The Lee Gilette Story, Part 1

As I travelled on I-26, trucking my way through East Tennessee, I passed Exit 57A and instantly recalled one of the most unbelievable times I lived through in my twenty two year radio career as an on air personality.  This story begins with the history leading up to my departure from a long run at a heritage radio station in New Jersey and ends on a very sad note about a guy with a God given talent for broadcasting.

On June 14^Th, 1994, I marked my 12^Thanniversary at Magic 98.3, WMGQ in New Brunswick, New Jersey, serving the Central New Jersey region in the Arbitron rated Middlesex-Somerset-Union market. It was the 36^Thlargest, nationally, from over 300 rated markets in 1994 with a population of 1.5 million. New York City, Market #1 was our direct competition and adjacent market. Manhattan was 28 miles from where I lived near the crossroads of I-78 and I-287.

I returned to The Garden State in early 1982 after a busted economy chased me out of my radio haven in Coastal Georgia. Anxious to stay busy and keep working, I jocked part time on the weekends as a rock music DJ at 105-5, WDHA, The Rock of North Jersey. In addition, I taught broadcast announcing to starry eyed students at a school in New York City during the week. It was a seven day a week schedule with both, and a lengthy commute to The City on a network of trains and subways.

In June, a slot opened at Magic and I found myself in the unfamiliar territory of soft rock radio. I originally didn’t think I would last 6 months there. This was truly a place of "corporate radio." The format was strict and forbidding.  I had to say the call letters once for every two song titles announced in a "back sell" or song set recap. Everything that occurred, or was going to occur at the stations was outlined in an official memo with everyone who was concerned listed in columns at the top of the document. I learned quickly that memos that were sealed with tape in an envelope contained serious personal information or reprimands,

The Adult Contemporary music was too conservative and stuffy for my tastes and there was no flexibility in what was played or when it was played. Even with all the structure that the station mandated,  I had longed for one skinny day off every week in a position that included full-time benefits. This would be a stepping stone to somewhere else or back to WDHA, if a full time slot opened there. 

I loved the Rock format at DHA. The Program Director, Mark Chernoff, General Manager Bob Linder and the rest of the staff were great people to work with. Long time Midday Personality, Kathy Millar, gave Chernoff a thumbs up when he asked her if she liked my demo tape when I interviewed with Mark in the production studio. I felt comfortable and welcome there, broadcasting in a place near my original hometown of Florham Park.

At Magic, by some miraculous intervention, I ended up making it past six months.  I also was there for the administrations of three American Presidents, three New Jersey Governors, three station General Managers, one complete studio overhaul, two Program Directors, the ownership of six automobiles and the loss of a substantial amount of hair. This was how long my twelve year temporary job lasted.

The facilities were were barely four years old and well kept. Broadcast Center, the name of our modernistic facility, was built in 1978. All on one level, it featured a center talk radio studio that doubled as a conference room and was surrounded by four studios including the newsroom, the FM and AM on air control rooms with broadcast glass windows peering into the center. Offices, a large engineering room, an expansive record library and a kitchen formed the outer ring of the building. The facilities were were barely four years old and well kept when I arrived.  WMGQ' s control board was the same one that was used at 66 WNBC in New York.

Directly next to this beehive of activity was a rare, free standing broadcast antenna tower. The tall, monolithic structure was easily recognized as a standing because of its wide base and lack of supporting wire lines.

Tony Marano, the long time General Manager of Magic 98.3, WMGQ had retired about a 18 months before I marked 12 years. He had been at the helm of Magic and our sister AM, WCTC-AM since the 60's. Tony began his career in the 40's at his beloved WCTC. Mr. Marano was revered in the community and maintained a family atmosphere at the stations.

Marano was a tall, white haired gentleman who wore gold men's bracelets and spoke in low decibels. His demeanor was always calm and reassuring. He led the stations on a path of steady growth over the years in a competitive market sandwiched between the two major markets of Philly and New York. One year, as a commendation for a job well done, he took us all on buses to Atlantic City for a day and night of fine food and fun at Trump Castle. Donald Trump, himself, stepped into our banquet room briefly and greeted our group, telling us “we sounded like a fun bunch.” 

Some of us received color TVs as prize for good work in an in-house sales contest. Good Christmas parties marked the holiday season every year without fail. Pay raises were regular and always accompanied by a personal, handwritten note signed "Tony."

To say the least, it turned out to be a stable place to work. Most of the Magic Personalities had ten years or more of service invested. On the CTC-AM side, a few, like Jack Shreve had been on the air since the early 60’s. Kids my age remember him announcing school closings on snow days. Long time AM morning personality, Jack Ellery roamed the halls like royalty. We called him "Little Caesar."

The benefits were good at Magic 98.3 and I had four weeks of vacation annually. In fact, since all this vacation time was going around amongst the full timers, I would usually do my Evening Show only 10 months out of the year. The other two months were spent filling in on the Morning or Afternoon Shows. It was nice to get that much of a change of pace and experience life outside of the evenings ever year for so much time in an alternate time slot.  Ron Fillepp, the Afternoon Personality, took the entire month of August off to go to Australia one year, so I made myself comfortable in Afternoons for that time.

On a typical day, I would calmly stroll into the on air studio with thirty seconds to spare as a song ended, sit down, open the microphone and talk. Toward the end of my career there, a new part time announcer introduced himself to me and said “it’s great to meet you…I used to listen to you when I was a kid.” It was then, that it really sank in as to how long I had been there.

At one point, during the 80's, I discovered that I had a following in England. This was in the era when the Internet was still a rudimentary endeavor and before it featured audio. A listener called and said she had visited a record store in England and found "bootleg" tapes of my show on cassettes labeled "American Radio". She said she met several people who had a copy across the pond.  I never did get a copy of a tape, but it was kind of a heady experience to think I might have listeners in Europe!

