September 14, 2026 • 29 mins
Guest hosts Joe Lomonaco, Gary Smith, and Don Alhart, talk about Don's and Gary's retirement, and their first jobs in broadcasting.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hour of the Bob Lonsbury Show featuring special guest hosts
Gary Smith, Don Alhart, and Joe Lomonaco.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Right now on NewsRadio WAM 1180. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
We're all here together in the same room. The show
actually started about 10 minutes ago, to be honest with you. So, yes,
Joel DeMonaco in for Bob Lonsberry. Happy to have you here.
Don Elhart, hi, pal.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Good to be back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good to be back on the air with you. First
time behind a microphone since you retired, right?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
First time we've had you back here. since retiring. So
we're going to catch up on that. Gary Smith, hey,
how you doing?
Speaker 5 (00:34):
I'm doing fine, Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Wonderful to hear you again.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Gary Smith is a person who sounds exactly the same
as he did when I first met him in 1994.
So I think between the three of us sitting here
in this room, I.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Think we've got a combined like 130 years in.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
The business, which is absolutely stupid to think that I
can wind up being in this conversation. But it is
nice to have you here. And thank you very much
for getting up early. I know 8 a.m.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is not a wake-up time you normally have, Elhart.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Not that I normally do. You know, I first met
Gary Smith in 1962. Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, you were a snot-nosed college kid back then.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I was. He was. And I had a summer relief
engineering job. And I was the engineer. Whoever was on vacation,
I would fill in. And the highlight for me was
to spin the records, Words of Music with Gary Smith.
And I was the engineer behind the screen. Yes, you was.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
What's S-A-Y or V-T?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
VET.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, VET.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So we're going to throw around call letters today. We're
going to throw around frequencies today. We're going to probably
throw around some stuff that may only be appropriate for
people that have been around here.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
For a while.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I didn't grow up in this town, so I didn't
have the opportunity to spend my childhood years with both.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Of you guys either on the air or on the
radio or on television.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So I came to you later on after I got
out of college and started my first gig. But there
is something about being that I got a chance to
be part of what you guys built. And I think
maybe it happens in other cities, but of course.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I only am going to notice it here.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We in Rochester have kind of clung on to our
media folks, be they television, be they radio, be they print.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And we really do take ownership.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Do you find, and Gary, I'll start with you to
ask this question, do you find that that has been
the case for you throughout your career, that you've kind
of noticed that there's a special bond, and that bond
doesn't break when you stop doing the gig on a
regular basis?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
That's true, very true. And a lot of people, as
you mentioned, stay around here for a long part of
their career. And I think it's because Generally, it's a
bunch of nice people. And there's not this rivalry thing
where you want to punch the guy who's in the
(02:54):
mouth there, who's on the.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Air at another station.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
It's just a nice group of people, and it works
very well.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Same question to you, Don.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, it is a sense of community, I think. And
Gary and I were blessed with a career path that
There was a limited amount of media, three television stations,
a few radio stations. So that narrowed the focus. Everybody's
on the air when they have their phone now. But
back then, there was a chance for the public to
really identify with individuals. And that happens to me now.
(03:27):
my biggest fan base now is Costco and Wegmans.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's a do in the produce department.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I walk through Costco and Wegmans and people come up
and they'll say, I miss you. And part of it,
I think, is they may miss me as an individual,
but I think they miss that small community that stayed together.
We had people that stayed at a station for a
number of years, so you had that continuity.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I think that's an unusual thing.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And maybe it's unique here, but again not having traveled
outside this community i don't know for certain but it
seems that when people got the gigs here it very
well could have been for either one of you guys
too that you could have said you know what i've
done what i needed to do here this is where
i'm from but i kind of like to see what
somewhere else would feel like what somebody else would would
(04:15):
give to me but the conscious decision was made to
say look i'm just going to stay here i'm going
to build roots here and i'm going to build myself
into this community and become a part of it i know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Gary you Spent time in Buffalo, but I think that's
as far away as you got from.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Here, right?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I spent some time in Miami also.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Really?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I didn't know about Miami.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
At the time I.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Was in Miami, they were paying with sun and sand.
It didn't work out very well. No, that's... They repaid
with snow and ice.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, we all pay for weather. Was it a brief
stint in Miami for you?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, about eight months.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Oh, really? Okay.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
The people that I had worked for in Buffalo bought
a station in Miami. And I had come back here
in the meantime. They contacted me and said, we want
to get the group together again and open the station
in Miami. You know, I was single.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I was young.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I thought, okay, why not?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You were young once? My gosh. Yes, he was. My God.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I can barely remember.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Early part of your career. So your first stint behind
the mic was in 1950. What? Uh, As far as
commercial radio, it was 1956. Okay, so 1956 was first.
So this is 50s, 60s down in Miami?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
It was late 58 into 59.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, and then it's a quick bounce down there and
then right back up to Rochester after that. Yes. Okay,
and then never look back from that point.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, so first travel around. Don, you have only done here, right?
Except for Ithaca. You were on the air there because
that was when you were in college.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
The very first time I was on the air was
on this station. And I was probably seven or eight
years old. Lake Avenue Baptist Church used to do a broadcast.
They used to do a show. So they would broadcast
the worship service one Sunday a month. And then at
nine o'clock in the morning, we would have a children's broadcast,
a drama with live organ music. And so we were
(06:10):
actually on the air from the church with a children's
drama once a month.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, at least you got the bug bitten early.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So we do need to talk about where the bug
came from. We need to talk about how retirement has
gone for you guys.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You're just new in retirement. This guy's a professional over here.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I am.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So we've got Gary Smith and we've got Don Elhart here.
I'm Joe Lomonaco. I am in for Bob Lonsberry today.
We will open the phone lines, too, as well. I
don't know if they're going to have time for calls
as well, but 222-1180 is the number if you want
to hop on board. we will be happy to get
with you. We have a lot more to discuss, and
we will take care of that up until noon today.
