I like music, man. That's why I like to go to the airport early, you know. I always
play great music. I always have unbelievable sound systems. You get there early.
You take advantage of that. You just jammed with the best music, no no man.
Occasionally there's an announcement, but other than that, you're just getting into
the music, you know. Yesterday, with the gentleman who left a briefcase at the
security of Concourse C, please return to claim your briefcase. And it seems like
all unattended vehicles will be towed away at the owner's expense. Oh, I believe
there's been a gate change for Flight 207. It'll now be departing out of Gate 19.
Yesterday, I love that song. Takes my mind off traveling.
Oh, it doesn't matter what you have. Just that wrongness you are there. So come on,
every guy, grab a girl, edge and where. Oh, I don't know where they'll be dancing.
They're dancing in the street. They're dancing in the street.
If you've had an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet,
they'll be laughing, singing and music and playing and dancing in the street.
They'll help you behave, dancing and dance. Oh, no more, and you see nothing and dance.
Can't forget the motor, sit at that thing and dance all with ease.
Music, music, music, music, music everywhere.
Help it swing and play and record the play and dance and I in the street.
Oh, it doesn't matter what you have. Just that wrongness you are there.
So come on, every guy, grab a girl, edge and where.
Oh, I don't know where they'll be dancing. They're dancing in the street.
We're down in Italy, everything that you really love.
Martha Reeves in the band, Dallas, love that dancing in the streets.
Hey, it's 709 W R G and I'm Don Rose and I thank you for joining us here today.
We have a series we're doing called W R G and Historical Marker.
And the reason we're doing this is I'll tell you a story real quickly.
I was at a funeral of a friend who was on the radio for 30 years and his wife said to me,
do you have any air check? Do you have any recordings of Bill when he was on the radio?
And we didn't 30 years. This guy's on the radio and there's not one recording that exists.
So I spoke at the funeral and while I'm speaking, I'm thinking about,
gee, I hope that doesn't happen to me.
I don't really know if there's any recordings of me laying around.
So I decided, let's go back and trace the history of W R G and through the people that are alive
and we even did people that are no longer alive, posthumously.
And we're going to have it preserved at the Racine Public Library and their archives.
And also I think we're going to also I'm done at the Racine Broad,
the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Museum of Audio they have there.
So we're going to have this preserved forever.
So 60 years from now, 70 years are going to say there was something called radio at one time.
There was a station, you know, with that new Wendy's is on Victory Avenue.
That's where it used to be.
Anyway, Chris Morrow was here and the reason I like having Chris is because you really span
a lot of years on W R J N.
You started here at Howell this teenager, right?
Yeah, I was my first job at W R J N.
I was just 16 years old, a student at Case High School in Racine.
Huh.
Now you were 16 years old.
I had to get a job at 16.
I thought that's illegal.
It was back in the 70s, Don, where the child labor laws were no whole different thing.
Actually, I really my first time I ever walked in W R J N.
I was probably about 12 years old.
I lived down off, you know, just west of where the former Regency Molly is now.
And I rode my bike.
I followed.
I watched that tower light from my bedroom window.
It's like, what's in there?
What's in there?
I rode my bike down one morning at about seven o'clock in the morning, followed the tower to the radio station and rang the doorbell.
And the news guy came out and said, can I help you?
Yeah, I'd like to see the radio station.
He let me in and gave me a tour right in the middle of the morning news rush and everything else.
So that was my first tour.
And I was bitten by the radio fog at about 12.
And at the time there were four radio stations in Racine.
And there was another one across town, the old W R A C that would let me hang around and play on the equipment to practice.
And one day I was down in the little studio practicing being a disc jockey and the program director asked me if I wanted to run the equipment on Sunday morning.
The regular guy was gone or called in sick or something.
And he knew I could do it.
So he showed me how to run all the public affairs and religious shows on Sunday morning.
So here I am 14 at 2.25 an hour.
My mom drove me to the radio station at six o'clock Sunday morning to run that equipment.
And I did that two or three times.
It was my first paying job in radio.
And then kind of moved up the radio chain as it were from from that to the beautiful music of WFNY 92.1.
