A Walk Down Memory Lane with Radio Legend Jim Gagliardi

This month we sit down with Jim Gagliardi, an award-winning beloved figure in New York State radio. With a broadcasting history spanning over 55 years, Jim shares the trials, triumphs, and unforgettable moments from his dynamic career.

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Radio Split Ranch!
Hello and welcome once again to Radio Split Ranch, a monthly visit with the
Capital Region's great broadcasters of the past and sometimes present.
I'm Warren Garling when I'm not on the radio, and I haven't been on the radio
regularly for more than four years now, but that hasn't stopped me from keeping

(00:23):
up with the folks I've worked with,
worked for, and listened to since I got my first transistor radio when I was about 10 years old.
Having spent more than 50 years in broadcasting, it's still how I actually identify
myself and the reason for this monthly podcast.
This month features an interview with the definition of dedication.

(00:44):
If you've spent any time in the capital region of New York State over the last
55 years or so, there's a good chance you've been entertained and or enlightened by this professional,
as the majority of his career has been spent on two of the most recognized call letters in the market.
Please enjoy, as I did, my time spent talking with Jim Gagliardi.

(01:06):
Well, I'm not sure where to start with this gentleman, because we've worked
together for many years,
but well before that, he had a stellar career on the radio, and we even went
to the same college, not at the same time, but we've got a lot in common about our career.
So we're just going to probably start toward the beginning with Jim Gagliardi.

(01:27):
How are you doing, Jim? Good, good, Chris.
How many years? Go ahead. I've got two degrees.
And the reason I have two degrees is they spelled Massachusetts wrong in one of them. Okay.
I was thinking maybe you went on to a four-year school after the two-year school.
Okay. Well, we'll get to it. I would have went to Emerson, but,
A, my GPA was 2.1 or 2.2, and also it was $3,600 a year.

(01:51):
Oh, gosh. Which was a lot back in 1970, right? Exactly.
Now it's about $36,000 or $40,000 or something like that.
Crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. So we'll get into all those details so everybody knows
where we're talking about.
But my usual first question is where it all started. And what led you to even
think about getting into radio when you were younger?

(02:13):
So how old do you think you were when the feeling hit you?
Good question. And he's probably, you know, 11, 12, 13 years old.
My dad was a barber at one of his jobs.
Okay. Had a barber shop on Crane Street in Schenectady. Sure.
And also worked for a couple other barbers, but he had a shop on Crane Street
is the one I remember the most, Craig and Ostrander, that intersection.

(02:35):
And he used to bring home at the time, it was more popular than the New York
Post, the New York Daily News.
I think now the, I think the Post is more popular. I think so.
Yeah. Anyway, and that, you know, I would, you know, read the,
you know, the sports stories in there and that got me interested in sports and,
you know, and, you know, doing stuff in, in, in broadcasting.

(02:55):
Okay. So that got me started.
Okay. Now, were you, were you just enjoyed reading it out loud or you just,
what, what led you toward the radio?
No, but I just read the, you know, I'd read the, you know, game summaries and
the, you know, the scores and, and all that stuff.
And that, you know, that, that, that seemed to plant a seed in my head.
Interesting. Okay. All right.

(03:16):
So your, your thoughts were to do something sports wise with,
with broadcast, right? Okay.
So what actually happened? What, uh, what led you to, to pursue?
Well, I wound up, I did, at the time, there was a Draper High School. Sure.
In Rotterdam. It's now, that's apartments. It's part of Mohonasen, right?
Well, I think the old Draper, you know, the original Draper is actually apartments

(03:41):
now. Right. Yep, yep, yep.
I went to Draper and, you know, we got our high school diploma out of there
and I did some public address announcing for some of the basketball games.
Ah, there you go. Which was nice.
Yeah. And I also, at the time, at the time there was a Schenectady Union Star newspaper.
I remember it. That was the afternoon paper. Yep, the afternoon paper in Schenectady.

(04:04):
And I did some special correspondent work for them, writing up the games for
Draper that made it to the paper.
Interesting. Now, how did that come about? Was it somebody you knew or did you
pursue it? You know, that's a good question.
I knew Marty Ravalsky fairly well, and he unfortunately has passed away.
Way al de sanis at the time was the uh sports uh

(04:25):
okay sports director he's now passed away bill
arsenal though is still alive and bill is
still doing some writing there you go yeah so anyway so you think one of those
connections probably got you in there i got you okay so so that was high school
and then uh i played uh junior varsity basketball i wasn't good enough to play

(04:46):
varsity basketball and the team got good, you know, later on.
And I did run some track with, with Ken Johnson. We used to call the whip.
Okay. Who was a, who was a good guy as well. So that was the sports angle behind everything. Sure.
However, in the summer of 1968, I actually did a weekend top 40 show for the old WSNY. You did.

(05:09):
Okay. I didn't realize that you were there just before for
me and i and i i at the time it was easy
listening you know kind of you know
mor station but then don derosa
came on board yep and turned it you know into a you know a top 40 rock format
and then they went to the quote young americans oh yeah but i was i just went

(05:32):
by jim grant on the air interesting okay but i did a weekend shift and don was
and don passed away a couple of years ago Yes, he did. Yeah. And Don was good.
Absolutely. He was my first boss and I learned so much from him and including
some four letter words I'd never heard before when I was 16.
But in any event, no, he was a character.

(05:53):
He really was. But he knew his stuff.
He knew, you know, and he ran a tight ship and I learned, a lot of us learned at his knee. Yeah, yeah.
Now, isn't Horace Perryman still around? Horace is, yes. Doc.
Doc Perryman, right. And Doc was.
In fact, I just saw him last week at our Louie lunch, we call it.

(06:14):
Yep. Okay, there you go. Okay, so he still did a little work with Doc. Did you?
And some of the other people there as well that were all top 40 jocks.
Sure, sure. So you were there for that transition. It went from the easy listening
to the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember in 1968, when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, that they went to a

(06:36):
whole weekend of just very, with no talk, just, you know, very,
you know, low-key instrumentals.
And it was pretty much in memoriam for like a whole weekend, if I'm not mistaken.
And it was shortly thereafter that they made the format change,
you know, in either late 68 or early 69. I forget what that was.

(06:59):
But yeah, so you were there and then Dom was your boss. That's cool. Yep. Yeah.
Skitch Henderson had something. He was a part owner. Right. Exactly.
He was, I want to say maybe 49% owner or something like that.
Yeah. There was a guy named Gene Sehafer. Gene Sehafer.
He was the 51% owner and he was a general manager.
Right. Yes. So, yeah. So, you know, I started under Gene, you know. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

(07:21):
So anyway, so we went from Draper High School to Graham. At the time it was Cambridge School.
Yes. And we were the first class to get a degree, and I'm seeing the Graham
Junior College reunion come up there.
But we were the first, the class of 69 was the first class to get degrees.
Yes, there you go. And you were in that class. I was in that class. How cool is that?

(07:42):
Yeah, and I only stayed for a year, so I have a half an associate's,
I call it my half-ass degree.
So, but we've talked about this on Joe Gallagher's show on GY over the years,
you and I a couple of times, Because he'd love to pit us against each other,
you know, that you have the degree and I only have half of the degree.
But how did you find that? Now,

(08:03):
did somebody at the high school say Graham was the place to check into?
Was it a guidance counselor sort of thing? Or how did you find out about it?
I know there was a guidance counselor at Draper called Margaret Chouinard,
and she helped me in that respect.
Because that's how I found out about it, too, my guidance counselor.
And I also looked at Leland Powers, and that's a broadcast school in Boston, correct?