I'm Joel DeMonaco in for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
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Speaker 1 (07:07):
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Speaker 4 (07:19):
10 or 11.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, you can't shut them up.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Joe Lomonaco for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180. Gary
Smith and Don Elhart are with me here. And this is,
as we mentioned, when the microphones stop. If there's one
thing about putting a couple of media people all together
in the same room, as soon as you're done, the
conversation just keeps going. And then it's like, oh, we
have to do it in front of people now.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Like, oh, my gosh. Okay, so you guys are back.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Don is really here for the first time since he
left a nearly 60-year career in television.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Gary, I'm going to start with you, though, because you
are a professional retiree. I am.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You have been out of the biz for 20 years.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Now, right? 20 years.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Okay, it doesn't seem possible for me. Oh, and by
the way, Gary will celebrate his 90th birthday next year.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
All right.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
He's hoping to.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
He's hoping to. No, you will. And we're going to
have a blast when that happens. But anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I want you to give us some perspective here because
as somebody who is starting to approach that time in
my career, probably I'm, I'm hoping for another 10, maybe
if I can get that far where I'm going to
start having those internal conversations with me, I'm wondering if
you can share the difference between what you thought retirement
was going to be when you were still working and
how it's worked for you with now two decades under
(08:36):
your belt.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Uh, retirement for me really has been pretty close to.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
What I thought it would be.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Okay. Um, And I'm not sure where I came up
with the initial idea of what it was going to be,
but it's been pretty close to that. I've kept busy.
In the summer, I play golf two times a week
with a bunch of guys. We play courses all over
the place, have a lot of fun, win a dollar
(09:04):
one week and lose one the next, and have a
good time. I work around the house. mow and trim
and help my wife in her gardens, where she does 99%
of the work, but I help a little, once in
a while.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You did, for a time in retirement, continue to do
some freelance radio work or things like that, which put
you behind a microphone. Was there a time, and then
you stopped doing that pretty much.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A few years ago, I think, three or four years ago?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
A few, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Was there a time when you thought... I'm going to
turn this mic off, and I don't need to turn
it back on again. Because a lot of what we
do in this business, your personality and your person becomes
very entwined with what you do in your professional world.
When was that switch, and was it easy to turn off?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
It was easy to turn off. I was ready to
turn it off. I had enjoyed what I did in
the business for many, many years, but I also enjoyed
the end of it. And it was easy to turn
it off. Like a lot of people who retire say,
(10:17):
I don't as much missed the business as I do
the people.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
That I worked with.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And I would suspect, Don, same thing for you.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You've got, you're much closer in the, you know, retirement
in the rear view mirror is a lot closer.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's only been a couple of, a couple of years
for you, right?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I was going to say, I share with you, I'm
too looking for another 10 years.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
For a different reason.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Can I just keep going?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I'm hoping to be here.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So same question to you.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
When you were approaching that cutoff point and how did it,
how did you picture retirement to what it's actually been?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
You know, you're, pretty much unfolded the way I thought.
The best advice I ever got, I was out of
the unity and the villages out in Greece. And before
I retired to give a talk, and when it got
to the question and answer period, I said, before I
take your questions, I have a question for you. How
should I plan for retirement? And to a person, they
(11:09):
all said, don't plan anything really don't and everybody always
said you know you have to have a plan okay
you've been so busy you're gonna have to right and
they said don't plan it'll unfold and by golly it
did uh you know most days now if there's a
week where i have one or two days where there's
nothing on the calendar I kind of look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Did it ever feel weird, though?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Did it ever feel weird that you didn't have everything
to fill up that time?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
When it's left open to you, I find that this
is how I am. If it's left open to me,
I kind of... get to a point where I can't
choose where I'm going to start peeling the orange of
the day, as it were.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
You find other opportunities open for you. We have an
HOA on our street. Now, the last thing people would say,
I want to be as president of an HOA. Oh, dear.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Are you? I am.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You'd be surprised how many hours a week that can
keep you busy. Rotary itself. I've been involved in Rotary
50 years. I joined in 1976. And I'll be giving
a speech tonight for the Spencerport Rotary 50th anniversary of
their club. So, you know, speaking engagements, Rotary involvement keeps
(12:19):
me busy. And community events, you and I, Joe, do
a number of events a year. And this community, I think,
in response to what our careers have been, have kept
us involved and kept us busy. You know, over the
next few years, yeah, I'll probably taper back a little bit.
And part of it, too, is you want to be
(12:40):
remembered as you were on the air.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
And so when I get to that point where... I
don't look the same or sound the same, then you
probably want to crawl into that closet and say, you
know what, when people say, are you? No, no, I
may look like that guy, but that's not me.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, if you follow the Gary Smith model, you will
sound exactly the way you did for 50 plus years,
and that will be a good thing. That's actually, has
it been a blessing and a curse, though, Gary, that
it's like, I haven't– you've changed, obviously. You are a
different person than it was when I met you. But
if I were to just hear you on a recording
or on a phone call or whatever, I'd be like,
(13:21):
I know exactly who that is. That is exactly the
same person I see in my mind's eye all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
It's okay with me. I'm not sure how it happens,
but it's okay.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It is the blessing, the fact that it does happen,
that you do have that continuity. So much continues to change.
So much has changed in our industry. So much has
changed in our community. So much changes in our lives
day to day. But you've got a little bit of
that touchstone. And I think maybe that's one of the
good things about it. I can always go back to
that message. Or that cornerstone, that touchpoint there to say, yep,
(13:56):
I remember who I am. I remember what I did.
I have great stories to share. And I can't wait
to get into a room full of my colleagues so
that I can wind up telling those stories again.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And we have so much more to share. We want
to know what these– we're.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Going to have more to talk about what they loved
about their time in the industry, stories they remember, people
they remember.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The industry as it is today, I know we.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Will talk about that. All of that is going to
happen on. I'm Joel DeMonaco, in for Bob Lonsberry. Thanks
for hanging out with us on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Greg the Rupert's having a roofing sale. Greg will beat
any competitor's pricing. Hey, hey, hey, everyone.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Joe Lamonaco in for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Honored to be joined by Gary Smith and Don Alhart.