They're owned by RJ and doing that at 15 and then hit the big time W R J in at 16.
It was it was a thrill because you know that the station was just the voice of recene back then.
So I get on and do a weekend show and everybody and their mom, you know,
it was like the biggest thrill of my life to get on W R J in at that time.
So of the four radio stations that were in Racine really working for Racine.
Not licensed to recene, but actually being recene radio stations.
Only one is left. It's us all the rest of W R J in.
I mean, yeah, you looked at the old 1460 is now licensed.
I think to West Alice 92 one while it's licensed there is is really not serving.
Seven reads book and the W R K R, which was once W R J and FM is really serving Milwaukee.
So yeah, W R J and it survived all this time.
You know what coming up on 100 years and just a few years of really being the voice of everybody in Racine.
Now we call this radio park.
I don't know who coined that phrase, but it wasn't me and it was before I got here in the 90s.
It was it was here already radio park.
Now I went looking on Google maps to see if there actually are places called Radio Park and there are.
There's one in Canada. There's one in Pennsylvania and I forget there's a third one.
I forgot where it was and some small town.
The name of the city is a called Radio Park.
Interesting.
Yeah, I mean, we call this area radio park, but they're actually our cities in America called Radio Park.
And I think I mean, as long as I can remember, I mean, I grew up in Racine.
And you know, the first radio I ever heard whenever I could remember it two or three years old W R J and did come to you from Radio Park.
We're seeing the temperature. It's, you know, 71 degrees of radio park.
It was it was always named that and I imagine that probably came, you know, from from radio city, you know, W T M J in New York.
Radio city and radio center and broadcast center.
They needed a name for the location.
And heck, I mean that that studio and transmitter take up a full city block.
It is like a park and just a great way to kind of brand that we're the heart of Racine.
And you know, Radio City is still Radio City in New York City.
I mean, they still call it Radio City Music Hall.
And so that name stuck.
Okay, so what did you do here at first?
What was your first job at W R J and mine was cleaning toilet balls in my first radio station.
Yeah, I cleaned the toilet.
I didn't I didn't have to do that.
I had already cut the grass at WFNY.
That was my main job was mowing the lawn and then doing a weekend radio shift.
But at W R J and at the time it was still a full service, lots of news, sports, weather, and adult music.
So my first job was working Saturday afternoon.
I think it was like from, you know, noon to six on Saturday coming in and, you know, handle the news and all the on air elements.
And then Sunday I worked in the late afternoon into the evening leading into Ralph Schoenleben and the classical music show.
So yeah, my first job was really working weekends.
And then I guess when they trusted me enough, I got to come in during the summer and fill in for, you know, a week or two of friendship, Utan's vacation.
And probably the scariest thing I ever did was fill in for Jim Sorenson was the morning guy at the time.
And they wanted me to come in and cover his vacation.
And here I am 16 years old, you know, on a radio station that reaches 90% of Racine and Racine County.
And my hands were shaking, the weekends didn't scare me.
I mean, it's us that weekend who's there, but, you know, people were there.
But that morning shift where everybody woke up to W R J and my hands were shaking the first time I turned that microphone on.
And what I knew that these news guys like Don at Mark and Gary Sauer were in the studio next right next to me listening to what I had to say it was like these legends of Racine radio are hearing me the 16 year old kid.
About to introduce the news, I just didn't dare screw it up. It was terrifying.
And the thing I'll never forget is the first time I open the mic when you throw the switch, the mic goes on, but you have to remember to turn the knob up.
People hear you.
Here I am cutting my teeth on the morning show for W R J and the news guys are waiting to be introduced.
I'm sitting in the studio talking to myself for about 10 seconds with W R J and news is next to six o'clock.
Stay tuned for that and weather out of that.
And the guy walking the room said, you got to turn the knob up so they hear you.
So that's my debut on morning radio and Racine.
Well, for people that don't realize today is the first morning in our brand new studio.
This is it.
We just made a debut this morning.
So I'm like you this morning.
I feel like I'm talking.
You didn't bring the.
Because it's all new equipment in here this morning.