(08:25):
Yes you know i don't remember that i remember there was
a there was another now i forget the
name of it there was a chain of them around the country broadcast uh school
but it wasn't again it wasn't an associate's degree you just went for a few
weeks to learn how to be a dj yeah career academy it was called okay career
academy yeah but the one you mentioned i don't remember yeah okay yeah no and

(08:47):
leland powers was it was a broadcast school in boston and uh,
And I think, you know, who went there, here's a name from yesteryear,
it was Dave DeMopier. Oh, really? Okay. All right. Dave passed away a few years ago. Yeah.
So you went off to Boston in 1968.
67. 67. Okay. September of 67. What, you know, talk about, you know,
what a, what a run of sports. You had the Red Sox impossible dream.

(09:11):
You had the Celtics win their last two titles under player coach Bill Russell.
There you go. And the Bruins got good because they traded for Phil Esposito,
and Bobby Orr became a superstar.
Absolutely. Yeah. His name's in my crossword at least once a week.
And one of the teachers at Graham, Cambridge slash Graham, got me a gig doing

(09:32):
GBI games, Greater Boston Games High School.
And the teacher's name was Fred Cusick, who later became the,
and was the play-by-play voice for the Boston Bruins.
Okay. There you go. How about that?
So anyway, and as I mentioned off, you know, before we started this,
my first sports interview was Jim Lawnboard, who was the 20-win pitcher for the Red Sox in 67.

(09:55):
Didn't he become a dentist, I think, by the way? You got me.
You got me. You're the sports guy here.
I just cracked a tooth a couple weeks ago.
When I was at Graham, I just, I was not a big sports fan at the time.
Although when I, as I lived there for two years, I became a huge,
you know, Boston fan of most of their teams.
Were you in the 645 Beacon Street? Yeah, we were, yes. I was actually in Leavitt Hall.

(10:19):
Yeah, Leavitt Hall, right. Which was the old Hotel St. George,
which became Leavitt Hall, and then it became, after the school folded, the Hotel Buckminster.
Exactly. And now I think that's gone too, right?
I think so, and I believe it's become either, not townhouses,
but some sort of apartment complex, yeah.
But I remember just being upset when the play-by-play would,

(10:43):
for our school hockey team, would go over my, I was supposed to go on the air at 6.30.
And half the time, the hockey game during season would go to 7, 7.15.
And I'd just be ticked off that I had less time on the radio,
you know, because of the sports.
So I was more upset with the sports guys. Now, did you do, did you work at all
for the college station, WCSB?

(11:05):
WC, yeah, WCSB, yes, I did. and I was the sports director my second and last
year. Okay, there you go, yeah.
Sports director. The first year was a guy named Jim Phillips who was a great guy.
Yeah, yeah. I'd like to somehow get back in touch with him. There you go, there you go, well.
So, yeah, I was the sports director the second year I was there.
Cool, cool. If I had gone back for my second year, I was supposed to be the

(11:27):
program director. Oh, really?
WCSB, yep, yep. And my only regret is that I missed doing that.
That but but i came home and found a job before any
of my fellow students graduated and
then came home trying to look for a job and i had the job they had
the degree so i figured eh i'm okay yeah yeah yeah but so did you enjoy your
time there yes you made some friends and unfortunately we were so shorthanded

(11:51):
last year in our newsroom at gy that two of my college roommates that are still
living one passed away a few years ago so and you know total of of in the two years i had four
roommates at two, one year to the, anyway,
they had arranged to get together out there in Boston and I just couldn't make
it, which was, you know, too bad.
But I do stay in touch with them, Dean Meharis and Jim Schermerhorn.

(12:14):
And it's, and it's, isn't it funny around here? We pronounce it Schermerhorn.
They pronounce it. He's from Terryville, Connecticut, which was the home of,
of Ted Baxter, AKA Ted Knight. Really? Ted Knight?
I'll be darned. Yep. Who I met when I was at ROW. I was going to say,
I wonder if your paths even crossed. Nice guy. Yeah.
He's unfortunately passed away. Sure, sure.

(12:36):
So, you know, a couple of years in Boston and obviously now did it change your,
the teams that you enjoyed following?
I mean, had you been a Yankee fan and became a Red Sox fan or anything like
that? Yeah, a lot of people, you know, will tell me I'm full of fecal matter
when I say this, but I like both the Yankees and Red Sox. Ah, right.
Really? Wow. And the Yankees because, number one, I grew up,

(12:56):
you know, following them on television, reading about them in the daily news.
And then I became a Red Sox fan, obviously, when I went to Boston.
Sure. And the impossible dream, Jim Lonborg, my first sports interview,
going to Fenway Park, which is a great place to see a game. Right. And we were right there.
I mean, I remember sitting in an apartment during the summer.
And when there was a home run, the crowd was so loud, you'd hear them through

(13:21):
the window before you'd hear them through the TV. And then you see the ball
fly, you know, over the left field.
Exactly. In the Lansdowne Street. Exactly. And okay.
And then I came back here and the station I was working at carried the Yankees.
So I got a chance to go for a lot of Affiliates Day. And one of those Affiliates Days...
Was besides being Phil Rizzuto day, he was alive.

(13:43):
It was a day that Tom Seaver was pitching for the Chicago White Sox and he won his 300th game.
That was a tremendously, tremendously riveting game to be in the park for.
Wow. You get some great memories already and you're only in your teens here, you know.
That's terrific. So Boston, you mentioned you came home.

(14:04):
Came home. I came home a Red Sox fan as well and a Celtics fan.
Yeah. I was a Celtics fan.
I've never been a big New York Knicks fan, to be honest. I've been a Celtics
fan all my life. And I was a big Johnny Mo's fan.
I've gotten Havelchek's Thola Ball and a couple of the albums,
Heintzen's Heroes, I think.
I've got several of those albums. And I still can't believe,

(14:26):
by the way, speaking of, here we go, here we go again,
John Havelchek, who was,
you know, his chest was so large they had to take two
x-rays to get his whole chest wow he died
of parkinson's disease yeah yeah it's not
fair you know it's just not fair no i agree so
anyway so we came back from boston and and i forget who the heck it was somebody

(14:49):
gave me a tip that there was a job at at wrw and wrw was easy listening exactly
yep yep and am only five and 590 yeah yeah and i got a job and the program director
at the time was kurt Kurt Hahn.
Don't remember that name. Okay. How about Ray Hellcamp? Oh, that name I remember.
And Ray just passed away, I think about what, two years ago.
Okay. And Ray was a good, he became the PD after Kurt Hahn left.

(15:13):
And Kurt had a lot of, had a lot of success in his career and he's still alive.
Yeah. So I began as the night announcer, you know, get in at five and get done
at midnight or one o'clock. Okay, cool.
And you were jockeying. I was, yep. Yep.
Yeah. Yep. And it was, you know,
easy listening format. So bring on the Montevani. I became a big fan.

(15:34):
And I bet you I probably have more James Last albums. Seriously?
Oh, gosh. And James Last did have one big hit in this country,
The Seduction from the movie American Gigolo.
Yes, yes, I do remember that. He had a lot of hits overseas.
And I liked the way, and he passed away about five, six, seven years ago.

(15:55):
Jim, you've got to stop talking about these dead people. I know, I know, I know.
I wish I could have seen him in comedy, because he had, And he also,
he did a lot of these sing-along things, which I liked his period pieces or
mood pieces a lot better.
Now, he was a mainstay on middle-of-the-road, easy-listening-type stations back then, yeah.

(16:20):
And that didn't bother you, the fact that you're playing this stuff that mom
and dad listened to? No, not really. Okay. All right. Cool.
I got to know all the other, besides Matt Avani and James Last,
there was Richard Klederman. He was a piano player, right? Don't remember that one.
There were other people as well that we got to know.
And that was nice. And eventually at RO, I did wind up becoming the program director.

