Here’s our Buzzard float in the 1986 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Cleveland.
Other radio stations protested that there was “nothing Irish” about our Buzzard van, which appeared in previous year’s parades.
The parade organizers responded with a new rule – that all participants in the 1986 parade had to carry the theme of “Irish education.”
So David Helton designed a scholarly Irish Buzzard holding a shamrock in one wing and a diploma in the other for “The Rock & Roll History of Cleveland.”
As we explained to the organizers WMMS listeners were provided a continual educational experience into the history of rock & roll in Cleveland, which included Irish artists like U2 and Van Morrison.
Here’s another recently discovered WMMS album chart – this one from November 7, 1979.
The Long Run was the last studio Eagles album the band recorded until Long Road Out of Eden 28 years later.
Led Zeppelin’sIn Through the Outdoor was that band’s studio finale, unless you count their cobbled-together outtakes album, Coda, which was released three-years later.
Neil Young was enjoying a major resurgence and recognition for Rust Never Sleeps, an album whose title was provided by two member of the band Devo. They had originally created the slogan for Rust-oleum while working at an Akron ad agency.
Bob Dylan surprised his fans when he converted to Christianity and released an album of original secular songs.
Pat Benatar’s first solo album, In the Heat of the Night, had a prime Cleveland connection with Parma, Ohio native Neil Geraldo’s professional and personal relationship with the artist.
That particular week we began playing a song called “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, which ended up a Cleveland-only hit – until MTV revived it two years later as their opening and signature tune.
L to R: Matt the Cat, Betty Korvan, Joel Frensdorf (WMMS sales), John Gorman, Debbie Ullman, Jeff Kinzbach, Denny Sanders, Kid Leo, Bob Zurich (RCA Records)
In 1974, when our WMMS promotion budget consisted only of our wit and ingenuity, we searched for every opportunity to make our proposed Buzzard logo visible (it had not been officially sanctioned by Malrite corporate at that time).
Our best shot at visibility came from a deal we cut with Shelly Tirk, owner of the Music Grotto record store on Euclid Avenue, across the street from Cleveland State University. He allowed us to add a huge Buzzard on the side of his building. The record labels took turns in leasing the MusicGrotto’s west-facing side wall to paint building-size reproductions of current album covers. Because WMMS was the only station regularly programming their product – and since we had no promotion budget to speak of, I proposed that the labels pay for the Buzzard art as well.
The deal provided our Buzzard, perched on a mushroom, a permanent roosting place, and gave WMMS its first billboard – a prominent one.
Years later, we continued our search for buildings we could paint our Buzzard logo on. For a few years, we had the back of a building Triskett, which faced the then-newly completed I-90.
When Cleveland State University expansion caused the urban removal of Music Grotto, we located a new site for a downtown/Cleveland State wall – on the side of a three-story building next to the Holiday Inn on Euclid and East 21st.
L to R: Matt the Cat, Jeff Kinzbach, Denny Sanders, Murray Saul, John Gorman, Roger McGuinn, Annette Salvatore (programming asst.), Charlie Kendall
I was a fan Roger McGuinn’s music and managed to see every incarnation of the Byrds (except for the original five – with Gene Clark) from the mid-sixties through the early seventies. One of the advantages of working at a rock and roll station was getting to meet most of the artists that helped shape our musical tastes. The final incarnation of the Byrds had broken up prior to my joining WMMS – but Roger McGuinn, now performing as a solo artist, was a frequent visitor to the station. This photo in the parking lot of our 50th & Euclid building, was taken during a station visit and guest on-air performance from sometime in mid-1975.
While there, I asked him if he ever considered collaborating with Bob Dylan, whose music the Byrds often covered through the years. He replied something about “Dylan being Dylan” and that he’d been in the business long enough to know that anything was possible. A few months later, Roger McGuinn did reunite with Bob Dylan – as part of an all-star touring cast, which included a diverse collection of musicians from guitarist Mick Ronson to folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliot for his 1975-1976Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
On one instance, we co-sponsored – with Playboy – a special “Girls of Cleveland” photo spread in their August, 1978 issue – using WMMSas the mail and drop-off point for interested participants. Tough as it was, we agreed to assist in judging. And we had thousands of entries from interested women from Greater Cleveland submitting sample photos.
When Playboyapproached us on the promotion, we asked for a 24 hour window to confirm our co-sponsorship. The following morning Jeff Kinzbach and Ed “Flash” Ferenc opened the phone lines and asked our listeners – particularly women – if they would be offended by WMMS participation in the “Girls of Cleveland” promotion. The vast majority of callers – over 90 percent – found no problem with it.
When the seven finalists were selected for the “Girls of Cleveland” spread – Jeff Kinzbach drew the lucky straw and accompanied them to dinner.
One of the winners was Nina Blackwood (second from right in photo). She parlayed her Buzzard brush with fame by moving to Los Angeles to study acting at the Lee Stasberg Institute. That led to a few bit parts in TV and film – and being chosen as one of the original MTVVJs the same year.
Playboyalso picked one of our Buzzard jerseys as T-shirt of the month in their June, 1980 issue.
Backstage at the Agora following John Mellencamp's Coffee Break Concert. L to R: Matt the Cat, John Gorman, Jim Marchyshyn, Kid Leo, John Mellencamp, Dia Stein
Never give up.
It started with a dinner, months earlier, either sometime 1983 or early 1984 at a restaurant in the Marriott Airport hotel on W 130th, where John Mellencamp was staying. It could have coincided with a tour date or a promotional appearance.