We are just shooting the breeze and telling stories, which
is what happens when you get media people together. Every
year at Christmastime, we do this thing where we bring
all of our media colleagues together and get back together
(15:10):
in one room.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And we could take.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I don't know, eight, ten hours and just have fun
sitting around eating and sharing stories.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And that's what we do. So toast yourself a bagel.
Sit down. We have more stories to tell.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
This is something that Gary mentioned offhanded during one of
our breaks, and it's interesting to me. When I got
my first job in radio, the first job I got
in radio was in my hometown.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Of Binghamton, New York. And it was WINR Binghamton. It's
now an iHeart station.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
And the reason I got the job is because the
station was owned by a dentist in town who wanted
to own a radio station, Dr.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Ken Titus.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And my dentist knew this other dentist, and they knew
that I was going to school. I was in Geneseo
at the time for broadcasting. And so my dentist called
the dentist who owned the station and got me a
fill-in job for the summer months on WINR. I'm 20
years old playing Dean Martin records. But my grandparents loved
it because they were able to hear me. So opportunities
(16:13):
existed in that way. That was the first thing I
ever got to. Gary, you mentioned that your first gig
you had to audition for. This is foreign to me.
I've never auditioned for a gig in this business. If
you could please enlighten us about what it was that
you had to go through to audition for the opportunity
to be a grubby disc jockey.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
And that was the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
I had been on the campus station at Syracuse, and
it was a lot of classical music.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Okay. Which college radio station did a lot of in
those days? Yes.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Okay. And the station at Syracuse at that point, WAER,
was a current radio station, closed current. So it wasn't
on the air. It kind of came through the heat vents. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
The wiring, the electrical wiring.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
To fill people in, that's how it went.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
The signal would piggyback on electrical wiring within a closed system.
So you could pick it up on campus if you
had a receiver that was plugged into one of those outlets.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's how you got it. Continue.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
So I went for a summer job here in town
at WSAY, which doesn't... isn't there anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Under those call letters.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Frequency on S-A-Y?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
1370.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
1370, okay. 5,000 powerful watts. Yes. Central and Western New York.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Then they even know the slogan. Look at them.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Be big, be a builder. That was after I was there.
So I wanted a summer job. I figured this would
be good for when I go back to school. So
I had to audition downtown where their offices were. Studios
and transmitter were out on French Road. And went downtown,
(17:59):
and they handed me the audition. Now, a couple of newscasts,
which I had also done at Syracuse, and a whole
bunch of classical music pronunciations. Composers, conductors. And I looked
at that, and I thought, oh, this is good. I've
(18:21):
been here.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So....
Speaker 5 (18:23):
I did get the job, but that's the only time
I've ever auditioned for a job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Here's how we're connected then.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
My first gig in campus radio, 89.3 WGSU Geneseo. Back
in the day, that's the first shift on Sunday mornings.
As a freshman, I got the ability to do an
on-air shift, which was rare. They didn't give it to
underclassmen very much, but I had something. And so they
gave me the classical music show. I know zero about it.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I butchered every single name of every composer. I know
I did, because I would get calls from the head
of the music department who would correct me constantly. So
it took almost a full year of doing the classical
music show before I only butchered half of them. So, and.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So we are connected again in that you never know
exactly what's going to be the thing that's going to say, like, ooh,
that guy's got something.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Classical music was your thing. You never went back to
it again. No. But at least you had it in
your hip pocket. Did you ever have that audition?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I actually had the same audition that Gary had. My
brother was Mike Melody on WSAY.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Gordon Brown had– you didn't use your own name, so
there was a Mike Melody in Buffalo, Mike Melody here.
And I was inspired by going out to French Road
and seeing that setup. And I, too, had that same audition.
I got to Tchaikovsky. I think it was, and that
ended it.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
They did not call me back. The one audition that
sticks in my mind was Channel 13. After working three
summers as a summer relief engineer, I wanted to be
on the air. And I went to Channel 13. They
had an opening back then. We used to have a
booth announcer. You would do the station breaks. And so
I auditioned for that. And they called me up and
they said, you don't have the right timber to be
(20:17):
on the air.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
How dare they?
Speaker 4 (20:19):
But there's an opening in the news department.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Why don't you go down there? So, you know, I've
been on the air 58 years in television news. That
wasn't my goal when I began broadcasting. But I went
down to the news department, and they had four people
in the news department and one reporter, Harriet Bishop, who
went on to an illustrious career in Florida, had just left.
And they said, well, we appreciate your interest, but we're
(20:44):
looking for somebody full time. You're going to go back
to Ithaca College in the fall, and we need somebody
long term. And I said to them, well, why don't
you hire me? And if I work one week, two weeks,
while you keep looking for someone, you can just Terminate
me when I'm done. I'll be grateful for whatever time
(21:05):
I can spend on the air during the summer. And
ended up working the whole summer before I went back
to college and coming back in the fall. They said,
we can't promise anything when you graduate. But it did
work out. So I actually began at Channel 13 the
summer of 1965. But it wasn't from the audition because I...
I didn't have the right timber.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
That's interesting. I never intended to have a career in news.
Never intended.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
I just wanted to be in this business to do radio.
And I think that was as specific as it ever was.
And fortunately, I had others who would present opportunities to
me along the way to say, okay, we think you
can do this here.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Go do this. Here, we think you can do this.
Have a crack at some other part of it. The
rest of it has been completely unintentional. It sounds like
similar to you. You may have had one thought. I'm
going to get in to do this. They said go
somewhere else, and that turned into something that, even if unintentionally,
became intentional. almost 60 years of a professional career.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I mean, for me, it was either radio disc jockey
or game show host. I wanted to be a game
show host. Oh, that could have worked.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And Rochester was still doing locally produced game shows.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
There were some local ones. Jerry Carr did, what, Choose
a Route and Pick a Show. I think we had
a few of those. But that's what we, you know,
we had grown up. You talk about being on the air.