(16:45):
Yeah, I was going to say now, the day where you were just talking about was late 69, early 70.
That's when I started. When you started it there. Okay, yeah.
And I was a PD at RO from, what, 80, I want to say 84, 85, 86 to 1993.
Wow. Now, were you doing, did you do the evening shift for the long time or
did you move around? I did the evening shift for a while, then I flipped to

(17:06):
afternoons. Excellent.
Maybe filled in for some mornings as well. Yeah, yeah. Went through.
You know, we had a bunch of morning people there as well. Bill Shalcross,
is that a name you remember? Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. Well, we'll talk about some of the guys that you worked with.
You worked with one of the best news departments, you know, that there ever
was here in the capital district.
You know, a lot of people, when they think news, they think where you still work, WGY.

(17:28):
But I remember growing up, probably because my dad listened to the station,
I remember the news people on WROW.
So talk about some of these famous folks. We talked a little bit earlier about
Dave. Dave DiMoppia, for sure.
Yeah. And Aaron Shepard became the news director. There you go.
And I worked with, and I actually roomed for a year or two with Keith Barber. Sure.

(17:49):
Keith unfortunately passed away too. Yeah. All these great names.
These are names I remember from. There was an Art Andrew I remember I worked
with. And there were several others as well.
And the news department at RO was very good. Yeah. Yeah.
And you're in the building with a TV station. Channel 10.
Channel 10. Yeah. So you mentioned meeting Ted Knight. That was probably through

(18:09):
their ABC affiliation or whatever.
And he had worked there for a while. And I got to know Mary Caroline Powers
very well. There you go. And there was Bruce Williamson. Sure. And here's two names.
Dick Williams. Does that name ring a bell? Yes, it does. Yeah,
I do. I think he went south.
And at the time, he was one of the anchors and then went on to,
I guess, a talk show career.

(18:29):
And he unfortunately passed away. Ron Smith.
Now, that name. Oh, you know, now that you mention it, I guess I do remember
a Ron Smith here. locally.
Yeah. And a lot of times when I was doing the night shift and the people that
were doing the six and 11 o'clock news.
We will all adjourn to a place in Minance called the Vittles and Garage.
Okay. And I can still remember burning love coming up on the jukebox,

(18:54):
and there's Ron Smith doing a jig to it, you know.
I'll be darned. Easy 95.5 FM with your easy favorites and Barbra Streisand from
the Broadway and London production of Cats Memory.
The Rascals grooving on We'll Make a Day Monday afternoon rather than a Sunday afternoon.
Friends and lovers, Gloria Loring, Carl Anderson, Neil Diamond,
and I am, I said, and we have another Neil Diamond Christmas cassette

(19:15):
to give away later on today and later on this
hour when you hear the hockey player shoot and score shoot
hey score just be
called or 23 at 476-9769-476-WROW and
we'll have a pair of coupons good for a pair of tickets to any single Adirondack
Red Wings hockey game you want to see in the 92-93 regular season subject to

(19:38):
ticket availability when you hear the hockey player shooting a score which just
heard when you hear it later on this hour just be called or 23 and be a winner on EZ 95.5 FM.
The only station for EZ favorites. This is Chicago on EZ 95.5 FM.
EZ 95.5 FM with your EZ favorites and Chicago hard-happened to break.
Also Elton John, sorry seems to be the hardest word, Andy Williams,

(20:00):
and it is the most wonderful time of the year on EZ 95.5 FM.
Tell me about the transition to programming.
Now, all of a sudden, the people you're working with are now working,
you know, you're their boss, is what happens, you know? So how did that transition go?
Did you maintain friendships and all that good stuff? Yeah, the transition went
fairly well, and I adapted fairly well to the job of program director.

(20:23):
Of course, the job with program directors, you've got a lot of nits and things
you've got to look at. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ironically, I was just over at GY this morning, and somebody made a mistake
on the log, and a newscast that was supposed to air at the half hour aired at
20 after, which is that, you know.
And that's the kind of stuff when you're a program director you have you know

(20:44):
you can catch yes or you should be looking for it yeah exactly yeah yeah,
You know, no offense, obviously, to the people running WGY at the moment. Right, right, right.
But, yeah, I made the same transition. In fact, interestingly enough,
you said it was like 1980-something that you became?
84, 85, 86. Okay, well, probably early 80s, 81, in there somewhere,

(21:07):
I became program director at GNA after having been, you know,
just one of the guys, you know, for about five years.
And so, yeah, I found the same thing.
I seemed to maintain the friendship with everybody and could still be their
boss. And we seemed to get along.
I don't remember having too many problems along the way, but it is interesting
when you make that step up.

(21:29):
You know what I did start doing? I started wearing a tie every day.
I figured that would set me apart from the rest of the staff who were coming
in in t-shirts, you know?
And so I think I may have told this story once before.
Jim Lowe was doing middays for us for
a while and I was doing mornings and every day
he'd come in in a different t-shirt you know and I said to

(21:49):
him one day I said if you ever came in wearing a tie I think I would just pass
right out yeah so he waited till I turned my mic on the next day and he came
by the window and he had a t-shirt on with a tie over top of it and of course
he got me and I started laughing out loud and had to explain everybody what
was going on so but that's the kind of the fun that we had you know,
back in the days when it was local, live,

(22:13):
and, you know, you were making the big decisions.
So you had fun as a PD.
Yeah. Hard work and, you know, more than eight-hour days a lot of times.
But, you know, it was fun.
Absolutely. And who were some of the folks that you were on the air with at
the time? You got some disc jockey names you can mention?
Do any of them stick in your head? I know you know the news people,

(22:34):
but do you remember some of the jockeys?
Well, I worked a long time with, and he's still alive, thankfully, Joe Condon. Joe Condon.
I knew you were going to mention Joe, who we've been trying to get on this podcast.
Joe taught me a lot, you know, and he was a good, again, Again,
he taught me a lot, and he was a good worker. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Well, while you were working with him there, I was teaching with him over at

(22:55):
the new school. Oh, really? Yeah, we were both there in the early 80s together, yep. Okay.
And a lot of times we would share a class. He would do two or three days of
the class, and I would do a couple of days of the class, yeah.
And we work with Walt Fritz. There's a name for him. Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Walt goes back to my first job at radio, at SNY, yeah.
And, yeah, Walt was at GY. Then he came with us for a while.
Okay, and I didn't remember that. Okay, yeah. And there were some good people, you know? Sure, sure.

(23:21):
And did the format pretty much stay the same the whole time you were there?
You know, easy listening, evolving into very, you know, not intense adult contemporary,
but, you know, playing more vocals rather than. I was going to say.
Than the Matt Avani, James Last, Richard Klederman. Ray Kniff,
as my wife calls him, yeah. Ray Kniff, yeah.

(23:42):
Norman Candler and, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you started mixing in some
of the more contemporary adult. Yeah, exactly.
Cool. And so that lasted until when?
93, it was announced that there was an asset sale with Albany Broadcasting taking over at the time.
Radio Terrace. We were owned for a while, by the way, by John Gambling.

(24:04):
Oh, okay. That's interesting.
Yep. Okay. And John was, I got a chance to interact with John several times.
This is John A. okay yeah
and we're okay this was john r john r
is still around okay john b i think
was the father of john a right so uh
but john you know john that's what was called jag communications okay and john

(24:28):
was a great guy and he was a legendary personality down in new york city exactly
for those uninitiated but i i knew the name yeah yeah great guy yeah nice nice
nice to to work for good people. Yep.
And, you know, always has been. So, yeah, in 93, it was Gary P's that take us
in over a few years prior to that, and it was Radio Terrace. Okay.
He owned a station in Peekskill, W-H-U-D. Okay. Okay. Okay.