By the time the summer of ’94 rolled around, we were on our second general manager since Tony retired and suddenly, there were cracks in the dyke. I met the new guy in the hallway one day, impeccably dressed and “spit shined to the nine’s”. After looking me over carefully, he said “don’t worry, I’m a nice guy.” When someone says “I’m a nice guy” or “you can trust me”, I become wary. Very wary.

We watched in horror as the very talented Mike Jarmus on the AM side was given his walking papers. It was thirty years of talent and a very nice man walking out the door, never to return. Long time sales executives whom all we had worked closely with were departing one by one. 

When they fired Magic's Sales Manager, he sat at his desk with his head in his hands. Every day it seemed like someone was being accompanied out the door by a station official, while carrying their desk items in cardboard boxes, as if they had broken some kind of law.  A terse notice was posted with instructions of not to let the vanquished back into the building. Heads were rolling like bowling balls and I knew this bad disease of extermination-like terminations would make it to our side of the building…sooner than later.

As predicted, they began breaking up Magic. All my long time friends and colleagues were leaving one by one. In retrospect, I was actually fortunate that they dumped me into the Overnight Show, although I didn't think so at the time.  I eerily had the feeling that they forgot about me, but it would buy me enough time to find another job.

Nothing to my liking was developing in the regional area, so I knew I had to “widen my circle” geographically if I was going to stay in radio or remain in the ash pit time slot of what was once a great place to work. Returning South was a recurring thought that appealed to me. But where could I go? Florida and Georgia were places I enjoyed being once upon a time and an encore there might be a good move, I pondered. 

I recalled the glory days when yakking it up on the morning show on 101Q in Coastal Georgia was fun.  It was a 100,000 watt blowtorch of a signal station that stretched from Jacksonville, Florida to Savannah, Georgia. We played Top 40 and enjoyed good living on the beach.  Personal appearances consisted of handing out sun tan lotion, beach towels and drinking beer on the beach.

Tennessee also appealed to me as somewhere new and adventurous.  It was a stone unturned. Mystery and a good life seemed possible between all those big mountains. My travels had taken me through East Tennessee on numerous occasions and I grew fond of the picturesque mountain terrain and friendly people there.  You only go around once, so, with adventure in mind, I “crop dusted” Chattanooga, Knoxville and The Tri Cities market comprised of Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol with audition tapes and resumes in the hope of landing a good opportunity there.

(At this point of the story, some of the names, except Lee have been changed to protect the innocent)

August of 1994 arrived when Robert, the Operation Manager from US-99 called on a Friday from the Tri Cities market and extended an invitation to come down and discuss their Afternoon Drive opening at the Country formatted station. After a brief question and answer session on the phone, I agreed to travel down for a Monday meeting and tour the facilities in Johnson City and the other two towns that comprised market number 96. 

It would be a drop in market size, but the compensation they were offering was good combined with the lower cost of living. I would also be returning to Country, a format I hadn’t done since 1980. Then too, it could be my head rolling down the alley toward those pins at any time at Magic. The Afternoon time slot would suit me as well, so I packed a bag and prepared to make the 9 hour trip.

Monday morning found me in the reception area of US-99 at nine am sharp. Robert came out to greet me with a donut in his hand and invited me join him and meet the General Manager, Evan Gotan. Upon entering Evan’s office, smiles and warm greetings were quickly turned to the business at hand. Robert was a more introverted and studious guy, close to my age. His premature gray hair belied a fellow who wasn’t yet out of his thirties. Broad shouldered and six foot, he was clean shaven, Dockered and penny loafered. Evan immediately portrayed a classic Type “A” Personality. At fifty-something, he was lean, as gray as Robert, energetic and ready to cut a deal. His complexion was pock marked from an apparent earlier skin condition. He fidgeted constantly with items on his desk. I remained firm with plenty of questions before I signed on any dotted line. I hadn’t started a new job in 12 years, and I wanted to tread carefully.

Evan paused for a moment, then picked up the phone and dialed a number and following a greeting to someone named Lee, he handed me the phone.

On the other end was this deep, booming and network sounding voice announcing himself as the new Program Director and Morning Personality, Lee Gilette. He was straight-forward and said he hand- picked me for the Afternoon Show. Lee added that he was in Iowa and it would be great to see me in about two weeks. Oh, “and make sure you get as much money out of these guys as you can.”

As the day wore on, more information about the situation with US-99 was revealed to me. They shared that the format would be changing from Country to Adult Contemporary. They needed me for my extensive experience in the format. I could attain the “Music Director” title, after an initial transition of the format. Johnny Dark, of WNBC and Florida’s Coast in Miami fame was slated to voice track the evening show. I was going to be surrounded by all this big market talent on the station, if nothing else, would sound like a winner.

Next on the agenda, was a steak dinner to seal the deal. I said yes, and Evan said we start on Monday, Labor Day.

I called Joe DeRose, my longtime Program Director at Magic with the news of my impending departure. His reply was “are you sure this is it?” “Have you dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s? ” I said yes, this where I jump off. I thanked Joe for his many years of support and related to him that I might not had lasted there as long if it not for him. He then told me “nothing makes me happier than to see you walk out of here with your own two feet.” Magic 98.3 would give me a last show. I looked forward to it and dreaded it at the same time. I knew it would emotional for me . How could it not be? How do you spend that much time in one place, forging so many bonds with co-workers, audience members and personal friends without a long goodbye?

Part 2, Next

The Lee Gilette Story, Part 2

My last show on Magic 98.3 was Friday, September 2, 1994. An overnight cold front washed away the humidity and summer haze leaving a spectacular and sunny early autumn type day with cloudless blue skies and a crisp afternoon temperature of 72 degrees. It was the kind of September day that leaves me with a wistful feeling that change brings.  The Monday Labor Day Holiday promised to relay the seasonal torch into a new life in a new place.  One more commute to Broadcast Center and the book would close on a twelve year run.

The fun part of the last show was choosing last songs that weren’t on the play-list. What were they going to do? Fire me? That thought made me laugh out loud.

