Tom Prestigiacomo on 79 WAKY | 1979
Picking up where we left off last week is a cool aircheck made by our latest contributor, Tom Prestigiacomo. Tom informs us that after WAKY, he and a couple of WACKY DJ’s including Ron Olsen were hired at WMC-FM Memphis - by the former PD of WAKY. In Tom’s words: …”so FM 100 is really just a continuation of WAKY back then”. True enough since Tom P., Ron Olsen and his partner in the morning show, Steve Conley are STILL with FM 100 today!
Anyway, here’s Tom doing his thing on Wacky from sometime in 1979 - yeah check out all the disco tunes!
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Just a point of clarification; There were a couple of WAKY connections to Memphis but Ron Olson was not one of them. Johnny Dark left Memphis in 1967 and changed his air name to John W. “Dude” Walker. Dude had the best pipes in the world and did afternoons and 6-10pm at WAKY in Louisville. Gary Burbank was known as Johnny Apollo when he worked in Memphis at WDIA in poduction. He came to Louisville around 1969. While Dude is, these days, retired, Burbank still does afternoons in Cincinnati.
In 1979, former WAKY General Manager Don Meyers came to WMC-FM and shortly thereafter hired Gary Guthrie. Gary hired me to come to Memphis in September, 1979.
Memphis legend Ron Olson is a Memphis boy (played tuba at Oakhaven High School!) and has spent most of the last 31 years at 1960 Union Avenue. He was the afternoon host from 1974-1978. Ron came back to FM 100 in 1983 to anchor mornings and has been there ever since.