Most of us, I think, were on the air in
our own homes when we were little kids. It was
a fifth grade teacher. I won't go into the whole story,
but a fifth grade teacher of mine, Don Netsker, that
(22:40):
set up a radio station in the corner of the classroom.
And my best friend and I, Pete Burrell, when he
tore it down, we said, we have to keep doing this.
It had the turntable. It had a microphone. And we
went home and duplicated those studios in the bedrooms of
our home. And I still have reel-to-reel tapes with countless
hours of live broadcast.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Put a pin in that.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We've got to talk more about if you ever played radio,
because I suspect both of these guys did. We are
talking with Don Alhart and Gary Smith, sharing stories. This
is what media people do when we all.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Get into a room. We love to talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
our careers, we love to tell stories, and we love
to find those ways that we are more similar than
we would like to admit, maybe. I'm Joel DeMonaco, in
for Bob Lonsberry, another long-standing radio personality.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
On NewsRadio WAM 1180. You hear that? You're hearing constant,
constant noise. A noisy data center.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Critical data, hour after hour.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Your center. The data is there. For data. You get
a stream of data. Let data reign. NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Every color, every option, every style, everything you could.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
This is, as I mentioned, this is what we do
when we all get together. It is impossible for us
not to say, hey, remember, did I ever tell you?
And we do a lot of this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
There's a lot of right hands that move in towards shoulders,
and we just want to hold you there.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, Don and I share something in common, and
I think I knew this before you said it, is
that we wound up with kind of unintentional careers, that
we kind of got to a place where You may
have wanted to do one thing, but an opportunity presented
itself and it took you in a direction you may
not have found.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Gary, I'm going to throw the same question to you, though.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Was every move, at least to a certain point in
the foundational part of your career, intentional? You saw an
opportunity and you went after it because you knew you
wanted that opportunity.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I think so, yeah. When I started here, of course–
playing records on the air. That's what I wanted to
do at that time.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You wanted to be the disc jockey.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, that was great fun. And it was the beginning
of personality radio, playing records on the air. So that
was a lot of fun. Then I had an opportunity
to go to Buffalo, which was a much bigger radio
market at that point. And working with some people that
(24:59):
I admired, Frank Ward, Freddie Clestine. So that was great fun.
And that was in the middle of record hops every
Friday night and Saturday night, traveling to Canada to do
the record hops. We'd go over the Peace Bridge with
a car full of equipment in the trunk because nothing
(25:20):
was small at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Crates of records and things like that.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
And the guys on the Peace Bridge got to know us.
And they'd just wave us through. They knew what we
were going to do and, okay, go do your thing.
We'd come back on the other side with all the
same equipment and some money from the kids who paid
a dollar to get into the record house. And they
(25:47):
knew that, too, and just wave us through. But those
were great times in radio.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And an intentional move to you.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
My secondary question, though, is that when I came in
listening to the radio in the 70s and 80s, I
had people that had already established something. And establishing it
in the 50s in personality music radio was a transition
from where the industry was to where it was going
to go. What was the inspiration point, though, for you?
You were kind of starting something that was a little
(26:17):
brand new, and you were kind of forging your own path.
Was there somebody or some personality that you may have
heard to say like, okay, that's a good start point.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I'm going to use that as what I'm going to
build off of.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Well, when I went to Buffalo, I had listened to
him here, a guy named Frank Ward, whose radio name
in Buffalo for a while was Guy King. WWOL and
Buffalo had a succession of Guy Kings. They wound up
all being big names in the business. But I had
(26:51):
listened to Frank here in town, because I could pick
up the signal. I liked what he did and how
he did it, and I thought, yeah, I'd like to
do that. That was probably an inspiration point for me.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
And then we do what we all do. You listen
to something external to you. You maybe try to mimic it.
I tried to mimic Christopher Glenn when I first got
my first newscast, and they were like, okay, I don't
know how to do this, so I'm going to do
what I heard.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Same thing, same question to you, Don. Was there an
inspiration point or someone that you heard that said, look,
that's going to be where I'm going to start from
and then move?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I think when I made the transition to news, I
think Tom Decker, who had been on the air here
for a number of years, was a style that I
embraced because it was more conversational. He was telling you
what happened today and not just reading the newscast. And
that really resonated with me. It would be years later.
In fact, it was the LPGA out of Lucas Hill,
(27:51):
and I was the honorary chair, and they did a mural,
which they gave to me, and my wife had helped
put it together. They would take pictures, and a painter
would paint everything. And on this mural, people look at
it and say, well, there's Peter Jennings, and there's Johnny Carson.
What's that all about? And I said, you know what?
(28:12):
That's the blend that I had in the back of
my mind every time I was on the air. A
little bit of Carson because he was there every night,
didn't crave a lot of attention because he could be
popular just by bringing other people on. And Peter Jennings
had a style. I met him a number of times
and interviewed him. that I just appreciated. So we do.
(28:35):
We like to think we're unique at times, but we're
a product of what we absorb over the years.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And then it morphs into, whether you're conscious about it
or not, it just kind of morphs into whatever becomes
your style. And you sort of become comfortable with that.
And then you become the foundation point for somebody else,
whether you think about it or not.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Hopefully you do.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
It's that combination of information, storytelling, friendship, companionship. And a
little bit of, well, Gary Smith's impish grin. Even if
you don't hear it, you still know that it's in there. Okay,
down with one, on to two. We've still got until
noon to go. With Don Alhart and Gary Smith here
on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I'm Joel DeMonaco, in for Bob Lonsberry, and news is next.
From the summer's biggest stories.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
The Strait of Hormuz.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Oil prices.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
250 years.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Socialism. To what's next. This is going to be a
midterm unlike any other. The best is yet to come.
It's happening. Are you ready?
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Use radio. Web 1180.