(24:53):
And there's still a few people that, you know, we worked with years ago that
are, I think, still down there.
Anyway, and I think Gary went to Florida a few years ago.
Anyway, Albany Broadcasting purchased the stations. It was an asset sale.
And unfortunately, I was one of the assets.
So it was, you know, adios amigos.
Wow. And that's when Buzz Brindle, you know. Sure, sure. Now, that's quite a run.

(25:16):
I mean, you're talking, you know, 1970, 69, 70.
To 93. To 93. Wow. And I did, Buzz let me do a last show.
It was on December 26, 1993, which I gave you the cassette score. Yep, yep.
95.5, that is Vangelis, of course, from the tail end of 1981 and early 1982.

(25:37):
Chariots of Fire, I remember when I wanted to put the record in the playlist,
the program director said, no, don't do it.
It sounds like a slapping screen door, which, of course, was the synthesizer effect.
And I said, nah, let's go ahead and do it. And he said, all right,
limited play on that. In other words, play it, you know, maybe once every two or three days.
Well, we put it in once every two or three days. We got calls on it.
Then, of course, the record became a big top 20 hit.

(25:59):
Motion picture, Chariots of Fire. 11 minutes after 4 o'clock,
4.11 with Jim Gagliardi here on our final show at WROW. Next.
On our parade of hits that we called. And this one was a bit of a longer shot,
again from a motion picture.
It came out in 1985, the song, and the motion picture as well.

(26:19):
The motion picture was called The NeverEnding Story. The song was by a singer
called Lamal, very popular overseas.
And the song was the same title as the motion picture.
95.5 FM. That's European singing sensation Lamal, who's had quite a few hits overseas.
Not too many in this country, but that was one of them that did hit here in
the States, as they'd say up in Canada.

(26:40):
A top 20 record from the motion picture The NeverEnding Story from 1985.
14 minutes after 4 o'clock, 4.14,
Jim Gagliardi with a very special hour here on our last show at WROW.
We'll have more of those hits and misses coming up, and we'll also have a chance
for you to win another $25 gift certificate from Jax.
That's coming up here on Easy 95.5 FM.
And then I stayed till the first week of January just to make sure everything was all right.

(27:04):
And John Kelly is that name you
know absolutely yeah geez you know you've done
a good job here Jim maybe I you know underestimate me which
was you know and I remember the last day
at RO we had a mini snowstorm okay four or five inches so I came in to run the
computer for the school closing which at that time they were still being read

(27:27):
on the air live of course that stopped right yes it And so I came in early,
did that, did a few other things.
And then at 11 or 1130, I said, that's it.
Wow. And I went to Pauly's Hotel, which is on Central and Quail in Albany. And I said, Orem.
Wow. That is something to be at the same station for that many years.

(27:50):
There aren't too many in the market that have done that.
I think of Don Weeks being perhaps the epitome of same station for many,
many years. Don was a great talent. Absolutely.
And you actually wind up going that direction. But what happened after ROW? So where'd you go in 93?
No, it was tail end of 93, and I worked till the first week of January 94.

(28:13):
I went to GY in the third week of March of 1994.
Okay. And what were you doing for them? News. That's what I thought.
Yeah. So now was that because there was an availability?
There was an availability. Okay. I was hired with a guy named,
does this name ring a bell?
Bob Ellard. A little bit. Yeah. Bob was from the Midwest.

(28:35):
Okay. And he's still around, and he's back in the Midwest or down south right
now. Okay. So actually, I had joined GFM, or actually it was WGYFM they had
gone to when it was oldies.
So that was early 90, or that was sometime in 92.
And so when you came over in 93, I was there.
Or 94. Yeah. Yeah, I was there. And of course, in 94, we switched the station over to the river.

(29:00):
Right. And the man that did that was Hank Nevin. Exactly.
And Hank was my program director in Boston.
At WCSB, the college radio station. And here's another.
Now, I tried to get a hold of him a couple of years ago. I got nowhere.
Yeah, I kept in touch for a short time after he left the area,
and then we just lost track of each other.

(29:22):
He's still in the Buffalo Lockport area, right? As far as I know,
he's in Buffalo, yeah, yeah. And he was on the air there for many years after he left us here, yeah.
No, Hank was great. Dan Miller was there. Does that name ring a bell?
Sure. Oh, absolutely, yep. Yep, Dan was there for quite a while.
I had a picture of him and his wife. I brought the picture of you and me at
the Grammar Year. Yes, yes, yes, from many, many years ago.

(29:43):
And Chuck Custer was there. Sure. And Chuck became the news director and eventually
became the program director. Exactly.
Yeah. And I still stay in touch with Chuck. Yes, I do too.
He's a good guy. He's on, I think, North Carolina. Correct. Yep, yep.
He still gets invited to our lunches and he still reminds us that he's in North Carolina.
And but he says you know keep sending me the invites

(30:05):
because you never know when he could be up here visiting and
that you know he might be able to join us now you have these lunches you
say yes these lunches that you have never been able to attend because you're
always working jim okay now i'm doing an early morning shift these days what
time are the lunches well the lunches are usually right at noon but if if if
you think you could make a one o'clock lunch i could always move the time to 1 o'clock.

(30:29):
In fact, two people this last week showed up at 1 o'clock thinking it was at 1.
So we could do that if you think you could sneak out. And we're right next,
we do it at the Metro 7 Diner.
I mean, we're right across the street from where you're working.
Okay, all right. Keep me in mind for the next one then. Definitely.
So here we are talking about WGY or ROW and how long you were there.

(30:52):
Have you been steady at GY since 93?
94. 94, excuse me. 94 to 2006. Okay. The third week of 2006.
Okay. Chuck comes in and says-
We have to let a bunch of people go, and I was one of them. Oh, boy.
So, now what that did do in 2006 was, and I didn't chewed up my savings between

(31:17):
2006 and 2011 when I went back to GY.
Right. But I was able to take care of my dad, who passed away at 101 years of age. Oh, wow.
Wow. And that happened in June of 2010.
Okay. All right. So you took that time to actually be with your dad all that time.
Exactly. I did a few small voice things or something like that,

(31:42):
but I didn't do a 40-hour-a-week job or even a 20-hour-a-week job.
Wow. Well, good for you, Jim.
But you were able to spend some quality time with your dad in his later years.
That's terrific. And we kept him out of a home and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly.
Wow. So I got hired back on January 11th, no, January of 2011.

(32:02):
Okay. Gotcha. And I think January 10th or something like that.
So anyway, and I've been there since January 2011.
So that's two runs of the first one was 12 years. And now this is what,
13, right? Yeah, exactly.
So there you go. So there's 12 and 13. So there's 25 there and there's 24,
25 at ROW. So there's 50 years, right?

(32:24):
You're going to ruin our average here for people that have stopped at different
call letters, because I'm going to have S-N-Y-R-O-W and W-G-Y. Are there any others?
Yeah, I did some part-time work for, and it was Freddie Cusick that we talked
about. I did some high school hockey.
That was W-N-T-N, which is a 10,000 watt day timer in Newton,

(32:45):
Massachusetts. I'll be darned. Yeah.
1550 or something like that. I think it's still around. Okay.
Yeah. So that was prior to all this other stuff. That's terrific.
So yeah, Yeah, the average at the end of each podcast, we tell everybody how
many stations, you know, how many call letters you'd worked at.
The GY was going to count just once, even though you were there twice.

(33:06):
You know, we just call letters.
And the average for everybody that we've had on the podcast so far is about 10 stations.
Okay, so I'm below average. You're going to bring the average down a little
bit. John Gabriel was probably the one that worked at the most stations.
I think his was 14 or 15. Yeah, that many, exactly. He's on the air,
isn't that right? And he's still on the air, exactly.

(33:27):
Yep, yep, yep. Doing a good job, you know. And so are you. Now,
let's talk about the changes over the years, okay?
When you joined in 94, the first time, you were live.
Yep. And G.Y. had always been known as a powerhouse in the news department.
And so where has this led to? How does it work these days?