I walked into the studio at the stroke of Midnight with an arm full of my own CD’s and tapes that I had made especially for the show. My old friend Liz Maita, a WCTC talk personality who had done shows on Magic as well called in to wish me well right away. I appreciated her support as I expressed my enjoyment of having worked with her over the years.

I opened the mic and stated that this would the last night with the best audience dating back to over sized eye wear and the first personal computer. I played the first song I ever played on the first day from the Original Musiquarium, Stevie Wonder’s “That Girl”.

The night wore on with lots of kind calls, well wishers and goodbye themed songs. During Roger Whitaker’s Last Farewell, I stepped outside to breathe the 50 degree weather under a star filled sky. My thoughts turned to my upcoming new life in Tennessee. No longer would I be looking over my shoulder for a sudden firing. I pictured working at a normal time of day with a normal sleep schedule. To this day, I have never taken that for granted.

My counter-part on the AM side at that hour, Dave Marthouse, stopped in occasionally to see how things were going. Dave, who was blind from birth, was a brilliant broadcaster. He did a live, call-in talk show on WCTC. All his notes and newsworthy items were in braille that he typed out before his show. I was always fascinated with how he operated his braille writer with speed and accuracy.  Dave was able know when callers were on the phone by using a system he devised with his acute hearing ability to know if someone was on a telephone line instantly. He would talk on air and constantly press the phone line buttons down and put someone right on the air and converse with them as if he was sighted.

Marthouse was an inspiration to me and always showed up for work on the night show, good natured and happy to be doing something he loved..and was born to do. I would have not made it on the night show in good shape without his friendship and company. He was the one who introduced me to the Internet during several visits to his house in the 80's. In those days, it was mostly a monochrome affair on a CRT monitor. The search engines were called "Veronica" and "Archie." It was a free-wheeling place with mounds of information and no control.

Dave had a computer with a text reader that he would cursor across the screen to turn typed words into an audio language that would play out of a speaker. He ran the cursor quickly with a mouse and what came out of the speaker sounded like gibberish to me. I asked him how he understood it. He said "you have to realize that my hearing and the processing of that speech is lot different than a sighted person. It's like another language to me that I have mastered. I'm not distracted by sight." I then asked, why do you have a monitor?  He smiled and said "that's for you, so you can follow along."  In addition to his computer capabilities, there was a tall radio tower behind his home for his HAM radio transmissions. It wasn't surprising to me, a few years later, when I learned that he had become a radio station owner.

Five hours flew by and I was now down to the last half hour.  My heart rate quickened and a feeling of anxiety came over me. Would I be able to pull off the last half without becoming emotional? Cousin Brucie couldn't complete his departure from WABC after a long run there. Chuck Leonard actually had to finish the show for him.  George Michael's voice cracked when he signed off from WFIL in Philadelphia for the last time.

At the stroke of five am, I hit the button for the legal ID voiced by Jan Ochs “WMGQ, New Brunswick, Central Jersey’s Music Station”. In rapid succession, I pushed the start button for CD player number one housing Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It”, the acoustic version from “Live From Outside The Redwoods”. The final thirty minutes was underway.

Four songs played and I took a deep breath and started my last break. “Central Jersey's Music Station, Magic 98.3, with the number one fan of the man from Tennessee, ‘Please Come To Boston’, Dave Loggins on Magic 98.3. Seals and Crofts with ‘We May Never Pass This Way Again’…Cathy Dennis, Remembering Those Moments of Love and Kenny Loggins up first with ‘This Is It’…Indeed my friends this IS it. My last time on Magic 98.3. The beginnings are always so great, it’s the endings that are so hard. I’d like to, but it would be impossible to thank everyone and I mean everyone who has made my stay here at Magic 98.3 a great one… and my home for the past decade. Thanks for being my friends, I won’t forget you…thanks for being here..” *   I pressed go for the final three songs. “Sitting” by Cat Stevens, “Bad Goodbye” by Clint Black and Wynonna….then it was simply "Goodbye” by Mary Hopkin leading to a cold-fade, definitive close.

That was it. The end. I was 25 years old when I walked in for the first time, wide-eyed and shaggy haired and weeks away from turning 38 when I walked out of the front glass doors for the last time, bearded and balder, but not defeated. Keith Hill, a well known consultant and one time Program Director for WCTC once told me “this radio station is taking pages off your life, you need to find some wings and fly.” I found the wings.

I drove my maroon Chevy Corsica with a U-Haul attached up the little hill on Huffine Road to my new broadcast home in Johnson City, US-99. I walked into a locked glass door to the station and peered in to see a pretty, blue eyed, slight lady with wavy shoulder length strawberry blond hair approach to unlock the door with a smile. She extended her hand said “you must be Dave, hi, I’m Deb, Lee’s girlfriend…the boys are in Evan’s office…nice to meet you!”

Evan, Robert and Lee were in the spacious office with living room furniture and wooden and bronze colored community award plaques on the walls. Lee stood and shook my hand heartily with a big smile. He looked at his watch and said “I thought you weren’t going to show.” Lee was of a sturdy Midwestern build, standing six foot two with blue eyes and a short blond, well manicured haircut at thirty-three years of age. They were plotting strategy for the launch of the new format about a week away. Evan had artwork on his desk for billboards that were going up around the region.

 The discussion turned to the remaining members of the current air-staff. Evan stated that they “were not in our plans for the new format, so don’t say anything to them as this is a confidential matter.” Lee then announced that HE wanted to be the one to fire them. “I want to fire them, can I do it this afternoon? Please?” Then he told the story of the time, at another station, of how they were changing formats and let the whole air-staff go at one time. The manager lined up little green toy soldiers on the edge of his desk. Next, he called the Personalities in one at a time, and in one motion, flicked a soldier off the desk with his finger and handed them their last check and said goodbye.

