Talent: DON BERNS
Station: WDRC Hartford
Date: August 26, 1967
Time: 31:37 (unscoped)
        10:21 (scoped)

One of the all-time great personality jocks, Don Berns made his mark on both sides of the border.

The son of a West Hartford dentist, Berns got his start in radio at WICE Providence, Rhode Island, in 1967. Later that year, he jocked in his hometown at WDRC-FM, which had just started original programming separate from WDRC-AM for certain hours of the day.

Many Canadians might have heard Berns for the first time at WKBW, where he arrived in 1970 after a stop at WTRY Albany, New York. Berns left 'KB in 1975 for s short stay at cross-town rival WYSL/WPHD then it was on to KLIF Dallas (1975), KFMB-FM San Diego (1976), WHB Kansas City (1977) and WTAE Pittsburgh (1979).

In 1985, Berns came to Canada at CFNY Toronto, where he was program director for a time. He was also at CKEY Toronto (1989) and later at CING-FM (Energy 108) Burlington, Ontario, CIDC (Power 88.5) Newmarket, Ontario, and Toronto stations CHIN-FM and CILQ (Q 107). Berns had quite a following as "Dr. Trance" on his alternative dance show on Energy 108 beginning in 1992. He took his character and show to the Internet (Virtually Canadian) in the late '90s, becoming one of the first major radio personalities to embrace the new medium.

An accomplished actor and voice-over specialist, Berns has some interesting comments about radio in a 1983 interview with Bob Paiva for his book, The Program Directors Handbook.

Berns died March 1, 2015. He was 67.

Enjoy Don Berns on WDRC here. 

 Enjoy Don Berns on WDRC here. 
 

(The Joe Fazio Collection)
 

More 1967 airchecks here!