(33:50):
These days, these days, like right now, our news director is actually based in New York City.
Okay. And her name is Jennifer Polsoni and she's a good person.
Yeah, yeah. She's very talented too, by the way. Mm-hmm. And what I heart,
The old Clear Channel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think Lowry Mays is dead now

(34:11):
too, right? You know, so, you know.
Anyway, what iHeart has done in the past couple of years is consolidated all the news departments,
and it's, you know, if we have a vacancy hole, like somebody wants to take a
day off and we don't have somebody on staff to fill, we can have somebody from.
A different market. Yeah, Goiter, Nebraska, Boho, Mississippi.

(34:34):
Those are actual times. I'm making up, you know. Wait a minute. Goyter, Nebraska?
Seriously? Hobo, Mississippi. Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Those are actual cities.
Anyway. But no, seriously.
You know, from another market, they can wand the newscast in.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's one big change.
A lot of the newscasts, and I don't necessarily agree with this,

(34:56):
a lot of the newscasts that we have on GY these days are taped.
Okay. And they're taped like within the, you know, we have a, the person is there.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Even though some people can work from home now,
okay? True, yeah, yeah. Okay.
But the newscasts are taped, and they're taped within the half hour.
But you never know sometimes.

(35:17):
A perfect recent example is the earthquake we had three, four, five weeks ago. Yeah.
That happened at, what, 10.30 in the morning about, right? I was sitting right
where I am right now, and the room started moving back and forth. Yep.
And we had a taped newscast that day and it flipped in at 11 o'clock and it

(35:39):
didn't mention, you know. Did not mention, yeah.
So, I went on and what I should have done, quite frankly, so I'm hitting myself.
I should have overrode that newscast. I went on after the newscast to say,
okay, updating you now on the earthquake, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, you know. Gotcha, gotcha.
But I should have just, you know, canceled, you know.
That's him hitting himself in the side of the head, folks. Yeah.

(36:01):
Trying to knock some sense into himself. So anyway, but that's,
that's the problem with tape newscasts, you know, things,
you know, I can't, you know, I, so many times I can remember flying into the
booth to do a live newscast with something that just happened two minutes ago.
Exactly. And I don't have a, I don't have a, a script written out,

(36:22):
but I've got stuff that I can ad lib.
Sure. And luckily, knock on wood, I still have the ability to ad lib. You absolutely do.
And I have to pay you a compliment, sir. You are just the, as far as I'm concerned,
you're just one of the most talented news professionals that's ever crossed the threshold at GY.
You really are. Well, thank you. You're dedicated to your job.

(36:45):
I'll write the check in 20 minutes. I only charge 10 bucks. It's really,
yeah. I mean, it used to be five, but, you know, inflation.
But, no, I just, I believe this with all my heart from, I know you more as a newsman because.
That's why I brought those air checks with me. Yeah, in the early 90s, exactly. Exactly.
So I know you more as that person that was always there.

(37:05):
We could always count on you. I don't think you ever missed an election night,
whether it be a national or local or, you know, around the corner election night.
You were there and you were covering things.
And I just have admired you for your tenacity.
And everybody in this area knows the name. Well, that's good.
Because you're there, you're present.

(37:27):
They know how to pronounce it now, too. They know how to pronounce it.
Not Coyarty, Gagliardi. Ha ha ha.
But, no, I've always admired your tenacity and your go-get-iveness,
you know, that you're out there, you know, covering the story.
And the diamonds and the rubies and how they sparkle on your hand.
And don't you love them? Oh, yeah. After 40 years at its North Pearl Street

(37:48):
location and 74 years downtown, Frank Adams Jewelers closed the doors on its
downtown store last night for the final time. Owner David Adams.
Yeah, the key was in the door last night at 7 o'clock. and today we're going
to be packing up everything, and it's going to be from there the finality,
starting to sell off showcases and fixtures.
Adams tells WGY News that the opening of a second store at Stuyvesant Plaza

(38:10):
last spring was the beginning of the end for the downtown store.
Because after we opened up in Stuyvesant Plaza, we found that over 90% of our
business had already moved to that location and less than 10 was happening down here.
Adams says that all full-time employees will be kept and the Stuyvesant Plaza
store will have longer business hours than the North Pearl Street store had.
Jim Gagliardi, WGY News.

(38:30):
Shifting back briefly into music, and I've just noticed this over the past two
or three months, I hear a song on the radio now and it's like.
Oh, I remember playing that, or oh, I interviewed this person back in boom-de-boom-de-boom, or oh,
I saw the concert with this person I'm listening, you know, only over the past

(38:53):
couple of months now. Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I have you to thank for, you were talking about taped newscasts, which never used to be.
What I did my final 20 years in the business was voice track everything.
I was hardly ever live on WTRY from 2002 to 2020.
2020 and the the deal was

(39:16):
one day i was i had been subbing for jamie
roberts but i and she did she did morning she's
still on the air at try and i'd been subbing for her
but the deal was that i would record the show the night before i'd voice track
it put it in the computer and it would be on the next morning so you're in the
newsroom one afternoon and i'm leaving at like seven o'clock at night having

(39:37):
done the morning shift already it's in the computer and as i walk past you you You say,
Leslie Gore just died. Oh, really?
Oh, God. And I said, thanks, Jim. Now I have to go back in the studio and make
sure I mention it on tomorrow morning's show.
Right. Because it would have been really stupid not to do that. Yep, yep.
You know, and so that's the stuff that you do run into when you're talking. She was very talented.

(40:02):
Very, very talented and had a lot of great hits.
And so I couldn't let the morning go by without playing one or two of them.
And so I went back in, recorded a couple of different breaks over again and put some of her music in.
But again, I have you to thank for that. Again, you know, because you had the
wherewithal to tell me that was happening when you knew it applied to me, you know, so.

(40:23):
But let's talk about some of the other memories. We've kind of given short shrift
to all these years that you've done news.
What stands out in your mind about some of the stories that you covered over the years?
Any that you like to tell tales about, whether it was just because it was such
a big story or maybe something funny that happened covering something serious,

(40:45):
which happens occasionally.
Anything bop into your mind from the 90s and then into the 2000s?
Thousands two i can think of that these aren't funny at
all one this that i'm going to mention
now the other one e-coli outbreak
at the washington county fair that killed a
couple people yes yes and i did win a national murrow for

(41:06):
that edward wow well good for you sir it was
it was weekend coverage and a day or
two after a day or two before i forget but i did a
lot of that with here's a name from the channel 10 past sarah
welch is that name ring a bell that name doesn't ring
a bell no she's out in california now okay very well
yeah another story i remember that

(41:26):
these are just two that i'm bringing up right now sure is the uh
the 1998 tornadoes here oh yeah
yeah yeah the the you're talking the ones up in the mechanicville area
yep mechanicville still water and i remember it was
a sunday right yep i was on the air and
the shift on sunday was 12 15 1230 to
815 830 okay and when we

(41:49):
got on the you know 1215 1230 was well there could
be some severe weather and i think the severe weather hit
mid to late afternoon and then i remember i was in the studio and all of a sudden
chuck custer and one or two other people come flying in and we went meaning
gy went totally live wall to wall yeah yeah and that happened a lot back in
those days It doesn't happen as much now. I agree.

(42:12):
I agree. And as much as it maybe should have or should be, I should say, yeah.
But back in the day, I just remember when something big was happening, I turned on WGY. Right.
And this is well before I worked there. I'd be working for competition.
And I'd say, no, no, I know where I'm going to get the news and get it fast.

(42:33):
Well, that's why, and I think with the exception of, again.
So not overriding that 11 o'clock news, I did do three special reports breaking into programming.
And at the time, let's see, it was talking about the earthquake.
Sure. Because we got six to eight calls in the newsroom. What's going on?
You know? Yeah, yeah, sure.
So, you know, but I broke into the, and we have a syndicated show called the Glenn Beck Program.

