October 6, 2023 • 30 mins
In this episode of Takin' A Walk, Buzz talks with Legendary Radio Programmer Bill Weston Bill has been at the helm of WMMR and WMGK in Philadelphia for many years and he recently announced his retirement at the end of 2023.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Mariam Alido would be on from ten to noon. We'd
have Scott Muni hour from noon to one, and then
Maria would come up and finish and do one to three.
And I said, Maria, don't be upset that we're breaking
up your show, because that hour is going to boost
your overall ten to three rating and you're going to
make some ratings bonuses. And she did. It was a
very successful hour.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to this episode of Taking a Walk. Buzz Night
as your host and he loves talking to his radio
comrades from his past. Today his guest is Bill Weston,
legendary rock radio programmer, leader of the great WMMR and
WMGK in Philly and one of the finest in the business.
Bill spent forty five years as an esteemed program director
(00:44):
at great radio stations all over the country. Bill Weston
joins Buzz Night next on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So I'm so excited. We're in the lobby of the
glorious Warwick Hotel, Rittenhouse Square.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Like probably the perfect acoustic environment.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, this is where we start the Taking a Walk ative.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That audio verite.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, okay, So nice to see you and to be
in your town. Philadelphia A.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was reminded I have not been downtown in quite
some time. So when I was coming down to Park
and I was walking up a walnut and seeing the
piles of trash and the homeless and the panhandlers, It's like,
I've really missed downtown. Well, this is big city life.
(01:37):
Of course. Now I will say I was here last.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Year roughly at this time, and we had a nice
dinner in this same area here, in fact, I think
the same spot that we're going to dinner later, but
we didn't get a chance to record an episode of
the podcast. So now I hit the jack. I'm not
(02:01):
only able to have dinner with you, but we're also
going to record an episode.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm honored and excited.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I thought, rather than winding through the career of
Bill Weston from the beginning, which I often do in
terms of my radio friend guests on the podcast, I
prefer to start at the present or work backwards, because
the Philadelphia part of your career, and we could start
(02:32):
sauntering if you'd like to, the Philadelphia part of your
career has been such a long standing, amazing run, and
we don't want that headline to get buried. So How
long have you been in Philadelphia?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
First of all, oh my god, I remember coming up
I ninety five from Richmond. I'm waiting for the revolve
door from Richmond, that horrible, horrible drive in two thousand
(03:08):
and four, and having dinner with you and Checky, yes,
the inimitable mister fine Blatt, Yes, at La Colina right
there in many Unk and starting this amazing run. Yeah.
But yeah, two thousand and four. Wow, time flies?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
My god? Is that the longest ten year gig for you?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In your crib bye? By like twounds? I think the
other the second longest stop would be maybe eight years
that I did in Providence. Okay, you know at w
HJ Y. We'll get to that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But so did you go into the job having any
idea how long you'd be here?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Of course you didn't know. I mean, I know you
didn't know. I mean I didn't. I didn't know what
was going to but I knew that it was a
good opportunity. I felt like you had my back. I
felt like Fred had my back, and Rick and subsequently
John Fulham. But I didn't know. Right it was like
it was better than where I was because Richmond was
(04:17):
in a state of yeah, not turmoil, flux. So I
didn't want to move and change schools and all that
stuff for my cousin, but I did it. I said,
let's take a swing because it was a major market,
which you know, I didn't do so well in New York, right,
But okay, so Philly's top ten. Let's see if we
(04:38):
can make something happen. I felt that Greater Media had
a lot of resources and that they really wanted to win.
And if you're rated thirteenth, it's like, really nowhere to
go but up. So but I had no idea it
would run this long.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And Greater Media had tried to recruit you to go
to Detroit, mister Tom Bender, Yeah, brought you in.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I went up there and I interviewed because I was like,
you can't hurt, right, Let's talk to these people and
see what they're all about. I like Tom a lot.
Detroit didn't scare me because I'm from the Buffalo area,
but it scared the crap out of my wife. She said,
absolutely not. I didn't realize that. Yes, Connie had a bit.
(05:24):
She says, look, if we got to go someplace, we're
not going to Detroit.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
So since when is your wife, Connie, so directed her thoughts,
Oh my god, Oh well, I'm saying that lovingly, but yes,
and you know what, here's here's a great observation.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
As an army brant, she moved around a ton in
her youth. So when we moved from Savannah to Buffalo,
to Providence, to New York to Providence to Richmond, she
was okay, right, but yeah, so we we we took
a we took a swing, and here we are. But
(06:03):
just to go back on Detroit for a second. That
period of time, though.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
For Detroit as a big city, it was a tough
period in a sense experience a greater resurgence.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, as a city, I think there's some some shine
put back on the apple there, right. But yeah, in
two thousand and two, maybe two thousand and three, I
think might have been in early really two thousands, it
was just kind of like how do I get out
of Richmond, which really was a quality of life move.
