Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of November 11, 2007
Weekly issue #453

Talent: JEFF KAYE
Station: WBEN Buffalo, N.Y.
Date: November 28, 1971
Time: 8:20

Jeff Kaye is a man of many talents. As a program director, he presided over one of the most memorable eras in Top 40 radio history - Buffalo's WKBW of the late '60s and early '70s. As a program host, Kaye is one of only four men to do the wake-up show at Buffalo heritage station WBEN. As a voice-over artist, he is an Emmy Award-winning voice of NFL Films.

The Baltimore-born Kaye started in radio with Armed Forces Radio in Morocco. Bitten by the radio bug, he later worked at WRIB in his wife's hometown of Rumford, R.I. He moved to Top 40-formatted WHIM Providence, R.I., and from there it was on to WBZ Boston when he first did overnights, then afternoon drive.

Kaye arrived at 'KB from WBZ in 1966 and was its program director until 1973. During that time, he assembled one of the greatest lineups ever heard on a Top 40 station. For a time in the early '70s, you could tune in 'KB and hear legendary jocks Dan Neaverth, Fred Klestine, Don Berns, Sandy Beach, Jack Armstrong and Bob McCrae - all on the same day.

Kaye was also the force behind the wonderful 1968 and 1971 adaptations of Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" that aired on 'KB. It was during his time at 'KB that he also began producing Buffalo Bills broadcasts, experience that would serve him well later in life.

Kaye arrived at WBEN in 1974. In 1977, he took over the WBEN morning show from Clint Buehlman, who himself had replaced Jack Paar in 1943 (Paar started doing the show when WBEN launched as the successor to WMAK in 1930). Kaye did morning drive at 'BEN for eight years, leaving in 1985 to be succeeded by Bill Lacy, who held the shift until 2001.

Kaye's voice is permanently immortalized in NFL Films, the Mount Laurel, N.J., company that since 1962 has produced commercials, feature films, documentaries and TV programs on the NFL. Kaye spent 10 years with NFL Films after leaving Buffalo radio in the mid-1980s. He retired after developing throat cancer in 1996, which left him with one vocal cord.

Kaye was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Enjoy Kaye on WBEN here.

(The Bill Dulmage Collection)

This aircheck is archived here.

Talent: JACK MINDY
Station: WBEN Buffalo, N.Y.
Date: November 28, 1971
Time: 7:13

The friendly, cheerful, voice of Jack Mindy has been on the radio on one station or another since the early '60s. The Ithaca College grad got his start at WGVA Geneva, N.Y., in 1962, and since then has worked in a variety of stations, markets and formats. His resume includes well-known stations like KMOX and KXOK St. Louis, WJR Detroit, WTIC Hartford, WHAM Rochester, N.Y., WHEN Syracuse, N.Y., and WYSL and WWKB Buffalo, N.Y. As of 2007, he was hosting afternoon drive at Rochester jazz outlet WGMC.

We remember Mindy from his days at WBEN. He did a very entertaining afternoon drive show at the Buffalo station from 1978 to 1987.

Enjoy Jack Mindy on WBEN here.

(The Bill Dulmage Collection)

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