Wow, was my thought. To think someone's job ended with toy soldiers piled up on the floor and a bunch of fired people walking around, wondering what just happened. Sometimes there’s writing on the wall, sometimes it’s a sudden and devastating firing.  Now, I was on the other side of the fence. It’s that kind of business. Some see it as a badge of honor to get the boot and continue. In one broadcast trade magazine, they published a list of unemployed personalities and called the section "On The Beach".

Some struggle with being fired. I had been fired in this business two times. In fact, I was fired, re-hired and quit in a twenty four hour period in one of them. Take this job and shove it was how I felt in that particular situation. Most know what they’re getting into with broadcasting. Formats change, ratings dip, manager had a bad day, a pretty girl walks in the door. It’s dicey at times and sometimes quite complacent. I was lucky enough to see that side.

Lee then told the story of a time when he was hired in Boston on a Friday afternoon. He signed the papers in the manager’s office shook hands then walked down the hall to the On Air Studio. He walked in, shook hands with the guy on the air and introduced himself saying  "I’m your replacement in this time slot, you have about fifteen more minutes to work here."  That poor guy hadn't been yet told by management he was going to be let go. Everybody in the room chuckled at the story…how funny it seemed at the time. After everything I’d seen in the last couple of years…well, my thought was you might as well laugh about it at this point. However, I knew lots of people who were not seeing any humor after being let go.

Evan changed the subject and said “I want you boys to go on the air on Wednesday to get familiar with the new Scott Studios computerized broadcast system. Robert is a genius with that system and will be able to answer any questions. Don’t use your name on the air, use something else, as we want to reserve that for The New 99.3, WAEZ”.

Lee turned to me and said “are you moved in yet?” I said not yet, the U-Haul is still attached to my car. Lee returned with a “let’s go and get some lunch, then I’ll help you move in..OK?” On the way out in the hallway I asked him what name he wanted me to use until the launch. Lee grinned and said “I don’t care if you call yourself Buck Rogers! We’re going to burn down this old Country format of theirs before we show them how it’s done.” I thought of calling myself Jethro Bodine. Jimmy Crack Corn occurred to me. I ended up settling on Earl McCoy from Kentucky. “Howdy everybody, this is EARL on US-99.” was how I was going to sound. 

When I finally did get on the air at US, imitating the biggest redneck you ever heard, the girl on the air before me looked at me like I was nuts. Her look was much like a confused dog when I pulled out a CD of “Colorado Coolaid” by Johnny Paycheck.  In a defiant tone, I stated "I can play this. Watch me."  Paycheck sang and I listened with evil eyebrows. "What's that, you don't know what a Colorado Coolaid is? It's a can of Coors, brewed from a mountain stream..set yer head on fire and make your kidneys scream."

Lee jumped the car with me and immediately said “you’ve got to get rid of those Jersey plates…they’re going to think you’re in the Mafia. My truck has Illinois plates that say ‘Land of Lincoln’. I’m sure these good old southern boys like that. I parked it in the corner of the lot..maybe they won’t notice.”


Part 3 next


*"thanks for being here" was my signature sign-off for most of my time at Magic and the rest of my broadcast career

The Lee Gilette Story, Part 3

On the way to my car, I noticed that Lee was walking with a limp. I didn't say anything about it or ask him why. We arrived at my new apartment, a small, but competent place over the Johnson City line into Carter County, which I had secured before I left on the previous trip. Upon opening the trailer, Lee grabbed my dresser, a heavy Ethan Allen full with drawers of clothes and began to hoist it up by himself. I said whoa,whoa...let me grab an end. Being the strong ox he was, he said, "No, I've got it" and walked it into my bedroom and set it down with little effort. I said well, dam, thanks...that's strong.

He replied that he had been a lot of places, but was still an Iowa farm boy. He added "You probably noticed the way I’m walking.."I was at an apartment in Williamsport, Pennsylvania sitting on the second story balcony, swigging a bottle of Jack Daniels when I fell over backwards into the parking lot. I broke my femur and they inserted a rod and since then, I've spent the past six months learning how to walk again. I worked for a guy named Dick there, it was a weird situation." I said, yeah, weird might make me drink too. I grabbed a couple of long necks from the fridge and we spent a couple of hours talking about where we had been, on what was going on with the station and what being at The New 99.3 would bring.

We discovered that we had worked at similarly formatted Top 40 stations in the Jacksonville metro at the same time. Lee held down the evening show on Y-103 as “The Hitman” while I did mornings on 101-Q as “Stockton in The Morning”. I told him I had been in the 103 studios and knew several jocks who worked there, Hal Jackson, Rick Williams, and Jackson Beach. I had seen the famous flashing red light that said “Y-LINES” when the request line rang above the totally restored vintage Gates control board with big rotary pots (pots are round knobs for controlling various sound elements fed into the board). Indeed, I had frequented the Atlantic Beach Boulevard studios and met up with Rick and Hal at Jacksonville Beach on many occasions when I was on Rock 95 across town.We all used to trade prank “request line” phone calls with disjointed song titles, asked for by listeners with “personality defects”.

Back at US-99, in the Program Director’s office, Lee took a phone call where I heard his side of the conversation “Hale, where are you? No, no, that’s the wrong hotel. I don’t care if your wife likes it there. The company doesn’t have a deal with that one..they’re not going to pay the bill. Pack your stuff back in the suitcase and go over to the Fairfield.” Lee hung up the phone, rolled his eyes and said that was our Midday guy, Hale Loman and his charming wife from Indiana. Lee changed the subject said “Deb’s at the house preparing dinner, why don’t you stop by for some genuine Iowa home cooking tonight?” I told him I’d be happy to accept the invitation.

I found Lee’s townhouse on the north side of Johnson City and parked at his front door. He popped out on cue and we stood on the sidewalk admiring the dramatic mountain range sunset view. It was an inspiring scene with red September skies hugging a jagged range of East Tennessee terrain. Lee recalled that when he first visited the complex, he knew it was exactly where he wanted to live.