Hour of the Bob Lonsbury Show featuring special guest hosts
Gary Smith, Don Alhart, and Joe Lomonaco.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Right now on NewsRadio WAM 1180. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
We're all here together in the same room. The show
actually started about 10 minutes ago, to be honest with you. So, yes,
Joel DeMonaco in for Bob Lonsberry. Happy to have you here.
Don Elhart, hi, pal.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Good to be back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good to be back on the air with you. First
time behind a microphone since you retired, right?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
First time we've had you back here. since retiring. So
we're going to catch up on that. Gary Smith, hey,
how you doing?
Speaker 5 (00:34):
I'm doing fine, Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Wonderful to hear you again.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Gary Smith is a person who sounds exactly the same
as he did when I first met him in 1994.
So I think between the three of us sitting here
in this room, I.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Think we've got a combined like 130 years in.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
The business, which is absolutely stupid to think that I
can wind up being in this conversation. But it is
nice to have you here. And thank you very much
for getting up early. I know 8 a.m.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is not a wake-up time you normally have, Elhart.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Not that I normally do. You know, I first met
Gary Smith in 1962. Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, you were a snot-nosed college kid back then.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I was. He was. And I had a summer relief
engineering job. And I was the engineer. Whoever was on vacation,
I would fill in. And the highlight for me was
to spin the records, Words of Music with Gary Smith.
And I was the engineer behind the screen. Yes, you was.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
What's S-A-Y or V-T?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
VET.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, VET.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So we're going to throw around call letters today. We're
going to throw around frequencies today. We're going to probably
throw around some stuff that may only be appropriate for
people that have been around here.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
For a while.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I didn't grow up in this town, so I didn't
have the opportunity to spend my childhood years with both.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Of you guys either on the air or on the
radio or on television.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So I came to you later on after I got
out of college and started my first gig. But there
is something about being that I got a chance to
be part of what you guys built. And I think
maybe it happens in other cities, but of course.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I only am going to notice it here.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We in Rochester have kind of clung on to our
media folks, be they television, be they radio, be they print.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And we really do take ownership.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Do you find, and Gary, I'll start with you to
ask this question, do you find that that has been
the case for you throughout your career, that you've kind
of noticed that there's a special bond, and that bond
doesn't break when you stop doing the gig on a
regular basis?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
That's true, very true. And a lot of people, as
you mentioned, stay around here for a long part of
their career. And I think it's because Generally, it's a
bunch of nice people. And there's not this rivalry thing
where you want to punch the guy who's in the
(02:54):
mouth there, who's on the.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Air at another station.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
It's just a nice group of people, and it works
very well.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Same question to you, Don.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, it is a sense of community, I think. And
Gary and I were blessed with a career path that
There was a limited amount of media, three television stations,
a few radio stations. So that narrowed the focus. Everybody's
on the air when they have their phone now. But
back then, there was a chance for the public to
really identify with individuals. And that happens to me now.
(03:27):
my biggest fan base now is Costco and Wegmans.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's a do in the produce department.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
I walk through Costco and Wegmans and people come up
and they'll say, I miss you. And part of it,
I think, is they may miss me as an individual,
but I think they miss that small community that stayed together.
We had people that stayed at a station for a
number of years, so you had that continuity.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I think that's an unusual thing.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And maybe it's unique here, but again not having traveled
outside this community i don't know for certain but it
seems that when people got the gigs here it very
well could have been for either one of you guys
too that you could have said you know what i've
done what i needed to do here this is where
i'm from but i kind of like to see what
somewhere else would feel like what somebody else would would
(04:15):
give to me but the conscious decision was made to
say look i'm just going to stay here i'm going
to build roots here and i'm going to build myself
into this community and become a part of it i know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Gary you Spent time in Buffalo, but I think that's
as far away as you got from.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Here, right?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I spent some time in Miami also.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Really?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I didn't know about Miami.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
At the time I.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Was in Miami, they were paying with sun and sand.
It didn't work out very well. No, that's... They repaid
with snow and ice.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, we all pay for weather. Was it a brief
stint in Miami for you?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, about eight months.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Oh, really? Okay.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
The people that I had worked for in Buffalo bought
a station in Miami. And I had come back here
in the meantime. They contacted me and said, we want
to get the group together again and open the station
in Miami. You know, I was single.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I was young.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I thought, okay, why not?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You were young once? My gosh. Yes, he was. My God.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I can barely remember.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Early part of your career. So your first stint behind
the mic was in 1950. What? Uh, As far as
commercial radio, it was 1956. Okay, so 1956 was first.
So this is 50s, 60s down in Miami?
Speaker 5 (05:28):
It was late 58 into 59.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, and then it's a quick bounce down there and
then right back up to Rochester after that. Yes. Okay,
and then never look back from that point.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, so first travel around. Don, you have only done here, right?
Except for Ithaca. You were on the air there because
that was when you were in college.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
The very first time I was on the air was
on this station. And I was probably seven or eight
years old. Lake Avenue Baptist Church used to do a broadcast.
They used to do a show. So they would broadcast
the worship service one Sunday a month. And then at
nine o'clock in the morning, we would have a children's broadcast,
a drama with live organ music. And so we were
(06:10):
actually on the air from the church with a children's
drama once a month.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, at least you got the bug bitten early.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So we do need to talk about where the bug
came from. We need to talk about how retirement has
gone for you guys.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You're just new in retirement. This guy's a professional over here.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I am.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So we've got Gary Smith and we've got Don Elhart here.
I'm Joe Lomonaco. I am in for Bob Lonsberry today.
We will open the phone lines, too, as well. I
don't know if they're going to have time for calls
as well, but 222-1180 is the number if you want
to hop on board. we will be happy to get
with you. We have a lot more to discuss, and
we will take care of that up until noon today.
I'm Joel DeMonaco in for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
At the top and 30 minutes past the hour, we
get to the bottom. Suppressing free speech is not the answer.