(42:56):
Sure. And I just broke into it. Yeah, yeah. You know? Well, I'm sorry.
That's what good news people do.
That's what it was about. out. I remember I was news director for a short time
at WGNA when we first signed on.
And I remember making sure there was somebody, we didn't have local news,
I don't believe, on Sundays, and Mayor Corning was in the hospital and we knew

(43:19):
he wasn't going to come out.
And I remember making sure there was somebody
assigned that would be monitoring the situation
and was going to come in and do you know
live reports and and of course call folks up
and get comments and stuff if he passed on a day where
we weren't having full coverage yeah so to me
that was just what you did you know as a newsman and and g y we still do that

(43:43):
we break in we do extra stuff so we still do that and that's good yeah i would
again the tape newscasts and we and in the morning we do for the most part live
newscasts there are some times when we don't have the morning show there I have to do tape,
but 90 to 95% of the time, the newscasts in the morning are live and that's good. Gotcha.

(44:04):
Now, are you doing some newscasts for other stations in the company as well?
I did for a while, a year or two or two or three years ago, I did,
and I got very friendly with a guy in Providence, Rhode Island named Bill George.
Okay. And they've got a WHJJAM.
Okay. They've got an FM that does very well. The AM is...
So we did newscasts for him. I also did some newscasts for stations in New Haven

(44:29):
and Hartford, Connecticut.
Okay, there you go. While you're sitting in the studios in Latham.
Yep. Well, that's, again, how the business has gone.
That's how the business has evolved. Yeah, exactly.
And so we're still doing newscasts here, which is good. Are you still just as
big a sports freak as you were as a kid?
Yeah, maybe a smidge less. Okay.

(44:53):
Saratoga Racecourse. Yes.
Really became what it is now when I, in the sixties, it was a 24 day maiden. That was it.
And in the mid to late seventies, that's when it began to ramp up with,
you know, and one of the people that was instrumental in doing that.
And I'm just, I saved the paper when he, another person, Ed Louie. Oh, absolutely.

(45:16):
Yeah. Oh, he had a lot to do with the success there. Absolutely.
Yeah. But yeah, Saratoga now, And now this year you're going to have the Belmont
and next year too at Saratoga. Exactly.
How cool is that? Yeah. It is big. Absolutely.
And over the years I got to talk to Tom Durkin.
Sure. The voice of Saratoga. Who is a great and a funny guy. Yes, yes, yes.

(45:39):
Larry Kalmas is somebody I really wanted to talk to more. I didn't.
John Embraer was a guy I got to know. And I think, didn't he just retire, I believe?
Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. So anyway. Anyway, but yeah, that,
uh, again, that began to ramp up to superstar status or,
you know, what everybody knows and loves now in the mid to late seventies,

(46:02):
back in the fifties and sixties, it wasn't that,
you know, I can't say I was around that much in the fifties,
but the sixties, you know, it was there and the summer meet was there and then that was it.
Are you a, an aficionado or do you, are you up there a little bit in the season?
Season yeah i haven't you know now the past year or two
i haven't gone up as much as i normally do but i was there

(46:24):
for a lot of it and a lot of the you know
historic moments and yeah and the meat and of course the meat is expanded from
24 days oh absolutely yeah yeah yeah and the other the other stuff that i know
that you enjoy is that you've never lost your love for music right and you've
had your uh the opportunity to meet some great folks along the way and interview
some folks Folks, talk about some of your favorites.

(46:46):
And the people that know Jim Gagliardi knows where we're going here.
We're coming up to the, unfortunately, the year anniversary of the death of
Gordon Lightfoot. Gordon Lightfoot. I know he was one of your favorites.
And I did a lot of promotions with him.
We talked a lot on the phone. And I used to go to Toronto a lot years ago.
Nice. And we ate in the same restaurant.

(47:07):
Ah. Known as Bigliardi's.
B-I-G-L-I-A-R-D-I-A. Oh, that's interesting. George Bigliardi.
That restaurant was right across the street from Maple Leaf Gardens,
which is where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play.
But I'd run into Gord there a lot and I met the second wife. She was very nice.
I never met Kathy Smith, who's the woman he went out with for a while.

(47:31):
That's the woman that gave the speedball to John Belushi. Yeah,
I knew I knew that name. Yep. Yep.
What four or five years ago he just married a woman named
kim hassey now she's unfortunately a widow but he he
had a great career and absolutely and i think i've
seen him and i saw him in concert to 20 to 25 times at least and and would go

(47:53):
to other cities sometimes to see nice you know nice that's a fan and the other
you know big uh in the case of group and also i'll bring up an individual moody
blues yeah i know your favorites too yeah and i've become i've done
now several interviews with justin hayward the lead singer who's the
guy that also wrote let's see nights away satin tuesday afternoon

(48:14):
question a story in your eyes and more recently your wildest dreams and i know
you're out there somewhere oh yeah and gemini dream in the voice sure sure no
he one of my favorites and and i think you actually may have been instrumental
in helping me understand that i should buy his one of his solo albums a few years ago i think
you must have mentioned to me that he had one coming out and and

(48:36):
i love it it's one of my favorite albums yeah which one is
it now i've forgotten i knew you'd do that to me but but
it was yeah and he had he had a hit a top 40
hit off of it it didn't get huge but but moody blues have been my favorite since
my first uh year on the radio they were they were hitting it big and i got a
chance to see and he just passed away until unfortunately too the first lead

(48:59):
singer was at at Crossgates there a couple of years ago, Denny Lane. Denny Lane, yep.
And nice guy. I've been a fan, and now that I think about it,
Go Now is one of my favorite Moody Blues tunes, and that was the original lineup
back in 65. That was the original lineup in 65.
Yeah. And then they had a couple follow-ups. There was a follow-up song from
the bottom of my heart that was tremendous.

(49:19):
It didn't do anything. Yeah, it didn't do anything. It got up to 85 or 90 on the charts.
Anyway, and then Denny Lane and Clint Warwick left, And then John Lodge and
Justin Hayward joined the group. There you go.
The rest as they say is rock and roll history. Rock and roll history, right.
Good for you. The guy I would have liked to have interviewed is the keyboard
player for all the years, Mike Pinder.

(49:41):
And then he left when they reformed for Octave. They brought Patrick Mraz on
board and the former Yes, you know. Yep.
And Mraz gave them some good keyboard work. Unfortunately, I guess there was
a, I guess he sued them when they, you know, and because they're saying,
well, he was, he was just an additional keyboard player.

(50:02):
And he was saying, no, I was brought in to replace Mike Pinder. There you go.
And I think he won. I think he wanted 300 or 400,000. I think he got what,
89 or 90,000 or something like that. Anyway, but that's on Court TV.
Yeah. There's the, there's the Yes box set up there. Okay. And then there's
the Moody Blues, Time Traveler. Time Traveler, yes.

(50:22):
I'm with you. That did go gold. Do you have the, on the Moody Blues,
do you have the one with the additional disc? Yes, exactly. The extra disc.
The extra disc, which has some of the things. Remember the show they did at Red Rocks? Yes.
And that still appears on MHT every now and then. Does it really?
Okay, cool. That was a great show. Yes, absolutely.
I'm glad they did it, and it gave their career another couple of years. Sure, sure, yeah.

(50:47):
No, they've stood the test of time and, you know, only recently decided,
I guess, not to do new stuff, but to continue playing their hits for fans.
Now, one of the cassettes I gave you that has some air checks from is also,
I did an interview years ago with Richard Marks. Okay, cool.
And here's a little, you know, here's a little figure, Philbert fact for you folks out there.

