Longtime New York City deejay Scott Shannon, one of the top-rated radio personalitiess ever, discusses hiring Gary Burbank in the early stages of his career.
Scott Shannon's incredible on air work in NYC, L.A., and Tampa notwithstanding, he was a program director who discovered hundreds of budding radio stars. He knew the first time he heard "Johnny Apollo" (soon to be Gary Burbank), he was hearing the start of something unparalleled.
Terry Meiners and Scott Shannon discuss the amazing radio genius of Gary Burbank.
Scott Shannon's incredible on air work in NYC, L.A., and Tampa notwithstanding, he was a program director who discovered hundreds of budding radio stars. He knew the first time he heard "Johnny Apollo" (soon to be Gary Burbank), he was hearing the start of something unparalleled.
Terry Meiners and Scott Shannon discuss the amazing radio genius of Gary Burbank.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's been a gut punch all day talking about Gary.
We love Gary Burbank, the four years he put in
on this show, This Afternoon Show nineteen seventy six to
nineteen eighty, and of course his brilliant at WLW in
Cincinnati and also his wild days at Wacky Radio here
in Louisville. There are a few radio personalities who bubble
up and capture the imagination of America. Gary Burbanks certainly
(00:23):
one of them, and this fellow another one, Scott Shannon,
I call him Boss Jock radio DJ, another one of
my hero buddies.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, Scott, Oh, I got to tell you what, this
is a sad day for radio and everybody ever even
connected with radio, because this guy was one of a kind.
And I know a lot of DJs. I worked with
many of the best, and he was what was so
(00:53):
great about him, And he wasn't like the other bobos
we had bouncing around the business. And you know what,
if he just had that great voice, he would it
didn't make any difference whether he had a sense of
humor or not. He could make it just on how
great his voice was. It's funny too, because I've known him,
(01:14):
I'm knowing him for a long long time, and we
never We only worked together for a brief time because
I was working in Memphis, Tennessee. I was a baby
DJ and we needed a morning We needed a morning guy.
I don't know if I ever told you this story, Terry,
but I was up at night just DX and going
(01:35):
through the dial fifty and I ran across a fifty
thousand watt radio station at some small town in Mississippi,
and the guy was on and he had this great
voice and it was Gary. But he was doing the
all night show and Mississippi on a fifty thousand wat
(01:56):
daytime radio station, and he was in the studio working
that night because they were on the air for testing
purposes only, so our station was looking for it, you know,
a morning DJ. So I called the office on Monday
and I said, can I talk to that DJ? At
(02:18):
that time, he wasn't using the name Gary Burbank, and
so she said, well, he's not here. He only works
on the weekends. I said, well, can I get his
phone number? She said, sure, no problem. I was kind
of shocked. I thought, to you, who are you? What
do you want to talk to him? No? Yeah, sure,
(02:40):
here write it down.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Here's his address, and here's his bank account number.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I called him, I think Monday, and this was back
in the late sixties, and I talked to him and
I said, Hey, I'm Super Sham, which was my name
at the time. What a stupid name I had. And
I said to him, I said, you know, I'm over
here in Memphis, Tennessee. You ever been there? He said,
you know, yeah, I'm from there. I said, what, you're
(03:10):
from here? He said, yeah, I know who you are.
And so it's funny because he had not worked in Memphis.
He was at that time, I think he was a
drummer or something, and he was in like he traveled
with one of those groups at Stax Records. And he said,
and I said, well, how'd you like to come to Memphis.
(03:31):
He says, Oh my god, that's what I've been trying
to do since I've been in radio. I'm not very
good yet, but I'd like to go there and do
a show. I said, well, we got an opening here
at WMPs, and and sure enough we hired him and
he came in and we had him about I think
six months. He did the morning show and I became
(03:54):
really good friends with at that time, and then Whacky
Radio was being redesigned by a new program director came
in and they took they took two of our DJs.
A guy named Johnny Dark was doing the night show. No,
I did the night show. He was doing the mid
days and Gary and that's when that's when when he
(04:16):
first came to Whacky is when he became Gary Burbank.
And he was just a regular, ordinary DJ, I thought
until he got on Wacky, and holy crap, he was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Right was his name, Johnny Apollo and Memphis? Is that
what it was? Did you give him that yet?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yep? Yeah, I gave Well, no, he had. That's what
he was. When he was in Mississippi when he had
to be on he had. What happened is they really
didn't have a show at night because they were a
daytime fifty thousand one station. But he would go up
on the weekends when they were just uh they could
put the signal on the air for testing purposes, only
(04:55):
you couldn't run any commercials. He was just doing that
to be on the air. But he did the mid
days on the weekends is all he was doing. And
then he came into Memphis, turning toward a part, you know,
toward the city apart, and then Wacky swiped him for
I worked for this company and they're real cheap. They
(05:15):
paid me about it. I think I made one hundred
and nineteen dollars a week or something like that, and
Gary didn't make much more. But that's when we became friends.
