Celebrating Three Years of Radio Split Ranch: A Conversation with Diane Donato

Episode Transcript
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Music.

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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.
This month's podcast marks three years since we started this adventure of capturing
the history of modern radio and television from the Albany, Schenectady,
Troy, New York market with the words of those who actually lived it.

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Our journey stretches from the early 1960s through the third decade of the 21st century so far.
And believe it or not, I still have at least 20 names on my interview wish list.
And I'm sure my list isn't complete. So please don't hesitate to be in touch
with suggestions for who else you'd like to hear from, from the Radio Split Ranch.

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My email is wgarling at aol.com or you can leave me a note on Facebook or our host site podbean.com.
Your comments, reviews, Views or questions are always welcome.
This month, I spent a splendid hour in the company of one of your favorite female
voices we've all enjoyed on Capital Region Radio and TV as both an entertaining

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air personality and professional newscaster.
Her successful, diverse path through some of the region's top signals is a testament
to her determination and tenacity in what was a male-dominated business for so long.
I know you'll enjoy our conversation with the delightful Diane Donato.
I have to admit from the start...
I haven't had enough females on this podcast, so I'm very happy Diane Donato

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is here today. How are you doing?
I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much. No, it's not for lack of trying.
It's for lack of the fact that back in the day, which is what we talk about,
there weren't as many female, you know, air personalities and even news people.
You know, when I started. How about you? You never, you noticed this.
Yeah, yeah. You picked up on that. Yeah. No, it was always the case,

(02:01):
and it still is the case, not as much in television news, but radio, for the most part,
has been, I don't know, five guys to every woman. Seems that way. At least, yeah.
Yeah, it does seem that way. And there are pluses and minuses to that, too.
Sure, sure. It's nice to have a different voice from everybody else on the air. Exactly.

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So that helps you stand out, obviously. easily.
So where does this love come from? First of all, are you a local girl?
I am local. I grew up in Albany County and now live in Schenectady County.
See how far I've gone? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. I read somewhere that most
Americans die within 50 miles of where they were born. Isn't that interesting?
Well, that's a cheery thought. Yeah, yeah. Well, not that I want to talk death, but it's true.

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We seem to gravitate, and if we go away, we seem to come back. Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. There's something about Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So, where'd you go to school?
I went to school in Voorheesville. Clayton A. Boughton High School is the official
name of it, but it's Voorheesville.
Yeah, I've got some friends out that way. Yeah, yeah.
When was the interest in broadcasting sparked?

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Was it something you thought of at a young age?
No, and that's an interesting thing because you brought up guys and...
Guys and girls, men and women. I think a lot of the men I've met in broadcasting
knew from a really early age and had their own, they were doing their own thing
in their basement pretty much, right?
Oh, yeah, we had our own little radio stations. How many of those people have

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you heard those stories, right? Yeah, that's me.
That's right, a lot of men. And a lot of the women that I met along the way,
it was more of an offshoot from either theater or English teachers, things like that.
Interesting. Yes, it was a little bit of a later thing. So, I was one of those
theater types in high school.

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Okay. And then- Okay, now you gotta mention at least some titles.
Were you in any titles of anything?
That'd be a little bit difficult to say because I was actually involved in the
Empire State Institute for Performing Arts, which is down at the Egg. Yeah, sure.
And so, I did that for about four years, every Saturday going down, taking classes.
Excellent. Wonderful people there, of course, passed away.

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But Joe Balfiore was the drama teacher, and he was just a beautiful human being.
And the kids all loved him, and we had great experiences there.
So did you think that's where your future might be in acting, maybe?
Well, yes and no. So I enjoyed it. I liked it. I love the written word.
But I have a very practical side. I certainly wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

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So when I saw a commercial for the New School of Radio and Television,
at about 16 years old, I had this very pragmatic thought that,
well, stories of people failing as actors and actresses are legendary.
And how many jobs are there?
But there are radio stations in every city. All over the place.

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Everywhere there are radio stations.
And maybe I could get a job in radio.
How about that? Yeah. That's very logical. It was pretty logical.
I'm a little surprised looking back on it. Of course, I didn't look into what the pay was.
Welcome to the club. Most of us didn't. Didn't realize about that vow of poverty,
but still, I was so excited to go to the school.

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10 weeks. Yeah. I still remember. And you're doing this at 16, you're doing this?
So I went, well, I actually graduated high school a year early.
Good for you. So I turned 17 in August that year, went to the new school that
fall, and had my first job when I was 17.
There you go. I was barely 17. Yeah, well, pretty much the same story with me.

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I was 16 the first week, or what was it? Yeah, only for about a month.
Yeah, and then I turned 17. Yeah.
But unlike you, knew from the age of 11 that that's what I wanted to do,
you know, and I just pursued it.
And my parents never, you know, thought to look into what kind of money you
would make in this industry.

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They just figured, hey, he likes what he wants to do. He knows what he wants
to do. Let him go, you know.
I remember clearly when I went for the tour at the new school and they said,
oh, you're accepted. We'll take your money.
But my father was adamant. Well, will they guarantee you a job?
And I thought, well, nobody's going to guarantee you that.

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But they were looking out for me. And then when I did get my first job,
of course, I was working overnights and difficult times of day like that.
Well, it was WWOM at the time, became K-Lite. And WABY, yes.
And shout out to John Knott. Thank you, John, for listening to my tape and hiring

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me. But my parents were just so surprised that they would trust their radio
station to this teenager.
Realistically looking back on it, I see what they meant.
That's true. You must have done the same. You were there. Yeah,
my parents drove me for the first summer.

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They had to drive me back and forth because I didn't have a license.
And there you were in charge of the radio station for all intents and purposes.
Who would have thunk? They never said anything like that to me,
you know, but my mom always thought I was more mature for my age anyway.
So she figured, you know, I guess I never asked her about that.
What did you think of your son, you know, going into a radio station and running

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the place for, you know, four or five hours, you know, that is interesting.
So, and, you know, you brought up the new school where I worked for a few years
and we were very proud of our placement rate.
Now, we didn't guarantee career in the business, and we didn't guarantee a first
job, but we did everything possible to get folks in.

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And I think our success rate for the first gig was like 90%.
It was amazing. Yeah, really.
And I think most classes were only about 10 or 12 students, which I think that
helped. Yes. There certainly were more jobs.
As time went on, it was probably harder to keep that kind of placement.
I'm sure. Sure, I'm sure, yeah.
But at the time, it was there. And you know, this is something that I think

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is worth saying, because when I reflect on my career, I think about this sometimes. I'm not...
Fishing for compliments here, but there were people who were more talented than me in that class.
And they didn't pursue it. They didn't stick with it, whatever.
A lot of them didn't, some of them didn't land jobs.

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But I think, you know, it's a combination to make it in this business.
I think you have to have some talent and then you also have a lot of perseverance. You do.
You do. I taught voice acting for the last 10 years of my career before retiring.
And that was even a tougher business because I'm teaching upwards – we taught
upwards of 600 kids, people a year, most of them adults actually.

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And you think about it, I mean, there are unlimited jobs out there for voice actors.
But boy, if you didn't know how to market yourself and how to persevere,
and that was the biggest question we had from people is, how am I going to get the job?
And so, you really have to want it.
And it's the same with radio. I mean, we got that first gig for folks,

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and if they really didn't, you know, pursue it, it was their problem,
you know, not ours. Yeah. You know, exactly.
And I also think there's something to be said for being the dependable nuts and bolts.
You know, that you're going to show up for your shift, and you're going to do
what you need to do to get it done, and, you know, not bring a lot of drama.

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Yeah, yeah. And not say no to anything. If somebody said, can you do the news this hour?
And then, I don't know, I guess, you know. I would say that's a story of my
life. There you go. Yeah. Yes.
Exactly. Yeah. So you wound up at the old WWOM and John Knott was the person that hired you.
And I know you've heard me tell this story before and I'm listening to you on Sunday afternoon.

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I think that lovely lady you met on the way in was probably in the car with
me and she always enjoyed listening to you, my wife.
And you're playing. You're not going to tell us again, are you?
I've got to tell this story. I don't think we've captured this story yet.
But now this happens to everybody in the business, especially when you're young and new.
You're playing music, some of it that was popular before you were born.

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Oh, yes, it was. Easily, yeah. Oh, yes, it was. So, you know,
I mean, and so you played a song by the Tremolos.
And at the end of the song, you just came out and said, and there's the Tremolis. Goldies.
And I looked at Marie. She looked at me because she knew it was a tremolo.
It was no offense. You know, I said, how old is this girl?
That made it stand out. That made me stand out in your memory.

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So it was worth it. Well, that and I knew John.
So I gave him a call the next day and asked him that question.
And he said, you know, I'm not positive, but she is very young. Yes.
You know, and I said, well, just let her know it's the tremolos, you know. Yeah.
I wish I could say that was the worst mistake I ever made.
I'm sure I made many others, and some of them still to this day,

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you know, give me a little gut punch because I can think of a time at GY when
it was one of those breaking news type of things.
Oh, boy. Somebody handed me something with a mistake in it, and it went out.
And, you know, you can apologize all you want afterwards, but.
It sticks with you. It sticks with you. It does. It does.
But it's funny because this is a type of job.

