The
first to use the name briefly was Bob Allen (aka Russ Wheeler)
for only 30 days in March of 1967. He came to WPGC from KDKA /
Pittsburgh where he was the Production Director but had previously
worked in Washington at WEAM, where he returned after leaving
WPGC. He later worked in Philadelphia and had an extensive career
in Baltimore.
A native of East Providence, Rhode Island, 'Robert C. Allen' (aka Bob Allen) liked the music he heard on WPRO, Providence and also enjoyed WBZ, Boston. While in the Navy, Robert Alianiello (real name) developed an interest in a radio career while stationed at The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
Bob's career began to take shape in 1960 at the Northeast School of Broadcasting in Boston. While in school, he was hired part time at WHIL in Medford, Massachusetts and later at WARE in Ware, Massachusetts. In 1962, he was off to Springfield, Massachusetts and the morning radio show at WHYN. He was the original 'Bob Allen' and also co-hosted WHYN-TV 40's Dance Party that welcomed major acts including Roy Orbison and The Ronettes. Roy once brought along an unknown, up-and-coming star named Bobby Goldsboro.
Harry Averill, GM at WEAM beckoned in 1964. For three years, Bob, as 'Russ Wheeler', became a major player in the thriving music scene around the Nation's Capital. Among the acts he interviewed and introduced at concerts and record hops were The Rolling Stones, Brian Hyland, Bobby Hebb, The McCoys, Brenda Lee, Sam the Sham and Ronnie Dove. A shining moment was 'Russ Wheeler's' meeting and introducing The Beatles at D.C. Stadium on August 15, 1966.
Bob left WEAM in early 1967 for the Production Director position at KDKA in Pittsburgh, but he missed doing full time on-air work and returned to Washington to join WPGC where he covered mid-days as the first 'Bob Peyton' (Peyton's Place). Then, it was back to WEAM for a while as 'Russ Wheeler'.
During the summer of 1967, he became impressed with the sound of WFIL / Famous 56 in Philadelphia. Program Director Jim Hilliard hired him for production work and swing air shifts. He resumed his 'Bob Allen' name and enjoyed working with Boss Jocks Chuck Browning, George Michael, Jay Cook, Jim Nettleton, and Dave Parks. Bob also did the morning show for a few months while awaiting the arrival of Dr. Don Rose.
After a short stint in 1969 as 'Tony Edwards' at WIBG in Philly, he moved on to WCAO / Baltimore for the morning show as 'Robert C. Allen, III', for a long stay. Another career move came in 1977 hosting the morning show for a year at Baltimore rocker WLPL as 'Robert C. Allen'. Then, a move to WBAL, Baltimore for several years as afternoon music show host, and later a stint as overnight talk show host. It was back to WCAO in 1985 to host middays as 'R.C. Allen' until a format change occurred in 1991. Ultimately, R.C. became morning drive host at Baltimore's "Oldies WWLG" until a change in direction. Sadly, Bob passed away on 01/15/23 at 83 of congestive heart failure. Read his obituary in the Baltimore Sun.
From about 1968.
Bob
Burian
From
April 3, 1967 to March 31, 1969 Bob Burian next used the name. He
came to WPGC from WILS / Lansing and was hired for middays and
Music Director by Program
Director, Warren Duffy.
Bob returned to Michigan late in 1969.
Following his days in DC, became Station Manager at WCCW in Traverse
City, a position he held through 1984. He then formed his own
multimedia outfit, Traverse Communication Group which he operated
until 1998 when a bout with cancer sidelined him and ultimately
led to his joining the American Cancer Society as its Executive
Director, overseeing 19 counties.
In
2006, Bob happened to Google himself and in the process discovered
the WPGC Tribute Site, including his own DJ page. Retirement came
in 2010 but he kept busy with numerous civic activities including
the Kiwanis, the Elks and serving on the local Chamber of Commerce.
Sadly, he passed away on 02/02/17 at age 77.
He was survived by numerous children and grandchildren. Read his
online obituary here.
Bob
Burian wrote:
OK,
so here I am a 65 year old former disk jockey with nothing to
do one evening, so I Google myself and what do I find? I find
that I was at one time semi famous in DC. Actually I really got
a kick out of remembering some WPGC times, people and, of course,
music from the late 60's.