(51:09):
A little alliteration from anxious anchors placed in powerful posts,
the quote, Albert Brooks in broadcast news, right?
One of my favorite movies anyway
richard marx sang background on gordon
lightfoot's anything for love well here you go which was one of his last it
was an adult contemporary it was produced by david foster the sure quote canadian

(51:30):
super producer and singing background on that song is richard marx and and she
passed away a few years ago vesta williams don't know if i remember that
name okay good r&b singer and well there's some real trivia for your next trivia
gathering folks yeah yeah so anyway.
Well, it sounds like, sir, you've done okay for yourself over the years.

(51:53):
Haven't gotten rich, though. Well, and then I was going to kind of bring that up.
You're one of the few people I've talked to that has not said anything about
needing to work extra jobs in order to put food in your mouth.
No, but by the same token, and especially the past couple of weeks,
the old 401k, which I'm still contributing to, has gotten hammered. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

(52:14):
But we had a good first quarter. First quarter of the year was good. it.
But no, I can understand where you'd be a little concerned.
I retired probably a little sooner than I should have, you know,
as far as, you know, building it up a little bit bigger, you know,
the old retirement money. But you know what? It evens out.
I mean, in the long run, you know, stick with your investments and they do pay off.

(52:39):
And the 401k is still, you know, what we're living off of is still strong,
even though you got a quarter or two that, you know, sucks what
can you do any uh any retirement
in the in the pipeline here or i do want
to work through this year because it's you know another national election and
that's true this will be i think the 13th since i'm in
wow wow going back to the boston days yeah yeah and then we'll see what happens

(53:04):
next year okay all right knock on wood and this isn't wood but you know the
health is still even though i did crack a tooth a couple weeks ago so so i've
got some dental work in the in the future in May.
Yeah. But unlike a lot of the folks we've talked about in the last few minutes,
you're still on this side of the grass.
Yeah. So keep it that way, okay? Yes, absolutely.

(53:26):
And continued success doing the mornings on GY. Thank you.
And whatever you choose to do. And we're going to get you to this lunch because
you know everybody that's there.
You've probably worked with a lot of the people that are there. So we got to get you.
We got to arrange a seat. One of the guys that's probably there a lot is Mike Patrick, right?
Yes, he is. Yep, yep. And you and Mike worked for many years.

(53:48):
He retired just a couple years back at GY. I think he's out in Cleveland this weekend. So he is.
He's at a college reunion.
Wow. Yeah. I think he went to Ashland College, right? Yep, exactly.
Yeah, which is now Ashland University, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah.
And yeah, Mike is with some of his old college disc jockey friends,
and they're going to be on the air this actual evening for about six hours on

(54:12):
their old college radio station.
And all, you know, some of the old guys come back and, uh,
And wreak havoc, I'm sure.
Well, Jim, great catching up with you and learning a little bit more about your
career, even though we've known each other all these years.
I didn't know about some of the turns and twists that you've made over the years.

(54:32):
But again, one of the more successful broadcasters in the Capital Region.
Well, thank you. Thanks for inviting me to do this. And now,
where are we going to see this?
Actually, it will post. Yeah, it'll post on May 10th. Okay.
And then we go from there. And I'm always looking for suggestions as to others
that I should be talking to.
Like we have discussed already, I try to catch these people before they pass

(54:55):
on me. It doesn't always work.
There are a few people that I knew very well that I wanted to get on here,
and life and death, unfortunately, just got in the way.
But for the most part, we're trying to capture the history of Capital Region
Radio from the last 50 years and plus.
And we're getting there. I've got a few more on the list, and we'll see how

(55:16):
long we can stretch this out.
Do you think the future of radio is still viable?
Well, you know what? That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?
It's never going to go back to the way it was. But then again, these things happen.
I mean, you look at the fact that in the early 1900s, all of a sudden,
the blacksmith shops were gone.

(55:38):
So the same thing seems to be happening with radio. There are certain parts
of radio that will just never, you know, be the way they were when you've got
so many alternatives as to how you can listen to music and find your news.
Right. You know, and so it makes. A lot of people get their news from the phone.
That's true. Yeah. And it makes it tough for the traditional radio people to

(56:00):
see this happening. But it is what it is.
Pardon me for using that very trite phrase.
But now i i don't miss it
as much as i thought i might when i was after that
earthquake and you know we got six to eight phone calls bang bang
you know and i and some of the tv stations that
out around that day were saying yeah our newsroom was flooded with the

(56:21):
yeah phone yeah yes people you know know you
know okay this has happened maybe wgy
will know exactly or maybe wrgb the wten you
know whatever you still know about it exactly they'll they'll have the story
and uh we we count on you for stuff like that so so that's good that you know
that people can still count on it and i hope that continues for a while yeah

(56:44):
all right james enjoy and thank you for sharing with us thank you thank you chris see you again soon.
Radio Split Ranch. A man who knows what he likes and likes what he knows.
Isn't Jim just the consummate professional?
And he did all that with stops at just four sets of call letters along the way.
So let me get the calculator out here as our running total of call letters that

(57:07):
our 32 guests to date have worked for is kind of getting up there.
We've now reached 315 stations represented by all the professionals we've had conversations with.
So listen, if you're enjoying this broadcasting time travel we're doing here
at the ranch, please tell your friends and leave some comments on our Facebook
page or our home base, podbean.com.

(57:30):
I'm also interested in your suggestions for future interviews.
If I've left out any of your favorite broadcasters who've passed through the
Capital Region over the years, I'm interested in hearing from you.
Drop me a personal note if you'd like at wgarling at aol.com.
As Jim and I referred to in our talk this month, we spent more than a few Saturday

(57:50):
mornings over the years as part of the legendary weekend WGY mainstay Joe Gallagher's broadcast.
Just helping Joe fill in some of the time between his guests on his long-running
show on the 50,000-watt, 102-year-old powerhouse.
And I recorded a few of them for posterity. I'm just that way.
Today we go back almost exactly 10 years to June 22, 2014, when the three of

(58:17):
us did our best to entertain each other and Joe's loyal audience, of course.
Hope you get a kick out of it, and it's enough to tempt you to come back next
month to the Radio Split Ranch.
In the meantime, don't cry because it's over.
Smile because it happened. Partly sunny and increasingly humid on Tuesday with
a shower thunderstorm in the afternoon, high 84. With your AccuWeather forecast,

(58:38):
I'm meteorologist Mike Licinni on 810 and 103.1 WGY.
64 at the airport, 66 here in Latham. I'm Jim Gagliardi.
Next news at 9.30 on News Radio 810 and 103.1 WGY.
The Capital Region's news, traffic, and weather station. Hot diggity dog.
Well, your buddy Chris is here, and I say your buddy. Your buddy Chris and I,

(59:00):
we're disagreeing in here on some things. Uh-huh.
Your friend Chris, he thinks, well, Chris, why don't you tell him what?
What were we talking about? About? I mean, I'm in the other room now.
I can't remember what we were talking about. Well, Casey Kasem.
Oh, certainly Casey Kasem. I was very sad about Casey Kasem.
Absolutely, yeah. He's a very great, a very good performer, announcer.

(59:22):
And where I work on Oldies 98.3, we're doing a two-hour special tribute to him at noontime today.
Oh, really? So people get a chance to tune in. Yeah, his kids,
his son and daughter put it together, and it's very nice. Oh,
really? What are their names?
Thanks, Joe, for hanging me out. I've forgotten their names.
I didn't know if they were like, start with, like I saw, I saw yesterday watching
college baseball, Texas, by the way, a local fellows on one of the Virginia Vanderbilt.