(06:36):
I wasn't really there to make any great strides, but
the company that owned the station was I don't know,
the guy leading it was a little psychotic. Believe it there, Yeah,
I leave it right there.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Now, you had known WMMR certainly as a guy who
followed the industry.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Right when I was in all those smaller markets starting
out a blow as a music director in the early
eighties or gosh, where did I go? It was in
Courtland and whatever. I'd always read in the trades and
see all these great pictures of WMMR. This guy, quickly,
I think, was the promotions director and it was the
(07:15):
Zoo years with the Bella And.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
By the way, this coincidental that we're walking around rittenhow
Square as well, because MMR was here at that time.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I believe, and they did some amazing things. Their pictures
were always in the trades with famous rock musicians or
doing some crazy promotion to go, wow, that station has
got it going on, right. It was really the bigger
than life attitude. Yeah, it was like, yeah, now Philadelphia
has a little bit of not like Detroit, but you know,
(07:46):
Philadelphia is a a little grit, a little bit of
a grit on the city around. You know, it's a
blue collar towns. It's not it's not La although it's
probably worse out there. I know I'm getting off the track,
but yeah, so Philadelphia as a lifestyle move was I
(08:10):
didn't know what to expect. But living in the suburbs
here's like the living in the suburbs in Cleveland or
Pittsburgh or anywhere else. It's like you find your spot
and then to make a home.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And then you certainly stumble upon this morning show up
by the name of precedent Steve, which has done it's
ak okay.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh my god. The smartest thing I ever did, now,
I'd like to say, hiring D. Snyder to do Knights
was this one. The smartest thing I ever did. That
was a John Fullham thing. John says, look, we need
to do something. Early on, nothing was going on. He said,
we need to do something to make some noise. So
we put D. Snyder in a seven and midnight and
(08:51):
built them a studio in his Long Island house and whatever.
But no, he said, look, you gotta find a morning show.
That was John's marching orders. And he gave me six
to eight months, and we started talking to people and
flying people in solo guys, teams, new people, established shows,
and right in our backyard with these guys, you hucking
(09:14):
it up every morning, and they're pretty good. They're pretty good.
It was kind of the obvious choice in the end,
and it's a beautiful story.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I mean, it's still massively successful, and obviously it's a
centerpiece to an amazing radio station that is still day
in and day out doing amazing things for the city
of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I really admit that those coattails of theirs of the
Preston Steve Show, I am hanging on tight. Hey. You
know what is they're good people and they still work hard.
Most of them still really work hard at the show.
And eighteen years in of being number one by double
(10:05):
so no coasting at all. And that's pretty admirable because
when you achieve a level of success and you've got
guaranteed contracts and you've got all of this stability to think, well,
they could, but they don't. They still really care deeply
about the show and the audience.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
But said could be said for the rest of the
staff at WMMR too, right. I mean, it's just embedded
in the thinking for that radio station to just care
about what they do.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah. I think that even the presidents Fief Show would
admit that they're not as big as the station. The
brand of WMMR with its fifty four years and it's
Pierre Robert forty one years and at the station and
still having talent that would take chances on, like with
Jackie Bam Bam and you know Brent in the afternoon.
(10:57):
So yeah, they would they would agree that it's the
station brand, but but president and Steve and and Pierre
and everybody else may make it a special place. And
then you stumble into this other radio station.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
In the building that they handed you the keys to
named w m g K. How much fun has that
been being with that group?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well, you know when when uh, when that was handed
to me, I was like, oh thanks, I'm really Uh.
Back in the old days where you know, MMR was
this sovereign nation, it was like it had its own everything,
(11:44):
so on programmers, O music director, own sales staff, O promotions.
Everything was was, uh, what's you know easy to keep
track of? And then okay, all said, I'm gonna dividing
my time with now this and another radios that also
plays led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, and so there's some sharing there,
(12:06):
trying to keep them the wing tip. The wingtip, I
don't know it was first off, it was hard, but
there was a there was an office on the third
floor where MGK studios were, and then there was the
MMR office on the fourth floor, So there was a
little bit of a When I would go down those stairs,
(12:27):
it would help me kind of like you know, reset, like, Okay,
who am I talking to? What are the issues, what's
what's the what's the psyche of the station?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
But I didn't want them ever to feel like they
were second citizens, you know. So that was the That
was a tough part. But it turned out, Okay, they're
also doing pretty well. You know, they're they're like the
top rated station in Philly in the uh in the
June book sixth plus, which is like, wow, that's like
(12:57):
that's everybody, you know. Granted a lot of their audiences
is fifty five plus and that's the challenge. But if
you talk about every radio listener at Philadelphia, most of
them listen to MGK, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But then go back to the Providence period, because I
think it is worth jumping around a little bit because
that this.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Is good Rather than a chronological approach, Why.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Make it easy for people to understand what to make
it as difficult as possible if they don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, I'm getting up for that, but.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, WHJY quite a legendary station to this day. What
are the similarities do you think between HJY and a WMMR.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Well, I mean, obviously WMR major market a lot more
at stake, the value of the property, the price of
the spots is kind of elevated. But both rock stations
with that irreverence, with that not naughtiness. Naughtiness doesn't but
(14:15):
you know, like to get in trouble a little bit,
you know, pushing the boundaries. That very similar, you know,
because when you that's why I've been in rock radio,
I think all this time, because there's always been that
kind of element of fun pushing, whether it's you know,
the language you use in sweepers, or there's a topical
event you want to cuff that around a little bit,
(14:36):
make some fun of it. Yeah, I think irreverence is
probably the best way that is very similar for both
of those properties. But in Providence, when I started there,
MERV Griffin owned it one of seven stations he owned
that was it, right? And then deregulation happened in the
I don't know eighty nine to ninety whatever that was,
(14:57):
and things all started kind of though, kind of just changing.
Did you encounter MERV? Yeah, tell me us about like fascinating, fascinating,
but videos used to use that word a lot, fascinating.
