Return with us back to Mike Dineen’s morning show. Mike makes mention of the Apollo astronauts ‘floating’ back to Earth at 3,000 miles an hour. The news mentions Vietnam, Chappaquiddick and MLK Jr’s brother. This turns out to be quite an historic reel, judging simply by the news headlines.
Lots of old commercials on this one, too.
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I remember hearing him on WFUN Miami doing morning drive as Michael Meyer Dineen.
Then I heard him doing mornings on WXLO New York.
I worked with Mike and Bob Bolton at WBBQ Augusta in the early Sixties, while I was still in high school. They headed for Miami, and I lost contact with them eventually when I decided radio wasn’t for me long term. Would sure like to know where Mike is, and what he’s doing. He was excellent on the air in the early days of Top 40, before corporate radio, and a great guy to hang out with.
Mike is a great guy and one of my best friends. He is currently doing overnights and production at a country station in Augusta GA. (The Bull)
He is a TOP voice-over talent. He also has worked as a jock in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Houston and Pittsburgh. He moved “back home” to Augusta area several years ago.
As a former boss jock working the tail end of cool comercial radio before corprate bullshit. I am from Atlanta this is a great aircheck
Dineen’s a good friend of mine. I work in radio here in Augusta under production.
He’s very modest, it was only recently that I’ve realized that he’s a piece of radio history……I’m only 25 y.o.
I’ve talked about drumming with him a lot. The dude knows his jazz.
“DINO” MIKE DINEEN WAS SIMPLY THE BEST! WHAT A NATURAL TALENT.
HI AGAIN,
OK. NOW I KNOW THIS STUFF IS WORKING, I’D LIKE TO SAY MORE ABOUT “DINO”. UNLIKE THOSE OF US BORN IN AUGUSTA, GEORGIA WHO HAD TO WORK ON EVERY WORD TO GET OVER OUR “SOUTHERN ACCENTS”, MIKE WAS A NATURAL FROM THE MID-WEST. WHEN WE FIRST MET, MIKE WANTED TO GET INTO BROADCASTING BUT WASN’T READY FOR WBBQ SO I SUGGESTED HE TAKE A JOB AT WFNL AND LEARN THE TRADE. HE DID IN A FLASH. I LISTENED TO HIS SHOWS AND WE’D MEET AND TALK ABOUT STUFF TO IMPROVE FOR NEXT WEEK. HE WAS DOING WEEKENDS. WHEN WE HAD AN OPENING WITH WBBQ AND HE WAS READY WE BROUGHT HIM ABOARD. HIS SENSE OF HUMOR IS EXACTLY LIKE MINE. WHEN WE FIRST MET, I ASKED WHERE HE WAS FROM AND HE SAID FONDU LAC. I SAID WHAT? THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING YOU DO TO A COW IN THE FIELD WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING. WE BOTH LAUGHED TILL OUR SIDES HURT AND THEN HE SAID—IT’S IN WISCONSIN. FROM THAT POINT UNTIL NOW, MIKE HAS BEEN SPECIAL. AS I RECALL, I INTRODUCED HIM TO PEGGY, HIS WIFE FOREVER AND HE ALSO ATTENDED MY WEDDING TO SUZY IN ATLANTA WHICH LASTED ABOUT 30 YEARS. SUZY WAS A COPYWRITER WITH WQXI IN ATLANTA. (REMEMBER WHEN WE HAD FOLKS WORKING HARD TO MAKE SURE OUR COPY WAS JUST THE BEST FOR OUR CLIENTS?) NO, I GUESS NOT. WQXI ACTUALLY HAD TWO FULL-TIME COPYWRITERS.