Cory Hartman came in to help me out.
Just hold my hand and say it's going to be okay, Don.
Don't worry.
It's going to be okay.
Yeah.
Just keep talking something will come out.
It'll be fine.
Yeah.
So it is kind of.
It is kind of scary.
You know, you're in a brand new studio this morning.
You have to sound like I've been doing this for a decade now.
This is no problem at all.
All right.
Chris Morrow is my guest.
Chris is W R J and historical marker number nine.
Write that down.
Chris, you're number nine.
Number nine.
Number number nine.
And we're going to be talking about.
It's second go round at W R J and what he did in between.
And it's third go round at W R J and so a picture of you once here.
You had a big header curly hair.
You had big curly hair on your head.
What happened to Larry?
I still have my curly hair.
People made fun of all my curly hair.
Then I'm making fun of me now.
Anyway, Chris Morrow is here this morning.
We're going to talk more with Chris in just a moment.
718 W R J and hometown radio repressed to civic media station at 99.9 FM.
98.1 FM and the historic legendary 1,400 AM.
Keep it right here.
Thank you.
You love me tomorrow.
A song written by Carol King and Dirk Goppin and the serials had a big hit for that song.
My brother, Chris, my brother played with that group.
The serials.
He was their band.
They, uh, whenever they came.
They played in the East Coast.
He, uh, I mentioned this on the air a few times.
He used to, uh, be the band for Benny King, Ruby and the Romantics.
The serials, the chiffons, the Shangri-La's.
Uh, there were a lot of groups.
Whenever they came to these coast, he was.
They only came, you know, the, the people singers came, but they didn't bring a band with them.
So in the New York area, he was always the band they used.
And he was a good friend.
And I forget her name.
She just passed away.
She was the blonde, the lead singer of the Shangri-La's, you know, walking in the sand.
Yeah.
And my brother up until the day she died, he used to talk to her all the time on the phone.
They were, you know, lifelong friends because they used to, he used to play with the Shangri-La's.
So then he became a doctor and gave all that up.
Still has his guitar, though, still brings out his guitar occasionally.
And he plays a 12 string, too, which is kind of neat.
All right, talking to Chris Marrow here at WRGN radio at 721 on your Wednesday morning.
And the reason we're talking to Chris is it's WRGN Historical Marker number nine, the history of WRGN.
We're going to preserve it.
And we've got to talk to everybody while they can still talk and they're alive.
And I want to get to Chris right now today.
And so you're at WRGN.
You're scared to death.
You get on the air.
How long will you hear on your first go round?
I think it was about two years working the weekend and filling shifts.
And then moved over to WRKR for a couple of years, doing the top 40 hits.
Yeah, did you feel bad leaving here?
You know, at the time, I was probably 18 at the time.
And, you know, when you're 18, you want to be part of that hip and trendy.
The hit music is coming out and WRGN.
Well, I don't want to say it was stodgy to an 18 year old kid.
It was the news, the weather, the information.
And then the music was, you know, was very middle of the road.
I wanted to get out there and, you know, play some, some BGs and stuff like that.
So, so I went across town to WRKR for several years and moved on through my career after that.
That was your goal in life to play the BGs.
All right, good.
Now we get that said.
Yeah, I was young and foolish.
But you were on FM radio, but that 10 FM was not big.
It was, it was getting there, but it wasn't that huge yet.
Well, that's right.
In fact, you know, it's funny because WRGN sold that frequency 100.7 to the competition across town
because they were making all their money in the 60s and 70s with the AM station.
And to them, FM was just, that's an extra thing that costs an electric bill.
So, let's unload it.
Little did they know what would take off like it did.
But, you know, that was an arrow of transition in radio and how people used radio.
But now WRGN certainly didn't suffer because they didn't have an FM station at the time.
So, after WRKR, how long were there with air for playing the BGs?
Two or three years as well.
And then ended up spending a little time at the top 40 monster WOKY in Milwaukee.
I did late nights there and did that for a little over a year before heading out to a clone of WOKY.
Which was, again, one of the big AM top 40 stations of the era of K-O-I-L in Omaha.
