Rock Radio Scrapbook


AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of November 9, 2014
Edition #808

Talent: MAD DADDY
Station: WHK Cleveland
Date: November 11, 1958
Time: 58:28 (unscoped)

He was one of rock 'n' roll radio's zaniest characters, a man whose time came and went far too quickly.

San Francisco-born Pete Myers introduced the wild antics of Mad Daddy to WHKK in Akron, Ohio in 1957. He had travelled cross-country from KCBQ San Diego where he was struggling to find work as an actor. He moved his rhyming, fast-paced patter to WJW Cleveland in 1958 then zipped over to cross-town rival WHK later that year for twice the money. Myers moved to New York in 1959 but his manic antics and spooky laugh did not play well at WNEW. He lasted exactly one shift at staid old 'NEW as Mad Daddy but continued there as "lovable, laughable Pete Myers." He revived his Mad Daddy persona in WINS from 1963 until the station went to an all-news format in 1965.

Myers, an excellent middle-of-the-road announcer in his own right, returned to that style at WNEW-AM from 1965 to 1968. He shot himself to death on October 4, 1968. The New York Times reported that a note was found near his body saying Myers was despondent about his shift moving from afternoons to evenings.


Hear Mad Daddy on WINS here.

Lots more on Mad Daddy here.

(The Sam Ward Collection)

More 1958 airchecks here!

 




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