He owned WHGY WHJJ. He also had a station w
(15:18):
m r V, which I think is in Binghamton, which
I thought was you know nicely, you know a name
like MERV and mar vv. Hey he owned it. Yeah,
but he came to the station like a year after
I was there. We did a live broadcast. He came
in and sat in the morning show, and we had
a thing at the station and he could go into
(15:41):
a room with forty or fifty people in there and
be introduced blah blah blah and Sammy and Mary and
Jimmy and John whatever, and forty minutes later, as he's
like maybe leaving the room, every name, every name, Jimmy, Mary, John, Joe,
Mike whatever. He was really good at I think, looking
(16:02):
at people, listening to what they said when they told
them their names, and it was like, Wow, that cat
is cool. Plus all, you know, he wrote the Jeopardy theme.
It's like that guy has done amazing. That was it
was cool working for MERV Griffin because there was that
little bit of star power, a little bit of that
uh you know TV stuff that was in there.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Did you see him exit the radio business while you
were still working for He sold the station to Mike
Craven and Jim Thompson, which coincidentally have a tie in
with WNMR and Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yep, they bought the MRV properties, called it Liberty Broadcasting,
a couple of other things that they bought, and they
were they were cool guys. I remember getting to go
to Aruba for company meetings. Really, can you imagine that
we're gonna fly everybody to do a rubb We're going
company meetings And to their credit, we sat in a
(16:58):
hotel room for like six for seven hours on both
days we were there. It was like, why did we
come to a rube if we can actually work.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Boondoggle? You made reference to your time in New York City?
How quick was that time?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
First time ever been fired? And I wish I could
have been successful, but it was tough. Wow, it was tough.
I was, you know, eight years into Richmond or into
Whay and ratings were great, kind of I'd managed. I
developed a new morning show. Paul and Al still there
by the way, Oh my god, I think they've been
(17:38):
on the air there since. I know thirty years but somebody,
Dave Richards called me. He was on the He was
at across the street at WWRX Classic rock station, and
they could not get arrested with HJY. So when he
moved on, he remembered the work I was doing there,
(17:59):
and he said there's an opening at waxq Q and
O four New York and you should come down here
and talk to them. So okay, I'll talk to them.
And Jimmy Dicastro was the head Haunchow and Chancellor Media
(18:19):
and he had he'd done the Man Cow thing in Chicago.
He put Man Cow and w RCX was it. I
think there was a call this. They were the big
rock station. They were on fire Chicago. And he'd worked
with this woman at one of their urban properties in
San Francisco named darian O'Toole. His genius move was to
(18:41):
bring darian O'Toole from San Francisco into New York and
replicate his success as he'd done with Man Cow. Now
WNW is still on the air right. Wnw's Classic Rock,
and it's like they still got I think past Saint
John was on and a lot of those famous names.
So they would the heritage classic rock station in New York,
(19:01):
and we're like another classic rock station. So it was
they wanted to take it a little less hits and
a little bit more rock, a little harder classic rock. Yeah,
they said, okay, we can do that, get an edgy
morning show going and whatever. Oh boy, it was. It
was tough, but it was a couple of years. You
were there. I was only there thirteen months, fourteen months.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, well, New York, will they tell me grind you
up and spitch out? Yeah? Yeah, I sure wish we
could have done better. But I look at them now,
they're like they're kicking butt. They're kicking butt. Did you
hire Scott Muni? I did. I did, And I give
credit to Amy Winslow for that. She was music director
(19:46):
at at a new and I hired her to come
be music director at QB. And Scott was on. I
think he might have been his airship might have been
reduced or whatever. He was having a tough time at
that stage of his career. But Amy got me a
meeting with the guy, and I remember we met at
a fats. We met at some bar and there's Amy
(20:10):
and there's there's Scott, and I'm on the other side
of Amy, because I figured she's going to break the
ice whatever, and he was open to coming to Q
and doing more work. And I said, great, we're going
to record this show. It's going to be a midday,
noon time things show. I don't know, it's got to
be live. And I said, how do you tell a
guy who's having trouble. I've heard him live on any
(20:32):
W and he would he'd missed a step or two
right out of all respect. But if we could produce
a show, do was sound great. We eventually convinced him
to do it, and it was probably the one success
I had there because the noon hour, Maria Melito would
be on from ten to noon. We'd have Scott Muni
Hour from noon to one, and then Maria would come
up and finish and do one to three. And I said, Maria,
(20:55):
don't be upset that we're breaking up your show, because
that hour is going to boost your overall ten three
rating and you're gonna make some ratings bonuses. And she
did the It was a very successful hour.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And I'm not sure you know this, but Mark turn Off,
my former boss and friend, recorded an episode of this
podcast in Central Park and he told me on the episode.
He said, I think it's really cool. How Q one
O four point three still to this day does the
Beatles thing kind of almost contribute to Scott in that regard.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, that's what he would always insist on starting out
every show at noon with the Beatles song. Yeah, it
was kind of his thing. Yeah, that was cool. I
wish it was a mess I did. I hired Mark,
but he got to call you fat?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Did he call you Fats?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I don't know, maybe once or twice. It was it
was an honor, I mean, the guy. It was a
true legend. I mean, the Beatles stuff and all that,
all that history of Lenin And you were saying you
hired somebody. I hired Mark to do afternoons. Now at
the time, we were again we were looking to do anything.