And he went to Wacky and that was the beginning of,
you know, an incredible career. He was very few guys
translate to anywhere they go. He started really with Wacky,
(05:37):
and then he went to I think he would then
I think he went he went to c KLW for
a while, a big fifty. He was in Detroit for
a while. He left pretty good footprints there. But when
he went to Cincinnati, I think that's one of your stations.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
There, right correct, WLW.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well, they loved him there and he's still how long
was he in at Wacky anyway?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Three four years? And then they pulled him up to Detroit,
like you said, And then he was here on w
h S for four years trying to wow and improve
the image of this station and move it into the
modern era.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, well, well he certainly did that, didn't he. And
then it's somewhere in there. I don't know. In the
chronological countdown here. He managed to be in Tampa too somehow,
because I was, he didn't he didn't really make the
he didn't really make that big imprint there. Unfortunately. There
(06:41):
was another disc jockey on the air, and I beat
him there. I mean, I beat him to the punch there,
you know. And he you know, don't don't get me wrong.
He's one of a kind, and you know, all the
things that he did. He was so funny, and and
where you have around him personally, you know, of.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Course, I mean, we spent a lot of time together
on the golf course, and he's hilarious there as well.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He's he had me laughing so hard all the time.
When he was in Tampa. We'd hang out and you know,
go to the bars at night, and and and then
I talked to him many many times. But I think
he I think when his shows on Wacky and WLW
(07:28):
and Cincinnati, he is a legend. And both of those towns,
most guys, you know, there'll be one or two, you know,
maybe one station, one town they become stars. But no,
anywhere he went he left deep footprints.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
He loved being a Midwestern guy too. All you mentioned Detroit,
but yeah here in Loewisland, Cincinnati. Loved that you did
New York. Well, you own New York on two different
stations at various times in your career. But I don't
think here three excuse me, I don't think Gary would
have enjoyed New York City and it's just not his thing.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Well, here's the weird thing about Gary Burbank. He didn't
He didn't do what other DJs did, and you couldn't
copy him, you could. His style was so different and
he was so fast. He could sit there and talk
to somebody and have you laughing so hard. He would
(08:26):
do the interview, but he would also like mess with
him while he was doing it.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Of course he was.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
He was. I can't say enough about him. And it
was the warm, wonderful guy. That he make mistakes in
his life, sure, but he admitted it fully. You know
he didn't. He said, Well, I didn't get that right,
did I? Scott? I said, you got a whole lot right,
my friend. I mean, he will be missed terribly, and
(08:56):
he missed radio when he retired. Didn't he come back
a couple of times? He was? He was? He didn't.
He loved it. He loved he loved the listeners. And
you know, and then if he just did Earl Pitts,
he'd still be a legend in radio, right, And.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
That's gonna stick forever because it's a funny premise because
everybody's dad sounded like that.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
There's no doubt about it. I mean, he he was
something just so special. That's that's all I can say that.
You know, I love the guy and and uh we
we you know, I wasn't his best friend. I'm not
trying to project that, but I was a good acquaintance
of him for quite.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Some Yeah, and you were a pretty good talent scout.
You knew what you had there too. You you brought
a lot of people to big stages around America's radio stations,
and you knew that there was something magical happening there
with Burbank.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Oh from the more, you know what, he didn't really
develop all that. He wasn't uh, he wasn't unleashed completely
until he got to wacky the first time. And that's
that's when he that's when, you know, because a lot
of program directors wouldn't let him do what he did,
(10:12):
but he but he had a great program director there
at Wacky at that time, and little by little he didn't.
You know, usually he just wants you to say the
time and temperature. Can you do that, Gary, No, I can't.
I gotta be funny. He wouldn't mind telling somebody to
go shove your station up your butt. He didn't care.
(10:34):
He He's just he was, just, like I said, one
of a kind. And he really bloomed at Wacky. That
was that was where that's where most people discovered him.
And and the other thing too. He wasn't like a
radio rat like you and me. He didn't care if
(10:56):
anybody knew that he was a star in Louis or
in Cincinnati. He wasn't a he He didn't. He didn't
promote himself. He never did that. He didn't go I
don't think I ever saw him at a radio convention,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So, Yeah, some guys work in the woodshop. Other people
go fishing. Gary did radio. That was his whole universe.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's that, yep, that was. But he did it in
a way that nobody else could copy him, right, it was.
It was so it was so weird because if somebody said, hey,
describe what he does, it makes him so successful. You
can't do it, No, you can't figure out what he's doing.
