The
"original" Bob Raleigh (Rolle
Ferreira)
and I started at WPGC the same day in March of '63. He was working
in West Palm Beach - I was in Frankfort, KY. He and I became best
friends, and we still are to this day - he is my son Bill's godfather.
Bob
left WPGC (was forced out), went to WWDC, then WEEL in Fairfax,
VA and then to WBZ in Boston. He just retired after 20 years there.
I have really lost track of the other Bob Raleighs - there were
several "Dean Griffiths",
too. Last I heard, Bill Miller was in Frederick, MD at a country
station.
General
Manager, Bob Howard was
big on nicknames...Big Ol' Fat
Ol' Dino...Loveable Jerry G....Tiger
Bob Raleigh....Pee Wee Reese...I
always said he hired me because of my nickname - in Frankfort,
KY I was using Harv Moore "The Boy Next Door. Another
Bob Raleigh was Paul Carmen".
"Bob
Raleigh" #1 (Raleigh Ferreira)
|
At
WWDC in mid '60's.
|
When
'Bob
Raleigh'
went to Boston, he spent the first few years doing middays (10-
2) at WHDH under Program Director and later General Manager, Al
Brady Law. Bob worked the same shift when he joined WBZ in July
of 1975. He later worked overnights, middays again, and back to
overnights in 1986 until he retired from WBZ on his 65th birthday
a few years ago.
Johnny
Dark writes:
The
original 'Bob Raleigh's' real name is Raleigh
Ferreira. I can attest to that since we were friends and classmates
at Cambridge High & Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts
in 1952. To be sure, I checked the spelling in our yearbook. As
a matter of fact, we had quite a conversation at our 50th high
school reunion in 2002.
All the best and thanks for the memories. I enjoyed battling 'PGC
in my two tours at WEAM and my 30 years at WCAO in Baltimore.
#2
Dale Tucker
|
Dale
Tucker, yesterday
|
Dale
Tucker, today
|
Dale
Tucker started his career at WILE in Cambridge, Ohio in 1960.
He assumed the 'Bob Raleigh' name at WPGC in 1964 when he arrived
from WFLA / Tampa, despite the fact that Raleigh
Ferreira continued to use the name at WWDC at the same
time! Later in his career, Dale spent 21 years in Sales with various
trade publications and today is with RadioInk.
Dale
writes:
I
was the first 'phony' Tiger Bob. Raleigh
Ferreirahad gone over to WWDC doing
7-midnight. General
Manager,
Bob Howard was a
wreck -- he'd abused medication for weight loss and about ten
days after he hired me he was committed to St. Elizabeth's for
6 months. Six weeks later he got out and returned to 'PGC.
Bob
Howard was managing
by phone, sort of, and had Dean
Griffith (Big Ol', Fat Ol' Dino) instruct me to reference
the Tiger Bob show during a one week remote from a strip
mall. I was told a few days later to go ahead and just BE Tiger
Bob. In the meantime, the real Tiger Bob was on the
air nights at WWDC telling the folk 'don't believe an imposter,
I'M the REAL Tiger Bob Raleigh, etc'. Of course he was right!
Insanity.
I
was at WPGC about eight months and let go. Reflecting back, I
rather think that word got out that Marvelous
Marv Brooks and I were stumbling in the dark about contacting
AFTRA to unionize the place. I've never been a strong pro-union
guy but if a station ever needed AFTRA it was 'PGC.
I
started in July, '64 and left in late Nov., early Dec. Thank God
I was hired by Steve Brown at KOIL,
Omaha. That and (years later) WRKO,
Boston, were the two best stations and people I ever worked for
and with.
BTW,
I was ‘Dale Kirby' for a few years prior to ‘PGC.
When I was hired at KOIL,
Randy Sparks and the Back Porch Majority had a turntable
hit, Old Dan Tucker. Not the same as the classic old folk
song BUT it was enough of a hit to be played and noticed. The
guy who hired me suggested that for an airname. I quickly agreed
and used it for years.
I
went from KOIL
to WABB, Mobile, from there to WRKO,
Boston. I was hired by GE Broadcasting to program KOA-AM/FM, Denver,
and was there just under four years. I
was ‘downsized in ’71, wound up with an ad agency who’s
late owner Sam Arnold was a mentor and a great friend. During
that period I divorced my first wife.
Based
on my desire to get back into radio I wound up in Aspen and was
the ‘Sales Dept.,’ then Manager for 3-1/2 years. One
day I’m walking down Main Street in Aspen and a very attractive
woman stops me and says, “I know you.” I blanked
– no idea who she was. This was probably ’74 or ’75.
Are
you ready? After all those years she recognized me though I’d
only met her once and very briefly – she was Marvelous
Marv Brooks' ex-wife! ‘Charlie Brooks.’ She
worked for the Aspen Ski Corp. ‘Tis
a small world indeed.
Ours
is a huge industry but at the same time a very small and incestuous
one! People move, things change, life goes on. The players
largely remain the same. That's
my story, etc!
#3
(Todd T. Taylor)
|
Todd
T. Taylor today.
|
'Triple
T' writes:
I
was the umpteenth Tiger Bob Raleigh and was so disgusted
when I had to assume the name that I always signed autographs
as 'Tiger Bob Rolli'. I did the 10-2pm show by request
as I had a gig to do in both MD and VA. I had connections with
each fire dept. and we held dances at their firehouses which were
larger than high school gyms. This is really where I would make
all my weekly income.