Before we get to Omaha, way back up to WOKY, you worked overnight, but you with a lead-in show for Bob Barry.
For Bob Barry, absolutely.
And that's another one.
You know, when I talked about being nervous on the air, that station, it was in an old radio building
in on Sherman Boulevard in Milwaukee.
And the studios were on the third floor, overlooking the alley between Sherman Boulevard and whatever the street was behind it.
And I worked midnight to 530 in the morning.
And it was, it was the kind of station that had a little reverb to it.
You know, you could hear the echo when the voice was on, it made it sound bigger for some reason.
And that's another one where I turned the mic on for the first time.
And I heard my voice echoing in my head.
I just froze.
It was, what's going on?
I hear myself echoing, like you're talking in a stadium.
So my very first break on that station, you know, covering half the state of Wisconsin was frozen.
But the closer it got to Bob Barry coming in at 530, that first morning, the more my hands were sweating.
And, you know, it's like, oh my god, I hope it didn't sound stupid to him.
I don't know what to say to Bob when he walks in the door.
And there's a cool, you walk in the door about quarter to five.
And hey, for John the radio, good to meet you.
How you doing with this Bob?
A little history.
He sat there, you know, before he got ready for his show.
And just is calmly and, and personally put me at ease where every morning I look forward to him coming in.
And, you know, you look forward to making the pot of coffee for him and having everything ready.
But the true gentleman.
And to this day, every time I see him, I, I remind him of that story.
And he says he remembers, but it'd be pretty tough after all those years.
But I think, you know, radio people tend to remember everybody they ever worked with.
I do.
That could be.
Yeah, that's true.
I had him on the air with me recently.
I heard that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I think he remembers.
I mean, he's not, you know, 100 years old.
I think he remembers.
So that's true.
And.
But yeah, he was, he was a true gentleman.
And that was the, you know, the first time I'd really met somebody who in Milwaukee was really a radio star.
Now, in the sit down with him and just talk to him like, you made me feel like a peer.
And here I was at the time, a 2021 year old kid.
And I was just great.
You know, there's an old thing in radio.
When I first got into radio in the 70s, they said, you better have a good you haul.
Because you can move all over America.
Now you don't have to do that.
But you did back then.
And you, you, you had to leave home for the first time.
And you were moving out west to Nebraska.
Yeah.
Wow.
And what a move.
And it was, you know, and in those days, it was, you know, you, you followed the, the big call letters.
I was working overnight.
Sunday.
Why this was a move up to work seven of midnight or I think six to 10 at night on K.O.L. and Omaha.
And, you know, to, to me, that was a step up to pay one up to almost, I think, a thousand dollars a month.
So it was amazing.
And, and, and the station had a great reputation.
And I got to work for Jimmy O'Neill.
Jimmy O'Neill was the program director.
And he's the same guy who was the host of the old Shindig.
Yeah.
Jimmy O'Neill on Shindig.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And his biggest claim to fame was they get a Flintstone episode with him where he was Jimmy O'Neill stone.
And.
That's good.
But, but he was, he was the guy who really, I think, helped develop, you know, how I sounded, how I approached, you know, on air work.
He was an amazing teacher, but another, just one of those great guys who kind of takes you under your wing.
And you always remember and thanked him for what they did.
Now, would you go after Nebraska?
Or would you stay in Nebraska for a while?
I was in Nebraska for several years and then head out to the Washington, D.C. area.
This is, and I said there wasn't going to tell this story, but I'll tell this story.
One of the weirdest things in radio or something.
Oh, no, no, no.
Hold on for that because I, we get a break here and I don't want to miss the story.
You were going to tell the story.
I think you're going to tell.
Yeah, probably.
Oh, great.
I hope you don't read.
Think about it.
I won't.
I won't.
I won't use names.
This is a good story.
Stay in there.
All right, we're talking to Chris Marrow.
This is a WRJ historical marker number nine.
We're talking to all the people that worked here over the years to preserve the history of WRJ and which turns 100.
In 2026, we'll be 100 years old.