I was just looking at a clip of him, you know,
(11:42):
and kind of in his honor, remembering him. And and
there was a lady in the studio selling barbecue or something,
and he had the rest of the crew in there,
and it was so funny just just what he did.
He was so freaking fast.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yep. A brilliant light, extinguished and gear Alry brother Banks,
Scott Shannon, I really appreciate talking to you again too.
I hope you're doing well. See you down the road.
Love you, love you too, by bye bye m hm.
It's been a gut punch all day talking about Gary.
We love Gary Burbank, the four years he put in
on this show, This Afternoon Show nineteen seventy six to
nineteen eighty, and of course his brilliant at WLW in
Cincinnati and also his wild days at Wacky Radio here
in Louisville. There are a few radio personalities who bubble
up and capture the imagination of America. Gary Burbanks certainly
(00:23):
one of them, and this fellow another one, Scott Shannon,
I call him Boss Jock radio DJ, another one of
my hero buddies.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, Scott, Oh, I got to tell you what, this
is a sad day for radio and everybody ever even
connected with radio, because this guy was one of a kind.
And I know a lot of DJs. I worked with
many of the best, and he was what was so
(00:53):
great about him, And he wasn't like the other bobos
we had bouncing around the business. And you know what,
if he just had that great voice, he would it
didn't make any difference whether he had a sense of
humor or not. He could make it just on how
great his voice was. It's funny too, because I've known him,
(01:14):
I'm knowing him for a long long time, and we
never We only worked together for a brief time because
I was working in Memphis, Tennessee. I was a baby
DJ and we needed a morning We needed a morning guy.
I don't know if I ever told you this story, Terry,
but I was up at night just DX and going
(01:35):
through the dial fifty and I ran across a fifty
thousand watt radio station at some small town in Mississippi,
and the guy was on and he had this great
voice and it was Gary. But he was doing the
all night show and Mississippi on a fifty thousand wat
(01:56):
daytime radio station, and he was in the studio working
that night because they were on the air for testing
purposes only, so our station was looking for it, you know,
a morning DJ. So I called the office on Monday
and I said, can I talk to that DJ? At
(02:18):
that time, he wasn't using the name Gary Burbank, and
so she said, well, he's not here. He only works
on the weekends. I said, well, can I get his
phone number? She said, sure, no problem. I was kind
of shocked. I thought, to you, who are you? What
do you want to talk to him? No? Yeah, sure,
(02:40):
here write it down.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Here's his address, and here's his bank account number.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I called him, I think Monday, and this was back
in the late sixties, and I talked to him and
I said, Hey, I'm Super Sham, which was my name
at the time. What a stupid name I had. And
I said to him, I said, you know, I'm over
here in Memphis, Tennessee. You ever been there? He said,
you know, yeah, I'm from there. I said, what, you're
(03:10):
from here? He said, yeah, I know who you are.
And so it's funny because he had not worked in Memphis.
He was at that time, I think he was a
drummer or something, and he was in like he traveled
with one of those groups at Stax Records. And he said,
and I said, well, how'd you like to come to Memphis.
(03:31):
He says, Oh my god, that's what I've been trying
to do since I've been in radio. I'm not very
good yet, but I'd like to go there and do
a show. I said, well, we got an opening here
at WMPs, and and sure enough we hired him and
he came in and we had him about I think
six months. He did the morning show and I became
(03:54):
really good friends with at that time, and then Whacky
Radio was being redesigned by a new program director came
in and they took they took two of our DJs.
A guy named Johnny Dark was doing the night show. No,
I did the night show. He was doing the mid
days and Gary and that's when that's when when he
(04:16):
first came to Whacky is when he became Gary Burbank.
And he was just a regular, ordinary DJ, I thought
until he got on Wacky, and holy crap, he was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Right was his name, Johnny Apollo and Memphis? Is that
what it was? Did you give him that yet?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yep? Yeah, I gave Well, no, he had. That's what
he was. When he was in Mississippi when he had
to be on he had. What happened is they really
didn't have a show at night because they were a
daytime fifty thousand one station. But he would go up
on the weekends when they were just uh they could
put the signal on the air for testing purposes, only
(04:55):
you couldn't run any commercials. He was just doing that
to be on the air. But he did the mid
days on the weekends is all he was doing. And
then he came into Memphis, turning toward a part, you know,
toward the city apart, and then Wacky swiped him for
I worked for this company and they're real cheap. They
(05:15):
paid me about it. I think I made one hundred
and nineteen dollars a week or something like that, and
Gary didn't make much more. But that's when we became friends.