Because
I had the privilege to M.C. most all the soul shows, Motown Revues,
at the Howard theatre, I would request each group coming in to
make a small cameo appearance at one of my weekly dances. I had
a limo pal who would pick up Smokey and his crew and race them
to the firehouse in Bladensburg and they would do 2-3 songs.....(lip
sync) and then then we would speed them back to the Howard theatre.
I
figure I had every Motown group plus James Brown at least
twice in a 9 month period. Also the Real McCoys, the Vogues
etc.....I used to really break a ton of records for Bill Gavin
for more than 8 years.....Neil Bogart was a super friend as were
many other respected honest promoters. The honest ones were hard
to come by.....
Today,
I am President of the
Radio/Television
Broadcasters Hall of Fame of Ohio. We have a state of the
art brochure and induction ceremony. It's first class and I am
proud to say we operate on zero funding. It's called begging......
"Bob
Raleigh" #4 (Paul Carmel)
Skip
McCloskey, (The
Great 98 WRC site) contributes this story:
The
original "Bob Raleigh" (Raleigh
Ferreira)
who
was also known as Tiger, came to WPGC about the same time
Harv Moore did in 1963.
The jingle "Tiger on your radio" was actually Jerry
G singing in the studio. Bob was only there maybe a
year to year and a half before moving onto WWDC. He always
hated management...no matter what station he was at and he always
admitted this. He was a believer that they were always out
to screw the DJs.
Bob
Howard who was General
Manager at WPGC (Mr Soundoff)
was at the top of Raleigh's list as hated GMs....and probably
with good reason. That aside, Bob left WPGC after asking
for a raise and went to WWDC.
There he made more money, played music he was more in tune with
and, most important, became a member of a union (AFTRA).
At least there he was protected somewhat in pay structure and
security.
He later worked at WEEL as
my Program Director in the early 70s (late 72-73). I'm not
sure if he actually worked anywhere in radio between WEEL
and WBZ / Boston since Bob did numerous voice overs and TV commercials
as a freelancer. But WBZ was his next radio stop.
Now
as far as the name goes: Bob Howard
liked to keep the same names on air even though the person changed.
The guy who eventually inherited the "Bob Raleigh" air name was
Bill Miller in 1966. He did some fill in DJ work and weekends
but mostly did news during the week as I recall. I know
he went to WPOC (country) in Baltimore after being fired from
WPGC (after the strike
in '77).
"Bob
Raleigh Sr." #5 (Bill Miller)
But
wait! The plot thickens! While Bill was using the "Bob Raleigh"
name, WPGC hired a mid-day guy to replace Bob
Peyton #2 (Bob Burian). His REAL name was ....you guessed
it....Bob Raleigh. He would not let Bob
Howard change it. Howard must have really wanted
this guy because he allowed him to use the moniker Bob Raleigh,
Jr while the other name changed to Bob Raleigh, Sr.
It all got very messy.
Ken
Mezger writes:
Bob Raleigh
(Bill Miller) was filling in for Harv
Moore one morning and locked himself out. As his record was
ending, he jumped up into the ceiling (drop ceiling) and pushed
himself over and fell down into the lobby and broke many fingers!
Then he called Dino Del Gallo
at home (lived close) and begged him to "bring a vacuum
cleaner quickly" to the station. Then they robbed some
drop ceiling tiles from other parts of the building and replaced
the broken ones. When Dino told me about this I couldn't stop
laughing ... every time I saw Bill Miller with splints on most
of his fingers!
BD
Howard writes:
I
remember hearing about that episode when Bob Raleigh (Bill Miller)
crawled through the roof after locking himself out of the studio.
After that, my dad (General
Manager, Bob Howard) always
liked to call him 'Tiger Dumb Raleigh'.
Bob
Raleigh #6, aka 'Jr.' (Dewitt Robert Raleigh)
WPGC
Air Personality, 'Mergatroid' remembers:
Bob
Raleigh #6's real name was Dewitt Robert Raleigh. I
was there when he was hired. It was really funny to see what Ho-Ho
(our pet name for Bob Howard)
was going to call him. Obviously he used 'Bob Raleigh'
on the air at his previous stations. Ho-Ho I think wanted to call
him "Johnny Danger" or something equally as insipid,
but came up with the brilliant idea of keeping Bill
Miller as Bob
Raleigh, Senior, and the new
Dewitt as Bob
Raleigh, Jr. Meanwhile over at WWDC, the original 'Bob Raleigh'
(Raleigh
Ferreira) was billing himself as the real Bob Raleigh.
It was hilarious!
Roddy
Freeman adds:
Bob
Howard was indirectly responsible for Raleigh
Ferreira's very successful run at WBZ, first as the
midday jock and then as the overnight talk host. One day while
he was PD at WEEL, Bob Howard
walked in to check out the place. That was when he was shopping
for a station after being outbid for WPGC, before he bought WYSL
in Buffalo. When he spotted Howard, just the possibility of Howard's
buying the station prompted him to put together a tape to send
to WBZ that very day! And the rest is history.
Photos
#1
Raleigh
Ferreira
#2
Dale Tucker
#4
Paul Carmen
#5
- Bill Miller
#6
- Dewitt Robert Raleigh (aka 'Jr.')