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One thing my mother said, too, is you're going to have to have a thick skin.
Oh, absolutely. Which you have to, to a certain extent.
But what other kind of job is there where everybody can constantly see your performance?
Yeah, exactly. And it's live. Exactly. And that's what it is.
And so, you know, all the people that you love who are in different jobs.

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They don't necessarily have to be told every time they've made a mistake.
Not everybody notices every time. Yeah, exactly.
But it's all right because, you know, you learn from your mistakes and you can't,
you know, you can't help people ribbing you and having a little fun with you too.
Exactly. And I think I've told this story before, but I'm on the air in Boston

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at my college station and I'd never been east of the Hudson before.
And so I'm reading a news story and I say, we're Chester. And when the newscast
is done, the news director pops his head in the door and yells,
Worcester, and slams the door.
Worcester, probably. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it happens, especially with names of towns.

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We hear it here all the time. We know when somebody's from out of town because
they mispronounce those things.
And we're bouncing around here a little bit, I guess. But when I did wind up
working at iHeart and WGY, I know that some of your other guests have already
spoken about this, that we wound up being a hub.
So we were providing newscasts to other markets.

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And Worcester happened to be one of my markets. Oh, there you go. And I did.
And all the different names. And you want to do a good job for the community,
even if it's not your own community.
Sure. I think when we started doing that, fortunately.
I was able to listen to their morning show online and start to get,
so I'd work in some of these markets that were a little further away.

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I would literally be just listening to them in the background while I got ready
in the morning to try to, but we still would make mistakes and get calls.
It's going to happen. Absolutely.
All you could do is, you know, do your best. Yeah.
You know, the crazy thing is about radio, it's here and then it's gone.
That's true. So people will remember certain things, but moments later,

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the person that tuned in had no idea you mispronounced that, you know?
So, I mean, the audience is always changing and, and I learned that very early on.
I was told by one of my, I guess my first boss, don't go back and correct yourself
from something you said before the last record, because half the people listening
weren't there when you made the mistake.
So it doesn't matter. Just let it go and move forward. Yeah.

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But it's a learning process and obviously you, you learned as,
as you went along, but But, no, that's one of my favorite stories.
I know I've told it in your presence before with others around,
but I thought we'd get it, you know.
Get it out of the way. Get it out of the way and on the historic market.
But it's, hey, it made me remember you.
It did. You know, and for whatever reason. But, you know, when I met you years

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later, I said, oh, I remember this girl. This is the one I called John about. Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, so how long did that last? Now, was it a full-time gig?
No. No, I started out part-time for the longest time. Okay.
And I did, as you mentioned earlier, I did everything under the sun.
So I was there a total of seven years. Wow, good for you.

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Yes. And in that time, I did different shifts. I did late night love songs.
Oh, there you go. I'd fill in on late night love songs.
I think I had weekend shifts. I did continuity and copywriting.
Good for you. For a while. Yeah. I did that quite a long time.

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We used to do spec spots, which I think that's something that I don't know.
How many people who aren't in the business are listening to this.
But for people who aren't, spec spots were where we would basically create a
commercial for a potential client.
The salesperson would go out and try to sell it. Yeah. Say, listen to this that

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we put together for you. Yeah. Wouldn't you like to hear this on the air?
And I think that was a pretty smart thing that used to happen. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Sometimes it didn't.
But it was good and it kept us all busy. I want to let you in on my personal secret.
It's about my hair. My hair is one of the most important things I do for myself.

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I won't trust just anyone with my hair. I trust Floss Hair Designers.
I go to the one in Colony Center in the Floss Bee Foreman Store.
But they've got Floss Hair Designers in Mohawk Mall and Stuyvesant Plaza as
well. Well, what I love most about Floss Hair Designers is that the stylists
won't even start to work on my hair without asking a lot of questions to get

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a real sense of what my needs are.
They also do my nails, which have never looked better. You know,
I've never been happier with my hair.
I think it's because Floss Hair Designers maintain the Floss reputation,
which has always meant the ultimate in quality and fashion.
Floss Hair Designers, in the Floss B. Foreman stores, Colony Center,

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Mohawk Mall, and Stuyvesant Plaza.
So I did that. I started doing public affairs programming back in that time.
Wow, good for you. So you really, well, like I did, I mean, you learned a little bit of everything.
I mean, I even did a classical music hour up in Saratoga. Right.
Mispronouncing every classical artist. Oh, absolutely. Oh, my goodness.
And people who love classical music generally do know their.

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Oh, sure. Boy, that's a tough.
I was not building an audience for sure. I'm sure you were.
But you just have to work with people and say, yeah, tell me how to say it so
I can say it correctly next time.
So what was putting food on your table? Because part-time at a radio station.
And also I wound up spending two years in sales there too. And that was full-time.

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Okay. Okay. Yes. So I was full-time there.
And that was tough. And it was a recession, but it was a great learning experience.
I had multiple jobs, I think, as a lot of people do in this business.
You worked a little here and a little there.
I was still very young, right? So I started at 17.

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And was there seven years. I was there until I got married at about 24.
Gotcha. But I went back to school in that time.
Okay. And I was living at home, of course, too, for some of it.
So I didn't have to worry completely about putting meals on the table.
What did you study in school? What did you think you might want to do?
This is a little funny. Early childhood education.
Interesting. Which became a little bit of a joke that way I could deal with

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all the immature people that I was working with.
In the business, yeah. And let's just say in the, this was in the 1980s. Okay.
And yeah, it was a very different landscape in broadcasting then.
Yes. A lot of different silly things going on. And I did work in that field
a little bit, which again, did I learn my lesson?

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Also, not a good paying job. Oh, no. Overall. Oh, boy. Yeah.
But I loved it. And eventually I've, you know, come around to a job now where
I'm working in communications with schools.
So I kind of have a little bit of, it all came together.
Yeah, it seems to sometimes work that way. Yeah. So let's talk about some of the folks.

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I mean, if you were there seven years, even though part-time for a lot of it,
a lot of talent came through those stations.
That station as it changed and grew and changed call letters and such.
So what are your memories like of some of these folks? I can tell you a couple
of funny things, because WABY was there too, right, which was the Music of the Stars.

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Yeah. Oh, and that's another place where I got the opportunity to mispronounce
people. Well, sure, sure.
So you're playing stuff- Because it was even older. Pre-rock and roll you're playing.
That's a riot. But I worked with Bill Edwards in there.
Oh, wow. And he's a bit of a legend in the area. Absolutely, yeah.
And Bill christened me one day the Parmesan snorting rock and roll princess. Oh, wow.

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Which, I mean, he called me a princess. I think he liked me.
That part was nice, yeah. Maybe.
And it was just funny. He was just, he was Bill.
He was how I was. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, he ruled the airwaves here for quite a
while on a couple of different stations.
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and, you know, he would do all these different spots

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and endorsements for people.
But a lot of times as a copywriter, I was kind of writing in Bill's voice.
Sure. To give an example for him, something to work off of.
And David Allen was there and he had an incredible imagination and he would
do these theater of the mind things doing the afternoon shift.

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Bob Gordon was doing middays at the time.
And all of them were, as other people have probably told these stories,
carrying in albums, making their own playlist.
They were doing their own thing. And it was certainly a learning experience
to see how much that they cared about what they did and the work that they would put into it. Yeah.

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And your format changed on OM and K-Lite, right, as you were there?
It did a little bit, right, yeah.
And so, of course, there was John and Steve Hornbeck was somebody I worked with for a long time there.
Who else did we have? There were just Bill Law, I think, did Evening.
I remember that name. Yep. And Marianne Heffernan.
Oh, there you go. Sure, sure.

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There's another one, right? I want to say I may have taught Marianne at this
new school. I don't know. For some reason, that name all of a sudden rings a bell.
Stays in there. Yeah, yeah. I forgot to ask you, who were your teachers at the school?
Charlie Mertz and Tom Hahn. Tom Hahn, yeah. They were quite the duo.
They were wonderful. Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, great, great guys. I worked with them for about five years.

(21:34):
I loved every moment with them. Yeah. Yeah. Just, they were great. Cool. Don Fields.
Sure. Did news. Yeah. And Don, I think, was one of the first people to start
talking to me about going into news.
Interesting. Yes. So you're going to blame him, huh? I can blame Don on that.
And I kept turning people down. And I was young, and I was naive.

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But one of the funny thoughts I had about not going into news was I thought,
well, I don't know enough.
Which, I mean, it's good to have a little bit of that. But my thought process
was these people on the news doing newscasts, they know everything.
And later on, I realized, no, it's better to not know everything.

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Exactly. To have an open mind.
Exactly, yeah. But yeah, Don was a good guy too there.
Yeah, Don and I go way back. I interviewed him here a few months ago.
And he's also the reason that I had such a lousy Friday last Friday.
I'm sorry, I have to tell this story. Remember when the internet came crashing
down last week? Yes, yes.

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Well, I work part-time because of Don, because he works there too,
part-time at the information booth at the airport.
At the airport, right. And so last Friday, instead of the usual couple hundred
people we talked to on the phone or at the desk, we talked to almost 400 people that day.
Coming up to us saying, where's my plane? Why can't I get on this plane?
When am I going to get out of here? Where's my luggage?

(23:00):
Yeah. The whole thing. Yeah. So I had, and I was subbing for Don when that happened last Friday.
So I reminded him. I said- You didn't even have him at your side to- Yeah, no, nope.
It was all, I was on my own for the last few hours of the shift and it was something.
Yeah. It was interesting.
But your career in radio has prepared you for that. Absolutely.