(59:47):
But anyway, we were watching the Texas game and Roger Clemens, his son plays on Texas.
His name is Casey, K-A-C-Y. He's got a son named Cody as well.
So I'm wondering if Casey Kasem had similar names for his kids. I don't think so, no.
Alliteration is what you're going after, yeah. Jim is Jim. Jim,
Chris, your friend Chris from Boston, who wowed away his hours there,

(01:00:11):
by the way, as we know, is a big fan of the Kardashians. No, I'm not.
Oh, you didn't say that? No, I didn't say that. We were talking about Casey
and how when he left American Top 40 the second time in 2004 that Ryan Seacrest took over for him.
Oh, yeah, Ryan Seacrest. And then you were saying something about you didn't
think he was very talented. I didn't say that.

(01:00:31):
I have met Ryan Seacrest in person. I didn't say he wasn't very talented at all.
What I said was I didn't think he was on the same level as Casey Kasem. But you said he –,
See that, he's a little sneak in there, out of the room in there.
Your friend, Chris, you both went to the same school in Boston,
right? Yeah. We learned all this in college.
Sneak university. And you have that two-year degree, by the way, Jim? Yes. Chris?

(01:00:54):
I have a half a degree.
It's an associate's degree. So I call it my half, well, forget it.
Listen, I met Casey, I met Ryan Seacrest.
Yeah, where'd you meet him? On a telethon here locally. Oh, yeah.
I had to introduce him, bring him on. And I said, gee, you know,
Ryan, I said, people have been mistaking me for you all day.
Well, anyway, I told Jay Bobbin that I shook his hand twice in one day and I've only seen his show once.

(01:01:20):
So I said I shook his hand more times, twice as much as I've seen his show.
And then Jay told him in an interview that I said that. He said he got a laugh
out of it. But I didn't say he was. I think he's a talented guy.
I don't put him in the same thing as Casey Kasem. Okay. But then you said he
was off running these Kardashian shows.
Well, yeah. I'm not big on that stuff at all. That's trash.
Neither am I. You know, it's not, but it's not aimed at us.

(01:01:43):
But people are making money off that. That's true. And why are they,
Jim, why, if you had a chance to make money off something that was less than
decent, would you be jumping in the bandwagon?
I probably wouldn't, but a lot of people would, so, you know.
All right, and here's another one over here now. We got another one,
another little buddy from Boston.
Boston's a pretty liberal town anyway, right? Massachusetts tends to vote Democratic.

(01:02:05):
Yeah. No doubt about it. Yeah. All right.
Well, anyway, Chris. How did we get all the way from that to politics?
That's pretty cool. Very good, Joe. That's very good, Joe.
I'll tell you, you don't miss a trick here. G-dog.
So, Chris, what's new? Oh, gosh. You know, like I said, Casey at noontime today,
that tribute, I'm looking forward
to listening to it myself while I'm painting my deck this afternoon.

(01:02:27):
You're painting your deck? Is it good? Do you have an advance word,
Chris, if it's going to be like some of his countdown shows or some personal
moments, private moments?
I know I'm not positive on that, but I would think since it's his kids that
there will be some fun memories from the family side of things.
You're holding back. You're under an embargo.
Oh, I have not listened to it myself, so I can't tell you. He sounds like.

(01:02:48):
I'm a part-timer, Joe. Remember?
You know what part-timers get around here.
I find out usually after the fact. You would make a great presidential spokesperson,
right? You'd be the one the media's after.
Oh, I will. I really don't know at this point. You know darn well.
You probably heard the whole show already. No, I have not. Okay,
now he's giving me that Jay Carney look.
Jay Carney. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the former, yeah. He's kind of the former president.

(01:03:11):
Yeah, former, because his last day was, I think, Friday or whatever.
Okay. My last day might be today.
Why is that? I don't know. I just never know where these are going.
You never broke the embargo.
You kept the embargo solid, although you've probably seen the show three times.
And he's telling us with a straight face, I have no idea. I'm just glad I came

(01:03:33):
in at nine o'clock and not at eight o'clock, because I don't know,
that name, that tune that he puts you through, Jim, all the time is just amazing.
Well, how would you do on that? You do pretty well yourself.
I would do okay. Okay, now the original name, that tune, if you remember,
they didn't play the original songs.
They had people singing, you know, the song.
I had trouble with that occasionally because there's something,
I think, in your brain where you know the song, but if it's not the original,

(01:03:55):
you're not sure what the name is or who did it or whatever.
Right. But usually the first few notes of, you know, of a song,
when you've played them as long as, you know, Jim and I have been around them, yeah, you know them.
Wow, yeah, you guys have been around for a while.
I opened myself up for that, didn't I?
Actually, 45 years this Tuesday. Congratulations. 45?
45 years this Tuesday is my anniversary of falling in love with on the radio.

(01:04:19):
You've been doing this longer than I've been alive.
I mean, that's amazing. Yeah, right. That is absolutely amazing.
That's why I really, you know, do you play crossword puzzles,
keep your mind going okay?
No, I'm serious. Actually, I do.
Okay, because I'm president of the Young Bucks Club here at WIU.
We have a little PSA out for our older colleagues. Yeah, G-Dog's tail is wagging

(01:04:41):
here because he's telling fibs.
We want you to play crossword puzzles, keep your mind active,
take all your medications. Sure.
We want you to, I forget the third one, but the fourth one is use your signal lights.
Oh, use my signal lights and don't leave them on. Don't take the eventual left.
Yeah, we want you guys, we appreciate you, the older folks, we love you guys.

(01:05:07):
So the young bucks wanted you to know that. that okay so
because you don't look happy what's wrong no i'm fine is everything
okay everything is this idea to paint your deck yours
or your wife's well yeah here we go
i'm getting it now yeah yeah i'm sensing it yeah if it were
up to me i would have left it natural years ago but
this is like the fifth time i've had to stain it in the last you know

(01:05:27):
10 years do you ever say like why don't you do it yourself do you ever want
to no no no joe i i love my wife we just had our 36th anniversary well you threw
me with ryan seacrest i'm trying to throw you in now with your with your wife
is all i'm just the poor thing probably sitting home saying i had nothing to do with that.
You shouldn't call me Mr. Gallagher because I'm a younger guy.

(01:05:49):
So what are you up to today? You're going to go out on your hog? Yeah.
Jim said you got out pretty close to that when you opened your car door.
You know, I almost ran over it. I didn't see it there at first. Oh, stop.
You think it's too small? Yeah, I think it's too small, Jim.
Yeah. I want to get a big motorcycle.
Oh, yeah. I think that's the next step. Yeah, the next step.
And then the one after that is that coffin-shaped thing that puts you in the

(01:06:10):
ground here. Oh, listen to that.
Chris Warren, a little zinger there, right? A little zinger is right.
Well, all right. As long as you're not going to tell us what the Casey Kasem
show is about. You have to listen. You have an embargo.
We'll buy into that. And anyway, Chris, no, it is good to see you again.
I wish we had a little more time, but you're. That's okay.
You're rushed today. I'm glad I was able to stop by and say hi.

(01:06:31):
And good luck painting your deck.
I'll be listening to Casey Kasem at noontime today. The tribute while I'm doing
that. If your wife lets you. Yes. Right.
Although you've already heard the show three times.
All right. Well, Chris, thank you. That's on our sister station.
What, what call there's 98, three. Oh yeah. Okay.
Well, I do enjoy listening to you on there. And I hear Chris.

(01:06:51):
All right. And Jim, thank you. Chris.
Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Andrew. Thank you. We're going to come back with
a veterinarian. Oh, you might find this interesting.
I'm not sure. Chris said about animals. Do you have an animal?
No, we don't have any animals, but I respect those that do.
And yeah, the summer care for the animals. Very important. They're just like
us. They get hot. They get all right. G-dog you get hot, right?
G-dog is not an animal. Okay.

(01:07:14):
We'll be right back in a moment. It is 916 WGY. Good morning.
People can't get enough of Peaches Cafe. I can't tell you how many omelets I can eat.