(22:07):
And uh, Parento, I'd listened to him, was well aware
of his success at BCN in Boston. And I don't
know why he was available. Maybe they put OPI the
antheon up there, whatever, But but.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, legendary disc jockey certainly in Boston and Detroit certainly
previously and uh.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And uh it h he had. All I remember about
that is that he suffered. He did not suffer. Darien
O'Toole at all. And she was like this queen and
oh my god, it was it was a mess. She
she had some issues and Mark didn't give a crap
about what her issues were. He called us, He called
her out on so many things. And but he had
(22:48):
a hard time in New York because no one knew
who he was. And we cared. In Boston he was
the king, Oh your table, mister Prunda right over here,
sir whatever. But in New York he was like anonymous,
invisible and uh, I mean a good jock, but he
he had a hard time, you know, with the uh
it's kind of starting over.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do you know who? One of his big catchphrases was
when he was uh on the air, at uh.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
At I I could uh well, I had a people
from West Germany when I was deported.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
In nineteen eighty five that are following me still this day.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Alright, I'm robbing West rob code from the railroad.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
My dad my mom graduated.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
From the direction and they were happy to save the
year eighteen forty nine. My dad was secret service on
the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, my brother got all the railroad stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Ooh, he merged with We.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Merged with Canadian National.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
How do you already did that?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
What the fuck are these kids doing?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
A right? You out of your fucking mind? Yeah no, Rob,
I'm only fifty nine. You look like my uncles or something,
your older uncles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh man, what's the
kid on now?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Is he?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Or is he? H?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You took it easy? Sixty seven sporter right? That border
for me when I was fifteen.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
This is why Writtenhouse Square is a crazy place.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I'm smelling written house Square just by very sticky stickywe
Oh my goodness, it's part of the local color. Well
it's very colorful.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, but this is this is why we like to
be actually in person for a episode of taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
So yeah, So New York blew up after fourteen months,
and I had I had a year left on my deal,
which was great, so I could take some time and uh,
and I had a hard time being stand at home
painting my painted my house. And then what and I go,
I gotta do something. So I went to work for
and who was was it?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Josh Joshenbaud?
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Right, And Josh might be listening to this somewhere on
his boat on one of his boats, because I think
Josh got a couple of boats out of the deal.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, but it was funny.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Is so you were like in charge of programming stuff
for them or on the surface you.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Would say it's the perfect programmer's dream job. They said, yeah,
we want you to sit in this cubicle and we
want you to cook up show ideas that we can
produce and then attach commercials to it. It's like wow,
and it's like, I mean, I get to sit here
and just be purely creative. Uh. And that's a little
harder than it sounds. Had a couple of ideas, did
(25:45):
a couple of half baked shows, but you know what,
the cubical thing. It was kind of a journalistic environment.
I missed the Hallway five, the fires, the what whatever.
And I went back to Providence and worked for Corwyn
again at a classic rock station, which that didn't last
long because it was a Clear Channel station when Clear
(26:08):
Channel was only twenty stations and some TV and then
what was the big banana that they merged with like
West Starr and all the I didn't can't remember multiple ones,
but it was too many stations in the market, and
I found myself with another year on a two year deal.
I think I'll sit around and I'll clear the brush
(26:29):
around my house. I bought a chainsaw and I'm clearing
brush and I'm doing crap. And and then then a
friend of mine, Virgil Thompson, who I worked with in Savannah,
said Hey, we got station out of Richmond. Why don't
you come down and talk to us, Like I got
nothing else to do, You're gonna pay for the plane ticket.
So I went down there and and I loved the GM.
(26:52):
His name was Steve McCall. He was just the coolest guy,
very positive. Whatever. I end up taking the job. I said, honey,
we're moving to Richmond. And she goes what I said,
it's a job, and and she loved it. She's a
Southern person, so the Southern vibe and the hospitality, and
you know, people walking by on the street don't look
(27:13):
at their shoes or their phone. They tend to look
at you and say hello, which we liked.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You see people like the crazy guy that was just
over here down there.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, Tom really costco. Yeah, well in Savannah. I mean
every city has its colorful people. But I liked it,
and I was gonna just have my kids grow up
and go to finish school and do all that stuff.
And and for about three years that was the case.
And then then you called and you said, hey, we'd
(27:44):
like to talk to you. It's like, but do you
remember the first time you called, I think it was
about MGK, and I was like, but the second time
you called was about MMR and there's something really special.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Well, and then in the Detroit time too, Yeah, I
was very persistent. I knew I had encountered you at
industry functions, and certainly we knew each other from proximity.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, when I left w
c l X, they might have even talked to you
(28:17):
to replace me at one.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I did believe. I did waste a plane trip going
up there to talk to uh Tony Beardini was that
the guy? Was he the head cheese? Yeah? Yeah, that
was that was not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
But I knew I wanted to, you know, get you
into the organization.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yeah, you were you. I I am so appreciative of you,
and also uh your cohort Fred Jacobs, who up until Richmond,
I had not worked with Fred, and I am so
thankful that I got to do that because that guy
has been just a great confidant, a mentor, just just
(29:00):
super positive and knowledgeable consultant along the way. So one
of the great people. Yes, really nice human being.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And I recently saw your old boss, John Fulham with
his lovely wife Debbie for dinner with my wife and
we had a raucous evening in Boston, tremendous time.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I had not run into his wife for many, many years.
I think maybe back to a Christmas party down here
at Philadelphia or something. But we had one of those
nights where suddenly it was three hours later, we were
leaving the restaurant and then it was like boy time flu.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, you know, yeah, but there's also it's a special guy.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Special Well, I'm so grateful to have had the time
to be with you here.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
This was like this was easy, you know, just gotta
chit chatting, and.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
We actually did take a walk and then we parked
ourselves on the bench here and written out square Bill Weston,
congrats on all your successes and your continued success.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Thank you, Bus, it's been terrific. Love you brother, Love you.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Mariam Alido would be on from ten to noon. We'd
have Scott Muni hour from noon to one, and then
Maria would come up and finish and do one to three.
