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After getting settle in to life in Charlotte and all the activity at WROQ, things seemed to be shaping up. I felt like a had a pretty good group of people and we were moving along nicely. Then management decided to make a change at the General Manager position. Richard Hinshaw, a long time Q employee and devout rock n roller was let go and they brought in a new guy.
His name was Doug Berle. And yes he was related to Uncle Milty. Yup a real life nephew of Milton Berle. Mr. Berle was in his sixties I would guess and didn't have the slightest idea how to manage a Rock n Roll station. Let alone how to deal with the wide range of personalities we had in building.
He seemed most interested in getting the keys to the company car assigned to the GM and finding good places to have lunch. He certainly wore nice clothes and was very urbane, but at every meeting with him I could feel his disdain for what the station was doing and what we were all about. He immediately began a campaign to get ride of a couple of key people on my staff, including John Kilgo, who did nights and was involved in the promotion department. John was a native of Charlotte and comes from a long line of broadcasters, including his dad Jimmy. Jimmy Kilgo had been the PD of WAYS which was in the same building we were in years ago. His Uncle John had been involved in TV sports for years and hosted the Dean Smith TV show.
John was one of my most valued staff members and remains one of my best friends to this day, so needless to say I fought Berle and won that battle.
I don't want to be too unkind to Doug, but clearly this was a mismatch. We were a street fighting station. We all loved the Rock n Roll heritage of the "Q" and he was most concerned about getting our jocks to wear blazers while doing personal appearances. Blazers? Are you kidding me?
This struggle for control of the "Q" went on for a couple of years. At one point we acquired a new station vehicle and sent it off to get a custom paint job with logos and slogans. At the time CD's were just
beginning to become popular and we were touting the fact that we were the first station in Charlotte to play our music on CD's. We had come up with the slogan: Lazer Rock. We of course added that to the
side of the new Van.
When it came back from the paint shop, we were all in parking lot admiring the paint job, when Doug came out to check it out.
You misspelled Laser he blurted out. Well, Doug, I explained we thought it was cooler with a Z rather than the S.
Cooler? I think it makes us look stupid he bellowed.
I finally managed to convince him that we should leave it and not get a new paint job. He also gave in
on the "blazers" as well, but for the better part of the next two years I battled Doug to prevent him from
turning the station into a wimpy easy listening radio station.
He actually became sort of detached and just stayed in his office most of the time. He never came
to station events, but always claimed to have "driven by" and "seen the crowd" at big Q events.
Despite Mr. Berle I had assembled a really good team during the time period. We brought in Ray Mariner to team with Dwayne Ward in the morning, with Veteran Newsman Frank Lasseter. Jeff Baker had come on board as production director and he did 9 to noon on the air. Blaine Kellis followed, doing noon to four pm. I did 4 to 7 and John Kilgo handled 7 to midnight and Kent Layton did the overnight shift.
As a group we became close and endured a lot, but had a lot of fun as well. Some of my best memories and best friends came out of the "Q" experience.
Next time some other highlights from the "Q" years.