I know the historical society wants to do a whole display about the history of WRJ and thanks to people like Tom Carco.
We actually have the history.
Somebody gave me a pencil the other day with the old WRJ and from like 50 years ago.
And so we have that as well.
Put that in the museum.
729 WRJ and I'm Don Rosen.
You're at hometown radio refresh WRJ and which is at 99.9 FM, 98.1 FM.
And the legendary AM radio frequency of 1400.
People go, you're on TV or movies.
Is it easy to act?
Yes.
I mean, yes.
It's not hard.
I mean, obviously, obviously people can do it.
It's not like other things.
This might be the easiest.
Because you always hear about people doing it and doing well.
I mean, the Oscars.
This is the hardest thing you can do in acting.
The best of the best award of all actors, right?
Gabrielle Sibide, winner she is.
She was in precious.
Never done a movie, Up for an Oscar.
Last year, Beast of the Southern Wild.
Five-year-old girl.
First movie, Up for an Oscar.
Jennifer Hudson, American Idol.
Gets eighth place on American Idol.
She can't win in the field.
She is trained her whole life for.
Singing.
Waltz is over to acting.
Winds and Oscar, her first track.
Looks like me.
Hey, I want to play the NBA.
Oh, you can't do that.
That doesn't look that hard.
I'm the MVP the first year.
You're better than LeBron?
I guess.
They just put it in the hoop.
I didn't seem hard yet.
He's kind of tall.
He's really fine.
Yeah.
But today, I hope to make it my mind.
Yeah.
And in me.
And I'm so sweet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, hey
Hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey!
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Get back.
Okay.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Oh dinner.
Everybody.
Bye.
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now you're going to tell the
story.
You said you wouldn't do it.
It I love this story.
It's it's one of the few
things that makes me laugh
when I think about it.
I mean, I could be in the
serious most serious
situation.
I think about this story and
I break out laughing
because I in all my years
52 years in radio.
I've never heard a story
like this before.
And it was it was shocking
at the same time.
Now it now it's it's still
sad but but ridiculous.
But we always wanted to move
up right we wanted to move
up to the next biggest
market with a bigger audience
and and obviously we had
these egos that had to be
fed so I was recruited
actively by this guy I
never heard of before when
I was still a KOL and the
it sent me a tape of his
station that was out on the
east coast and it was just
a super hot rock and
flame throwing sounded
great with all the
production values and great
music.
This was an amazing
sounding radio station
and it's got called me on
my request line one night
and you told me who he was
and where he worked and
would you be interested
in coming out to work
here so we talked about it
back and forth.
I said I don't know I'm a
Midwest guy but he goes not
where right between Baltimore
and Washington.
Everybody will hear you.
It's on the station.
We have all this great
stuff if you can get here in
the next week you have the
job you can do afternoons
and you know right between
two major cities.
So I'm stupid.
I go and get you all like
I said before.
So most of my stuff to
other guys at the station and
race out to this town
between Washington and
and Baltimore.
It was Frederick Maryland
and a little bedroom
community quaint little
place.
So I pull my you all into
the station which is kind
of in the foothills of the
Ketakton mountains in the
shabby little brick.
It was it was like a it was
horrible.
It was a horrible old building
with the roof was saggy.
And the parking lot was
gravel.
And I'm coming from KLL and
Omaha which was at the time
one of the state of the art
facilities in the nation.
I mean it's still talked about
is an amazing place.
And I'm going into a place
where you could literally see
water dripping into the
studio.
They had buckets when it
rained.
If you were touching the
equipment and your lip would
touch the microphone in your
hand was on the control board.
And you would get a shock.
It was just it was a horrible,
horrible dump.
And this guy who hired me
turned out to be this little
weasel of a man who he looked
like grizzly atoms.
And he wore this ratty cowboy
hat and he had this really bad
beard always chomping on a
cigar.
He said come on let's get to
work.
You got here just in time to get
on the I mean I just driven
across country.
And I pulled into the station
that you know noon that
morning.
And he's ready to give me on
the air at two o'clock.
And I was going to go to the
red flags or fly in.
This is what did I get myself
into.
