It doesn't seem possible a year has passed, but it was last spring I took a walk down memory lane....on Radio Lane. It was Ron Colman's, (Colman in the Morning) last week on the air on WNCO FM. For many years he had been the voice country listeners in mid Ohio woke to every Monday through Friday; now he was hanging up his head set and retiring. It would be a big change for the long-time listeners, and for Ron.
I parked in the familiar parking lot at the station and thought about the hundreds of times I had passed through these doors over the years. I was the first receptionist in this new building on Radio Lane when WMAN moved from atop the Ohio Theatre building on Park Avenue West in Mansfield, Ohio in the late 70's. It looked palatial after the shabby offices and studios in the old place.
As the years flew by I would try my hand at copy writing and do some on air work. The beauty of small market radio in those days was that you got the chance to do anything you wanted to try and were willing to do for free. We called it experience. Eventually I left to do other things; when I finally returned to that building in the early 90's it would be as the sales manager. Eventually I'd become the fourth manager since the station signed on, and the first female general manager.
Things had changed, but it didn't seem all that strange walking into the WMAN building to wish a WNCO employee well. The Mansfield and Ashland stations had melded into a Clear Channel ownership in the early 2000's. After the acquisition the market group would consist of Mansfield, Ashland, Mt. Vernon, Shelby, Galion, and later Marion, boasting fourteen sets of call letters in all. The challenge would be to create one cohesive group from individual staffs of former competitors....all under the flag of "radio". My challenge was to travel between these markets to accomplish that, and it was an experience I relished.
Although I divided my time between three or four buildings at any given time, my home base was Mansfield. Walking into the building that day I couldn't help but think of the people who had passed through these doors over the years. They were men I looked up to at WMAN in the early days, like Bob James and Chuck Carson. There are many voices I remember today as well as the day they opened a microphone: Mark Hellinger, Bill Friend, Marvin Cade, John Foster and Gene White. I can still hear the much later Y-105 air talent like Jeff Schendel, Michael Hayes, Matt Anthony, Tony and Chelly, Mr. Ed, Brian Moore and Eric Hansen. News reporters like Ron Allen (who celebrated his 50th year in radio just before retiring last year) Phil Linne, Dave Pennell, Jeff Swank and Greg Heindel kept the news stories coming. Behind the scenes a dedicated staff of business managers, sales staffs and managers, traffic directors, program directors, engineers and copy writers kept pace with the on air staff. Theirs were names you might not recognize, but they made the machine that is a radio station run just the same. These talented and capable people did their "real" jobs and still managed to turn up in commercials when they were pulled into the recording studio on a moments notice.
We were an odd breed in those days, we radio folk. In every small market the staff would fight through blizzards and storms and floods to keep the station on the air. Before the backup generators were sufficient to support the lights in the building we read commercial copy, weather reports and cancellations by candle and flashlight. Telephones clanged constantly as staff members answered and typed stacks of cancellations for announcers to read. The public could count on this group to be there because we were radio.
I smiled to myself as I stood in the lobby, my mind conjuring the vision of well remembered former co-workers moving through the studios, up and down the steps, and out the back door. I would not have been shocked to see a nattily dressed Chuck Carson, or Gene White with his ever present huge mug of coffee, or Mark Hellinger with his infectious grin and a big bag of Jones Potato Chips clutched in one hand, walking down the hall.
Finally I walked into the control room to wish Ron Colman all the best in his retirement. Somehow over the years the Mansfield and Ashland staffs had managed to navigate the road from competitors to comrades, and I wanted him to know I had enjoyed the trip.
If I counted all the people I've worked with in radio in the four markets I managed I'm sure the number would be in the hundreds; many I still consider good friends. I honestly think I was blessed to work with the best and most dedicated broadcasters anyone could ask for. Some, sadly, are gone now. Some of them have moved on to other radio jobs or other careers, but some are still there. On the rare occasions I stop in I see lots of new faces, employees likely as dedicated and capable as their predecessors. I know they're busy making their own memories of a different version of a business so many of us embraced and enjoyed.
Time marches on....enjoy the stroll.
Life is Good
