Well,
this is an utter surprise! After 30 years as a newspaper and magazine
journalist and now a painter after graduating from art college,
I find my radio DJ past online!
Yes,
I'm Rolf Rykken, who served as 'Famous Amos' on the all-night show
on WPGC Good Guys Radio. Hello to anyone who might remember!
On
his early career:
I
started my brief radio career in 1967 in Portsmouth, Ohio, at
WIOI, having been hired based on a homemade simulated broadcast
tape. (I did have some actual radio experience during my brief
undergraduate period at the University of Maryland’s WMUC
campus station.)
I
did the morning show at WIOI as Rick Rogers (it seems that movie-and
TV cowboy star Roy Rogers had been raised in the area). I copped
Harv Moore’s “Morning
Mayor” idea (which was used in other markets too), and was
also the station’s Music Director.
After
a fun year there, I was lured by a former WIOI-er to WSAR in Fall
River, Mass., where the Top 40 format was relatively new, and
got to do the morning show there, too, as Rick Robbins (!).
On
Being Hired at WPGC as 'Famous Amos':
I
was hired by Bob Howard, whose
ever encouraging words to me were, “Don’t screw up.”
This was typical of the Howard Style of Management. I always joked
that at Christmas we usually received some forgettable gift with
the command, “Have a good Christmas - or else!”
I
started at WPGC when the station went 24 hours on FM in the Fall
of 1968. Howard’s
bizarre marketing idea to promote WPGC going all-night on FM was
“The return of Amos and Andy” to radio, thus the “Famous
Amos” and “Handy Andy”
monikers. The actual, cost-savings reason, of course, for having
two part-time people on overnight was you don’t have to pay
full-time AFTRA wages.
I
got somewhat of a break from Howard, et al, because they essentially
made me an assistant Music Director because I was interested in
and knowledgeable about rock-album cuts, rather than just singles.
At my two previous Top 40 stations where I had Music Director
duties, we routinely played album cuts along with the singles.
In the late ‘60s, WPGC began playing rock-album cuts in the
latter hours of the Davy Jones
show as well as overnights.
On
Leaving WPGC:
I
left WPGC in mid-1969 over a dispute about me allegedly not playing
a commercial when I was supposed to. The reality was that Howard
was upset that I had gone to the union when I was wasn’t
fully paid for working one pay period beyond my usual part-time
hours.
At
the same time WPGC “fired” me I was hired by former
Good Guy Jack Alix, who had
become Program Director at WEEL
in Fairfax. He inaugurated an all-oldies format there and the
djs were known as the “Million Dollar Airmen.” I was
named Larry Cash and did the morning show. About every five oldies
or so, we actually got to play something current.
Oddly,
Howard stopped by one morning to say hello and even complimented
me and the station to Alix. I
was there until late 1969, leaving of my own accord because the
station owners changed the format to an annoying soft-rock sound.
On
Becoming a Print Journalist:
Fortunately,
because of my strong verbal and writing skills, I was recommended
by the News Editor to her managing-editor friend at a suburban
daily, The Northern Virginia Sun, in Arlington. Thus began my
30-year journalism career, helped largely because I had learned
how to make police calls and quickly write and rewrite news items
for radio newscasts.
I
went on to other newspapers and magazines in Delaware, then back
to D.C. in the late ‘80s with the Newspaper Association of
America, which I left in 1994 when I entered the Corcoran School
of Art (now the Corcoran College of Art and Design) full-time.
I graduated in 1997 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. (I had
decided to go to art school at such a late age, my late 40s, because
I figured that’s what one does after his 20-year marriage
falls apart.)
My
interest in rock music did stay with me in my journalism career.
I wrote music reviews of albums and concerts for most of the newspapers
I worked for and was also a contributing critic while in art college
during the late '90s for AOL's former electronic magazine, "Critic's
Choice," reviews of which were also used by many newspapers
More recently (2001-2002), I was a contributing critic for a now
defunct regional magazine, "Listen Up," out of Rehoboth
Beach, Del.
While
attending art college I continued my journalism career at the
now defunct international business-news monthly, Global Business
magazine, which ceased publication in 2001. I was Europe editor.
I
now have a humble, low-level office job at America’s first
modern-art museum, The Phillips Collection, in Washington and
continue to paint. My expressionistic, figurative, narrative work
is on view at http://www.rolfrykken.com.
Famous
Amos #2
The second 'Famous Amos' at WPGC was Rick Rosenthal, usually covering weekend overnights as his full time job at the Pentagon precluded any work during the week. He would go on to an illustrious career as a Broadcast Journalist at Superstation, WGN / Chicago and elsewhere.
Famous
Amos #2 writes:
I enjoyed wandering through parts of the WPGC Tribute website.
Yes, I was a part-time deejay on ‘PGC in ’69 and ’70, mostly worked Saturday nights as “Famous Amos Anthony,” plus occasional fill in, in other slots as needed. 1969-70 was a l-o-n-g time ago, and I was but a minor bit player. A brief history:
I got my start in radio in the fall of 1963, as a freshman at Princeton University. Early on, I discovered the campus radio station there, WPRB, 103.3 FM and thought, “What the heck” and tried out. Together ‘PRB and I discovered a voice and modest talent I’d never realized I had, so I went through 6 weeks of training and was “On The Air!” (so said the red light over the door in the hall.)
