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Post by Travis on Jul 25, 2005 16:54:51 GMT -5
Did WAVE really have a traffic copter or was that just somebody beating on their chest with the palms of their hands (as the late Ron Clay once did on WLRS during a bogus traffic copter report).
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Post by bruiser on Jul 25, 2005 18:42:06 GMT -5
Yep, they had a traffic copter. Someone on the PD flew it and gave reports. It crashed one day and they never had one after that.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jul 25, 2005 21:27:04 GMT -5
Travis,
Beating your chest with the palms of your hands --sounds like a gay Tarzan (not that there's anything wrong with that). But Ron Clay was a great talent....I'm sure if he told you that a gay Tarzan was a helicopter that you would believe it. The power of radio in the hands of a master.
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Post by Young Daniel King on Jul 26, 2005 3:16:42 GMT -5
Yep, they had a traffic copter. Someone on the PD flew it and gave reports. It crashed one day and they never had one after that. Mostly true..Captain Dick Tong and substitute Lt. Bill Johnson were the traffic reporters in "Skycopter97" on WAVE radio when I was there. It's true there was a 'crash landing', however it did not stop traffic copter reports at that time. Dick hurt his back but was back up (pun intended) fairly soon.
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Post by Travis on Jul 26, 2005 14:30:45 GMT -5
Attn: Mike Griffin
You have to speak as if you are doing a live traffic report, while beating on your chest with the palms of your hands, to get the full effect. Max tried it after I had wrote about this around a month ago.
I worked with Ron Clay and Terry Meiners during the early '80s at QMF. Ron was the son of Tom Clay, who had been a very successful radio jock during the '50s and '60s in Los Angeles and other parts of the country. He even worked for CKLW at one point and escorted winners of a station contest to meet the Beatles. He also kicked himself for not having bought into the Rolling Stones because he didn't think they would go anywhere. OuCh.
Tom Clay is probably most noted for a tune he did back in 1971 which actually made the national charts until lawsuits knocked it off the air. 'What the World Needs' was made up of composites of 'What the World Needs Now' and 'Abraham, Martin & John' and featured sound bytes related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. You probably know the tune I'm referring to by now.
Tom Clay can be heard in the tune announcing the time that President Kennedy died and the little girl who answers questions at the front & end of the piece is Ron Clay's younger sister. The lawsuits were never resolved and the tune has not been heard on radio in years. Both Ron and Tom died of cancer.
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Post by bruiser on Jul 26, 2005 14:50:05 GMT -5
Tom Clay's recording made it to #8 on the Billboard charts.
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Post by Mike Griffin on Jul 26, 2005 17:28:05 GMT -5
Travis,
I understand, knew that Ron's father was Tom, etc. ...still a real Tarzan beats his chest with fists. A sissy Tarzan beats his chest with his palms...ha ha.
Mike
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Post by Travis on Jul 27, 2005 16:42:16 GMT -5
Maybe the palms produced a more authentic sound than fists and did not jar the voice as much while speaking. It was radio and Ron may have been trying to produce the most convincing sound possible. We may never know.
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Post by Max on May 31, 2006 16:37:05 GMT -5
In surfing the net for stations in Hampton Roads, VA, I visited sites of stations I listened to heavily while stationed there in the 80's. I ran across the name of someone who's delivery style would have fit in superbly at WAKY, Dick Lamb who for years hosted Dick Lamb and the Breakfast Bunch on WWDE "101.3 2WD". He was always upbeat, which naturally is the key for being a morning host, and I think he would have fit in best in an afternoon/drive slot (the Duke already having the morning slot nailed down!). He had a strange mixture of being upbeat, but easy to listen to at the same time.
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