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WEOL rhas ‘KingOldies’Steve BrownThe Chronic)e-TetegramEvery radio station can’t claim they have royalty on their staff. But WEOL 930 AM can boast they have “King of the Oldies.”,Veteran on-air personality Bill : King, who joined the station in• December 1996 is hosting an old-) ies show Saturday nights from ; 6-10 p.m.“I’ve been doing it for 20 years; at weddings and night clubs,”; King said. “I was also the first to ' do a regular oldies radio show in ! Cleveland.”. In 1983, King was the ; host of WGAR’s “Sunday Night ; Oldies” program..: With, that . background,i WEOL's programming director ! Mike Whitmore decided to make ! good use of King’s talents.; “We had been toying with this | idea for a lot of years,’ * Whitmore• said. “Bill is an expert in the ! field. He’s a serious collector —; his music library totals 18,000 —; and a serious student.”| Reco gnized by ‘ ‘PM Magazine”I a couple of years ago as “King of ! the Oldies”, King will feature a ! different year each week on his | show.i “We do a countdown with all; of the old commercials and►• events of that year,” King said.! “We also take dedications and i requests. My wife Kathy comes in j to produce the show and answer ; the phones.”Interviews with singers may t also pop up on the program.; “We have a nice chat with; Bobby Vinton coming up soon,”: King said.King attributes the oldies’pop-• ularity with the nostalgia trend.j “It gives us a chance to play J songs that weren’t necessarily :lh j. the Top Five,” King said. “It’s i also a nice escape — we can sing ! along with them:” j After just two weeks, King: already has a favorite story toj tell;’ ~ “A lady called in and she was celebrating her S5th anniversary,” King said. “She told me all she needed was the song ‘Memories’ for her husband,” Response to the show has been positive.“We’re even getting calls dur--!ing the day to play certain ■ ‘'-songs ” Whitmore said. “There '•’ate some songs that fit into our cJdiiy format, but we’ll leave the 'L B-Side of a Bobby Vee record to -Bill's show.”--^'Whitmore added that the old-•T;ies show will be a fixture in !'WEOL's programming.“We want the show’s presence every week,” Whitmore said. “We have to honor our contrac-■-tual responsiblities such as the / -Indians. In those instances, we -might go a little earlier or run an ••-abbreviated version.”L: u With summer coming up, King ■/ hopes to play a lot of cruisin’.; mUsic such as Eddie Cochran’s ‘.Summertime Blues.”_ “I have a 1956 Ford so I’ve :L done a lot of car cruisin’ nights ••and car shows, King said.‘ King also was owner of the ’50s club, D.B. Boppers, in Mid-dleburg Heights.got into it in 1992,” King /fr^Said. ‘q wanted to keep the oldie i^jfhing alive. We played the oldies even had national acts sucht-vr-as the Vogues and Bill Haley’s.S.xSomets.”King has since sold the club he keeps the doGr open for IvKfti'ture opportunities.the right partner came • 2 j'along, I might get involved with ^another club,” King said.
Newspaper Details
The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Sat, May 17, 1997
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Nathan O.
OH, USA 30 Nov 2020
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