And he went to Wacky and that was the beginning of,
you know, an incredible career. He was very few guys
translate to anywhere they go. He started really with Wacky,
(05:37):
and then he went to I think he would then
I think he went he went to c KLW for
a while, a big fifty. He was in Detroit for
a while. He left pretty good footprints there. But when
he went to Cincinnati, I think that's one of your stations.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
There, right correct, WLW.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well, they loved him there and he's still how long
was he in at Wacky anyway?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Three four years? And then they pulled him up to Detroit,
like you said, And then he was here on w
h S for four years trying to wow and improve
the image of this station and move it into the
modern era.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, well, well he certainly did that, didn't he. And
then it's somewhere in there. I don't know. In the
chronological countdown here. He managed to be in Tampa too somehow,
because I was, he didn't he didn't really make the
he didn't really make that big imprint there. Unfortunately. There
(06:41):
was another disc jockey on the air, and I beat
him there. I mean, I beat him to the punch there,
you know. And he you know, don't don't get me wrong.
He's one of a kind, and you know, all the
things that he did. He was so funny, and and
where you have around him personally, you know, of.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Course, I mean, we spent a lot of time together
on the golf course, and he's hilarious there as well.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
He's he had me laughing so hard all the time.
When he was in Tampa. We'd hang out and you know,
go to the bars at night, and and and then
I talked to him many many times. But I think
he I think when his shows on Wacky and WLW
(07:28):
and Cincinnati, he is a legend. And both of those towns,
most guys, you know, there'll be one or two, you know,
maybe one station, one town they become stars. But no,
anywhere he went he left deep footprints.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
He loved being a Midwestern guy too. All you mentioned Detroit,
but yeah here in Loewisland, Cincinnati. Loved that you did
New York. Well, you own New York on two different
stations at various times in your career. But I don't
think here three excuse me, I don't think Gary would
have enjoyed New York City and it's just not his thing.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Well, here's the weird thing about Gary Burbank. He didn't
He didn't do what other DJs did, and you couldn't
copy him, you could. His style was so different and
he was so fast. He could sit there and talk
to somebody and have you laughing so hard. He would
(08:26):
do the interview, but he would also like mess with
him while he was doing it.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Of course he was.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
He was. I can't say enough about him. And it
was the warm, wonderful guy. That he make mistakes in
his life, sure, but he admitted it fully. You know
he didn't. He said, Well, I didn't get that right,
did I? Scott? I said, you got a whole lot right,
my friend. I mean, he will be missed terribly, and
(08:56):
he missed radio when he retired. Didn't he come back
a couple of times? He was? He was? He didn't.
He loved it. He loved he loved the listeners. And
you know, and then if he just did Earl Pitts,
he'd still be a legend in radio, right, And.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
That's gonna stick forever because it's a funny premise because
everybody's dad sounded like that.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
There's no doubt about it. I mean, he he was
something just so special. That's that's all I can say that.
You know, I love the guy and and uh we
we you know, I wasn't his best friend. I'm not
trying to project that, but I was a good acquaintance
of him for quite.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Some Yeah, and you were a pretty good talent scout.
You knew what you had there too. You you brought
a lot of people to big stages around America's radio stations,
and you knew that there was something magical happening there
with Burbank.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Oh from the more, you know what, he didn't really
develop all that. He wasn't uh, he wasn't unleashed completely
until he got to wacky the first time. And that's
that's when he that's when, you know, because a lot
of program directors wouldn't let him do what he did,
(10:12):
but he but he had a great program director there
at Wacky at that time, and little by little he didn't.
You know, usually he just wants you to say the
time and temperature. Can you do that, Gary, No, I can't.
I gotta be funny. He wouldn't mind telling somebody to
go shove your station up your butt. He didn't care.
(10:34):
He He's just he was, just, like I said, one
of a kind. And he really bloomed at Wacky. That
was that was where that's where most people discovered him.
And and the other thing too. He wasn't like a
radio rat like you and me. He didn't care if
(10:56):
anybody knew that he was a star in Louis or
in Cincinnati. He wasn't a he He didn't. He didn't
promote himself. He never did that. He didn't go I
don't think I ever saw him at a radio convention,
you know.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So, Yeah, some guys work in the woodshop. Other people
go fishing. Gary did radio. That was his whole universe.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's that, yep, that was. But he did it in
a way that nobody else could copy him, right, it was.
It was so it was so weird because if somebody said, hey,
describe what he does, it makes him so successful. You
can't do it, No, you can't figure out what he's doing.
I was just looking at a clip of him, you know,
(11:42):
and kind of in his honor, remembering him. And and
there was a lady in the studio selling barbecue or something,
and he had the rest of the crew in there,
and it was so funny just just what he did.
He was so freaking fast.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yep. A brilliant light, extinguished and gear Alry brother Banks,
Scott Shannon, I really appreciate talking to you again too.
I hope you're doing well. See you down the road.
Love you, love you too, by bye bye m hm.
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