Here
is some info about the station and the market from my days at
WPGC from April 3, 1967 to March 31, 1969:
I
was hired by Program
Director, Warren Duffy and (General Manager), Bob Howard to do the 10 AM
- 2 PM shift. They said my name was now "Bob Peyton"
and they even had a jingle with my new name to prove it. I said "man, these people
work fast" . . . a personalized jingle on the first day I get into town!
Well,
then I found out that my predecessor (Bob Allen) was actually
a Bob Peyton too, as was my successor (Dave
McKay) 2 years later. The jingles never went out of style.
After several months at the station, Cousin
Duffy named me Music Director in addition to my mid-day airshift.
By the way, when I arrived Duffy and Howard thought the way to
mid-day ratings riches would be to do an "every-other-record-gold"
format. They were right! After a few months the 10 AM - 2PM slot
was #1 (of ALL stations in the market) in the Pulse. That led
to the entire station going to the same format and producing huge
ratings.
I
came to DC from Lansing, Michigan station WILS. I later learned
that Marv "Marvelous Marv"
Brooks had also spent time in Lansing while a student at Michigan
State. (I am saddened to hear of Marv's passing.) Let me tell
you, as a kid from the midwest, I thought I really had hit the
big time at 'PGC. It truly was one of the GREAT SOUNDING stations
of the '60's.
Harv
Moore was the Morning
Mayor and was sensational, I came next on mid-days, and then
one of the greatest high energy radio talents, programmers and
promoters of top-40 radio history followed me . . . Cousin
Warren Duffy. Nobody, but nobody had the on-air energy and
presence he had. He "owned" the top 40 market in DC.
"JA the DJ" (Jack Alix)
had his own inimitable show, and when we went 24 hours, Bob
Howard's jock naming skills surfaced again with Handy
Andy and Famous Amos.
After Cousin Duffy took a quick
exit bound for the Virgin Islands, Charlie
Shoe replaced him as Program
Director and afternoon drive jock. Things weren't the same,
and I resigned at the end of March 1969 to do freelance voiceovers
before moving back to northern Michigan in November of '69.
I
continued in radio until 1984 when my entreprenuerial juices made
me try to become a mogul in publishing, printing, marketing and
advertising. A bout with cancer changed a lot of things in my
life, and in 1998 I joined the fight against cancer by joining
the staff of the American Cancer Society.
This
website really brings back some great memories from the days of Captain Good Guy, Go Magazine, Hide The
Picnic, Cousin Duffy at the Ambassador Theater and Casino Royale.
Hey,
thanks for the memories. Good Guys Radio was really something
special. I often have wondered whatever happended to Warren
Duffy, Harv Moore, Bill
Miller and Jack Alix. I
hope they are all doing well and are happy.
Dave
McKay
Finally,
Dave MacKay used the
name in 1969 - 1970. See the 'House
DJ Names' page
for more information.
Dave
MacKay writes:
Went
to Leland Powers Broadcasting School in Boston from '59 to '61.....WMEX
was always the choice of us-wanna-be-jocks. Woo Woo Ginsberg was
always a must listen until Jerry Williams came on the air, &
then we would switch over to I believe a Medford station?
First
gig after school was WTSL, Hanover, NH. where mowing grass &
gardening was all part of my mid-day show. Went from there to
WWRI, West Warwick, RI where I could live at home in Hope Valley,
RI while working nights.
By
then the draft board was calling so I beat them to the punch and
joined up. Got some great experience during a Korean tour as the
U.S. was looking for people with radio experience so I auditioned
and got transferred to Taigo, Korea with The Armed Forces Network
and for 6 months did an afternoon Top 40 gig.
After
the Armed Forces was done, got together with my former Leland
Power's roommate, Sandy Beach, who was working at WDRC, Hartford
& he knew of an opening at WADS, Ansonia, CT so went there
as afternoon drive from '64 to '67 while doing part time tv booth
announcing at WNHC, New Haven and weekends at WNHC radio.
Middle
of '67 on to WIRL, Peoria for Music Director and afternoon drive
& then sent off an air check to WPGC in early 1969 & GM, Bob Howard wanted me to come into Bladensburg and audition but wanted me
to pay for the airfare. Got him to pay for half of it but that
was a hassle in itself. Program Director, Charlie Shoe didn't want to hire
me as there certainly better talent out there but Bob's cheapness
won out and for $188 a week, he got his new Bob Peyton.
Loved
the station plus working with all the great talent, but after
a few incidences with Howard...it
got old real quick! Everyday I would go home for lunch as I just
lived down the road from the station...maybe a three minute drive.