From the very beginning I was eager, hungry, and in love with broadcasting, so I took every time slot I could get, morning sign-ons at 7:00 AM; late night classical or jazz music shows (I knew nothing about either); on-the-hour newscasts (strictly rip-‘n-read off the AP and UPI news wires) at all hours of the day and night.
With a little talent, a little more determination, and a LOT of luck, in the spring of ’64 I was given the two most coveted airtime slots at ‘PRB, the rock shows on Friday afternoon and Saturday night (7:00 – 11:00 PM.) And I held those slots almost to the very end, when the academic pressures of senior year finally forced me to step aside in early 1967.
What a thrill! I was deejaying Rock ‘N Roll radio during the height of the British Invasion! How amazing was that?! Looking back, I think that was probably the happiest time of my life. I spent so much time at WPRB that I was on academic probation for more semesters than I wasn’t (my poor parents!) And yet, somehow, I still managed to graduate with honors in June of 1967, right in the middle of the Viet Nam War era.
On Uncle Sam Calling:
I enlisted in the U.S. Army, was inducted that October, and after lengthy training was assigned (Spring of ’69) to be an Information Officer at the Pentagon, in the Office of the Chief of Information, Department of the Army. I was a second lieutenant (soon promoted to 1LT!) in an office where the Colonels were the ones who were sent for coffee. The good news was, I had a regular office job, with regular office hours 08:00a to 4:00p, Monday thru Friday. Which meant I had time (and got official permission) for part time freelance work on weekends. Enter WPGC.
On Joining WPGC:
As I recall, one of my co-workers at OCINFO-DA was freelancing at ‘PGC. I expressed interest, he introduced me (to whom, I have NO recollection) and I was hired (by whom, I have NO recollection.) I was young; and hungry; and with a new wife I was also eager for extra income, modest though it was; and I was as passionate as ever to stay connected to Rock ‘N Roll. So it was by great good fortune that somehow ‘PGC and I found each other.
The Boss gave me the air name “Famous Amos Anthony.” The explanation was, ‘PGC had paid for the jingles they had and didn’t want to shell out more money for new jingles for every new deejay who came along with a new air name. So I was the latest “Famous Amos”, jingles included, and that was just the way it was. Made sense to me, I didn’t care. Hell, I was “On The Air!” doing Rock ‘N Roll and building a resume and earning a few extra bucks and nothing else mattered!
Sadly, I don’t remember much else at all about my time at WPGC. I worked almost exclusively on weekend nights when no one else was there, I didn’t meet anybody, didn’t see anybody, knew nothing of office politics or hirings or firings; I just did my job and went home.
That's One Small Step:
Still, one fond memory that I WILL cherish to my dying day, was Sunday night, July 21, 1969. I was doing my usual combo gig at ‘PGC, belting out the segued hits one after the other. And, coincidentally, Neil Armstrong decided to go for a stroll on the Moon. My beloved wife Liz put our portable TV in the back of our VW bug and drove from our apartment in Suitland, MD to the ‘PGC studios (got a flat tire on the way.) We set up the TV on top of the console, and she spent a hectic hour shuttling copy off the news wires to me in the studio. (I still have the originals: “FLASH: Armstrong sets foot on Moon!”)
I didn’t know what else to do, but somehow it didn’t seem right to just ignore the moment, so absent any instructions to the contrary, I broke format and did a play-by-play running commentary, as a hyper Rock ‘N Roll deejay while Armstrong made history. No one in management (or anyone else) ever called or said a word, then or later, so I got away with it. (Or, more likely, no one was listening, everyone was glued to the TV and my commentary went completely unnoticed.)
On Making the Move to Broadcast Journalism:
Somewhere along the line in that ’69-’70 year or so, a job opened up at WTOP Radio, the all-news station in DC, and I moved over there. I was still at the Pentagon, but as best asI can remember, ‘TOP offered better weekend hours, and more time (= more money) and with my new wife, those were important factors, so I made the switch.
As luck would have it (and there was a LOT of luck involved then and throughout my career!) that was the end of my affair with Rock ‘N Roll. I mustered out of the Army in ’70, went full time with WTOP for a brief while, was recruited by NBC Radio News and moved to Chicago in 1971 and worked as a reporter and anchorman in radio and then television news in the Windy City until 1993 when my contract with Superstation WGN-TV was not renewed, and I was done.
On Life After Radio:
Of course I did find that there is life after broadcasting. I drew on my radio and TV experiences to form my own media relations training and consulting company in 1995 and that’s what’s kept me afloat ever since. Now I’m pretty much retired, but whenever I’m in my car I have my radio tuned to the Sixties channel on Sirius-XM. I guess it’s true, you can take the deejay out of Rock ‘N Roll, but you can’t take the Rock ‘N Roll out of the deejay. Regretably, I have no recordings of any of my time on the air at WPGC, and sadly, that includes that totally upside-down hour with Armstrong's moon walk.
As I said, I applaud and support your efforts to keep fond memories of WPGC alive, and hope I’ve made some small contribution to your worthy enterprise.
Sincere best wishes,
Rick
Rick Rosenthal, President
RAR Communications, Inc.
Sound
Files
Airchecks
Famous
Amos #1
News
Famous
Amos #1