Of today's top stories. Pull the country back together. For
top-of-the-mind awareness, use radio. Wham! 1180.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
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working out from Pachillo's Fitness Gear.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
10 or 11.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, you can't shut them up.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Joe Lomonaco for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180. Gary
Smith and Don Elhart are with me here. And this is,
as we mentioned, when the microphones stop. If there's one
thing about putting a couple of media people all together
in the same room, as soon as you're done, the
conversation just keeps going. And then it's like, oh, we
have to do it in front of people now.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Like, oh, my gosh. Okay, so you guys are back.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Don is really here for the first time since he
left a nearly 60-year career in television.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Gary, I'm going to start with you, though, because you
are a professional retiree. I am.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You have been out of the biz for 20 years.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Now, right? 20 years.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Okay, it doesn't seem possible for me. Oh, and by
the way, Gary will celebrate his 90th birthday next year.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
All right.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
He's hoping to.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
He's hoping to. No, you will. And we're going to
have a blast when that happens. But anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I want you to give us some perspective here because
as somebody who is starting to approach that time in
my career, probably I'm, I'm hoping for another 10, maybe
if I can get that far where I'm going to
start having those internal conversations with me, I'm wondering if
you can share the difference between what you thought retirement
was going to be when you were still working and
how it's worked for you with now two decades under
(08:36):
your belt.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Uh, retirement for me really has been pretty close to.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
What I thought it would be.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Okay. Um, And I'm not sure where I came up
with the initial idea of what it was going to be,
but it's been pretty close to that. I've kept busy.
In the summer, I play golf two times a week
with a bunch of guys. We play courses all over
the place, have a lot of fun, win a dollar
(09:04):
one week and lose one the next, and have a
good time. I work around the house. mow and trim
and help my wife in her gardens, where she does 99%
of the work, but I help a little, once in
a while.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You did, for a time in retirement, continue to do
some freelance radio work or things like that, which put
you behind a microphone. Was there a time, and then
you stopped doing that pretty much.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A few years ago, I think, three or four years ago?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
A few, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Was there a time when you thought... I'm going to
turn this mic off, and I don't need to turn
it back on again. Because a lot of what we
do in this business, your personality and your person becomes
very entwined with what you do in your professional world.
When was that switch, and was it easy to turn off?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
It was easy to turn off. I was ready to
turn it off. I had enjoyed what I did in
the business for many, many years, but I also enjoyed
the end of it. And it was easy to turn
it off. Like a lot of people who retire say,
(10:17):
I don't as much missed the business as I do
the people.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
That I worked with.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And I would suspect, Don, same thing for you.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You've got, you're much closer in the, you know, retirement
in the rear view mirror is a lot closer.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's only been a couple of, a couple of years
for you, right?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
I was going to say, I share with you, I'm
too looking for another 10 years.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
For a different reason.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Can I just keep going?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I'm hoping to be here.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So same question to you.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
When you were approaching that cutoff point and how did it,
how did you picture retirement to what it's actually been?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
You know, you're, pretty much unfolded the way I thought.
The best advice I ever got, I was out of
the unity and the villages out in Greece. And before
I retired to give a talk, and when it got
to the question and answer period, I said, before I
take your questions, I have a question for you. How
should I plan for retirement? And to a person, they
(11:09):
all said, don't plan anything really don't and everybody always
said you know you have to have a plan okay
you've been so busy you're gonna have to right and
they said don't plan it'll unfold and by golly it
did uh you know most days now if there's a
week where i have one or two days where there's
nothing on the calendar I kind of look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Did it ever feel weird, though?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Did it ever feel weird that you didn't have everything
to fill up that time?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
When it's left open to you, I find that this
is how I am. If it's left open to me,
I kind of... get to a point where I can't
choose where I'm going to start peeling the orange of
the day, as it were.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
You find other opportunities open for you. We have an
HOA on our street. Now, the last thing people would say,
I want to be as president of an HOA. Oh, dear.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Are you? I am.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
You'd be surprised how many hours a week that can
keep you busy. Rotary itself. I've been involved in Rotary
50 years. I joined in 1976. And I'll be giving
a speech tonight for the Spencerport Rotary 50th anniversary of
their club. So, you know, speaking engagements, Rotary involvement keeps
(12:19):
me busy. And community events, you and I, Joe, do
a number of events a year. And this community, I think,
in response to what our careers have been, have kept
us involved and kept us busy. You know, over the
next few years, yeah, I'll probably taper back a little bit.
And part of it, too, is you want to be
(12:40):
remembered as you were on the air.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
And so when I get to that point where... I
don't look the same or sound the same, then you
probably want to crawl into that closet and say, you
know what, when people say, are you? No, no, I
may look like that guy, but that's not me.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, if you follow the Gary Smith model, you will
sound exactly the way you did for 50 plus years,
and that will be a good thing. That's actually, has
it been a blessing and a curse, though, Gary, that
it's like, I haven't– you've changed, obviously. You are a
different person than it was when I met you. But
if I were to just hear you on a recording
or on a phone call or whatever, I'd be like,
(13:21):
I know exactly who that is. That is exactly the
same person I see in my mind's eye all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
It's okay with me. I'm not sure how it happens,
but it's okay.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
It is the blessing, the fact that it does happen,
that you do have that continuity. So much continues to change.
So much has changed in our industry. So much has
changed in our community. So much changes in our lives
day to day. But you've got a little bit of
that touchstone. And I think maybe that's one of the
good things about it. I can always go back to
that message. Or that cornerstone, that touchpoint there to say, yep,
(13:56):
I remember who I am. I remember what I did.
I have great stories to share. And I can't wait
to get into a room full of my colleagues so
that I can wind up telling those stories again.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And we have so much more to share. We want
to know what these– we're.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Going to have more to talk about what they loved
about their time in the industry, stories they remember, people
they remember.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The industry as it is today, I know we.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Will talk about that. All of that is going to
happen on. I'm Joel DeMonaco, in for Bob Lonsberry. Thanks
for hanging out with us on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Greg the Rupert's having a roofing sale. Greg will beat
any competitor's pricing. Hey, hey, hey, everyone.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Joe Lamonaco in for Bob Lonsberry on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Honored to be joined by Gary Smith and Don Alhart.
