Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers, Last Show on WHK Cleveland | April 25, 1959
Of late we’ve been adding a lot of 90s to the site so now lets go way, way back to the dawn of Top 40 radio!
Pete Myers was one of those early screamer jocks who lived on excitement and had a passion for radio. But you have to understand the times. Radio stations had echo buttons they could push on their consoles to create eerie effects. There were jingles, but they were used infrequently. All the commercials were ‘acetate’ platters - records, in every sense of the word. There were few playlists, the DJs picked their own music, and Top 40 radio was literally feeling it’s way. This was in 1959. And “Mad Daddy”, as he was known, was one of those early pioneers who blazed a trail for others to follow.
Before WHK, Myers had worked at WJW on the other side of town previous to his WHK show (corrected information). WHK was the perfect home for Myers, but this day, he is doing his last show before moving on to New York City’s 1010 WINS.
Lots of echoes, screaming into the mic and even half of a WHK newscast complete with CRC tones and jingles. This aircheck is available nowhere else (at least that we know of).
The source tape is a bit muddy, so we had to do a bit of eq here… but there’s still some tape hiss making it through. But it IS 46 years old, after all…
(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...
Loading ...
The station Pete Myers worked at in Cleveland before WHK was WJW not WJZ.. He was also briefly the host of Shock Theatre on WJW-TV in the summer of 1958, several years before Ghoulardi became its regular.
I have collected airchecks of Mad Daddy for a number of years and now have a number of shows from WJW, WHK, WNEW (as Pete Myers himself) and WINS. I am always looking for more.
Jay Hunt
Ottawa, Canada
Thanks Jay so very much for bringing this material to light. Mad Daddy is Sooooooo Cooooooool! I’m so happy that the Winky Blinky Light burned in his skull! Not long enough to be sure. It is easy to tell that Wolfman Jack got some of Mad Daddy’s magic from Dracula Hall. I’m working on a series of radio documentaries about legendary DJ’s for KBOO in Portland,Oregon. Pete Myers/ Mad Daddy and Allen Freed are on the top of list. We have already aired most of the superb M. Daddy CD that is out–but I’m always looking for more and suggestions for upcoming shows are always deeply appreciated. I can’t help wondering if anybody out there has video of The Mad Daddy as well. Over and out for now–Bill
I was 14 in 1959. That particular time brings back memories of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Horton and also the accident Gene Vincent. Pete Meyers was one of my Cleveland Newspaper customers, along with Big Wilson Ron Penfound (Captain Penny), Barnaby and others who used to live on Hope Ave. (Named after Bob Hope) at least that what my mother told me. I still have many of the 45’s. That was and still is my favorite year.
Thanks for the memmory lane soundbite.