Punch out on the time clock, eat quick & get back to the station
& punch back in but real hard to do in the "allotted
30 minute break" so always running 3 or 4 minutes late. Obviously
pissed off Howard as he would scream at me, "Peyton, Peyton...you are always
a few minutes late!" "I will not tolerate this!!"
Sad thing is that he would always make me "punch out"
after working a 7 hour day, but wanted me to stay & do production
or music duties which I always did because I loved the business.
He
was probably the worst GM to ever work under, & it wasn't long before I started to make
my feelings known to many of the music reps & they were very
beneficial in getting me in touch with Gene Creasy, PD of WCAO
in Baltimore. Slid my written 2 week notice of departure under
his door & never looked back. Was at WCAO for 7 years going
from all nights to 10p - 2a to Assistant PD under Ron Riley.
In
1977, my Dad had multiple health issues back in RI & I needed
to be closer to him and family so moved to WLAM, Lewiston, ME.
Too cold!!!! Even on Memorial Day weekend while trying to go to
the beach, we had to lie flat on the sand as it was freezing when
we sat up on the last day of May. Final radio gig was WROV, Roanoke
where I stayed for a couple of years & happy to see Dino
DelGallo take my place.
Off
to Buffalo in 1979 for Infinity Records and after 6 months promoted
to Regional gig in Chicago but of course, Infinity turned out
to be a poor choice of names for a company that would be solvent
for about a year & a half! Then out to Kansas City with a
local promotion job with Atlantic Records. The Atlantic guy that
hired me, Steve Evanoff, moved me back to Chicago in 1980 to become
Regional Secondaries Director & we became fast friends!
We
both left Atlantic in Sept. 1982 to form Music America Promotions
and had a 20 year run doing Independent music promotion. We moved
the company to KC in 1984 & then bought another promotion
co. in 1986 & Steve moved to Buffalo to facilitate that company
into ours and deal with the record labels as I stayed in KC to
develop relationships with radio. By
1998, Music America has grown into the 3rd largest independent
music promotion company in the nation. In 1999, Steve & I
bought a small AM radio station in KC & flipped it to Hispanic
format & became the first 24 hour a day Hispanic station in
KC.
In
2002 we began building our 18 court sand volleyball complex here
in Shawnee, KS and during this year, we had over 2000 teams playing
in leagues. Somehow it has all worked out as I've been blessed
with a good partner with all endeavors since 1982 & a beautiful
wife of 40 plus years. It's been a great life!!!!
From
the upper Michigan peninsula, I hired a DJ (Bob Burian) and since
Peyton Place was such a big hit TV show at the time, we
changed the guy's name to Bob Peyton - he did our mid-days.
Dave
Ayers adds:
I
believe that there was actually 3 different Bob Peytons.
The first one was only on for a few shifts, perhaps Bob Burian
did not arrive on time as they were heavily promoting the new
show, but the first Bob Peyton show was done by a jock
who had recently been on WEAM
using the name of Russ Wheeler.
Roddy
Freeman contributes:
One
of the 'Bob Peytons' was Bob Allen. His real name, I was told
back then, was Bob Alianiello.
He
left WPGC for WEAM and after working in Philadelphia, eventually
became morning man at WCAO in Baltimore, using the name Robert
C. Allen III. I guess he lost his job at WCAO at some point because
he turned up as the morning man on WLPL, Baltimore's first FM
top-40 station, owned by United Broadcasting (Richard Eaton).
He
then hit it big and did middays at WBAL-AM in Baltimore. After
that, he kind of disappeared (although I had moved away so I'm
not sure where he was). The next time I heard him was around 1992
(I was back in town), when he replaced Johnny Dark on a Saturday
night '70's show on Mix 106.5 in Baltimore. That lasted for a
week or 2 because the station decided to go with a syndicated
show in that slot.
He
then appeared on the very short-lived 1360-AM's classified jobs
"format." He read job listings like the rest of the
staff. (I like innovation.)
When
I was visiting Baltimore a year ago, he was doing weekends at
WWLG-Legends 1370 (they moved from 1360), which plays standards
of the Sinatra ilk. He was calling himself RCA (Robert C. Allen).
Coincidentally,
another 'Bob Peyton', also left WPGC to go to WCAO. I never knew
his real name, but he went by Dave
MacKay on WCAO and did 10PM - 2AM.