And I said, Maria, don't be upset that we're breaking
up your show, because that hour is going to boost
your overall ten to three rating and you're going to
make some ratings bonuses. And she did. It was a
very successful hour.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to this episode of Taking a Walk. Buzz Night
as your host and he loves talking to his radio
comrades from his past. Today his guest is Bill Weston,
legendary rock radio programmer, leader of the great WMMR and
WMGK in Philly and one of the finest in the business.
Bill spent forty five years as an esteemed program director
(00:44):
at great radio stations all over the country. Bill Weston
joins Buzz Night next on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So I'm so excited. We're in the lobby of the
glorious Warwick Hotel, Rittenhouse Square.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Like probably the perfect acoustic environment.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, this is where we start the Taking a Walk ative.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That audio verite.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, okay, So nice to see you and to be
in your town. Philadelphia A.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was reminded I have not been downtown in quite
some time. So when I was coming down to Park
and I was walking up a walnut and seeing the
piles of trash and the homeless and the panhandlers, It's like,
I've really missed downtown. Well, this is big city life.
(01:37):
Of course. Now I will say I was here last.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Year roughly at this time, and we had a nice
dinner in this same area here, in fact, I think
the same spot that we're going to dinner later, but
we didn't get a chance to record an episode of
the podcast. So now I hit the jack. I'm not
(02:01):
only able to have dinner with you, but we're also
going to record an episode.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm honored and excited.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I thought, rather than winding through the career of
Bill Weston from the beginning, which I often do in
terms of my radio friend guests on the podcast, I
prefer to start at the present or work backwards, because
the Philadelphia part of your career, and we could start
(02:32):
sauntering if you'd like to, the Philadelphia part of your
career has been such a long standing, amazing run, and
we don't want that headline to get buried. So How
long have you been in Philadelphia?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
First of all, oh my god, I remember coming up
I ninety five from Richmond. I'm waiting for the revolve
door from Richmond, that horrible, horrible drive in two thousand
(03:08):
and four, and having dinner with you and Checky, yes,
the inimitable mister fine Blatt, Yes, at La Colina right
there in many Unk and starting this amazing run. Yeah.
But yeah, two thousand and four. Wow, time flies?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
My god? Is that the longest ten year gig for you?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In your crib bye? By like twounds? I think the
other the second longest stop would be maybe eight years
that I did in Providence. Okay, you know at w
HJ Y. We'll get to that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But so did you go into the job having any
idea how long you'd be here?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Of course you didn't know. I mean, I know you
didn't know. I mean I didn't. I didn't know what
was going to but I knew that it was a
good opportunity. I felt like you had my back. I
felt like Fred had my back, and Rick and subsequently
John Fulham. But I didn't know. Right it was like
it was better than where I was because Richmond was
(04:17):
in a state of yeah, not turmoil, flux. So I
didn't want to move and change schools and all that
stuff for my cousin, but I did it. I said,
let's take a swing because it was a major market,
which you know, I didn't do so well in New York, right,
But okay, so Philly's top ten. Let's see if we
(04:38):
can make something happen. I felt that Greater Media had
a lot of resources and that they really wanted to win.
And if you're rated thirteenth, it's like, really nowhere to
go but up. So but I had no idea it
would run this long.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And Greater Media had tried to recruit you to go
to Detroit, mister Tom Bender, Yeah, brought you in.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I went up there and I interviewed because I was like,
you can't hurt, right, Let's talk to these people and
see what they're all about. I like Tom a lot.
Detroit didn't scare me because I'm from the Buffalo area,
but it scared the crap out of my wife. She said,
absolutely not. I didn't realize that. Yes, Connie had a bit.
(05:24):
She says, look, if we got to go someplace, we're
not going to Detroit.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
So since when is your wife, Connie, so directed her thoughts,
Oh my god, Oh well, I'm saying that lovingly, but yes,
and you know what, here's here's a great observation.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
As an army brant, she moved around a ton in
her youth. So when we moved from Savannah to Buffalo,
to Providence, to New York to Providence to Richmond, she
was okay, right, but yeah, so we we we took
a we took a swing, and here we are. But
(06:03):
just to go back on Detroit for a second. That
period of time, though.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
For Detroit as a big city, it was a tough
period in a sense experience a greater resurgence.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, as a city, I think there's some some shine
put back on the apple there, right. But yeah, in
two thousand and two, maybe two thousand and three, I
think might have been in early really two thousands, it
was just kind of like how do I get out
of Richmond, which really was a quality of life move.
