Calvin Hicks/Mitch Zano, WSSX 95SX Charleston SC | November, 1996

95.1 FM Charleston 95SX WSSX Calvin Hicks Mitch Zano 2 Girls and a Guy in the Morning

Charleston, SC is an under-rated market. I say that knowing that there are a lot of Large and Medium sized markets that did and still do have plenty of talent gracing the airwaves.

This time, we have a pretty long late afternoon/evening composite of 95SX. At the time of this recording, it was pretty much the lone survivor of the CHR war that once was between 95SX and the former WKQB Q-107 which flipped to Country as WBUB in 1990. That 80s CHR war was not so much won by 95SX due to ratings, but thanks to divine intervention in the form of Hurricane Hugo, which devastated much of the Lowcountry in 1989. Q-107 took six months or longer to get back on the air, and when it did, it was for about a month before going bankrupt and the station purchased by a group which included Charlie ‘Bird’ Lindsay and Larry Farina, former jocks at WEZL. Don’t ask me how I remember that, other than either TJ Phillips or Rhett Bledsoe told me the story when I was at WEZL around 1993… I digress.

This is about 95SX. The afternoon personality heard here is Calvin Hicks. Great pipes and a pleasant personality, perfect for PM drive. This moves right along into the night show with Mitch Zano. We get to hear ALMOST the entire “Top 8 at 8” countdown… except for number one. You could probably guess what that song was if you remember the hits from around Thanksgiving, 1996.

95.1 FM Charleston 95SX WSSX Calvin Hicks Mitch Zano 2 Girls and a Guy in the Morning

Courtesy of Contributor Robyn Watts

26 Comments

  1. mi za

    correction: the jock’s name is not Mitch Zano, it’s MITCH ZATTO

  2. alex yaeta

    doesn’t anybody ever maintain this website? MITCH ZATTO was the most innovative, no-bull-taking, original and unique radio personality to ever cross paths with such a sorry town as Charleston! MITCH was a free thinker who kept everybody guessing, and that’s to his credit. MITCH ZATTO was also known as HOLLYWOOD HAZE (NOT “HAYES”), KYM LANDERS (THE ONLY K106 JOCK THAT B-104 COULDN’T BEAT), and MITCH RYDER AT WSDO “STUDIO-107” IN FT.LAUD.-MIAMI). He’s dropped out of sight, but, I betcha he’s somewhere keeping things REAL.

  3. a. teleford

    zatto, mitch – top rated personality 1983-99 as “Wild Child” (WFEC), Boss Baby (CK-101), Kym Landers (WMAR-FM), Hollywood Haze (POWER-95), Mitch Zatto (WSSX), Bobby Mitchell (WXTC), Slick (FLY-94), Boss Hoss (Oldies 102.5, and WEZL; also on ALICE 104.5 and WPTP (The Point) 2001-2003.
    Unique, Creative, Always one step ahead of the crowd. Mitch Zatto is an original, not afraid to step out from the pack, an audience favorite.

  4. j.j.bishop

    deejay Kym Landers is actually Mitch Zatto, sometimes misspelled “Kim Landers”, although he spelled it with a ‘y’ . Why? Y-100, of course! Does anybody have any of his cool tapes doing nights at WMAR-FM in Baltimore? He was a blast there- high energy, super creative, and the only jock worth remembering at WMAR, from 1984-1986. I would pay for these.

  5. GEORGE WILSON CROWELL

    Zatto is a Ridley High School grad back in the 1960’s! He used to hang with the jocks at WHAT 1340 in Philly, and worked there in some capacity from 1967-71, but as what I ‘m not certain. He was really into Soul music, jingles, and radio formats, especially stations like WOOK, WOL, WMID, WHAT, etc. I saw him at the WFIL studios with Jay Cook once.

  6. Jay Norris of WNBC

    Mitch Zatto! Wow! I haven’t heard that name in years! Since way back to the Citi Rhythm 1310 AM days in 1981. He was using the name ‘Night Ryder’ there, and
    understood the Soul Sound inside and out. Didn’t he eventually go on to WKTU in
    New York with program director J.D. Holiday? I think I heard him there once. As the Stylistics song resonates “People Make The World Go Round”, Mitch was without a doubt a truly unshackled free spirit light years ahead of everyone, and a really nice guy, too. Where are you, Mitch? Please check in!

  7. Julie Ward

    Mitch was the host of Love Lite on 96.9 WXTC Charleston S.C around 1994. His air name was Bobby Mitchell. We could pick up the show at night way up in Wilmington N.C. while vacationing, and eventually invited him to our wedding. To our surprise he showed up! I wonder where he went off to ?

  8. Cosmo

    Mitch Zatto was in D.C a lot around the time Soulfinger Fred Correy was on the air, Mitch may even have pulled a couple of airshifts at 1340 WOOK in D.C. around 1970 with the airname “Boss Baby”. That white boy was a real cool cat! He was really into the Soul scene in D.C.