This is horrible.
I got on the air and it was
a disaster because the
equipment was chomped.
But you know,
over the next several weeks,
you get into the groove and
start to get into it.
It's found a place to live.
And okay, it was working
a dump, but it sounded good.
You know, people were
hearing me.
I was going to move up.
That was for sure.
Yeah, right.
So one Saturday morning,
I'm in my apartment, one of
my rare days off.
And there's a knock on the
door.
And I go to the door.
And there's the program
director of the radio station
standing there.
And I'm thinking,
this isn't how the
wean, but he's wearing like a
sheet, like a ghost would
wear for Halloween.
And he's there with two or
three other guys.
All dressed up like ghosts.
And I was.
I had no idea what the heck
you're here for.
And he's like,
and he's a good old boy.
I mean, he's a good
always.
Well, Maureen didn't know if
we're going to wake you up or
not.
But, uh,
since you're getting
settled in here, we invite
you down to the fireman
spark this weekend for the
rally.
And for the rally,
what are we doing?
A bike bang?
Or what's going on?
And then slowly dawned on me.
They were wearing plan roads.
Not the pointy half things.
But these guys were part
of the local plan chapter
inviting me to come out to
their, their,
their picnic on Saturday
afternoon at the neighborhood
park.
And it terrified me.
I had read about these things
in the Midwest.
You know, they exist.
But, you know,
until you get to a certain
place, you don't believe
they're real.
But this was now my boss
inviting me to, uh,
to a rally in a public
park, which they held, I
guess, routinely.
And I was, uh,
I stammered.
I was no.
And I, I,
I got plans for my day off.
I'm getting out of here.
Thanks a lot.
And then,
you know,
I got plans for my day off.
I'm getting out of here.
Thanks a lot.
And from that point forward,
he was not friendly to me at
work,
like he never had been before.
But it took me about two
weeks to rent that u-haul.
And without a job,
pack up what remained
of my belongings and bail
out of that place.
It was just terrifying.
And I know he left, you know,
he stayed there a couple more
years, but, uh, you know,
it wasn't illegal.
It was just disgusting.
And I actually walked away
from the drove back home to
Racine after that experience.
Always come home.
It wouldn't go back.
Anti-M, I'm home.
Yes.
Exactly.
And, you know,
for a radio guy to be
unemployed without prospects,
you know,
for the future was terrifying.
I probably took,
you know,
everything I had
and sold it for gas money
to get home.
And thank you,
mom and dad for letting me
stay there for a month.
Oh, anti-M.
It cleared my head.
But, you know,
the characters.
I mean,
that's what it is.
When I first went to Atlanta,
I worked at a radio station
down there.
And I came on July 3rd.
And the next day,
I'm watching on TV
and I'm showing this
clan rally at this stone
mountain park.
They're burning,
they're burning a cross
on the 4th of July.
And I said,
thank goodness we don't live
anywhere near there.
It was 20 minutes
from my house.
They're burning a cross.
So that's just,
yeah, one more,
one more thing to be grateful
for growing up in Racine
in the Midwest.
We didn't have to see
that crap.
You know,
you're going to go out
in the world.
You know,
and then I take a ride
on Ranswell Road.
I live in the Ranswell Road.
I go up to coming,
George,
and there's a billboard.
The clan welcomes you
to coming.
Where did we go?
Where did I enter hell?
Where is this place?
Where did I come to work?
All right.
So,
so you leave there,
the clandest chasing you out
of town.
And,
where do you go?
You come back to Racine?
Come back to Racine.
And, yeah.
And that's where,
you know,
I was going to connect with,
with Jack Lee.
Remember,
Jack Lee was a...
Yes, I remember Jack.
Yeah.
Icon in the Lockheed Radio.
And he had just signed on a new
station in Milwaukee,
WMYX,
99.1.
It was the first mix station
in the country.
And I was able to become part
of the first air staff on WMYX
stayed there for about seven years,
doing the afternoon show.
With a bunch of great people,
we're still lifelong friends.
It just was a,
it was a great experience working
with Jack again.