(06:36):
I wasn't really there to make any great strides, but
the company that owned the station was I don't know,
the guy leading it was a little psychotic. Believe it there, Yeah,
I leave it right there.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Now, you had known WMMR certainly as a guy who
followed the industry.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Right when I was in all those smaller markets starting
out a blow as a music director in the early
eighties or gosh, where did I go? It was in
Courtland and whatever. I'd always read in the trades and
see all these great pictures of WMMR. This guy, quickly,
I think, was the promotions director and it was the
(07:15):
Zoo years with the Bella And.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
By the way, this coincidental that we're walking around rittenhow
Square as well, because MMR was here at that time.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I believe, and they did some amazing things. Their pictures
were always in the trades with famous rock musicians or
doing some crazy promotion to go, wow, that station has
got it going on, right. It was really the bigger
than life attitude. Yeah, it was like, yeah, now Philadelphia
has a little bit of not like Detroit, but you know,
(07:46):
Philadelphia is a a little grit, a little bit of
a grit on the city around. You know, it's a
blue collar towns. It's not it's not La although it's
probably worse out there. I know I'm getting off the track,
but yeah, so Philadelphia as a lifestyle move was I
(08:10):
didn't know what to expect. But living in the suburbs
here's like the living in the suburbs in Cleveland or
Pittsburgh or anywhere else. It's like you find your spot
and then to make a home.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And then you certainly stumble upon this morning show up
by the name of precedent Steve, which has done it's
ak okay.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh my god. The smartest thing I ever did, now,
I'd like to say, hiring D. Snyder to do Knights
was this one. The smartest thing I ever did. That
was a John Fullham thing. John says, look, we need
to do something. Early on, nothing was going on. He said,
we need to do something to make some noise. So
we put D. Snyder in a seven and midnight and
(08:51):
built them a studio in his Long Island house and whatever.
But no, he said, look, you gotta find a morning show.
That was John's marching orders. And he gave me six
to eight months, and we started talking to people and
flying people in solo guys, teams, new people, established shows,
and right in our backyard with these guys, you hucking
(09:14):
it up every morning, and they're pretty good. They're pretty good.
It was kind of the obvious choice in the end,
and it's a beautiful story.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I mean, it's still massively successful, and obviously it's a
centerpiece to an amazing radio station that is still day
in and day out doing amazing things for the city
of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I really admit that those coattails of theirs of the
Preston Steve Show, I am hanging on tight. Hey. You
know what is they're good people and they still work hard.
Most of them still really work hard at the show.
And eighteen years in of being number one by double
(10:05):
so no coasting at all. And that's pretty admirable because
when you achieve a level of success and you've got
guaranteed contracts and you've got all of this stability to think, well,
they could, but they don't. They still really care deeply
about the show and the audience.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
But said could be said for the rest of the
staff at WMMR too, right. I mean, it's just embedded
in the thinking for that radio station to just care
about what they do.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah. I think that even the presidents Fief Show would
admit that they're not as big as the station. The
brand of WMMR with its fifty four years and it's
Pierre Robert forty one years and at the station and
still having talent that would take chances on, like with
Jackie Bam Bam and you know Brent in the afternoon.
(10:57):
So yeah, they would they would agree that it's the
station brand, but but president and Steve and and Pierre
and everybody else may make it a special place. And
then you stumble into this other radio station.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
In the building that they handed you the keys to
named w m g K. How much fun has that
been being with that group?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well, you know when when uh, when that was handed
to me, I was like, oh thanks, I'm really Uh.
Back in the old days where you know, MMR was
this sovereign nation, it was like it had its own everything,
(11:44):
so on programmers, O music director, own sales staff, O promotions.
Everything was was, uh, what's you know easy to keep
track of? And then okay, all said, I'm gonna dividing
my time with now this and another radios that also
plays led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, and so there's some sharing there,
(12:06):
trying to keep them the wing tip. The wingtip, I
don't know it was first off, it was hard, but
there was a there was an office on the third
floor where MGK studios were, and then there was the
MMR office on the fourth floor, So there was a
little bit of a When I would go down those stairs,
(12:27):
it would help me kind of like you know, reset, like, Okay,
who am I talking to? What are the issues, what's
what's the what's the psyche of the station?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
But I didn't want them ever to feel like they
were second citizens, you know. So that was the That
was a tough part. But it turned out, Okay, they're
also doing pretty well. You know, they're they're like the
top rated station in Philly in the uh in the
June book sixth plus, which is like, wow, that's like
(12:57):
that's everybody, you know. Granted a lot of their audiences
is fifty five plus and that's the challenge. But if
you talk about every radio listener at Philadelphia, most of
them listen to MGK, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But then go back to the Providence period, because I
think it is worth jumping around a little bit because
that this.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Is good Rather than a chronological approach, Why.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Make it easy for people to understand what to make
it as difficult as possible if they don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, I'm getting up for that, but.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, WHJY quite a legendary station to this day. What
are the similarities do you think between HJY and a WMMR.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Well, I mean, obviously WMR major market a lot more
at stake, the value of the property, the price of
the spots is kind of elevated. But both rock stations
with that irreverence, with that not naughtiness. Naughtiness doesn't but
(14:15):
you know, like to get in trouble a little bit,
you know, pushing the boundaries. That very similar, you know,
because when you that's why I've been in rock radio,
I think all this time, because there's always been that
kind of element of fun pushing, whether it's you know,
the language you use in sweepers, or there's a topical
event you want to cuff that around a little bit,
(14:36):
make some fun of it. Yeah, I think irreverence is
probably the best way that is very similar for both
of those properties. But in Providence, when I started there,
MERV Griffin owned it one of seven stations he owned
that was it, right? And then deregulation happened in the
I don't know eighty nine to ninety whatever that was,
(14:57):
and things all started kind of though, kind of just changing.
Did you encounter MERV? Yeah, tell me us about like fascinating, fascinating,
but videos used to use that word a lot, fascinating.