(23:21):
You never know what you're going to get thrown into. And it's like you were
just alluding to, when you're not sure of the facts, just make them up.
So last night people are calling and saying, well, I'm told my flight's not
going to leave now until after midnight. It's being delayed.
Doesn't TSA close at a certain time? I said, yeah.
So I started telling people, you really should be here before TSA closes or

(23:43):
you're not going to get into the terminal.
And I wound up talking with TSA and finding out they were going to stay open late because of this.
So I learned some things last night. And last night, again, I was subbing for Don.
He's taken a few Fridays off, and I've been subbing for him.
In any event, a great guy to learn from.

(24:04):
I can tell you from the airport extent, but he and I were buddy-buddy back when
we were both news directors at different radio stations back in the early 70s.
And so I learned a lot from the man, even though he was only maybe a year or
two older than me, had more experience than I did in news. Just a wonderful
human being and a great voice. Oh, yes, yes.

(24:24):
Whenever he makes an announcement over the PA at the airport,
we've actually had people come up and say, I know you.
And they had to maybe be reminded, but they remembered his voice from the years on the radio. Yeah.
So anyway, seven years at one station.
And for starters, that is kind
of a record, even though part of it was part-time. Most of it. Yeah, yeah.

(24:47):
And the sales thing, how did you like that?
I mean, you did it for a couple of years, full time, really?
There were things I really liked about it. I liked getting to know the clients,
and I liked the creative side of it.
But it was a difficult time as far as everybody's finances, and people had pulled back on advertising.
So it was such a great learning experience. And it certainly made me...

(25:11):
More aware of what the salespeople are going through and they're such an essential part of the staff too.
It's true. It's true. And understand what, you know, what they're going through
and that came to play in future jobs. There you go.
Understanding that. Yeah. Yeah. I did it for only a couple, maybe three months
at a station down in Mississippi of all places.
And I did not have a problem with the sales part and with the creative part

(25:36):
because I had been creating commercials since I was 16, you know,
but the collections part bothered me the most.
And that was a problem. That was always, it's always a problem in sales,
you know, collecting from these folks when they're getting 30, 60, 90 days.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think at one point the stations had decided
that if it went over 90, you would just lose your commission completely,

(25:58):
which I had to fight back on that a couple of times.
Sure, sure. Because it's like, okay, it came in at 93 days.
Advertising agencies at the time were the worst, right? They knew what they
could get away with, and they would go the 90 days.
Sure. Well, they kept the money and invested it and made money on the money
while it's sitting in their accounts.
We'd like to say they invested it, but at the time, there were a lot more around than there are now.

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So I think a lot of them were just kind of hanging on. That's true,
too. Not an easy job for them, either. Yeah, yeah.
So where did that all lead? So that led to, I think I just decided it was time
to be some other places for a few different reasons. And I bounced around to
a bunch of different stations.
I wound up at WSSV for, I don't know, a few months, during which the current

(26:47):
program director there had me change my name to Diane Desmond. Interesting.
Because you couldn't have three syllables in your last name.
It's just kind of one of these silly things that I bring up because...
Goofy. Just goofy roles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Diane Donato. One, two, three.
Diane Donato. Everybody but that one. Take a year.

(27:13):
Diane Donato. Donato.
No, Donato. I said Donato. You did Notto. Sorry.
No problem. Take three. One, two, three. Diane Donato.
I bounced around a little bit, And then I think what happened,
actually, I worked at the river and GY when it became the river. Oh, were you there?

(27:37):
I was there at the same time as Don Fields was there, of course.
Another great person to work with. Yeah, yeah. And I admire his work ethic so much.
But I was there doing continuity and traffic at one point. Okay.
And we may have been there. We had to have been there at the same time.
I was part-time, but I was there when we switched from Oldies to the River format.

(28:02):
So, yeah, but you were in the office. Oh, sure. Tom Ailey was doing the morning
show at the time. Yeah, absolutely.
And, yeah, I was inside working with, yeah, with a few people.
There were quite a few people there that, you know, maybe aren't as well-known,
some of the background players.
And I think there were some ownership changes, a lot of ownership changes during

(28:23):
those years. There were, yeah. Yeah. Definitely shook things up a bit.
Yep. And I think what wound up happening was I went to WROW to do a voiceover
because I was still doing some of that, some freelance voiceover. Some voice work, yeah.
And I ran into, now you know what, I'm getting the order wrong here,
but that must have been later.

(28:45):
Okay. I did continuity over at ROW too for a while and worked with Jim Gagliardi
too. Oh, yeah, there you go. Sure, sure. Yeah, so.
Everybody's favorite i know and i did a
similar podcast to this once and i think i mentioned jim 15
times in it so yeah yeah so i'm not going to mention
jim anymore okay all right i'm gonna try to bring in

(29:06):
all these other because people are like family and oh
sure i feel you feel badly that you haven't mentioned certain
people afterwards yes yes yes you know and
i i think and i've mentioned this before i've
asked david allen to come and be on the podcast and and
that's one of his reasons why he he's told
me that he doesn't think he can do it he doesn't

(29:27):
want to leave anybody out you know because you are
like family when you're with everybody he won't remember that he worked with
me you know that's certainly possible yeah yeah and you know so and it's understandable
but i'm again i keep twist i keep mentioning him so maybe we'll you know twist
his arm enough that we can get him in here because he certainly was a part of

(29:47):
a lot of us growing up now Now, again,
you're a little younger than a lot of the folks I've interviewed so far,
but we remember him from TV. He was introduced first on local TV.
Yes. And then had a great career in radio.
Yes. So it was fun to catch up with him years later and tell him how big a fanboy
I was, you know, when I was watching him on TV thinking, oh,

(30:10):
maybe I could do that someday, you know.
And now that you mention it, I remember the theater of the mind thing.
He would do it. But John Gray was working at WABY in the newsroom at the time. Cool.
And so that was kind of funny to listen to the two of them because John was,
of course, a lot younger.
And David would have him climbing into his time machine with him.

(30:31):
Good stuff. It was fun. Yeah, yeah. See, that's the sort of stuff I'd love to
be able to preserve. And I don't know if it's out there anywhere.
But everybody tries to bring a little bit of something if they've got any old tapes and such.
And I insert them in post-production here. So you get a little feel for what
was going on at the time. Yeah. Yeah.
So, so ROW doing continuity. So you think that's kind of the way it worked or.

(30:55):
I think I wound up from GY continuity to.
And the river to ROW continuity and some on-air work there, too.
Okay. And then, I don't know, at some point, I must have been,
I went out to my country, WMYY.
Oh, okay. Which was out in Schoharie County. It was a country station that's

(31:16):
not there anymore. And did that for a couple of years because that was full-time.
And that was a really good experience. Now, how'd you do with the country music?
With country music? Was it something that you knew about or listened to?
No, that was another one, right? Right, or you just had to kind of learn,
and I loved it. It was great.
It was wonderful. Sure. And between all of these, how many fairs have we done, right?

(31:36):
Yes. That was the other aspect of this, is you're always doing events and fairs
and pouring beer and filling up balloons and doing all this,
right? And meeting people, which was wonderful.
Yes, yes, yes. Yes. We used to, when we first put WGNA on the air in the mid-70s,
when we went to town for a remote, we brought a balloon machine.

(31:59):
And so we had to know how to blow those suckers up, you know, with using the machine.
And we brought pony rides and a popcorn machine and the whole thing.
I mean, we really, and we had a couple of models dressed up as cowgirls.
I mean, we really went to town when we came to town, if you pardon the pun.
You know, and so it's amazing what you learn.
I mean, I learned how to pop popcorn too. All right. I've got to tell you this

(32:23):
story. This was eventually when I wound up on B95.
We're at an event at the Great Escape and we've got the van there and we're
playing, of course, music.
Quick aside, I think at one of these events, we were judging prettiest baby contest.
I will never do that again in my life.

(32:44):
There's there is no way everybody's happy
at the end of that absolutely the babies don't care but boy
the parents oh my goodness i couldn't believe the
line of people who were in for that and they were all beautiful of course they
were how are you gonna do but here's here's the little side story is that at
one point the van blew a fuse and so we weren't getting any energy or any,

(33:12):
electricity to the speakers, power to the speakers. Sure, okay.
I really don't know much about cars. I really, really, really don't.
Somehow, though, I knew this.
I went into the fuse box of the automobile and I pulled a fuse from something
else and stuck it in. Did you? And we got our sound back.
Wow. But that just is the silly thing about this business is you really know.

(33:37):
You absolutely never know.
Absolutely. What silly thing you're going to have to do. At one time,
I may have, again, I tell these stories so often to different people.
I don't know when I mentioned it here on the podcast, but I'm going out to a
remote once with a sales guy, and the boss wants the sales guy to drive the wagon.
It was an old internet, international harvester pie delivery wagon that we turned

(34:01):
into a remote studio, which was great.
But it had a very heavy roof that we put on the top of it so we could sit up
there doing ball games, football game announcing. Okay.
So he was afraid I was going to go around a corner too fast and tip the darn
thing over. So he says to the salesman, you drive and let him drive your car.
I get in his car and it's a stick shift and I don't know how to drive a stick shift.