And,
and stayed in Milwaukee,
you know,
for the next many,
many years,
you know,
moving from the,
on airside and
getting into programming back
again at W.
OK.
Why has a program director
for several years?
And,
would,
I can't remember where I went
from there.
I know.
You know,
somebody asked me how many stations
I worked ahead,
look at my phone and my resume.
Because in radio,
you,
you know,
you've worked at, you know,
30 of them.
And you'll forget.
Right.
I worked for station in
Murnal Beach.
I forgot the call letters.
I don't know what they were.
So I don't know.
I feel,
I feel Harry Chape and Song,
W-O-L-D.
Oh please.
You know,
it's a real song
and a real experience.
But,
yeah, well, I worked at M-Y-X.
I got to work weekends,
for a while at WMYQ in Chicago,
which was a big country station
then covered 38 states.
That was a blast.
And,
and then moved into programming
and in sales and sales
management from there.
Wow.
Okay.
So now you're a manager.
You,
you still do air work
and it,
it's a shame not to use you
on the air,
because you do great work.
So you're on the air.
You come back to W-R-J-N
as the big guy,
the chief,
the head,
the general vice president,
general manager.
That must have been something.
It was so cool.
I had been in,
I had been up in Green Bay
as a director of sales
for the stimulus marketing
in Green Bay,
some legendary stations there.
And,
Bliss Communications owned W-R-J
and they had an opening
for a general manager.
And,
I saw that and started talking
to Bliss and Skip
and Michael Bryan,
who was the VP
that kind of oversaw things.
And,
we just all hit it off right away.
And,
and for me,
knowing it was really my first
real radio job
and,
and my ties to Racine
and,
and just the station in particular,
it was,
it was just a thrill to come back,
you know,
all those years earlier,
being a sixteen-year-old
part-time disc jockey
to coming back
and actually getting to,
you know,
lead the whole station.
And,
and it was,
it was just a incredible,
full-circle moment
to come back
and,
and get to work with,
well, that's where,
you and I first work together.
That's right.
And Tom Carco,
and Jan,
and so many people
that were there for so long,
you know,
and serving the community,
it was just a blast for me
to come back and do that.
Now,
we had a new owner come in,
and I,
I guess you were welcome
to work with a new owner,
but you chose not to,
and you left.
Yeah,
yeah.
You know,
and you never know
what's going to happen
with new owners,
and they all come in
with the best of intentions.
But,
you know,
you want to be philosophically aligned
with what's going on.
And,
and I,
I just didn't feel comfortable
that things were going to be
the same,
and they weren't,
and they changed,
and,
and I was able to take off
and ended up working,
again, with,
with cumulus, right,
had been in Green Bay.
It was back in the Apple
and Ashkosh area
and continued with them
for the next seven
or eight years.
So,
for me,
that was, you know,
kind of going home again,
too,
to manage the stations
up in Green Bay.
But,
you know,
always,
always lived,
down here in Southeast Wisconsin,
had a small apartment in Green Bay,
and my ties were still here,
and,
and then to come back
with civic media, you know,
in a,
entirely different role,
kind of a statewide role.
Well, yeah,
we're going to talk about that
a bit.
But,
you came back,
and you worked for,
another company in Milwaukee,
you slept on,
you would
schlepping back and forth
the Green Bay.
But, you came back
to work in Milwaukee again,
and that was a short time.
And,
in just a moment here,
we're going to talk about
the Chronicle Sun
returning again,
to not only WRJN,
but the whole
McGillah,
the whole shooting works
at civic media.
Yeah.
So, we're going to talk about
that coming up
in just a moment
with Chris Marrow.
He's WRJN
Historical Marker,
number nine.
The history of
WRJN preserved.
You know,
as long as the world is here,
I guess,
when the world blows up,
I guess,
nobody will care
while it's still here.
In 749,
WRJN Radio.
Thank you,
John Augustus here.
We are
99.9 FM,
98.1 FM,
and, of course,
the 1M I've already
remembered,
1,400 AM live
from Radio Park
this morning.
Stay right where you are.
We're going to talk about
with Chris about his new
role in this company,
in just a moment here.
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