He owned WHGY WHJJ. He also had a station w
(15:18):
m r V, which I think is in Binghamton, which
I thought was you know nicely, you know a name
like MERV and mar vv. Hey he owned it. Yeah,
but he came to the station like a year after
I was there. We did a live broadcast. He came
in and sat in the morning show, and we had
a thing at the station and he could go into
(15:41):
a room with forty or fifty people in there and
be introduced blah blah blah and Sammy and Mary and
Jimmy and John whatever, and forty minutes later, as he's
like maybe leaving the room, every name, every name, Jimmy, Mary, John, Joe,
Mike whatever. He was really good at I think, looking
(16:02):
at people, listening to what they said when they told
them their names, and it was like, Wow, that cat
is cool. Plus all, you know, he wrote the Jeopardy theme.
It's like that guy has done amazing. That was it
was cool working for MERV Griffin because there was that
little bit of star power, a little bit of that
uh you know TV stuff that was in there.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Did you see him exit the radio business while you
were still working for He sold the station to Mike
Craven and Jim Thompson, which coincidentally have a tie in
with WNMR and Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yep, they bought the MRV properties, called it Liberty Broadcasting,
a couple of other things that they bought, and they
were they were cool guys. I remember getting to go
to Aruba for company meetings. Really, can you imagine that
we're gonna fly everybody to do a rubb We're going
company meetings And to their credit, we sat in a
(16:58):
hotel room for like six for seven hours on both
days we were there. It was like, why did we
come to a rube if we can actually work.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Boondoggle? You made reference to your time in New York City?
How quick was that time?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
First time ever been fired? And I wish I could
have been successful, but it was tough. Wow, it was tough.
I was, you know, eight years into Richmond or into
Whay and ratings were great, kind of I'd managed. I
developed a new morning show. Paul and Al still there
by the way, Oh my god, I think they've been
(17:38):
on the air there since. I know thirty years but somebody,
Dave Richards called me. He was on the He was
at across the street at WWRX Classic rock station, and
they could not get arrested with HJY. So when he
moved on, he remembered the work I was doing there,
(17:59):
and he said there's an opening at waxq Q and
O four New York and you should come down here
and talk to them. So okay, I'll talk to them.
And Jimmy Dicastro was the head Haunchow and Chancellor Media
(18:19):
and he had he'd done the Man Cow thing in Chicago.
He put Man Cow and w RCX was it. I
think there was a call this. They were the big
rock station. They were on fire Chicago. And he'd worked
with this woman at one of their urban properties in
San Francisco named darian O'Toole. His genius move was to
(18:41):
bring darian O'Toole from San Francisco into New York and
replicate his success as he'd done with Man Cow. Now
WNW is still on the air right. Wnw's Classic Rock,
and it's like they still got I think past Saint
John was on and a lot of those famous names.
So they would the heritage classic rock station in New York,
(19:01):
and we're like another classic rock station. So it was
they wanted to take it a little less hits and
a little bit more rock, a little harder classic rock. Yeah,
they said, okay, we can do that, get an edgy
morning show going and whatever. Oh boy, it was. It
was tough, but it was a couple of years. You
were there. I was only there thirteen months, fourteen months.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, well, New York, will they tell me grind you
up and spitch out? Yeah? Yeah, I sure wish we
could have done better. But I look at them now,
they're like they're kicking butt. They're kicking butt. Did you
hire Scott Muni? I did. I did, And I give
credit to Amy Winslow for that. She was music director
(19:46):
at at a new and I hired her to come
be music director at QB. And Scott was on. I
think he might have been his airship might have been
reduced or whatever. He was having a tough time at
that stage of his career. But Amy got me a
meeting with the guy, and I remember we met at
a fats. We met at some bar and there's Amy
(20:10):
and there's there's Scott, and I'm on the other side
of Amy, because I figured she's going to break the
ice whatever, and he was open to coming to Q
and doing more work. And I said, great, we're going
to record this show. It's going to be a midday,
noon time things show. I don't know, it's got to
be live. And I said, how do you tell a
guy who's having trouble. I've heard him live on any
(20:32):
W and he would he'd missed a step or two
right out of all respect. But if we could produce
a show, do was sound great. We eventually convinced him
to do it, and it was probably the one success
I had there because the noon hour, Maria Melito would
be on from ten to noon. We'd have Scott Muni
Hour from noon to one, and then Maria would come
up and finish and do one to three. And I said, Maria,
(20:55):
don't be upset that we're breaking up your show, because
that hour is going to boost your overall ten three
rating and you're gonna make some ratings bonuses. And she
did the It was a very successful hour.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And I'm not sure you know this, but Mark turn Off,
my former boss and friend, recorded an episode of this
podcast in Central Park and he told me on the episode.
He said, I think it's really cool. How Q one
O four point three still to this day does the
Beatles thing kind of almost contribute to Scott in that regard.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, that's what he would always insist on starting out
every show at noon with the Beatles song. Yeah, it
was kind of his thing. Yeah, that was cool. I
wish it was a mess I did. I hired Mark,
but he got to call you fat?
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Did he call you Fats?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I don't know, maybe once or twice. It was it
was an honor, I mean, the guy. It was a
true legend. I mean, the Beatles stuff and all that,
all that history of Lenin And you were saying you
hired somebody. I hired Mark to do afternoons. Now at
the time, we were again we were looking to do anything.