Inside, Deb had prepared a smorgasbord, fit for royalty, arranged on a long counter. Roasting pans contained beef roast, chicken and ham with cloves. Casserole dishes were filled with homemade mashed potatoes, French cut beans, creamed corn, pearl onions, stewed tomatoes. Croissant dinner rolls lay protected beneath a red and white cloth. A prodigious tossed salad bowl, sat, adorned with an array of dressing choices. There was organic applesauce with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I spied the cranberry sauce that contained discernible cranberries. Warming in the oven, were homemade pies of cherry and apple with criss-cross patterns on top. I said “this is impressive. Are you expecting someone else?” Lee chuckled, “no, just you tonight. When Deb gets started, there’s no stopping her. She likes to cook!”

We enjoyed a fun night of food, laughter and conversation in a new town we all commonly shared. The prospects were bright and success seemed imminent in my new situation. At home,on my first night in my new apartment, I laid awake and exhaled for the first time in a long time. The job search was over, the move was a done deal.

The New 99.3 was an Adult Contemporary formatted radio station with a mix of 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s music with current “Adult Hits”, very close to Magic 98.3. The target demographic was the female audience between the ages of 25 and 54. The ground zero profile was a 35 year old woman, married with 2 children and a husband. She was employed full time, went to church regularly and ate meals out with her family between the hours of 5 and 7 twice a week.

From the time I started radio broadcasting in the 70’s to the current date, audience research became increasingly scientific. No longer would broadcast professionals be called on for their programming talent and instinct. A gut feeling of what was best was no longer acceptable. The numbers and information was all in black and white. The day of the bean counters had arrived in what was once a free-wheeling business. It used to be that if you didn’t know what to do, an Eight Ball was a good programming tool.

Arbitron ratings were king. Random listeners in a given broadcast market were given "Diaries" to record their listening habits over the period of a week. They were then instructed to send their diary back to Arbitron. When collected, the diaries became the scientific information that media ratings are made of. On occasion, radio programmers were invited to company headquarters in Beltsville, Maryland to view actual rating diaries that rated their stations. Most said it was a sobering experience to see how this company used what could be characterized in some instances as chicken scratch entries on the diaries to rule their fate.

This Adult format was new to Evan. He had managed mostly Country or Oldies type stations in the past and was determined to get this one right. He hired an outside consultant who would handle the research and music.

In the Tri Cities market, WXBQ, The Rabbit Station was, and still is the behemoth country formatted station. Their ratings are among the highest in the format for the entire country. There are stations with more listeners in larger markets, but WXBQ has a phenomenally high share of available listeners in town. Every time a rating report came out, they were on top. Way on top. While the number two station had an 8, 9 or 10 share rating, for total audience share (age 12 plus), WXBQ was at a 28 or 29 share. The saying was that the market was comprised of WXBQ, then everybody else.

The Rabbit Station just celebrated their 80th number one ratings period, led the whole time by Operations Manager, Bill Hagy. Bill is a brilliant programmer and being number one 80 times in a row is a significant accomplishment.  That's a lot of years at number one. Also there for the entire time, Midday Personality Reggie Neel has held court in that daytime slot since 1980. Reggie is one of the finest human beings I have ever known.

 Owner and General Manager, Pete Nininger was a wealthy man with a hobby of thoroughbred horses. The number two station was either WTFM, an Adult Contemporary or WQUT,a Rock Station. US-99 was down the list. There wasn't a chance against The Rabbit Station. It wasn’t a bad sounding station, it’s just that Country audiences, as a rule,are very loyal and don’t usually tune away from their station. This rule was on steroids in the Tri Cities. A change for US was necessary. Maybe WTFM would be more vulnerable.

On day three, Evan gathered everyone and gave us a reading assignment. Since our core audience was going to be women, the book was “Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus”. Then the painters came in and started painting all the walls in the interior of the building pink. I was glad he spared the men’s restroom from the list of pink walls. Paintings of flower arrangements adorned the walls. It began to feel like a fancy day spa instead of a radio station with grizzled men of experience. I told Lee, next he’s going to hand out high heels for us to wear and we were going to start walking around in drag. Evan’s reasoning was that we, as men, were going to understand women, how to relate to them..how…to broadcast to them. He was leaving no rock un-turned and we were going directly after WTFM’s audience..and by golly, we were going to win. There was no other option.

The new Midday guy, Hale Loman was part of the group meeting and seemed like an introspective guy of few words. He was of medium build, clean shaven with neatly trimmed hair, hiding beneath a Feed and Seed Store ball cap. Hale was from Indiana and had spent his whole life there. He went on the air right after the meeting and Lee and I retreated to the Programming Office at the end of the building to work on some details related to the impending format change. Lee turned up the volume on Hale’s first talk break and said “listen to that perfect Midwest tone.” Hale sounded friendly and well suited for the country format. Earl would be the bull in the china shop at 3.

On Friday of that week, in retrospect, it became the day of the first point of friction between Evan and Lee. Lee suddenly had to have throat surgery to remove some sort of “nodule growths.” Evan, being the type A personality he was, just about had a cow when he got the news. Lee would not be able to speak above a whisper and would be off the air for nearly two weeks. The launch of the new station was scheduled for Monday, at 6 am. Robert would have to fill the morning show until Lee could get back on the air. Evan had billboards going up, newspaper ads and a host of promotional placements with the new line-up that had been planned for weeks. I watched him pace around the building with a bright red complexion. It looked like veins were popping out on his neck and the sides of his face. I thought he was going to expire right in front of me. I stayed way out of the situation, and prepared to take off my Earl McCoy suit and return to the format I had done for twelve years..and win.

Lee’s surgery was successful and he returned to the station with the new format in place. I was enjoying my new found time slot. The Scott Systems took a little getting used to. All the songs, commercials and sound elements were on a touch computer screen that scrolled down as it played. It was cutting edge technology for 1994. I didn’t have to handle any CD’s, commercial tapes or anything. ALL I had was a keyboard and a computer monitor. The song sets segued by themselves. I didn’t have to touch anything, just open the mic and talk when I was supposed to. Everything still ran through a traditional control board with a traditional microphone.

