Good morning, Tom Carco,
former news director here at WRGN.
And also coming in is our current general manager and vice president of the sales for civic
media, Chris Mauro.
And we're here.
I don't want this to be modeling because we are celebrating somebody's life today.
Over the weekend, Saturday, Ron Richards, a long time broadcaster in radio and television
I found out.
And of course, he worked here for more than 20 years at WRGN.
He passed away.
And he touched a lot of people during his career here at WRGN and all the other radio stations
he worked at.
But especially here at WRGN, and we're going to play some audio from Tom in just a moment.
I got, we don't have a current interview, but this interview was done Tom at what anniversary
was it?
85th anniversary that we did here at the station in 2011.
It was out in the front lobby.
You are out there with the group.
I was in here.
Were you there for that, Chris?
2011?
Yeah, you showed up.
That was in the picture that you sent me.
Yeah.
Well, that was where the picture was taken at home.
Yes.
All right.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Actually, Tom got that picture with you in Gene Butterfield and the Ron Richards.
And some of these pictures we forgot all about that we're taking.
All right.
So let's hear a little bit of who Ron Richards is.
You'll remember the voice as soon as you hear him this morning.
Ron Richards, you were here 20 years.
20 years, almost as program director of WRJM for a lot of years.
And you worked up both AMFM here.
Yeah.
And Ron was one of those guys.
It's broken in the building.
Call Ron right away.
Call Ron in the middle of the night.
I remember meeting you here in the middle of the night at two in the morning,
trying to fix up and running up and down the stairs.
There were a lot of nights.
And I can remember I was just telling Skip, Skip,
was a couple of minutes ago.
When I came in here December 1, 1986,
there was one computer in this building, the Wang.
It was a Wang.
It was a Wang computer.
I remember that.
Yes.
One computer.
And now there's got to be what?
40?
Is that work?
Yes.
Oh, that work.
No.
Don't forget the ones in the basement.
Yeah.
Don't work.
Well, you're a really special part of the history of the station because you were
here.
You figure 85 years take 20 of those years.
I am.
You know, that's a lot of years.
Almost a quarter.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We get some pictures of you on the wall.
A lot younger.
I was a lot younger.
We're all younger in these pictures.
And how can I head here?
Good morning.
Okay.
So that's Ron Richards and
recognizable voice.
It was here for over 20 years.
Of course, it's recognizable.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
And I was here.
He started after you obviously.
We're longer, Tom.
Right.
I was here starting in 79.
He came in 86.
And he's probably one of the main reasons that I stayed here until 2018.
Now, you worked with him as well for how many years it worked?
I worked with Ron, not here at WRJN.
I worked with him at the old WRKR.
That's right.
Yeah.
The top 40 station.
And I left here at WRJN.
And it would have been about 78 when I was all of 18 years old to, in my mind, move up to rock and roll radio.
And Ron was the music director at WRKR.
So I worked there for a couple of years with Ron.
Now, we're going to read out some of the stations he worked at in town because I didn't know about it.
You know, here's the guy I know for all the years I worked with him here.
And by the way, I got to say something.
When they hired me in 1991, that's the program director of WHKQ, which became WBCW.
WBCW station.
Yeah.
Nobody here would talk to me because I was the interloper.
You know, who's this whipper snapper coming telling us what to do?
We were here before him.
It was basically what we thought.
The one person that would thank you.
The one person that would just talk with to me was Ron Richards.
He said, I'll talk to these people.
I'll get them on board.
You know why?
Because you had been in radio quite a number of years, different stations, so hit he.
And so there was a little bit of a comradery there.
That's kind of a group.
Yeah.
He did that.
And I never forgot that.
Here's some of it.
Ron's resume here.
It's first broadcast job.
It's WRJC in Austin.
Austin, Wisconsin.
Didn't they win a ton of awards at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association?
No, that was WRJO in Gene River.
Too many RJs floating around there.
WRJC was above a pharmacy in downtown Austin.
And you could look through the wooden floors from the control room to the pharmacy downstairs.
And here's the cash register ringing people up during the show.
But yeah, that was I remember that state.
1968.
You know, I once said to Ron, I said, if this keeps up, I'll be working at the radio station somewhere in Boston.
He goes, Hey, I worked in Boston.
Okay.
So for Boston, he moved to KFI's again, Fonda Lack.
Yeah.
That was in 1972.
He moved to Milwaukee, joined the staff of WZU, which is now RIT.
WRJC.
Oh, that RIT.
Yeah.
Changing call letters.
At WZU, he hosted a midday program at top 48 rock and roll.
After four short months, he left.
That's typical radio in it.
Yeah, back then.
After four short months, he became program director of WNUW, which is now the mix.
WNYX.
Yep.
I didn't know he was program director there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I learned that.
