Columbus joined WPGC on August 16, 1971 for nights from WCOJ in Coatesville, PA. His name was given to him upon his arrival by General Manager, Bob Howard (who was from Columbus, Ohio). He moved to middays in 1972 when Tom Allen left to program WMEX in Boston. In early 1975, Harv Moore left for WYSL in Buffalo and he inherited the morning show where he remained until late in the year when he left for the Production Director gig at WLS in Chicago.

The Coatesville job was a short stay...I was raised in PG County...went to Suitland High...then the Univ. of Maryland...graduated in ' 70......Today I'm still a voice actor in Chicago...my main gig now is as staff announcer for the Judge Mathis show...

What a great website...the "blowtorch" line alone makes you feel proud to have been a part of it...you know for years I never thought much about WPGC then I saw the Cameron Crowe film, Almost Famous... I'm sure the other guys from the' 72 to' '75 years had similar feelings...in many ways we were like the band on the bus rolling through the heartland, just headed somewhere with our music ... and dreams of things not as they were but as we longed for them to be...it was a pretty special time...

On Harv Moore:

Most things seem so much more magical in the distance than when you get there...I heard Harv Moore on WPGC when I was in high school...the time when your favorite songs have this once in a lifetime significance...its hard to live up to that...but he did....Harv was a genuinely funny guy...didn't have to prepare stuff...just talking with him the humor was so natural...and he knew how to live in a big picture kind of way... on the edge but in control... always with a feeling for the people around him...we all have regrets ...and I mean this in the best way...I don't think Harv has too many... he's really a huge talent and a humble great guy...

On Inheriting the Morning Show:

Although I'm not sure of a timeline, I do remember Harv asking me to consider going to Buffalo and that seemed to be months before he left. Then suddenly boom, Jim Collins was the new Program Director and Jim's giving me a pep talk about how I'd be great doing mornings in the style of a Charlie Tuna or Robert W. Morgan.

 

I'm sure someone knows more about this than I do, but in the production room, right next to the door in magic marker it said, "Don't hit here, steel stud". It seems Columbus took karate lessons, and when he was really mad one day (bad show I guess) he put his fist thru the wall.

In case you wondered, at the request of John Gehron (then WLS PD, my college PD, and now GM of Clear Channel Chicago) I taped him without his knowledge. John used the tape to get him to Chicago as his production director. A year later, he resigned, saying that the production work was getting in the way of his free lance business, which was (and from what I hear is) quite successful.

Playlists

Click on images below to see enlargements.

8/21/71	10/02/71	10/23/71	11/06/71
11/20/71	2/19/72	1/20/73	5/05/73
7/07/73	7/28/73	9/29/73	12/15/73
1/19/74	10/26/74	6/28/75	8/23/75

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