  9. fredwyke henryfendzen

    Mitch was at CK101 IN Cocoa Beach back in the 1980’s and had a house on the ocean in Cape Canaveral. He was “The Real Live Kym Landers”.

  10. Gary Edwards

    Mitch was known as Hollywood Haze in Cleveland in 89-90. He was hired by Tom Kent, and when the station folded, Mitch shot down to WSSX in Charleston. He was on the morning show with Michael D and Kathy Scott. When I was at WHAT in 68 Mitch was always hanging around trying to learn as much as he could. He became friends with Buster Jones at WHAT when Jones was doing 4-7 pm. Champe Haggins was another pal of his. Champe did 10p-1a during that era.

  11. Garry Davis

    Mitchell Zatto is the author of the Zatmandu Universal Consolidated Rhythm And Soul Database, and it is awesome! There are over ten thousand titles of Soul, Modern Music, and Club music spanning six decades, complete with painstakingly authenticated issue dates. This research tool has all of the titles that Whitburn books excludes, complete with an alphabetical song title index, and listings by artist, label and issue date.

  12. Johnny D

    In 1967 Mitch Zatto insisted that Lee Garrett of WHAT add “Gimme Some Lovin'” by the Spencer Davis Group because the way Steve Winwood belted out the vocals reminded him of Ray Charles. Lee went with that suggestion, and it became the most requested song on WHAT at the time! WHAT was a top station with teens and young adults in the Philly metro area in those days, and they were riding the crest of the ratings, solidly beating WDAS-AM until Rocky G departed in 1969. They had Georgie Woods, The Mighty Burner, Billy Foxx and Blavat. Lee Garrett moved on to Los Angeles in 1968 to write songs with Stevie Wonder. “It’s A Shame” by the Spinners is one of Garrett’s best.

  13. Stevens aka Top Jock

    how bout finding some tapes of his show at power 95 in Kansas City? Kim (Mitch?) was really hot there until they softened the music and became that aweful “most music” station. it totally threw off his mojo. then he was stuck there at a job he hated and had two years to go on his contract. why did these stations hire great jocks and then put so many restrictions on them? let the mavericks run free!

  14. Mark St. John

    yep, worked with him. He was..an interesting guy. No idea what happened to him. I moved on to work 11 or 12 other stations after that…I lost count. Some of those guys..no longer with us.

  15. Trish

    isn’t Mitch living in Hawaii or Japan? I kinda remember hearing something to that effect. The story of Mitch Zatto, regardless of whatever name he used, is in the number of stations he turned down, not in the gigs he accepted. That guy had a way of landing softly on “all fours”, no matter how far he was tossed. He was an original, that’s for sure.

  16. kelly sims

    Awesome personality, gone but not forgotten. Mitch was in Japan for a short time as a consultant to an Soul-leaning FM station in Tokyo. That music was his bag, baby. He knew it inside and out.

  17. Sharon

    Correction, I believe that Mitch is still with us. The last I heard he gave up his career to be his mother’s care giver. He had very strong religious leanings and was very devoted to his mom. He may have gone to Maine after that, but I’m not sure. A good guy all the way!

  18. elisha

    Keep watching for some of Mitch’s archival airchecks that will be posted shortly!

    • That will be great! I haven’t heard 95SX since I left Charleston around when this aircheck was recorded.

  19. Trish

    There’s A WSSX tape of Mitch from Memorial Day weekenk 1992 posted on YouTube. The quality is pretty ggod

  20. kemo

    Any from Mitch at WMID Atlantic City as “Boss Baby”? He did an excellent job with the Bill Drake and Mike Joseph formats.

  21. Joel G.

    Mitch was a big admirer of Bob Badger’s programming specialties at WMID in the late 60-s. He dropped around a few times to meet Steve Cannon, the best afternoon driver they ever had (cir. 1965). The ‘MID jocks would hang out at the Wonder Bar in Atlantic City, Those were some great days!

  22. that Brill guy

    Mitch was known in some circles as “Sowl Pawpa Da Bee Bawpa”, a take-off of Soul Papa of WOOK in Washington. Champe Haggins was a jock there in ’66 prior to his arrival at ‘HAT in Philly. He used to hang out there hoping to catch a break. Mitch is still out there someplace. One thing is fer sherr: he’s not sitting in front some lame computer screen waiting to do his next break. Ho had a little Blavat in him.

  23. walsh

    he was friends with steve Lloyd and the crew at Delaware county community college way back in the beginning

  24. REDFERN

    worked with Dan Resh at WMID, 1967

  25. jill

    Wow! Just found a bunch of Mitch’s airchecks on Youtube from a lots of stations! Also check out Sound Cloud, ther’s even more!

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