Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
February 5, 2012
Weekly issue #667
Talent:
TOM DONAHUE & JOHN OTTO
Station: WGR Buffalo, N.Y.
Date: March 12, 1979
Time: 10:59
One played music, the other took phone calls.
Both provided great entertainment.
For several years from the mid-'70s to the early '80s, Tom Donahue and John Otto were back-to-back on WGR. Donahue, one of Buffalo's most knowledgeable music show hosts, spun the station's terrific AC-oldies mix from 10:00-11:30 p.m. Then Otto - the dean of Buffalo talk - worked the phones from 11:30 p.m.-2 a.m.
Donahue got his radio start as a teen deejay at WYSL in 1966. He went on to a long career in Buffalo radio that has included stops at WKBW-WWKB, WHTT (Oldies 104), WNUC and WLKK. Donahue is remembered for the long-running Original Saturday Night All-Request Oldies Show on 'KB and Oldies 104. He had the honour of being the last live music host before WWKB switched to satellite oldies in June, 1988. Under his real name of Tom McCray, he joined the faculty of Buffalo State College in 1980 where he has served as an associate professor of communication.
Otto started in radio in the 1940s at WBNY while still a teenager. The bulk of his five-decade career in radio was spent at WGR, where he hosted the popular "Extension 55" talk show. Otto started at WGR in 1955, left in 1983 to do "Night Call" at WKBW, then returned to 'GR in 1988 where he was on the air until three days before his death of emphysema on December 6, 1999. Otto, Buffalo's "beacon in the night time", was 70. Upon hearing of Otto's passing, WBEN talk show host Sandy Beach reflected, "We have lost our teacher."
Enjoy Tom Donahue and John Otto on 'GR 55 here.
(The Bill Dulmage Collection)
More 1979 airchecks here!
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