(34:24):
So that's what I remember about, you know, stuff that you don't know or do know
that you don't know you don't know, you know, or whatever.
You show up and you do. Exactly. As best you can. Yeah, that's crazy.
So, yeah, I'll remember that. Baby judging contest. There's no winners there.
No, no. It's not a good thing. Not a good thing. Not at the end of the day. No.

(34:45):
So that was for your WMYY during those days?
That was part of B95. Okay, B95. Cool.
All right. My country was great. I was doing middays. I worked with Dr.
J. Richardson.
He was on PTR, maybe. He was around here a long time before.
Yeah, the name doesn't really ring a bell, but that doesn't mean anything for

(35:08):
me. Right here, in your ear.
Okay. And I can't get as low as he did with the voice, but he's a character.
There's a lot of characters, right?
Well, you run into those in this business for sure. Yeah, yeah.
Present company included. I mean, people, I'm sure, have stories that I don't know I want to know.
Right. No, there are some of those. We won't talk about those.

(35:29):
But Kevin Richards, actually, speaking of young, enthusiastic, Kevin Richards.
I think he had already had a little job at a Glens Falls station. It was where he was from.
But then he would drive from Glens Falls out to Schoharie.
I believe that was about the commute he was doing to work.

(35:51):
Yeah. And he was in his teens. Yeah. At the time. And he knew immediately what
he wanted to do and went after it.
Did a wonderful job. Yeah, yeah. He was so talented to start.
Yeah, yeah. But he's put the work into, as we said before, it's not just talent.
He's got a great reputation, a great business, and he's expanded from the everyday

(36:12):
disc jockey stuff to the line dancing, and now he's promoting concerts in the area.
And because he does all that, I can't get him to sit down long enough to talk with me.
Well, he'll have to come in. Yeah, absolutely, or even if I can get him on the
phone for a little while, you know. But he's definitely high on my list of folks
that we want to talk to because, again, he's a lifelong, you know, he's a lifer, as we say.

(36:36):
He is absolutely a lifer. And sadly, I've never wound up at a station with him again since then.
Yeah, but you knew him in the early days. We were friends then,
yes. Yeah, how about that? So where did that lead, MYY?
MYY, I don't know. At some point or other, I wound up again over at the B-95 studios.
Okay. When I think, I also had been at, when it was WROW AMFM with Jim Gagliardi

(37:01):
and his brother, Bill Gagliardi was the sales manager.
And I think Joe Myers was somebody there.
Bill Shalcross was doing the mornings. I was there at one point.
Another great voice. At that point, right?
And they had the big realtor, well, what were they? The cartomatics for the
AM that we would babysit a little bit.

(37:22):
Yeah, automation. You know, doing a little, again, a little of the on-air work
and behind-the-scenes work.
But at some point or other, through consolidation, which we both went through
that too, when you went from just being allowed to have an AM-FM was all you
could have in a market to that you can have a bunch. Right. I wound up,

(37:43):
Eventually, back when Albany Broadcasting, I guess, was purchasing B95,
I think I left for a while.
There was no job for me, but wound up there at a time when Buzz Brindle was
starting to get things off the ground.
And we wound up working together, and that was great. Oh, boy.

(38:05):
Wonderful. Another great pro. Absolutely.
Absolutely loved working for Buzz. Yeah. And I think Chuck Taylor and Chris
Smith had begun the morning show there, but I think after a year or something,
she had too many other things to do.
And they were looking for somebody to work with Chuck.

(38:25):
And that's when I really started doing more news than I had done.
Gotcha. The other interesting thing about that, and it doesn't seem that remarkable
now, but at the time, it was a big deal.
Because it had been a consolidation, there was the Albany Street property for
Albany Broadcasting, and then RWAM-FM had always been on Northern Boulevard.

(38:52):
So for, I think, the first 18 months to two years, Chuck and I did the morning
show in two different buildings.
Seriously? Yes. He was over on Northern Boulevard and I was on Albany.
Albany Street. Yes. That's wild.
I was in the newsroom there. Yeah. And I don't really remember why they did

(39:13):
that that way. I think it was just all the news resources.
The AP was pumped in over there. and maybe we didn't have the AP elsewhere.
Got me. I don't know, but. Wow.
So that kind of pulled into a little bit of, you know, I'd done a lot of different.
And jockeying all over the place. I knew about that, but now I was starting
to get into more of the news aspect of it.

(39:36):
Which is what you became famous for later in your career. Absolutely.
Yeah. So an easy transition though, because again, you had done a little bit
of both, you know, all along the way.
Yeah. I mean, I did everything except mow the lawn up in Saratoga,
you know, and he may have asked me once and I said, I'm sorry,
I'm busy, you know, whatever. But you really do when the business was mom and pop owned, if you will.

(40:01):
You worked in promotions for a while here and there, right? A little bit of everything.
Exactly. But then Chuck and I were together for seven years. Wow.
Seven years of doing the morning show. And it was a good experience.
Sure, sure. Really had a great time. And it worked. That show really did well in the ratings.

(40:21):
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. You know, credit to Buzz for really having
his finger on the pulse about what we were doing.
And he, of course, came into it with great credentials, too.
Yeah, yeah. He's been where you're seated and shared that with us.
Anybody that's worked in the number one market in the country and helped found

(40:42):
MTV certainly comes with some credentials.
Some credentials. Yeah. And I think in a time when you didn't have all the data
available to you now. Yes.
He still was able to pull and come up with a really smart plan in 1995.
He had spent a lot of time massaging that sweet spot of what was missing in

(41:05):
the market. There you go.
And where that place would be. He did a great job.
So, yeah, Chuck and I, of course, doing a morning show with somebody is you
spend so many hours together. Although, again, in the beginning,
we weren't physically together.
There you go. Yeah, yeah. It's a tight relationship.
They become your work spouse. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

(41:27):
And just go through so many important personal events together,
children being born and all of that, too, and then being professional on the
air, too. Absolutely. Keeping it going. Exactly.
You know, you reflect on things. I guess I have to say in that last few months
right before I left, unfortunately, it was 9-11.

(41:50):
And at that point, we'd all moved into one building, of course.
Matt Vischer, who is somebody who's done a lot of meteorology around here,
was part of our group back in the newsroom there.
And Mary Rozak had been part of that group. Cool. And Steve Janak, a lot of others.
But I remember Matt being there on 9-11 with us.

(42:13):
And I think I'd done my last break of the day, technically.
Generally, this would have been, I was done for the day. And that's when...
Planes started to hit and just the
disbelief that we had had to
turn into quite a day for you i'm sure it did and
the days following and in fact it was a a show where we generally were playing

(42:37):
music sure and talking having long bits in between but the next day we just
went wall-to-wall talk yeah which was a different thing for us that's what the
the clear channel folks did as well you know The music stopped for a while, yeah.
And there was like 48 hours of just straight news coverage on all their stations in the market, yeah.

(42:58):
Yeah, and the great uncertainty that the community had. Sure.
Taking calls from people who didn't know whether or not their loved ones were
still alive. Oh, yeah, yeah.
It was one of the roughest things. I will always remember fondly the fact that

(43:18):
the stations, everybody was looking for what can you do to help, of course.
So we organized, and by we, I mean many people, not me particularly.
I was on the periphery of this. I was on air mostly for the work,
but organized a blood drive and donation center in the parking lot.

(43:42):
There were lines. Yeah. Lines of people who wanted to roll up their sleeve and give blood. Yeah.
To try to take care of those in trouble.
Sure, sure. And there were people who had work boots, and they were bringing
work boots to donate. Wow, yeah.
For people. For the guys working at Ground Zero, yeah.

(44:02):
Yeah. Yeah, and so that always kind of gives me chills to this day. Yeah. What-
The community did in response then. And I'm glad that we were able to be a conduit
for that because that's the most important thing about this business, right? Yes.
And I always will say, too, we were kind of the social media, radio especially.

(44:22):
Absolutely. Social media before social media. True. Because your DJs were much
more accessible than so many other people.
You could call them up and talk to them for late night love songs or whatever.
Right? You could be in touch with people in a way that I think social media
has capitalized on that desire that people have for connection.

(44:42):
Yeah, true. And we had that going on a lot.
And we were always, local radio always did that. We were there for the community.
Exactly. And it's made such a difference. It's been a great partnership in that regard. Yeah, yeah.
Unfortunately, not as prevalent today as it was. Again, because social media
has kind of, you know, the internet's kind of taken that over.

(45:05):
Right, it has. And there are still things, and some of the really small stations,
I think, are in a better position to keep their finger on the pulse than some of the larger ones.
That's true. And there are advantages and disadvantages to all the different
ownership types of things.
Exactly. No, the stations on the periphery of major markets and even medium-sized

(45:25):
markets, they're doing just fine serving that audience, you know.
And still, I listened to a station online from Long Island the other day,
and they're still reading the school lunch menus and doing the obituaries in the morning, you know.
So, I mean, that's stuff that dates back to the 50s and 60s when,
you know, that station super served, you know, their immediate constituency. Yeah.

(45:48):
So listening to the homogenization this day on most stations,
you just don't get that anymore.
No, no. It's just not happening yet. And as professionals, we understand.
Why that's happened. Sure. We understand that that's going to need to happen
in some places, but it's nice to see it when it's still hyper-local too.