There was an adjacent desktop-type vertical case with a daisy chain of ten hard drives strung together for a whopping total of 10 gigabytes, which was massive in 1994. Today, I could put that whole station on my laptop with well over 300 gigabytes to spare. The beauty of this system was that you could record and upload voice parts to create the most real sounding live show to date. This is how we planned to use Johnny Dark’s talent in the evenings. Broadcast automation systems had been around for years, but they were as large as an old mainframe computer and prone to mechanical failure. There were large tape carousels that jammed, large reels of tape could run out if you didn’t change them. These systems needed constant attention and were an engineer’s nightmare. A fully computerized system could conceivably run perpetually.


We were all on the air as we should have been two weeks earlier and the station started to hum. Evan lightened up as good news and sales accounts started to pour in. About this time, Lee was developing a real “us and them” mentality. He wanted the air-staff together on everything. His characterization of the management portrayed them as the opposition, the enemy, not to be trusted. It’s not a totally foreign concept in radio as evidenced by my immediate prior experience. But something just didn’t seem right.

One day, late in September, Lee called me into his office and closed the door. He tensed up and he said things weren’t working out with me and they were going to let me go. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was in shock. My heart skipped a beat. He leaned back in his chair and knocked on the wall with a strained look on his face. Then, the door flew open and everyone barged in with a birthday cake, complete with lit candles! Got me! I blew out the candles and they sang happy birthday. I almost thought it would be my worst birthday. Lee said “you should have seen his face.” Everybody laughed and it turned out to be a good time.

By this time, I had been a dinner guest at Lee’s, at his insistence on a regular basis. He had Hale and his wife Peggy over as much as I was there. Peggy was compact in stature sporting shoulder length dirty blond hair with a natural wave. Her blue eyes were placed behind gold rimmed glasses. Lee would even call Johnny, our prestigious night guy on the phone and include him in the gathering too. Often, he put me on to talk with Johnny and he’d say, have they moved you in yet? Every time I call, you’re there. Deb cooked consistently great meals and I began to feel my pants getting tight around the waist.

Lee’s idea of an assignment was to have us all over for movie night and show “FM” starring Martin Mull.  Hale was always quiet. His wife did all the talking. She would go on and on speaking for Hale constantly. It seemed like anyone could wind her up, and let her go! She always stood and was animated while making her point. She reminded me of some people I knew in Jersey, not an Indianan.

One day, as I was scanning the Johnson City Press newspaper, I noticed that they had our station still listed as Country with the old call letters. So I called the paper and asked to speak to their Features Editor. With the editor on the line, I brought her attention to the error, and quite casually mentioned that the format change had brought a lot of attention to the station with our new line-up of Personalities, including Johnny Dark from NBC fame in New York. I shared with her that the phones were ringing off the hook with new advertisers and listeners...and that if she wanted, she could send a reporter and a photographer over to get the story.

Coincidentally, the next day, Johnny Dark, our night guy, came into town on vacation from Miami and walked into the building followed by a reporter from the paper with a photographer in tow. Lee greeted Johnny and said “what, did you bring your publicist with you?” I greeted the newspaper reporter and showed her into Evan’s office. She interviewed almost all of us and the photographer gathered us in the control room near the on air board and took a series of photos. Before the shooting started Lee leaned over and whispered in Hale’s ear to take his Feed and Seed cap off. Johnny said this is some timing…who arranged this? Lee pointed to me and added “he makes things happen.” I just smiled like the Cheshire cat and nodded.

The Sunday paper came out and the glowing article on us was a full page story on the front of the Features Section with a large third page sized photo of us smiling in the control room with Johnny pointing to the computer screen. From that point on, everyone thought that Johnny was live, on air, every night in Johnson City, Tennessee. I didn't know it at the time, but that was the high point of the “Lee” era at The New 99.3.


Part 4 next

The Lee Gilette Story, Part 4

On Sundays in my new area, I would get in the car and drive to see where the roads went.  Some of the highest mountains on the east coast are in the region. Travelling southeast of Johnson City, I discovered and climbed to the top of Carver’s Gap, a low point along the Roan Mountain ridge line, situated near the base of Roan Mountain on the Tennessee/North Carolina border. It was here, on a sunny and breezy October day, I had a true sense of why I wanted to be here. Standing in a meadow of tall waving yellow grass, I viewed the endless mountains and valleys down below.  

The parking lot at the gap provides access to what through hikers hype as one of the most beautiful sections of the entire Appalachian Trail. Roan Mountain is the high point of the Roan-Unaka Range of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The mountain is clad in a dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, and includes the world's largest natural rhododendron garden and the longest stretch of grassy bald in the Appalachian range. The Cherokee National Forest and Pisgah National Forests converge atop the mountain, with Roan Mountain State Park located near its northern base. The Appalachian Trail crosses most of the Roan's crest * The summit, known as Roan High Knob, at 6285 feet, is the second highest peak on the east coast, behind Mount Mitchell in Western North Carolina.

Back at the station, both Lee and I were experiencing that feeling you get when you’re promised one thing, and then something else happens. I wasn’t getting my hands on any of the music to direct and Lee’s programming responsibilities were severely curtailed.  We both had plenty of experience in the format in much larger markets, but it was Evan and Robert who controlled it all. It was their station.

 I knew I had violated the Broadcasting 101 Rule, if you’re promised something, get it in writing if you really want it. The tension between Lee and Evan began to grow at a faster rate.  I was happy in my afternoon show, but would have liked to have handled the music. I knew the Selector Music Scheduling System software program and could have helped them with some song selections that I knew had worked at Magic.

One weekend, Lee went missing for a couple of days and turned up Monday with a real peaceful look on his face and his eyes resembling slits he could still see out of.  He said it was a good dose of Thorazine at the local mental health hospital and part of the Bi Polar experience.  Now, a lot of things started to make sense to me. His compulsiveness and regular mood swings fit the Bi Polar profile.