ANYWAY—DINO WAS READY TO MOVE FROM AUGUSTA SO I GOT HIM A JOB WITH WQXI AND THEN I WENT TO WOWO IN FORT WAYNE AND DINO WENT TO WFUN IN MIAMI. THEN DINO GOT ME A JOB WITH WFUN IN MIAMI. DINO WENT TO NYC AND I THINK I WENT TO CLEVELAND WITH WHK—AND THEN WE SORT OF LOST TRACK OF EACH OTHER. MIKE ALSO DID TIME WITH KSPT AND WFIL. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE “JOCK” HE WAS AND PROBABLY STILL IS! WE HAVEN’T CHATTED IN MANY YEARS BUT THERE IS STILL THAT CRAZY “GLUE” FROM THE PAST WHEN WBBQ AND WQXI AND WFUN AND WOR AND WHK HOLDS US TOGETHER. BOB BOLTON
I am from Augusta, Georgia. I lived there and worked they until I was 29. Then, like Bob Bolton, my big break came and I grabbed on to it and went Atlanta.
But early on, when I was very young (11, 12, and 13 or so) Bob Bolton and (to a lesser but still large extent) Mike Dineen, were my on-air roll models. They greatly fueled my already “consuming” desire to get on the air. I followed their footsteps as best I could. First to WFNL. But I could not break through to WBBQ. My future lay in what would eventually develop into the phenomenon of Talk Radio. And so those “altered paths” took me to Atlanta for Morning Drive at WRNG, then to Dallas at Mid morning WFAA, then on to mid days Miami WGBS WNWS AND and finally, for the past 20+ year, to mornings on KFYI in Phoneix. I witnessed, first hand as the “little blustery radio suburban station on the outskirts of town,” as The Arizona Republic punishingly called it, slowly and methodically climbed its was to the top rated spot in Phoenix Radio.
I believe that my ability to blend humor and news/talk throughout my program “germinated” in listening to Bob and Dino on WBBQ – and even DX listening through all the the static when they were in Atlanta, Ft. Wayne and Philadelphia. And I was still in Augusta thinking I would never find my was out and to success.
I met Bob only once and then only very briefly one evening when I was pestering him for a job to work as his assitnat on the old PK (Pepsi-Kelly) Party on WBBQ Saturday nights 8-midnight. I had the job clenctched. THAT was going to be my “foot in the door” to radio. Alas, I was only 13 and it was my Dad who said, “NO.” I was more than heartbroken. I was completely devastated. (I’ve still not quite forgiven him.)
But now I realize that what happened from that “crossroad moment in time” made the difference as to how my life evolved. Today at age 57, I’m still getting to do the #1 program in Phoenix: “The Nearly Famous Barry Young Show,” each morning on KFYI. I’m at my best game. And I get paid very, very well.
But best of all, for me it’s now just a hobby. It’s not my job and that makes it FUN! Radio is still FUN after 40+ years on the air!
My “real work” is being President & CEO of WestStar TalkRadio Network, syndicators of The Kim Komando Show (which we conceptualized and launched and which is heard now on over 400 stations nationally together with a host of other music and talk radio national programs.)
I did not get to do what I thought I wanted which is what Mike and Bob did you (and very, very well!) and many times regret it. But, to a larger degree, and even though I never met them personally, they are with me each day.
Thank you Bob Bolton and Michael Meyer Dineen. You were teaching me the basics of formats, style and delivery and you had no idea. And for the rest of us, we’re still doing that now. Somewhere, some kid is listening. And dreaming. And emulating you until their own style develops. Just as it did with me.
And maybe one fine day, they’ll be there and we will meet and I will say thank you in person. Lord how I miss the old WBBQ…
Barry Young
GREETINGS FROST-BITE FALLS……..JEFFERSON STONE HERE.{ WFUN MIAMI}..BOB if you are still alive contact me…you forgot your “SWEATHOG”
Thanks for bringing back memories of WBBQ, Mike Dineen and Augusta of the late ’60s. I worked with Peggy at the PX and we were good friends until I left, eventually moving to California and then back to Georgia. Nice to hear that Mike’s returned to Augusta. Hope he and Peggy are well.
One other big memory is listening to WBBQ as I drove my little gray Buick Special down to the Cactus Lounge to watch the Platters perform. I don’t think I ever turned off WBBQ, except when I went to bed!
Mike dineen is my grandpa when I found this I was amazed