(46:09):
It's always been a business.
It always has. And that's something that took me a long time to really understand.
And that's why for the longest time, because I was a DJ and news for a while,
then mostly disc jockey and program director, I was always at odds with the sales staff.
And I shouldn't have been, obviously, because they were our bread and butter.
That's how I was getting paid, as meager as it was.

(46:33):
But it's always been a business.
Unfortunately, today it's big business. It's international business with the owners.
And so they're looking to make the bottom line look as good as it can,
despite the fact that you've put thousands and thousands of people out of work.
And that love affair between the community and the station, though,

(46:56):
has suffered for that. It has.
I agree it has. And that's too bad because I think, yeah, the people who care,
they realize, they hear the difference. Yeah, yeah. And so.
So does this lead into, where does it go from B-95? From B-95 to there. Oh, I know.
I took the longest maternity leave ever. Okay.

(47:18):
Morning shows are tough. Yeah. I wanted to have a second baby, and that's what I did.
Okay. And that's how that came about. So I was out of business for,
I don't know. Is this seven years? Is this my thing?
I don't know. You really were out of the business for seven years?
I was out of the business for quite a long time. Wow.
I didn't even do much freelance work in that time.

(47:39):
I'll be honest. In addition to having my second child, which certainly keeps you busy.
Yeah. You know, I had a father who...
Was dealing with Alzheimer's right around then too. And I didn't really even
want to be booking voiceover work because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to show up for somebody.
And you, as somebody who's done a lot of that, you know that sometimes there

(48:02):
are a lot of people depending on what might seem to somebody else is,
oh, that silly commercial.
But a lot of people put a lot of work into that, and you didn't ever want to
let anybody know. Exactly. And there's deadlines and all that.
You've got to do it when it needs doing. So, I didn't want to not be dependable.
So, I really stayed out of it.

(48:22):
I wound up, when I finally was able to have my daughter in school and think
I could go back to work, I saw that there was a receptionist slash promotions job at GY.
Interesting. And I applied for that. Okay.
And then somebody said, oh, you know, something's happening with Don's show.
Okay. There's going to be some changes. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Which nobody wanted.

(48:46):
Yeah. But that was beyond anybody's control, unfortunately.
I'm talking Don Weeks for the uninitiated, yeah. Yeah, and who was having some
health issues at the time.
So they were looking at what was going to happen.
I was auditioning to be with Chuck Custer. Yeah.
Did all right, but didn't make the final cut. Okay. We all have to live with

(49:09):
those things too, right? There's that thick skin that you need. Right, exactly.
But Chuck was wonderful to work with. Another complete pro.
And he kept me kind of in the back of his mind. He kind of said,
you didn't get this, but we want you for something sometime. Nice, nice.
So eventually when they did start to expand into this hub market idea,

(49:31):
I came in as part of that team with Mike Patrick, who we- Just lost.
The late great. Yeah, yeah.
And John Craig, Jim Gagliardi. There you go. Reed Shepard was already there.
Tom Rigotti was already there.
Yeah. But we, I came in with that and here's another funny story.
For people in radio, is that I also, I had to audition for that too.

(49:54):
I had to do, Chuck put me through a writing test.
He kind of sat me down. Well, he went to sit me down at a workstation and he's, oh, wait, wait, wait.
And then he mentioned a person, one of the guys, he said, don't move those. Those are his coupons.
And I'm sitting there and I'm asking myself, what is this job going to pay?

(50:20):
One of these full timers is an extreme couponer
oh man this could be bad news uh
it was it wound up being a little better than i
thought but anybody in radio i think can relate to
my concerns yeah yeah well when i saw about the talk to my wife who to this
day even though we're retired and you know again fixed income for sure although

(50:41):
i am doing some things on the side yeah she's she's still a couponer because
it got us through the lean days oh yeah oh absolutely Absolutely. Yeah, thank God.
I mean, I still can't figure out how she was able to save enough money for us
to go to Hawaii for two weeks when I was, you know, a program director only
making about $15,000 a year, you know. You were a lucky man. Absolutely.

(51:05):
I found the right woman, let me tell you. Yeah, and she found a way for us to
do it and we didn't have to borrow against the mortgage or anything, you know, so.
I'm lucky too in that regard. Oh, that's good.
That's good. But so I wound up working there, and I wound up filling in on the morning show.
I kind of became the go-to when Kelly was out. Yeah, I remember. Hi, Facebook friends.
Diane Donato in the WGY News Booth. Some of the stories that we're working on today.

(51:29):
One involves a student who had just returned to college this fall.
He is a sophomore, 19 years old, and he was killed in a stabbing.
He's from Ithaca College, but apparently there was a large event at Cornell
nearby and over, I don't know, several hundred, 200, 300 people,
according to the Cornell Student University Union that put it on.

(51:52):
They say there were hundreds of people at this event. Something happened.
There was a stabbing. This 19-year-old was killed. A couple of other people stabbed as well.
Police have not identified a suspect. And in fact, because, of course,
everybody has their phones out these days, they're asking anybody who was at
the party and may have taken some cell phone footage if they would then turn it over to them.

(52:13):
That's one of the stories we're covering today. And I think over how many years
there? I was 11 years there.
I think I must have put in about six months of morning show.
There you go. Duty there. All together, yeah. Which is interesting.
Sure. And working with different people because sometimes Chuck was out too.
So sometimes I co-hosted with Mike Patrick.
Sure. Sometimes I co-hosted with Tred Hulse, George Morris.

(52:36):
I also did weekends for a while where I worked with Joe Gallagher. On and only.
I think that's when you and I started to cross paths more frequently. Again, yeah, yeah.
Right? Actually, you might remember this. You mentioned the Alzheimer's Association a little earlier.
When you, we wound up working together one day in an event where we were trying
to get, I think it was a legislative event or something to get the word out.

(53:00):
And I was on the board at the time of the local Alzheimer's Association.
Association and then lo and behold here you're you're
at this event with me and we got to you know
talk again i it was probably the first time actually
we'd spoken i think when this was happening i didn't realize at that time that
you were still on the maternity leave you hadn't really gone back into the business
yeah so that that sticks in my mind that you were doing that and now i understand

(53:24):
why absolutely yeah yeah but so g y what an experience oh absolutely just to be
able to i mean i never actually got a paycheck from gy
but they were down the hall and i was on the
air there and i did sub a few times for joe and you know so just to be able
to have that on my resume you know you have to say you worked for gy but you

(53:45):
never got a paycheck for what you did yeah all the times you've been on gy it's
funny that's very funny no it's just never worked out that I was on their payroll, if you will.
But if there's an advantage to the conglomeration that's happened where you've
got six or seven stations in one spot, that was it.

(54:07):
I mean, I was actually out of full-time work for about nine months back in the, gosh, when was it?
The mid-2000s, 2006, 2007.
And when I told Randy McCartin, my program director at the part-time gig I had
at TRY. When I told him that at that point, he said, well, I'll give you whatever I can give you.

(54:27):
So I was sometimes in one week, I was on GY, TRY, The River.
I'm trying to think if I did any of the other formats. I don't, I guess those three.
And again, something for Joe, whenever it was necessary. So in those nine months,
he gave me as much part-time work as he could throw my way.
Yeah. To the point where I had

(54:47):
to have a sheet in front of me to remind me what call letters I was on.
I've had that experience. But now let me ask you, did you ever mispronounce the tremolos?
No, never have. Because you were switching a lot of formats then.
That's true. That's true. I'm sure I mispronounced somebody along the way,
you know, yeah, because when I was subbing at the river, I hadn't been on,

(55:08):
I hadn't been playing that music for like five or six years.
And so, yeah, so I'm sure I mispronounced Sade or somebody like that,
you know, yeah. That was a hard one. Spelled S-A-D-E.
Exactly. All right, but older and wiser, we know not to backsell an artist.
We just won't backsell their name. Exactly. Just leave it out.
Leave it out. You don't have to. You know, exactly.

(55:29):
And I've learned that over the years. When in doubt, leave it out.
That's right. Exactly. Oh, yeah, which applies to a lot of things,
right? It does, exactly.
Yeah. So you did quite a stint at GY and then decided maybe there was a better
money-making opportunity elsewhere or better hours?
The hours weren't so bad, but it was time to try some new things too,

(55:50):
which I'm really thankful that I've had this opportunity to do.
I now work as a communication specialist with Capital Region BOCES and we serve
different school districts.
In my case, coming full circle, one
of the school districts I serve is Voorheesville, where I went to school.
And the other one is Middleburg, which is a beautiful community and in some

(56:13):
ways reminds me of how Voorheesville used to be. There you go.
Cool. I feel very connected to both of those districts.
Nicely done. Now, we left out one little thing because you did do some TV along the way.
Did a little TV here and there. Yeah. When I was at B95, I started doing upstate
Ford commercials and infomercials with Ernie Tetro.

(56:36):
Oh, interesting. Got to drop Ernie's name in there.
Ernie, another, look at how many people I've been able to work with.
Oh, man. Wonderful, wonderful people.
Some of the biggest talents in Capital District history. Absolutely.
You're very lucky. Ernie was nothing but a wonderful professional to work with. Yeah, yeah.
Constantly inquisitive. So

(56:56):
we would do these commercials. We did them without cue cards or anything.
We did them almost always on location.
We did some radio commercials that went with it, too.
And in fact, he had to call me D on the commercials because I was Diane Donato on B-95.
And commercials ran elsewhere.