October is the time they have The National Story Telling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the next town over from Johnson City.  Storytellers and listeners travel from far and wide to participate in this fun autumn festival.  It’s an historic town and lays claim to being the oldest town in Tennessee.  The downtown area is mostly preserved and stands as you might have found it two hundred years ago. Horse drawn carriages trot up the main street, while people browse eclectic shops and eateries.  During the Christmas season, they display only white colored lights, retaining the feeling of holidays past. Charles Dickens was the first name to come to mind when I viewed the scene for the first time.

Lee had his own stories. Lots of them.  In my mind, no one person could be that talented in the art of “suspension of disbelief”, so I found myself an enthralled believer.

Following are the top ones.

Story #1  While working in the U.S.Virgin Islands as the Midday Man on a pop music station, Lee often went out for cocktails with the Afternoon guy when he got off the air. On one occasion, the two got so sauced, hopping from bar to bar, that he fell down a flight of stone stairs. Mr. Afternoon helped him up and as a soldier would help a wounded comrade, and hopped him to the next island tavern. Lee found himself sitting on a stool and noticed that the female part of a couple sitting next to him on a stool at the bar was beginning to get ill and left for the ladies room. The male leaned over and said “excuse me sir, do you know that your leg is broken? The bone is poking through your skin…should we call somebody?”

Story #2  In Miami, at one of the stations he worked there, Lee held down the morning show and was The All Night Party Champion.  He’d race around town in his Italian sports car frequenting a number of South Beach clubs. On one occasion, he had a stripper in the passenger seat while ripping around town with driving skills reserved for Matt Damon or Bruce Willis. The exotic dancer became so terrified by his movie time driving that she demanded that he stop immediately and let her out. Lee was compliant and didn’t care to listen to her shrill octave.  Solo behind the wheel, on the very next block, he collided with an early morning garbage truck.  The car was completely destroyed and he crawled out of the wreck to a nearby curb. Looking down, he noticed that his ankle was broken, because his foot was pointing the wrong way.

 Story #3  One morning not long after the speed racer run, he finished his morning show, went home to his apartment and found a Fed Ex special delivery courier waiting at his door. He had an envelope for Lee that contained three items, a pink slip outlining his dismissal from the station, a check in the amount of the two remaining years on his contract and a Dade County restraining order to not come within 100 feet of the radio building.

 Story #4  Lee was a lot of things, but most evident in his travels was his ability to be resourceful.  After leaving Miami, he found himself homeless after a “Leaving Las Vegas”  type binge, sleeping under the Santa Monica Pier near Los Angeles. He found a way to construct a resume at the local library and put the phone number from the pay phone on the pier as his contact.  His days were spent chasing people away from using the phone, not to miss any opportunities. As a result of this diligence, he secured a good radio job a little way up the coast at K-Ocean.  Left behind were the sand and the down and out clothes.

I wasn’t around at the station during the earlier morning hours, so I don’t know all the details of the relationship he had with Evan. Robert was always quiet, close mouthed and no-confrontational.  He continued to carry out all the duties that a Program Director carries out, the job Lee thought he’d be doing.

There was a second story deck on the side of the station that we all used extensively for a smoke or a chat.  One day, staring out over the adjacent farm field with rolls of hay, Lee said to me “I’m a thirty-three year old has-been.”  I told him that I didn’t see it that way. I remind him that he’d crawled out of holes deeper than this one. Ironically, when it came to broadcasting abilities, Lee had more confidence in me, than he had in himself.

One night, with all of us gathered at Lee and Deb’s, Peggy was doing her usual stand up act while Hale sat quietly in a chair. She plainly stated “Hale and I feel like moving down here from Indiana was the worst mistake we’ve ever made. We need to get out here and soon!”  I felt sorry for Hale that his big mouth wife was blabbing on. But, this was for real. She was going to pack them up and head back home.  She was just homesick and didn't want to live there. Hale just went along with it all.

The next day Lee and I tried to talk Hale into giving the station a little more time, but no, they were going home. He had secured the job back at the station that he had just left. That night, Lee showed me the long barrel 45 caliber revolver that he had just purchased from Hale. Hale needed moving money, so the gun was the first to go from Hale’s possessions.  I had this gut feeling that the whole situation was going bad…and quickly.

Thanksgiving arrived and my folks from New Jersey and my South Carolinian brother, sister-in-law and young niece came into town to spend the holiday with me.  We had a great time and I was glad to have my family around. It was the diversion I needed from the tense radio station.

After the holiday weekend, Lee changed to an increasingly paranoid and bitter mood.  Deb would call me in the early morning while Lee was on the air with stories of his changing behavior and hostility.  I began to worry, knowing that he now had a gun. Deb was distraught and I really didn’t know what to say to her.  Going back to Iowa seemed like the only logical thing I could tell her.

The calendar became December and I knew Lee wasn’t going to make it much longer at The New 99.3. I continued to stay out of the line of fire. Hale was gone and a guy named Bill came on to take over Midday’s.  Then one day, Lee showed up during my show in the afternoon wearing a long Army coat. I met him in the hallway not far from Evan's office. In a hushed tone, he said, referring to Evan: “I’m going to blow that crew cut headed MF’s head all over the wall.”  He reached into his jacket revealing a holster with the 45 and began to pull it out.  I put my hand on top of his, gently pushing the gun back into the holster as he slightly resisted.  I talked as much and as fast as I could to stem the situation. He had a wild look in his eye and was ready to act.  I don’t remember exactly what I said but I recall saying something like “it wasn’t worth it…they’ll lock you up for the rest of your life.”   

Miraculously, Lee eased the gun back in the holster and walked out of the building to the parking lot. Robert was standing at the window watching him open the trunk of Deb’s maroon '94 Olds 88, remove the shoulder holster with gun and place it in the trunk.  I stood next to Robert and said “did you see that?”  He nodded that he had.

I carried on with the remainder of my show, trying to process what had just occurred.  Anxiety filled me completely, wondering what would happen next.