We are just shooting the breeze and telling stories, which
is what happens when you get media people together. Every
year at Christmastime, we do this thing where we bring
all of our media colleagues together and get back together
(15:10):
in one room.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And we could take.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I don't know, eight, ten hours and just have fun
sitting around eating and sharing stories.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And that's what we do. So toast yourself a bagel.
Sit down. We have more stories to tell.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
This is something that Gary mentioned offhanded during one of
our breaks, and it's interesting to me. When I got
my first job in radio, the first job I got
in radio was in my hometown.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Of Binghamton, New York. And it was WINR Binghamton. It's
now an iHeart station.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
And the reason I got the job is because the
station was owned by a dentist in town who wanted
to own a radio station, Dr.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Ken Titus.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And my dentist knew this other dentist, and they knew
that I was going to school. I was in Geneseo
at the time for broadcasting. And so my dentist called
the dentist who owned the station and got me a
fill-in job for the summer months on WINR. I'm 20
years old playing Dean Martin records. But my grandparents loved
it because they were able to hear me. So opportunities
(16:13):
existed in that way. That was the first thing I
ever got to. Gary, you mentioned that your first gig
you had to audition for. This is foreign to me.
I've never auditioned for a gig in this business. If
you could please enlighten us about what it was that
you had to go through to audition for the opportunity
to be a grubby disc jockey.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
And that was the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
I had been on the campus station at Syracuse, and
it was a lot of classical music.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Okay. Which college radio station did a lot of in
those days? Yes.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Okay. And the station at Syracuse at that point, WAER,
was a current radio station, closed current. So it wasn't
on the air. It kind of came through the heat vents. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
The wiring, the electrical wiring.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
To fill people in, that's how it went.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
The signal would piggyback on electrical wiring within a closed system.
So you could pick it up on campus if you
had a receiver that was plugged into one of those outlets.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's how you got it. Continue.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
So I went for a summer job here in town
at WSAY, which doesn't... isn't there anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Under those call letters.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Frequency on S-A-Y?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
1370.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
1370, okay. 5,000 powerful watts. Yes. Central and Western New York.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Then they even know the slogan. Look at them.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Be big, be a builder. That was after I was there.
So I wanted a summer job. I figured this would
be good for when I go back to school. So
I had to audition downtown where their offices were. Studios
and transmitter were out on French Road. And went downtown,
(17:59):
and they handed me the audition. Now, a couple of newscasts,
which I had also done at Syracuse, and a whole
bunch of classical music pronunciations. Composers, conductors. And I looked
at that, and I thought, oh, this is good. I've
(18:21):
been here.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So....
Speaker 5 (18:23):
I did get the job, but that's the only time
I've ever auditioned for a job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Here's how we're connected then.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
My first gig in campus radio, 89.3 WGSU Geneseo. Back
in the day, that's the first shift on Sunday mornings.
As a freshman, I got the ability to do an
on-air shift, which was rare. They didn't give it to
underclassmen very much, but I had something. And so they
gave me the classical music show. I know zero about it.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I butchered every single name of every composer. I know
I did, because I would get calls from the head
of the music department who would correct me constantly. So
it took almost a full year of doing the classical
music show before I only butchered half of them. So, and.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So we are connected again in that you never know
exactly what's going to be the thing that's going to say, like, ooh,
that guy's got something.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Classical music was your thing. You never went back to
it again. No. But at least you had it in
your hip pocket. Did you ever have that audition?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I actually had the same audition that Gary had. My
brother was Mike Melody on WSAY.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Gordon Brown had– you didn't use your own name, so
there was a Mike Melody in Buffalo, Mike Melody here.
And I was inspired by going out to French Road
and seeing that setup. And I, too, had that same audition.
I got to Tchaikovsky. I think it was, and that
ended it.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
They did not call me back. The one audition that
sticks in my mind was Channel 13. After working three
summers as a summer relief engineer, I wanted to be
on the air. And I went to Channel 13. They
had an opening back then. We used to have a
booth announcer. You would do the station breaks. And so
I auditioned for that. And they called me up and
they said, you don't have the right timber to be
(20:17):
on the air.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
How dare they?
Speaker 4 (20:19):
But there's an opening in the news department.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Why don't you go down there? So, you know, I've
been on the air 58 years in television news. That
wasn't my goal when I began broadcasting. But I went
down to the news department, and they had four people
in the news department and one reporter, Harriet Bishop, who
went on to an illustrious career in Florida, had just left.
And they said, well, we appreciate your interest, but we're
(20:44):
looking for somebody full time. You're going to go back
to Ithaca College in the fall, and we need somebody
long term. And I said to them, well, why don't
you hire me? And if I work one week, two weeks,
while you keep looking for someone, you can just Terminate
me when I'm done. I'll be grateful for whatever time
(21:05):
I can spend on the air during the summer. And
ended up working the whole summer before I went back
to college and coming back in the fall. They said,
we can't promise anything when you graduate. But it did
work out. So I actually began at Channel 13 the
summer of 1965. But it wasn't from the audition because I...
I didn't have the right timber.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
That's interesting. I never intended to have a career in news.
Never intended.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
I just wanted to be in this business to do radio.
And I think that was as specific as it ever was.
And fortunately, I had others who would present opportunities to
me along the way to say, okay, we think you
can do this here.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Go do this. Here, we think you can do this.
Have a crack at some other part of it. The
rest of it has been completely unintentional. It sounds like
similar to you. You may have had one thought. I'm
going to get in to do this. They said go
somewhere else, and that turned into something that, even if unintentionally,
became intentional. almost 60 years of a professional career.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I mean, for me, it was either radio disc jockey
or game show host. I wanted to be a game
show host. Oh, that could have worked.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And Rochester was still doing locally produced game shows.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
There were some local ones. Jerry Carr did, what, Choose
a Route and Pick a Show. I think we had
a few of those. But that's what we, you know,
we had grown up. You talk about being on the air.