(57:16):
Sure, that makes sense. I didn't want that name there.
But we also did these 30-minute and such infomercials. Cool.
Where we'd talk about maybe the service involved.
And we would go to local museums and shoot there.
He was test driver Tetro driving around in his Taurus. I remember, yeah.
And so it was kind of a setting of this lifestyle of driving around.

(57:41):
Some people assumed we were married, which was kind of funny.
He'd been married to his beautiful wife, Anne, for all those years.
They had a great life together. But at the same time, wherever we'd go,
we'd stop at a diner and get something to eat along the way.
Everybody loved Ernie. Oh, yeah. He loved everybody.
Yep. Same thing that we're talking about, like enjoying being at these remotes

(58:04):
and events. Oh, absolutely, yeah.
And he would be curious about their lives and-
What was their occupation? And he'd be asking all these questions about their occupation.
And I loved it. And he gave me good advice for eventually my news interviewing
techniques and things like that. So he was very generous and very kind.

(58:25):
That was great. And didn't you do some public affairs TV as well? I did.
Well, eventually I got very lucky to be invited to be part of a new show they
were doing at Nextar. They were producing it out of ABC 10 here in Albany,
and it was called Empire State Weekly.
And we did kind of talk, counterpoint, interview on the subjects of the day.

(58:52):
Neat. Which, to Chuck Custer's credit, because let me say, working with Chuck
Custer, doing a morning show, is hours of prep.
Yeah. Hours and hours of prep every day, and then it's very fast moving.
So you work the night before, you get up early the next morning,
and then you stay on your toes the whole time.

(59:13):
But you're trying to pull in as many resources to distill the next day. Sure.
Well, that's exactly what you had to do for Empire State Weekly. There you go.
We'd pretty much on a Thursday find out what the final decision was about what
we were going to tape on a Friday.
Mm-hmm. And so then you'd go deep dive into research on those topics.

(59:36):
Wow. And then I was also very fortunate.
Jeff Wolf was the news director at WGY.
And so he agreed to let me come in a little later on a Friday morning so that
I could go over there and work with Tim Lake, who again, fabulous professional.
Everybody over there, Ryan Mott, I think is still the news director.

(59:58):
But I'd be working in the morning and, you know, Christina would be in there
and everybody was there.
Just very, very helpful. And because it was a transition, I'd been radio all
those years. That's true.
And that was a different beast doing that show.
And we were on two years, and I think I had just gotten a raise,

(01:00:19):
and this little thing called COVID happened.
Oh, yeah. And so that was the end of that.
But it was all a great experience.
And like I said, people were great. It ran around New York State and other stations.
Nice. Yeah. And it was good to be able to provide that service.
Yeah. Well, going all the way back to the early part of our conversation,

(01:00:41):
we were talking about saying a word wrong or pronouncing something incorrectly.
My worst memory about being live on TV, I subbed every once in a while on WMHT
when I was still doing radio and had to do research for this half-hour phone-in talk show.
But what I also had to do was a little bit of about 90 seconds of news headlines

(01:01:02):
at the beginning of every show.
And then I had prerecorded the weather so the guests would sit down while the
weather's being played.
Anyway, I'm reading for the first time. I'd never seen the word before.
I see the word come up in front of me about a jihad. And I said, jahid.
And I have never forgotten that. I, you know, when the whole podcast was over,

(01:01:27):
somebody came up to me and said, by the way, in your Furtin' Loose cast,
you know, that's the word. And I said, oh, okay.
Just, again, I'd never seen the word before. I don't know how much prep time
I had as far as pre-reading the, and the pronunciation may have been right there,
but it just slipped right by me.
Just hit so quickly. Again, you

(01:01:48):
have to be on your feet, you have to keep moving, and that's what you do.
Also, I'll say, in your defense, in your defense, there was a time when...
We were doing a lot more reading than watching.
Yes. You know, we didn't have YouTube. We didn't have quite as many resources
for us to get how to say a thing.

(01:02:11):
That's true. We might have seen it in print a hundred times,
but never really heard anybody say it.
I just did some VO work last week, and it was all about the Hubble Space Telescope
and the new JWST, the John Webb?
Yeah, whatever it was. Anyway, and there were some stars and some other words.
I just go online and type in pronounce such and such, and it pronounces it for me.

(01:02:37):
And I've got it. Isn't that nice? Yeah, but in the day, we didn't have that sort of thing.
We had a pronunciation guide that would come over every day on the wire,
and they would, for the real tough stuff, put it in the copy and show you how to say it.
But if you're reading along, and especially when you're ripping and reading,
which sometimes you did where you didn't have time to prepare the newscast.
And you just ripped it off the wire and read it.

(01:02:58):
Yeah, so those days, they were fun days, but looking back, I think of all the mistakes.
Well, and it was never a lack of caring or concern. It wasn't that you didn't want to be prepared.
It's just occasionally those things happen. Lack of time, yeah.
I am really, really sick of talking about myself.
I've talked way too much. I want to say, as you bring up that you were doing

(01:03:22):
a voiceover for Hubble. Yeah, yeah.
I would choose you for that. Well, thanks. I would. Thanks. You have such a
fabulous voice. Well, I appreciate that, Diane.
And it's not just the voice. It's also the delivery and the personality that
goes beyond it. Well, thanks. Thanks.
I'm not surprised that you've been such a consistent voice in this market.

(01:03:46):
I appreciate it. This is a great thing that you're doing. Preserves a lot, as you said.
That's what I'm trying to do is just preserve this history, you know.
And I don't know. What's it going to mean in 100 years? Probably nothing.
Thing, but it'll be out there.
And if anybody needs to know, it'll be there or just wants to know.
There are certain things you can't find on the internet because they happened
at a time where a lot of that stuff wasn't being recorded in any way.

(01:04:10):
And so even though you think you can't imagine that there's something out there
you can't find on the internet, I've searched for things that I can't find.
I can't tell you off the top of my head what it is. No, that's absolutely the case.
And you need people to pull out their old VHS tapes or whatever to resurface
some things, which is nice when they do.
But even the internet is not forever. It can be forever in ways that you don't want it to be.

(01:04:35):
But, you know, people decide to drop this page or that page.
They lose space on their server. Yeah, that's true. I just recently read that
one of the TV networks has done that.
I want to say it's, what's the retro TV channel, the original one?
Well, one of those. Anyway, you were able to go online and stream a lot of these

(01:04:57):
old TV shows, and they've stopped that service. Right.
And so there are things that, as you say, will eventually be lost to time.
Right. People are maybe purging because they don't want to pay for the server space.
Yep, that's it. Or they've figured out a way to monetize it,
which, you know, people have to get paid. That's true. People have to get paid. Absolutely.

(01:05:17):
Well, thank you for this time. It's been a pleasure getting to know you better
and getting to understand, you know, some of how you got where you are and where you were.
And it's always been a pleasure when we've been able to get together.
I know because you are working, you know, a real job that you haven't been able to go to our lunches.
Keep in mind, we do an August evening event, so there'll be something coming

(01:05:39):
up here soon you'll hear about.
And maybe you'll be able to join us and catch up with some of your old friends
then. I'll add it to the calendar.
I am just so proud that you invited me. Oh, my pleasure. Radio Split Ranch.
Thanks to Diane for being such an easy interview, not only in conversation,
but in post-production. She is so well-spoken that my post-production editing

(01:06:02):
of the ahs and ums was just minuscule.
I think I actually edited more hesitations from my questions than her answers.
I forgot to ask her to tally up how many stations she worked for over the years,
but if I counted correctly during editing,
I believe she adds six stops to our running total of call letters,
which brings to 348 radio and TV stations represented by our 35 guests so far.

(01:06:28):
Time for our monthly Chris Warren time travel feature.
This is where we get to recapture those moments in time that would have been
completely forgotten if it weren't for the cassette recorder found in most of
the radio stations where I worked since 1969.
Those in the business remember when the program director would ask us to air
check our show now and again so we could sit down with the PD for a quick critique

(01:06:51):
of our performance to hopefully help us improve the never-perfect presentation
we practiced on the air every day.
From this collection, this month, I've chosen an historic morning from my eight
years doing Saturdays 6 to 10 a.m. on 99.5 WRVE The River in Schenectady, New York.
If September 6th, 1997 doesn't ring a bell with you right away,

(01:07:15):
perhaps this will jog your memory.
And speaking of memory, don't forget to join us next month at the Radio Split Ranch.
Until then, don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
The river 99.5 wrve crazy
on you there's heart from dreamboat annie what a great

(01:07:35):
cd huh and from 1969 classic beatles come
together from ambi road tomorrow night on the sunday night cd check out the
let it be album in its entirety without commercial interruption right here on
the river good morning 601 it's a saturday with chris the rock and roll breakfast
underway once again some doobie
brothers later on this hour billy joel got don henley right now on the

(01:07:56):
river 99.5 wrve the river.
Music.
99.5 wrve everybody hurts rem kind of the way the world is feeling this morning
with the laying to rest of princess diana and bad company's rock and roll fantasy

(01:08:17):
and don henley's all she wants to do is dance from back in 84 just before that
6 14 welcome to the The Rock and Roll Breakfast.
Chris Warren with Cloudy Skies. 52. We're heading toward a mixed sun and clouds
type day. Maybe a sprinkle later on. High around 78 today.
Fall certainly arrived, just like overnight, huh?
Got later on this hour some Elton John with a river deep cut jewel.