And by the way, this article I'm reading from, I wrote.
Oh, okay.
I interviewed him for Renaissance News magazine.
The article.
I forgot all about all these things he worked for.
And I saved it.
And thank goodness our historian.
You're going to be the guy they bring on TV all the time, like on MSNBC, the historian,
presidential historians.
That's going to be you, Emeritus.
I hosted a morning show there at WNUW that played rock music at the time.
In 1975, he was offered a number, a position in number one rock station W.O.K.Y.
Yep.
I think just might everybody know, worked at W.O.K.Y.
At one point, we all pass through.
And you will be back because we're going to Bob Barry on the year with us.
Oh, he wrote a book about W.O.K.Y.
And all his radio experiences and all the celebrities he worked with.
And Chris as a little teenager.
Hi, Mr.
Mr. Barry.
I'm Chris Mark.
Can I set up your morning show for you?
I work overnight.
And Ron Richards is the guy who got me the job at W.O.K.Y.
See, he's talking connected.
Ron referred me to the program director there.
And that's how I got in.
Okay, why?
Yeah.
And you know, it's all connected.
Everything is connected in radio.
Okay.
And he worked at W.O.K.Y.
Left there, become program director again at W.R.K.Y.
Right.
Which is now V100.
Yes.
In Milwaukee.
Which used to be, by the way, WRJN's FM signal.
Yeah.
It was WRJN FM.
Now, here's another thing.
He worked at a station called the egg.
Do you remember that?
I was on the egg there for a while, too.
That was their aim.
1460.
The egg.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what they tried.
And he said, and he said, I can't believe they called it the egg.
And we had to call that on the radio.
It was terrible.
It turned out to be pretty scrambled.
Oh.
Oh.
Well, that's why he said this, Jackie.
Yeah.
Come up with those cheesy lines.
Oh.
All right.
From 1983, he moved over to W.I.S.N.
AM as midday host and production director.
He was an announcer for Channel 12.
I didn't know that.
Oh, I got to hear that.
After a three year stint at WGBFA AM in Evansville, Indiana,
he returned to Wisconsin to become program director and morning host
at WRJN and program director of WHKQ,
which was our FM, which was country at the time.
And wow.
So he was here at the time we wrote this article.
He was only here 10 years.
But he was here a lot longer than that.
He was here over 20 years.
And this is a great picture of him in the article.
It's also you guys here.
That's a great professional photo of Iran Richards.
And after he left here, he didn't want to do radio anymore.
He just left and did other things.
But it's, you know, when you lose somebody,
and we found out Saturday night at the WBA,
the Wisconsin Broadcast Association,
and it kind of cast a poll over it because I just said, wow.
You know, you lose people all the time.
But when you're so close to them and you lose them,
it's really, do you have any memories of Iran?
Do you know that Ron was master of ceremonies
when they opened up the ice skating rink at festival park?
Is that the audio we have?
No, no, no.
That's in November of 1987.
They had opened up festival site just a few months earlier.
Then they opened up the ice rink.
And they brought in Elaine Zayak.
Remember that name anywhere?
Figure skating champion back in the 80s.
She was the featured guest for that.
Ron did so many different things.
MC, different events, remote broadcasts.
You and he were on different things.
The bridal extravaganza.
Everybody had to dress up in tuxes or dresses
and do all that stuff.
You were here for the bridal.
I'm afraid so.
You were here for a couple of them.
And what else do you have in your mind?
Let's see.
From I told you earlier that he's probably
partly responsible for my still being here.
This he would program directors are supposed to be
in your keeping charge of what's going on in the air
every single moment.
And if things don't go really well sometimes,
usually program directors or at least in the past,
they would kind of get to the announcers and this and that
and tell them point blank.
You didn't do this right.
I can't tell you how many times I probably screwed up
something in terms because we had an automation system
for the FM and you had to put newscasts in there.
And if it wasn't in there at the right time,
it would call for it and it's not there.
So sometimes it wasn't in there at the exact time
it caught call for.
He could have gotten in my face and just really been nasty.
Didn't do that was never like that at all.
I appreciated that forever.
He was a buffer between me and a lot of people
because I have a temper when things go wrong
and he was a buffer.
And he said, oh, I'll talk to him, I'll talk to him.
Well, and as a kid, when I when I first left here,
I mean, there were a lot of people here who taught me
a lot about radio when I was 16 and 17,
but when I went over to where Ron was at WRKR,
he was probably one of the original mentors of young people
rather than like Tom said, he wasn't a screamer,
he wasn't a yeller, he didn't throw a fit.
I was green.
I mean, I was a green kid trying to do top 40 radio.
And he would actually set examples of people
he'd work with in other stations.
Listen to this guy at WLK Wire.
Listen to this guy I knew somewhere in Illinois or Indiana.
