Fig Newton (Dave Newton) on 1220 WGAR Cleveland | June 27, 1980
Oct 25, 2007 
11 Comments
Fig Newton… what’s in a name? Plenty, if you’re from northeast Ohio. This is a pretty good morning show, reminiscent of Gary McKee on WQXI Atlanta. But this is Cleveland and WGAR is in it’s last days as a Top 40 station. Indeed, by mid-1980 many of the big and medium AM music stations were dumping their formats for something a bit more adult-oriented, but here, WGAR is still playing the hits.
Fig is identified by one of our commenters as Dave Newton, who also was heard in the Cleveland market at WWWE (now WTAM) for a time.
Listen for Jam jingles used at the time at WLS… a GREAT sounding package for this station!
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Does anybody know the real identity of this disc jockey, also, did he also work for WWWE at some point in his career? The Mr. Fig (or Big, I had to listen on the skip) from 3WE sounded suspiciously like Dick Orkin, but surely he was beyond djing in Cleveland by that time.
The description of the aircheck indicates this to be a morning drive show. But, listen closely. His show closing says to have a great night. Plus, the next jock starts at 8 with a top-30 songs of the week countdown. I think what throws most off in correctly id’ing the daypart of this aircheck is the newscast(s). Back in the day, music stations actually did newscasts outside of morning drive. WLS/Chicago still did some newscasts during Landecker’s show at night well into the late 70′s.
yes Fig did 4-8pm this is an afternoon drive aircheck. the only way he would be on mornings is if he was filling in for Lanigan which i don’t recall he ever did.
Fig Newton was also on WWWE, and I’ll get Steve an aircheck of that soon.
Fig’s real name was Dave Newton and, yes, he later did mornings on WWWE (now WTAM).
When did 1220 move away from CHR? Also, when did the Real Bob James leave?
Fig Newton, if I remember correctly, was on during the evening drive (4 – 8?). The Real Bob James was on immediately after – I think he worked 8 – midnight.
Bob left WGAR somewhere around 1980, I believe.
1220/WGAR ended its days as an AC station on Sunday, July 15th 1984. The format switched to that of country the following day. Paul Tapie’s morning show and the newscasts anchored by Ed Richards and Nancy Smith were simulcast on WGAR-AM 1220 and WGAR-FM 99.5 (formerly KS-100 Country) from 5:30-9am weekdays. Steve Cannon’s talk show ran on 1220 from 9am-noon followed by WGAR’s hour-long noon newscast. After that, the music and DJs heard came over on satellite. When Steve left a few months later, the satellite filled the time from nine to noon with more automation.
Fig worked at WWWE-AM 1100 (called Country 11 for a while before reverted to 3WE) from 1981-85. He hosted Channel 43′s Prize Movie from February 1984 to September 1985, during which time John Lanigan was in Florida.
By the way, if Mr. Fig happens to be reading the remarks on this page or if someone on here knows him and is in contact with him, tell him hello from World Famous Dave who used to live by the airport.
The “Real” Bob James [Bob Pondillo] was, I believe, fired from WGAR for breaking into the program director’s office safe and “borrowing” some Station ID’s that went back several decades. Bob James used to work at WHLO before WGAR. Last I heard about Fig Newton is that he was somewhere out west.
The guy doing the station IDs sounds like Bill Ward who I believe is the staff announcer at WJW FOX 8 these days. By the way, another great WGAR DJ was “Vernon with a V” who I stumbled across on the internet one day, he has his own web site http://www.vernonwithav.com. Talks a lot about his WGAR&WNBCdays and his stint as a news anchor. He has not updated it lately but he does have several of his bits on there, Buzz &Juggs, etc. and it really took me back listening to them.