(01:08:37):
And right now, some Billy Joel on the river. 99.5 WRVE. Where you're hearing
rock and roll without the hard edge.
The River. 99.5 WRVE. From the Stranger. Kind of a comeback album for Billy
Joel. That was Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.
Two or three little things woven in together there from back in 77.

(01:09:00):
On the River, 622. Good morning. 52 cloudy skies, mix of sun and clouds today. Maybe a sprinkle.
And 78 for the high. We'll have the full forecast for you in just a few moments.
And right now, we're asking you to help us out a little bit.
You can help program the river.
We're looking for new members for our next meeting of the River Listener Advisory
Board. And all you have to do to become a board member is send us your name,

(01:09:22):
address, birth date, and daytime phone number.
And you can do that many ways. Fax it to us at 452-4855 or email us on the River website at WRVE.com.
Drop us a line in the mail.
WRVE 1 Washington Square, Albany 12205. This really is the radio station that you help program.
The River, 99.5 WRVE.

(01:09:44):
Curry Road, Schenectady.
Well, I guess the optimum optimal, I don't know what I'm looking for here this
morning. I guess the word is partly cloudy. Looks like that for the weekend.
Sun and clouds, maybe a sprinkle today, 78. Partly cloudy overnight, 56.
And again, a mix of sun and clouds tomorrow, maybe a thundershower and a high about 80.
Right now, cloudy and 52, where we have no head-banging heavy metal music,

(01:10:09):
no sleepy love songs either.
It's just rock and roll for grown-ups. The River, 99.5 WRVE.
The River, 99.5 WRVE. I'm no angel. There's Greg Allman, band from back in 87.
For that, Elton John, Burn Down the Mission, a River deep cut that we started
playing just after he finished singing live at the Princess Diana's funeral.

(01:10:31):
A song that has been updated by Bernie Taupin to be Goodbye England's Rose.
It was a reworking of the song Candle in the Wind for Marilyn Monroe.
And Elton just debuted it at the funeral. and it will be recorded shortly thereafter,
you know, in the next few hours here, we understand, and be released for, you know, sale.

(01:10:53):
And basically what's going to happen, as you've probably heard,
is it'll be released later on this month, and all profits will go to Diana's Memorial Fund.
And industry experts expect it will outsell quite a few of the top-selling songs of all time.
But that's what's going on internationally. Back here a little bit more local.
We heard from Jewel, you were meant for me, and the Doobies taking it to the

(01:11:14):
streets all on the river. 99.5 WRVE.
Saturday's rock and roll breakfast underway. I'm Chris Warren.
Cloudy and 52 now. We're heading toward a 78 high today.
Kind of stay the same. Partly cloudy maybe with a sprinkle or two throughout
the day. We'll have the forecast next. Come to the 1997.
393, 1380. Early fall and the weather forecast from WRVE kind of reflects it.

(01:11:35):
Partly cloudy with a sprinkle today. 78 for the high.
Partly cloudy tonight, 56. and still partly cloudy tomorrow with possible showers
and high around 80. Cloudy now and 52.
We respect the music here at the river. We really do. That's why you won't hear
us talking over the beginning of your favorite songs.
We're called the River 99.5 WRVE.

(01:11:56):
The River 99.5 WRVE. Sticks, Fooling Yourself, and Neil Young's Southern Man.
A couple classics for you on the rock and roll radio station that works at work.
Thanks for taking us along this morning to open up the shop. up cloudy 52
now as we head toward a high of 78 today with partly cloudy skies maybe a sprinkle
and rock and roll of course continues with some george harrison and a few ccr

(01:12:18):
will be here we got a then and now our new feature some old and some new tom
petty coming up in just a few right now jackson brown on the river 99.5 wrve.
Humankind is taking a moment this morning to honor the memory of diana princess
of wales as we at the river join the world in this moment of silence.

(01:12:41):
This is The River, 99.5 WRVE, Schenectady, Albany, Troy. Rock and roll without the hard edge.
The River, 99.5 WRVE. George Harrison from 1970, my sweet lord,
and I swear to you, I did not choose that at that moment.
That is exactly where it fell on our program log right here.

(01:13:04):
The one that I have to follow to play this great music for you. And what does that mean?
That is just serendipity. That is really something.
CCR, Creighton's Clearwater Revival, looking out my back door from Cosmo's factory.
Jackson Brown's That Girl Could Sing, just before that.
7-11, Saturday with Chris, the rock and roll breakfast. Partly cloudy and 78 for the high today.

(01:13:24):
Maybe a sprinkle right now. We're mostly cloudy and 54.
And rock and roll all morning long without the hard edge. And a new feature,
let's kick it off with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers going back to 77.
This is Breakdown on the River, 99.5 WRVE.
The River, 99.5, WRVE, Canada's Brian Adams, and Run to You from Reckless.

(01:13:49):
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before that, a new feature we call Then and
Now. Well, it was then and then, but it was close.
We had from 77, Tom Petty's Breakdown, followed from, after that I should say,
from 91, Learning to Fly.
So it's kind of then and not so long ago.
All on the River, 99.5, WRVE, and lots more to come. Some Cat Stevens,

(01:14:10):
Little Feet, River Deep Cut we haven't heard in a while.
And, oh, so much more fun, including the Wallflowers latest in just a few moments.
We'll check the weather forecast. We have a mostly cloudy 54 now as we head towards 78 today.
Partly cloudy, maybe a sprinkle as the day goes on. Early fall,
1997, and we're going to get you through the fall.
We're going to help you get the kids through the fall. It's probably the biggest show of the kid year.

(01:14:33):
Barney's Big Surprise is coming. Tickets go on sale tomorrow for Barney's Big
Surprise at the Pepsi Arena, October 9th through 12th.
And if you're there tomorrow, the River's Rocky Raccoon is going to hand out
Barney's Big Surprise CD to the first 100 people in line tomorrow at the Ticketmaster
Outlet in the bookmark in Newton Plaza in Latham. That's from 11 till 1 tomorrow.

(01:14:53):
Check it out. It's another way of us saying just thanks for listening to the River. 99.5 WRVE.
393-1380. Well, before you head on up to the Parade Ground Village Harvest Fest
at Dunning Street and Route 9 in Malta today for the Farmer's Market and pony
and hay rides and a craft show and sale and all that stuff. Let's check the WRVE weather.
Partly cloudy with a sprinkle today, perhaps 78, and by no means a washout.

(01:15:17):
Partly cloudy tonight, 56.
Partly cloudy, maybe a thunderstorm tomorrow and a high around 80.
Right now, mostly cloudy and 54 on the Rock and Roll radio station for grownups.
The River, 99.5 WRVE. They only come out at night.

(01:15:40):
That's the name of the album. Edgar Winter Group got that last big hit for them
off a free ride from back in 73.
Wallflowers, the difference from bringing down the horse. Cat Stevens, Peace Train.
And a river deep cut to kick it off called Dixie Chicken from Little Feet.
They were in concert not long ago. The Faithful were there and got a treat.
It was a great show. just about 17 shy of
eight o'clock saturday rock and roll breakfast style chris warren

(01:16:03):
mostly cloudy 54 now and the color radar does show
some showers on the way we'll have the forecast for you in
just a few moments but it won't be a washout today get out and enjoy
it you'll all you'll need is a broom for the early leaves
already on your driveway this morning so be sure to bring the radio outside
plug it into the lamppost there so you don't miss robert palmer tracy chapman
the eagles and john mellencamp plus we got a river deep cut next hour that's

(01:16:26):
the title cut to the Fleetwood Mac album follow-up to Rumors,
all coming up on the river.
You can be a part of a super event. This is an incredible event.
We're going to help build a house in three days. Join the river next weekend
at the Empire State Home Show, the 13th and 14th, at Hudson Valley Community
College and help build a house for Habitat for Humanity.

(01:16:47):
I'm sure you've seen this on TV and heard about it.
We're going to do that in just three days next weekend. And you can call us
for all the details at 1-800-995-WRVE.
It's another River Cares event from the Empire State Home Show,
Habitat for Humanity, and of course the river. 99.5 WRVE.
Call about Nina's new Diamond Express credit with up to six months interest free.

(01:17:08):
Here's the WRVE weather for this early fall weekend. A partly cloudy day today,
maybe a sprinkle high around 78.
Partly cloudy tonight, 56 for the low. And then a partly cloudy Sunday,
maybe a thundershower high around 80. Mostly cloudy and 54.
If you want to hear the best in classic rock, the best in today's rock,
and some songs you just can't find anyplace else, just make sure your radio is on 99.5 FM.

(01:17:30):
The river 99.5 wrve in
a small town with john cougar melon camp back in 85 and
the who's magic bus going back into the 60s for that one but you remember the
60s it was in all the papers yeah we're just a few before eight o'clock you

(01:17:53):
know three if you're counting those that many minutes and it's chris on the
rock and roll breakfast partly cloudy and 78s where we're headed today right
now we're mostly cloudy and 54 and there are some showers in western new york
kind of inching their way this way,
but not a washout, just kind of a sprinkle or two here or there as you get through
the weekend with rock and roll without the hard edge. Got some Fleetwood Mac coming up.

(01:18:13):
Alice Cooper in a few moments. Here are the Eagles on the River 99.5 WRVE.
The River 99.5 WRVE. Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to cut off the drum there. It even reminds me not to do that right
on the thing right there in front of me. That's Alice Cooper.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. Tracy Chapman, Give Me One Reason from her album New Beginning.