And he'd give examples and samples.
And he was probably the first coach I had
when it came to on air work as opposed to somebody,
Tom said, pointing a finger and say, you're wrong.
You're wrong.
Do it better.
Do it better.
Ron didn't do that.
He was a mentor, a teacher, and a guy who wanted
to see new people succeed.
And I appreciate that most about Ron from hell now,
what, 45, almost 50 years ago.
Yeah.
I mean, I feel terrible.
We lost a lot of people here at this radio station
over the past several years.
And Tom, you gave me a picture of Chris.
He's flanked by Jean Butterfield and Ron Richards on either side.
Two people we all worked with, and they're gone now.
Yeah.
And so, you know, we were supposed to do an interview with Ron
on the air as part of our series here of interviewing,
you know, former employees.
And unfortunately, he couldn't do it because he was dealing
with meals on wheels at that hour of the morning.
He said, the first time you get a chance, a break,
let me know and come on in.
And he said, fine.
We waited too long.
Yeah.
Now we don't have it.
All right.
One last thing here, we can play some quick audio.
I knew you got to run, right?
Yeah.
Okay. Well, thanks.
And again, man, Ron will miss you.
We were in contact over the years on Facebook, most recently.
Yeah.
And his unique sense of humor came through on the posts
that he would reply to and the things he would do.
But I know how much he loved his kids and his grandkids
and the whole recene area.
So, yeah, you'll be missed, Rob.
His real name was Ron Stiff.
Right.
And he told me a joke once I can't tell it on the air.
I'll tell you off the air just a second here.
Okay.
So, here's some more audio.
And this is what he was at the, he was at the,
he was at which show?
This is the air show?
Is that what it says?
Yes.
I can't read it.
I have to get eye surgery.
I can't read it.
All right.
Here's Ron.
I've done a recenes late front.
Mayor Olman Davis with me right now.
And you got a big smile on your face, Mayor.
Oh, this is tremendous.
What a big day for a city we're seeing.
Wherever you're looking, any direction that's nothing but people.
And that's great.
Mayor, thanks for stopping by.
Let's get another official in here.
If we could for just a minute.
Our county executive Dennis Cornwolf.
You also have a big smile on your face.
Oh, this is great.
Just fantastic, isn't it?
Showcase for Seen County.
It's been a great time being down here.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is not work.
This is fun.
I would have done this for nothing.
And that is the honest truth.
It has been a great afternoon down here.
That'll do it from the late front.
This is Ron Richards Live.
On AM-14, WRGM.
You know, they say I would have done it for nothing.
He did probably do it for nothing.
So we all covered with that.
And we have one more piece of audio.
Debbie Thogerson was the host of party line.
And she was one of the many host of party line.
And Ron did the intro for party line.
And there's yeah.
Yeah, here's what it sounded like.
Good morning and welcome to party line.
Your program for helpful hints, ideas,
lost and found and recipes.
That was it.
Real short to sweet.
I will miss him.
You know, everybody has differences with people.
Whatever it was.
We were good friends at the end.
And that's what I appreciate.
Yeah.
The last time I saw him was in 2021 at Lou Turner's memorial.
Yes.
We got the picture.
Yeah.
And that's the last time we actually got to talk face to face.
Last communication I had with him was this past Christmas.
We sent Christmas cards to each other.
And I said it.
Just at the point where his arrived, mine went out.
And he told me about a surgical procedure that he had had.
Or it was going to have.
And I had the same thing.
So I had to send something back to him.
And that's the last time we communicated.
Yeah.
And just a few weeks ago I was saying,
would you get that 70 m hour open on meals for wheels?
Let me know because I want you in here.
He said we will do it.
Yeah.
What a great family life though.
Yeah.
Grandkids.
Great grandchild.
Yeah.
Grandkids.
Great grandchild.
Three coming.
Three coming.
Three great grandchildren I found out all the way.
They have one coming up on two years now.
Yeah.
And then they got more coming.
So, you know, our deepest condolences to Annie and the entire.
Son Matt.
Yeah.
Matt.
I remember Matt when he was just a little kid coming in here.
So it's a terrible loss.
It's a hard loss for their family.
For the WRJN family.
And we're all going to miss him.
We will remember Ron Richards.
Yeah.
Thanks for coming in Tom.
Tom, thank you for all the audio you give me whenever we need it.
I just call you up at the last minute.
Need audio.
And there it is.
Email to the next with the next few minutes.
And I'm glad you keep all that stuff.
That's right.
And if people did it, miss part of this, we're going to podcast this.
So you'll be able to hear it on WRJN.com, civic media.
US Apple podcast and Spotify.
It's going to be everywhere tomorrow.
So you can listen to it.
Thank you Tom.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ron Richards.
And it was an important part of this station.