Most of us, I think, were on the air in
our own homes when we were little kids. It was
a fifth grade teacher. I won't go into the whole story,
but a fifth grade teacher of mine, Don Netsker, that
(22:40):
set up a radio station in the corner of the classroom.
And my best friend and I, Pete Burrell, when he
tore it down, we said, we have to keep doing this.
It had the turntable. It had a microphone. And we
went home and duplicated those studios in the bedrooms of
our home. And I still have reel-to-reel tapes with countless
hours of live broadcast.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Put a pin in that.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We've got to talk more about if you ever played radio,
because I suspect both of these guys did. We are
talking with Don Alhart and Gary Smith, sharing stories. This
is what media people do when we all.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Get into a room. We love to talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
our careers, we love to tell stories, and we love
to find those ways that we are more similar than
we would like to admit, maybe. I'm Joel DeMonaco, in
for Bob Lonsberry, another long-standing radio personality.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
On NewsRadio WAM 1180. You hear that? You're hearing constant,
constant noise. A noisy data center.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Critical data, hour after hour.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Your center. The data is there. For data. You get
a stream of data. Let data reign. NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Every color, every option, every style, everything you could.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
This is, as I mentioned, this is what we do
when we all get together. It is impossible for us
not to say, hey, remember, did I ever tell you?
And we do a lot of this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
There's a lot of right hands that move in towards shoulders,
and we just want to hold you there.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, Don and I share something in common, and
I think I knew this before you said it, is
that we wound up with kind of unintentional careers, that
we kind of got to a place where You may
have wanted to do one thing, but an opportunity presented
itself and it took you in a direction you may
not have found.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Gary, I'm going to throw the same question to you, though.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Was every move, at least to a certain point in
the foundational part of your career, intentional? You saw an
opportunity and you went after it because you knew you
wanted that opportunity.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I think so, yeah. When I started here, of course–
playing records on the air. That's what I wanted to
do at that time.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You wanted to be the disc jockey.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, that was great fun. And it was the beginning
of personality radio, playing records on the air. So that
was a lot of fun. Then I had an opportunity
to go to Buffalo, which was a much bigger radio
market at that point. And working with some people that
(24:59):
I admired, Frank Ward, Freddie Clestine. So that was great fun.
And that was in the middle of record hops every
Friday night and Saturday night, traveling to Canada to do
the record hops. We'd go over the Peace Bridge with
a car full of equipment in the trunk because nothing
(25:20):
was small at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Crates of records and things like that.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
And the guys on the Peace Bridge got to know us.
And they'd just wave us through. They knew what we
were going to do and, okay, go do your thing.
We'd come back on the other side with all the
same equipment and some money from the kids who paid
a dollar to get into the record house. And they
(25:47):
knew that, too, and just wave us through. But those
were great times in radio.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And an intentional move to you.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
My secondary question, though, is that when I came in
listening to the radio in the 70s and 80s, I
had people that had already established something. And establishing it
in the 50s in personality music radio was a transition
from where the industry was to where it was going
to go. What was the inspiration point, though, for you?
You were kind of starting something that was a little
(26:17):
brand new, and you were kind of forging your own path.
Was there somebody or some personality that you may have
heard to say like, okay, that's a good start point.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I'm going to use that as what I'm going to
build off of.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Well, when I went to Buffalo, I had listened to
him here, a guy named Frank Ward, whose radio name
in Buffalo for a while was Guy King. WWOL and
Buffalo had a succession of Guy Kings. They wound up
all being big names in the business. But I had
(26:51):
listened to Frank here in town, because I could pick
up the signal. I liked what he did and how
he did it, and I thought, yeah, I'd like to
do that. That was probably an inspiration point for me.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
And then we do what we all do. You listen
to something external to you. You maybe try to mimic it.
I tried to mimic Christopher Glenn when I first got
my first newscast, and they were like, okay, I don't
know how to do this, so I'm going to do
what I heard.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Same thing, same question to you, Don. Was there an
inspiration point or someone that you heard that said, look,
that's going to be where I'm going to start from
and then move?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I think when I made the transition to news, I
think Tom Decker, who had been on the air here
for a number of years, was a style that I
embraced because it was more conversational. He was telling you
what happened today and not just reading the newscast. And
that really resonated with me. It would be years later.
In fact, it was the LPGA out of Lucas Hill,
(27:51):
and I was the honorary chair, and they did a mural,
which they gave to me, and my wife had helped
put it together. They would take pictures, and a painter
would paint everything. And on this mural, people look at
it and say, well, there's Peter Jennings, and there's Johnny Carson.
What's that all about? And I said, you know what?
(28:12):
That's the blend that I had in the back of
my mind every time I was on the air. A
little bit of Carson because he was there every night,
didn't crave a lot of attention because he could be
popular just by bringing other people on. And Peter Jennings
had a style. I met him a number of times
and interviewed him. that I just appreciated. So we do.
(28:35):
We like to think we're unique at times, but we're
a product of what we absorb over the years.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And then it morphs into, whether you're conscious about it
or not, it just kind of morphs into whatever becomes
your style. And you sort of become comfortable with that.
And then you become the foundation point for somebody else,
whether you think about it or not.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Hopefully you do.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
It's that combination of information, storytelling, friendship, companionship. And a
little bit of, well, Gary Smith's impish grin. Even if
you don't hear it, you still know that it's in there. Okay,
down with one, on to two. We've still got until
noon to go. With Don Alhart and Gary Smith here
on NewsRadio WAM 1180.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I'm Joel DeMonaco, in for Bob Lonsberry, and news is next.
From the summer's biggest stories.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
The Strait of Hormuz.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Oil prices.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
250 years.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Socialism. To what's next. This is going to be a
midterm unlike any other. The best is yet to come.
It's happening. Are you ready?
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Use radio. Web 1180.
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