(22:07):
And uh, Parento, I'd listened to him, was well aware
of his success at BCN in Boston. And I don't
know why he was available. Maybe they put OPI the
antheon up there, whatever, But but.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, legendary disc jockey certainly in Boston and Detroit certainly
previously and uh.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And uh it h he had. All I remember about
that is that he suffered. He did not suffer. Darien
O'Toole at all. And she was like this queen and
oh my god, it was it was a mess. She
she had some issues and Mark didn't give a crap
about what her issues were. He called us, He called
her out on so many things. And but he had
(22:48):
a hard time in New York because no one knew
who he was. And we cared. In Boston he was
the king, Oh your table, mister Prunda right over here,
sir whatever. But in New York he was like anonymous,
invisible and uh, I mean a good jock, but he
he had a hard time, you know, with the uh
it's kind of starting over.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do you know who? One of his big catchphrases was
when he was uh on the air, at uh.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
At I I could uh well, I had a people
from West Germany when I was deported.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
In nineteen eighty five that are following me still this day.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Alright, I'm robbing West rob code from the railroad.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
My dad my mom graduated.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
From the direction and they were happy to save the
year eighteen forty nine. My dad was secret service on
the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, my brother got all the railroad stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Ooh, he merged with We.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Merged with Canadian National.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
How do you already did that?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
What the fuck are these kids doing?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
A right? You out of your fucking mind? Yeah no, Rob,
I'm only fifty nine. You look like my uncles or something,
your older uncles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh man, what's the
kid on now?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Is he?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Or is he? H?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You took it easy? Sixty seven sporter right? That border
for me when I was fifteen.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
This is why Writtenhouse Square is a crazy place.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I'm smelling written house Square just by very sticky stickywe
Oh my goodness, it's part of the local color. Well
it's very colorful.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, but this is this is why we like to
be actually in person for a episode of taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
So yeah, So New York blew up after fourteen months,
and I had I had a year left on my deal,
which was great, so I could take some time and uh,
and I had a hard time being stand at home
painting my painted my house. And then what and I go,
I gotta do something. So I went to work for
and who was was it?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Josh Joshenbaud?
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Right, And Josh might be listening to this somewhere on
his boat on one of his boats, because I think
Josh got a couple of boats out of the deal.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, but it was funny.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Is so you were like in charge of programming stuff
for them or on the surface you.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Would say it's the perfect programmer's dream job. They said, yeah,
we want you to sit in this cubicle and we
want you to cook up show ideas that we can
produce and then attach commercials to it. It's like wow,
and it's like, I mean, I get to sit here
and just be purely creative. Uh. And that's a little
harder than it sounds. Had a couple of ideas, did
(25:45):
a couple of half baked shows, but you know what,
the cubical thing. It was kind of a journalistic environment.
I missed the Hallway five, the fires, the what whatever.
And I went back to Providence and worked for Corwyn
again at a classic rock station, which that didn't last
long because it was a Clear Channel station when Clear
(26:08):
Channel was only twenty stations and some TV and then
what was the big banana that they merged with like
West Starr and all the I didn't can't remember multiple ones,
but it was too many stations in the market, and
I found myself with another year on a two year deal.
I think I'll sit around and I'll clear the brush
(26:29):
around my house. I bought a chainsaw and I'm clearing
brush and I'm doing crap. And and then then a
friend of mine, Virgil Thompson, who I worked with in Savannah,
said Hey, we got station out of Richmond. Why don't
you come down and talk to us, Like I got
nothing else to do, You're gonna pay for the plane ticket.
So I went down there and and I loved the GM.
(26:52):
His name was Steve McCall. He was just the coolest guy,
very positive. Whatever. I end up taking the job. I said, honey,
we're moving to Richmond. And she goes what I said,
it's a job, and and she loved it. She's a
Southern person, so the Southern vibe and the hospitality, and
you know, people walking by on the street don't look
(27:13):
at their shoes or their phone. They tend to look
at you and say hello, which we liked.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You see people like the crazy guy that was just
over here down there.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, Tom really costco. Yeah, well in Savannah. I mean
every city has its colorful people. But I liked it,
and I was gonna just have my kids grow up
and go to finish school and do all that stuff.
And and for about three years that was the case.
And then then you called and you said, hey, we'd
(27:44):
like to talk to you. It's like, but do you
remember the first time you called, I think it was
about MGK, and I was like, but the second time
you called was about MMR and there's something really special.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Well, and then in the Detroit time too, Yeah, I
was very persistent. I knew I had encountered you at
industry functions, and certainly we knew each other from proximity.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, when I left w
c l X, they might have even talked to you
(28:17):
to replace me at one.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I did believe. I did waste a plane trip going
up there to talk to uh Tony Beardini was that
the guy? Was he the head cheese? Yeah? Yeah, that
was that was not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
But I knew I wanted to, you know, get you
into the organization.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yeah, you were you. I I am so appreciative of you,
and also uh your cohort Fred Jacobs, who up until Richmond,
I had not worked with Fred, and I am so
thankful that I got to do that because that guy
has been just a great confidant, a mentor, just just
(29:00):
super positive and knowledgeable consultant along the way. So one
of the great people. Yes, really nice human being.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And I recently saw your old boss, John Fulham with
his lovely wife Debbie for dinner with my wife and
we had a raucous evening in Boston, tremendous time.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I had not run into his wife for many, many years.
I think maybe back to a Christmas party down here
at Philadelphia or something. But we had one of those
nights where suddenly it was three hours later, we were
leaving the restaurant and then it was like boy time flu.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, you know, yeah, but there's also it's a special guy.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Special Well, I'm so grateful to have had the time
to be with you here.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
This was like this was easy, you know, just gotta
chit chatting, and.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
We actually did take a walk and then we parked
ourselves on the bench here and written out square Bill Weston,
congrats on all your successes and your continued success.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Thank you, Bus, it's been terrific. Love you brother, Love you.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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