Unbelievably, they allowed Lee to do his show the next morning. Ken, one of the owners of the station, had a father who was a retired FBI official. During Lee’s show, they stocked the station with agents who were well armed and posing as sales clients.  If Lee had attempted to act aggressively in any way, they would have dropped him in a second.

That morning, I awoke to a Sherriff’s Deputy posted outside my door, for my protection.  They fired Lee after his show and the agents along with local authorities accompanied him back to his townhouse and armed with a warrant, preformed a complete search.  They found a hole, shot straight through the second floor wall that had blown the siding away on the outside wall. Also found were illegal medications.

They gave Lee a choice, stay and face charges for an un-registered weapon to go along with a host of other infractions, or leave Tennessee for good.  He chose banishment. Escorted to the Tennessee-Virginia line, he was admonished to never return to the state ever again.

A pall was cast over the station leading into the holidays. The fun and excitement of a new radio contender was gone. The morning show became a “revolving door” with various personalities “trying out” for the part.  They wanted to move me into Middays to shore up their “at work” audience.  I refused, largely, because the ratings for Fall Period weren’t published and I wanted to see where I stood before making a move. I also didn't want someone else take credit for my ratings. 

January 1995 rolled in and one day, I got a call from Lee during my show on the studio line. He was at the Fairfield Hotel in town, and wanted to see me.  After I got off the air, I looked him up at the room number he gave me.  As I was about to knock, he opened the door and ushered me in quickly.  He gave me a short man hug and handshake.  I sat down and we talked for a couple of hours about various subjects.  The discussion led to how much fun we had getting the station started and how much of a redneck Earl was.  I asked him where he was and he replied that he didn’t want to burden me with that information. He wanted me to visit him at the hotel to find out if he still had a friend. He did. 

I wished him well and left. As I walked down the carpeted second story hallway, I had the feeling that I wouldn’t see him again.  

A few weeks later, the fall ratings came out and I scored the highest numbers on the station in my time-slot in all demographics. I would maintain that rating status for two straight years in all the rating periods for the duration of the format.  WAEZ catapulted into the number four market position.  Ed Arnold and Jerry Caylor came on board and stabilized the air-staff and over all sound of The New 99.3. I found a better apartment closer to town on the side of a hill with a big picture window overlooking the Johnson City Valley.

In December of 1996, Evan announced that he and his partner, Ken, were selling the station.  Pete Nininger from WXBQ had made an offer they couldn’t refuse.  The new management staff came in and they announced that the format was changing to Contemporary Hit Radio (Top 40) at some point soon. Once again, I didn’t know if I would have a job moving forward.  Imagine that.

New Year’s Eve afternoon, I was on the air when Sly Dog came into the studio and said “you’ve got 15 more minutes, I’m your replacement, the new afternoon guy. The format changes at 5 pm…oh, and starting tomorrow, you’ll be on mornings. The station will be now known as Electric 99-3.”  The adult soft rock sound of New 99.3, WAEZ was history. At 5:00 pm sharp, a montage of sounds blew out of radio speakers everywhere with edge and attitude. Listeners called and wanted to know what was going on. WTFM celebrated.

I did the morning show. Then I did the show with Ed Arnold as a team and finally they put Sly Dog in the morning show. Ed moved to Middays. They transferred Jerry to one of their stations in Charleston, West Virginia.

In the middle of all the upheaval, I married Cheryl in Kennesaw, Georgia and became an instant family man with Step Daughter Streisand, who was 13 years old.

 I was made Production Director, the manager of the commercials.  I was in charge of writing and creating commercial ads in the studio.  During the week, my job was an 8 to 5 schedule.  My counterpart on WXBQ was a merciless guy named CB who suggested that sales people needed to be paper trained. 

On the weekends, I did a Sunday afternoon show. Sometimes it was Saturdays.  In addition, I did vacation and per diem fill work for the Midday and Afternoon show. 

 I hadn’t done Top 40 in 16 years.  It was a real trip to do the format and play music that would make me feel embarrassed if I had the station on with my new step daughter in the car. Times had changed and so had my role in my attempt to set an example and be a good step dad in a radio world that now freely included raunchy music and chatter. Lucky for me, she preferred Country music and became a big fan of WXBQ. 

In 1999, I abruptly left Electric 99-3 to move back to New Jersey to take care of my Dad after my Mom died. Dad had a severe Dementia/Alzheimer’s disease and needed constant supervision and care. 

In 2002, we returned south, this time to Georgia and settled in a northwest suburb of Atlanta.  Dad lived one more year in a hospital type room we built from the garage of the new house.

One day I was viewing a “Where Are They Now?” type internet site for Radio Air Personalities when I came upon Lee Gilette’s listing.  Beneath the long roster of stations where he worked, was the entry that said “he had died in his hometown of Clinton,Iowa on August 13^th, 2001 of a drug overdose.”   My heart sank with the words, although I wasn’t surprised.  He had told me at one time, that’s how he was going out. 

 Again, ironically to me,  Lee’s first radio name was Tom Clay, the same name of the Radio Personality who recorded the 1971 song “What The World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin and John”, the compilation of sound clips depicting the tragic times of the 60’s. Basically, it was a song expressing the need for peace and understanding, neither of which Lee experienced in great abundance in his lifetime.

Lee lived the life of a major market broadcaster that relatively few experience, albeit over the top on numerous occasions.  At the end of his career, he worked as a nationwide satellite personality in Avon, Colorado and finally at a top station back in the major market of Washington, D.C.  Beyond all the craziness and upheaval, he was my friend.  I’ll always remember the sunny days that autumn in one of America's most beautiful places.  He left me with a sense of how to win in the business and a way to to be a better broadcaster. I felt myself left with a lot of "what-ifs?" 

Some people in this life can make a great impact in a short passage of time. Lee was one of those people with great talent that was weighed down by a troubled mind.

*Wikipedia cited

my view on Carver's Gap