(01:18:34):
And from Hotel California, The Eagles, Life in the Fast Lane.
8-10, Saturday morning. You don't have to worry about the fast lane Saturday morning.
Just, you know, just cool out, chill out. How'd you do on your first night back
to bowling league this week? You still got it, huh?
Did you get that annual thumb blister like I did? Well, it'll heal and next
week will be even better. Rock and roll still to come this hour from Billy Joel.

(01:18:56):
Eric Clapton got a river deep cut in a few minutes from Fleetwood wood
mac and we've got robert palmer right now on the river where every time you
tune in 99.5 fm you can expect the best in classic rock the best of today's
rock and some songs you just can't hear any place else like this one from him
but robert palmer bad case of loving you he's trying to say on the river 99.5 wrve.

(01:19:18):
Music.
The River, 99.5 WRVE. They call him Slow Hand.
What a hand he's got, too. A couple of them actually do very well on that guitar.
There's Eric Clapton, No Alibis from Journeyman. Also heard Fleetwood Mac's
Tusk, title tune to the album that followed Rumors. Now, nothing was going to outsell Rumors.

(01:19:40):
I mean, it was just such a phenomenal album, but Tusk really was quite a disappointment
to most following such a stellar performance by the group on Rumors.
But there's a couple of great songs on there, that being one of them with the
USC Marching Band behind them on that.
By now, you've seen it at least a couple of times, the MTV special,
which their new album is based on, and that's got an interesting version of

(01:20:03):
that song on there as well.
Robert Palmer's Bad Case of Loving You kicked off our set 23 after 8 o'clock,
and it's a Saturday with Chris. Wouldn't be a Saturday without me, would it?
Well, I wouldn't forget it. 56, mostly cloudy, and 78 is where we're headed toward.
Maybe a sprinkle here and there. And we should see some sunshine today,
although most places have cloudy skies right now.

(01:20:24):
The full forecast coming up in just a few moments.
If you can make it through this day, tonight, we're going to top it off real nice.
10 o'clock tonight on our usual concert that we give you, the Rock Legends, absolutely free.
The River presents a River superstar concert with Neil Young.
90 minutes of Neil recorded live in concert. Tonight, 10 o'clock,
right here on the river. 99.5 WRVE.

(01:20:47):
Heading on up to Lake George, maybe, for the jazz festival this weekend.
Kicks off about 1 o'clock this afternoon in Shepherd Park.
Check it out. Take us along as you head on up the north way.
You'll find weather like this. The WRVE forecast calls for a partly cloudy day
today. Sprinkle with a high around 78.
Partly cloudy, 56 tonight. Maybe a thundershower tomorrow under partly cloudy
skies and a high around 80.

(01:21:08):
Mostly cloudy and 56. You found the radio station that doesn't clutter up the
airwaves with goofy games and contests.
We've got the rock and roll without the hard edge here on The River 99.5 WRVE.
The River 99.5 WRVE. The band Ophelia.
They're going to be on the album Train Kept a Rollin' coming out soon with other

(01:21:31):
folks like Los Lobos on there, some folks from the fabulous Thunderbirds,
and Billy Burnett, who's recorded a couple of albums with Fleetwood Mac in the last few years.
Should be a good one. That's Ophelia, a classic from back in 75.
Stray Cats, I love that. Rock This Town, the River Deep Cut.
And who else? Oh, Deep Blue Something was in there with Breakfast at Timpani. Timpani's.

(01:21:51):
Is it not now? I got another hour yet. I shouldn't be falling yet.
That was Breakfast at Tiffany's, Deep Blue Something. And Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young.
One of those Saturday mornings, I guess. Partly cloudy and 56 now.
The forecast is just around the corner here.
And what else? We won't talk to you about what's coming up. Oh,
we're just the perfect partner here for an early fall weekend,

(01:22:12):
and I'm going to prove it to you in the next hour.
Got Boston, Collective Soul, U2, Phil Collins, and the Fab Four coming up next.
And if you need a better Beatle fix, we got that for you too.
You can check out Steve Chick tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock with the Rivers Beatles Breakfast.
He's always got something to spotlight, and he's our resident expert.
So check them out tomorrow morning right here on The River, 99.5 WRVE.

(01:22:37):
Thanks for your calls this morning. Heard from Margo and Melrose who want to
know all about bananas in pajamas.
Yeah, they are in town today. They're up at the Wilton Mall,
Route 50 in Saratoga at 11, 1, and 3 today.
And if you can't get up there tomorrow, noon, 2, and 4 at the Wonderdam Square Mall.
If you need more info, we're always here, 1-800-995-WRVE.

(01:22:57):
Here's the WRVE forecast. forecast partly cloudy with a
sprinkle today 78 the high partly cloudy 56 tonight
and then a partly cloudy sunday maybe a possible just
sure maybe you know a little thunderstorm and 80
right now mostly cloudy 56 from the river we're
leaving the rap and the hard rock to the kids this is rock and whirl for grown-ups
this is the stuff here that my folks objected to on the river 99.5 W-R-V-E The

(01:23:21):
River 99.5 W-R-V-E Phil Collins Susudio from No Jacket Required and the classic Beatles tune Hello,
Goodbye just three before nine o'clock Welcome to the Rock and Roll Breakfast
just getting up checking out the Cheerios situation yeah,
like my house just there's none left little bit in the left in the bottom of
the box and you just gotta kinda mix it up with the rice checks and hope it

(01:23:44):
doesn't taste too bad yeah, well enjoy it as best you can while we rock and
roll with Jethro Tull coming up Collective Soul soul.
Here's Boston on the river, 99.5 WRVE.
The river, 99.5 WRVE. Jethro Tull, Bungle in the jungle from War Child.
December from Collective Soul and More Than a Feeling from Boston and their

(01:24:05):
album, Boston of All Things.
11 after nine o'clock. I've got the world's greatest collection of rock and
roll on the wall behind me here.
And the only problem is I can't get all of it on in four hours.
So we'll just do this week after week until we get through it all.
Got some Doobie Brothers coming up, you too, and this is Squeeze on the River 99.5 WRVE.
Thanks for tuning in to 99.5 FM.

(01:24:31):
The River, 99.5 WRVE. Doobies from back in 76.
It keeps you running, you too, with or without you. And a river deep cut from
Squeeze. That was tempted going back to 81.
924 and the Rock and Roll Breakfast continues. Chris Warren on the radio with
58 and mostly cloudy now as we head toward maybe 78 today with partly cloudy skies. guys.

(01:24:52):
Would you help us welcome a couple of new, I was going to say faces,
but I guess voices to the river over the next couple of days.
Watch out for an old friend of mine who starts tomorrow afternoon at 2.
Mark Lawrence Kaplan will be here.
He joins the river crew, and he and I go back further than he and I admit anymore, I believe.
You'll enjoy, Mark. And then Monday, welcome our new morning man, Tom Keefe, to the area.

(01:25:13):
He comes out of Wisconsin, and you're going to like what you hear there.
Maybe you caught him a few weeks ago kind of trying out.
Well, he'll join Lisa Reichwein, when she comes back from vacation on Monday
morning, and you'll hear it all here on The River 99.5 WRVE.
Oh, Bunyanville. Hey, it's the big store.
Heading on up the north way to the 9th Annual Adirondack Automobile Nationals.
They're happening until 4 this afternoon.

(01:25:33):
Check out the car show and the valve cover racing and clowns and all that good
stuff. Kids under 12 are free, and the refrigerators are playing.
If you've never caught these guys, if you like the music we're playing here,
you'll like these guys. Check them out. And as you're heading up the north way,
here's the forecast from WRVE.
Partly cloudy with a sprinkle today, 78. Partly cloudy tonight, 56.
And PC again tomorrow with a possible thundershower. 80 will be the high.

(01:25:57):
58 and mostly cloudy now where you always get an amazing variety of rock and
roll without the hard edge.
Like this from Leonard Skinner on the River 99.5 WRVE.
The River 99.5 WRVE. Paul Simon, when he releases a new album,
it's always a big deal, and it's coming out in November called The Cape Man.

(01:26:18):
I'm not sure what it's all about, but I'm sure we'll know more as it gets a little closer.
Paul Simon's Mother and Child Reunion takes us back to 72.
Blind Melons, No Rain before that. Bad Finger, No Matter What.
And Leonard Skinner's What's Your Name from Street Survivors.
Went all the way back to 77 on that one.
It's just 9.43 on a Saturday with Chris, the rock and roll breakfast for a few more minutes.

(01:26:38):
And then Kim Baker comes on in. She's got it lined up for you.
I mean, they're just stacked here just perfectly. Little River Band,
Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
Boz Skaggs in excess. And she'll kick it off with Elton John in just a few moments.
And we'll check the weather forecast next as well here on the river.
At Auto Ballot, Curry Road, Schenectady.
Let's check out the WRVE forecast. You can kind of plan your day around this.

(01:27:02):
A partly cloudy one, maybe a sprinkle. 78 for the high. Partly cloudy, 56 tonight.
Partly cloudy again tomorrow. Maybe a thundershower and a high around 80.
Mostly cloudy now and 58, where you can listen all day and all night and never
hear the same song twice.
Every day is a no-repeat day. From the river, 99.5 WRVE.

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