New York inspired many aspiring young African-Americans, including Frankie Crocker and Imhotep Gary Byrd.

Gary Byrd, 1975

Both Crocker and Byrd were Buffalo natives who listened to O’Jay on WUFO, got disc jockey jobs at WUFO themselves, and then followed O’Jay to fame at WLIB in New York City.

When O’Jay died in 1998, both Crocker and Byrd attended his funeral and spoke to the New York Daily News.

“When I was growing up in Buffalo,” said Byrd, “there were no black radio stations and no black jocks. Eddie O’Jay was the first black voice I heard on the radio. He hit that town like a tornado.”

Crocker said of his mentor, “The deejay was the show. You never looked at the clock. When the record ended, you talked, and Eddie was a master. He’s the reason I went into radio.”

The most widely remembered claim to fame for O’Jay, whose real name was Edward O. Jackson, was the soul group the O’Jays.

The group that scored several hits in the ’70s including “Love Train” was formed in the ’50s as the Mascots. They renamed themselves the O’Jays in honor of the disc jockey after he began to heavily promote their music on the radio in the early 1960s.

O’Jay and Lyons starred in a series of radio commercials for Simon Pure Beer, where Lyons was aboard a spaceship called the “East Aurora,” which was fueled by Simon Pure Beer.

When WUFO first signed on, Courier-Express critic Jack Allen wrote, “O’Jay has arranged, along with Lyons, a schedule of daily broadcasts which at first listening seem conservative and in excellent taste, and which should gain wide appeal with its constructive service contributions to the community.”

Luckily for the nearly six decades of great radio it inspired, WUFO from its very earliest days has remained excellent in taste, but has veered from the conservative to the innovative more often than not.

WUFO newsman Malcom Erni

O’Jay spent about a year at WUFO and was replaced by Sunny Jim Kelsey. Soon after, Frank Crocker became a regular in WUFO’s lineup.

Sunny Jim Kelsey, WUFO

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 national fame via New York City and nationwide reverence from his native Buffalo.

A graduate of Buffalo’s East High School, Crocker was studying pre-law at UB when he was bitten by the radio bug, joining WUFO as News Director in 1964. There, he tasted early success spinning urban wax and never turned back.

Francis Crocker, East High Class of 1958

As a deejay at New York City stations WWRL, WMCA and WBLS, Crocker began playing album cuts and extended mixes from Urban artists, bringing a more diverse sound to the airwaves and opening the door for more creativity and wider audiences for artists of color. Adding to his cache, was the time he entered New York’s famous Studio 54 on white stallion.

Starting with his time in his native Buffalo at WUFO, Crocker helped to bust 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.

Frankie Crocker, at New York’s WWRL Radio shortly after leaving WUFO Radio in the mid-60s.

After Gordon McLendon bought WBNY 1400am and moved his WYSL call letters over to the station in 1961, WUFO Radio took over WYSL’s old spot at 1080am. The call letters at that frequency changed from WXRA to WINE to WYSL to WUFO in a matter of four years, but have remained WUFO for six decades.

WINE’s format was Top 40 rock ‘n’ roll, but WYSL was “beautiful music” when the station first signed on. By the end of the 1960s, WYSL was WKBW’s primary Top 40 rock ‘n’ roll competitor.


This page is an excerpt from  100 Years of Buffalo Broadcasting by Steve Cichon

The full text of the book is now online.

The original 436-page book is available along with Steve’s other books online at The Buffalo Stories Bookstore and from fine booksellers around Western New York. 

©2020, 2021 Buffalo Stories LLC, staffannouncer.com, and Steve Cichon

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.