Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

In the summer of 2003 I attended the third annual WCOL reunion that was held at  "Broadcast Lake"  on Dublin Road before the station moved to it's current location on West 5th Avenue.

About eighty former WCOL staffers showed up for the gala, many had traveled here from different parts of the country just to attend this special event.

So many people I grew up listening to, guy's like Mike Adams, Johnny Lane, Brian McIntyre, Dave Bishop, Roger Hornung and a continued list of who's who from  the Columbus radio history pages.

The Saturday night party was broadcasted live on the 1230 frequency and all of us got the opportunity to recount a special memory from our time at Columbus' most legendary station. The weather for the outside event was perfect, the food and drink was plentiful and the camaraderie was unbelievable.

Staffers from as far back as 1953 through those of us who were there in the early 1980s came together as if we had all been friends for years.

One of my favorite stories that night came from Bob Harrington. He had come to WCOL from a station in Florida in the mid '60s and was actually hired during his interview and went on the air about a half hour after the interview.

Bob told many wonderful stories but best was when in 1965 he was asked to pick up Diana Ross and the Supremes at the airport for a concert appearance here.

He had a GTO convertible and when he picked the girls up he decided to put the top down to impress them. As he drove them to their hotel  the wind all but destroyed their their bee-hive hair-do's.

Johnny Lane and Mike Adams articulated stories about the "Battle of the Bands" at the Ohio State Fair. One of them would be on the phone talking to the DJ on the air about the huge crowds lining up to get in and there wasn't anyone there. And sometimes the jock calling in was actually inside the WCOL studios when he called in.

Neal Martin who will always be remembered for saying the  "F" word on the air, and who was ribbed about it told a story of when WCOL was at the zoo a male kangaroo attacked him because the animal thought he was too close to a female kangaroo.

Tip Carpenter, the stations engineering guru for several decades recanted a time when an irate business executive in a suit was entering the 'COL lobby when a big wind gust came along and blew the water from an awning and drenched him. When he went inside he asked the receptionist, former WBNS TV anchor-woman Dana Tyler- "Who's responsible for this?"  Dana replied, "God I guess." Dana had come to the party from New York City where she anchors the evening news for the CBS station there.

My own story was of a time back in 1965 when I had won a prize from WCOL and when I went to the station to get it I met Mike Adams, and later in life  while working at 'COL I interviewed Mike on the air from his home in California where he is a professor at San Jose State.

All of this program can still be heard by logging on to "WCOL Fun Pages" and clicking on  the link for the "Third Annual Reunion"  And you can peruse some pretty cool photo's from not only that night, but from WCOL's past on "Mikeadams.org."

I can't wait for the 4th annual reunion. Something this good only comes around every few years or so.    Rick

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