John Mellencamp, a few of us from the station (Can’t remember who was there. My guess is Kid Leo and Jim Marchyshyn for starters), a label rep and either his manager or road manager, were discussing artists with songs that sound equally good when performed acoustic or electric. That conversation led to a discussion about the history of our Coffee Break Concerts – and how they started as acoustic studio affairs and evolved into a weekly afternoon live performance. Somewhere in that conversation a pitch was made to John and his band to do a Coffee Break Concert show and broadcast.
It was a long shot. John had been performing for a decade. He started out playing clubs in Indiana over a decade earlier and was now able to sell out major venues, including the Richfield Coliseum.
We played John’s first album, Chestnut Street Incident in 1976, which was released under the name “Johnny Cougar” – against his better judgement by his mangaer, Tony DeFries, who was best known as David Bowie’s manager during his Ziggy Stardust period. Though we gave it a fair shot, it didn’t catch on with our listeners. It was also around that time that music director Shelley Stile went to Bloomfield, Ind. to see John in concert. We also played his second album, The Kid Inside, in 1977, but that album failed to ignite as well.
In early 1978, his third album (as “Johnny Cougar”), A Biography was not released in the U.S. Someone sent us an import copy, and we played the track “I Need A Lover” a few times – but it was up against some stiff domestic-release competition that year – and our listeners were anticipating the long-awaited, long-delayed (due to legal issues) release of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Runfollow-up album, Darkness at the Edge of Town.
1978 was also our tenth anniversary, which was packed with concerts and special events – and it was also a year filled with superstar album releases – and break-out artists like Meatloaf, Eddie Money, The Cars, Dire Straits, Van Halen, and Bob Welch as a solo artist.
But in 1979, MCA records released the self-titled John Cougar album, which included the “I Need A Lover” track from the import. We started playing it again and this time it took off becoming one of our most-requested tracks – though it was the only track on the album to catch on.
The following year, John released It Doesn’t Matter and What if it Did – and the tracks “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” and “This Time” became top-requested tracks.
In 1982, when American Fool was released, Cougar went straight to number one on the strength of two tracks – “Hurt So Good” and “Jack and Diane.” It also helped that their radio airplay was augmented by their music videos picking up heavy spins on a new cable channel called MTV. A few weeks after hitting number one in Cleveland sales – it did the same nationally.
In late 1983, when Uh-Huh was released, John went from being an established artist to superstar. That was also the year he added his real surname, Mellencamp.
It took a few months of heavy lobbying – but John finally agreed to do a Coffee Break Concert – but instead of doing it will a full band – he asked to do it as an acoustic performance – a throwback to the original version of the show. We agreed to a one-time only broadcast, which was stipulated in the contract – nor were we to play any excerpted songs from the performance, which we often did with our other live broadcasts.
The opportunity of having John Cougar Mellencamp do a special Coffee Break Concert was a major coup for us. He was now one of the biggest names in rock and roll. For crowd control purposes, we gave away tickets for his Coffee Break Concert in advance of the show.
John took the stage at the Agora at 1 PM on Wednesday, August 25th and performed a 20-song acoustic set, which included a number of cover tunes, including the Beach Boys’ “Little Honda,” Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz,” John Prine’s “Sam Stone,” the Vogues’ “Five O’Clock World,” the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” and Elliot Murphy’s “Last of the Rock Stars.”
The show was one of our finest and proudest moments.
The concert broadcast has turned up on occasion at various Bit Torrent and bootleg trading sites. There are also a couple of bootleg CDs of the show. One can only hope that this concert sees a legitimate release in the near future.
Photo courtesy of Jim Marchyshyn. A few interesting notes about this photo. When it was first shown, the question was whose clothes were worse? My shirt or Leo’s pants. Related to that, a few months earlier I had kicked up my 3-½ packs a day cigarette habit – and gained a ton of weight. Today, John Mellencamp’s 14-year-old son has a Facebook group campaign to help his father kick the habit. He says, “I made a deal with my dad that if I get 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking.” If you’re a Facebook user – find his page, sign up, and help John Mellencamp ditch the smokes.
No video was made of John Mellencamp’s Coffee Break Concert but here’s one featuring John with Johnny Cash from the Concert Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in September, 1995.
For more on the Coffee Break Concerts turn to Chapter 16 in The Buzzard
Here are a couple of David Helton ads promoting our stereo simulcasts.
Back in the seventies and much of the eighties, television audio was delivered in monaural sound.
We knew technology would eventually change that – but until then we took full advantage of providing the stereo soundtrack to musically-oriented television shows.
We did a number of network – and even early cable and pay-TV (remember Preview?) – stereo simulcasts. It was a boon for us since television, which had a much larger audience than radio, would run a crawl on the screen inviting viewers turn to WMMS’s 100.7 frequency to hear the audio in stereo.
Locally, we also did a series of Live at the Agora concerts with WJW-TV, featuring artists from WMMS Nights Out at the club.
Note the hemostat, joints, and talon styled sneakers in the first ad and the two slightly hidden joints in the second.
Here’s Todd Rundgren from a Live at the Agora TV show.
L to R; Jules Belkin (Belkin Productions) Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Bob Welch.
Here are more photos from the Bond Court Fleetwood Mac press conference from David Helton. These photos show a panorama view of the press conference, including the ring of penguins David created for it.
The press conference was the result of a last-minute cancellation of Fleetwood Mac’s WMMS World Series of Rock concert at Cleveland Stadium the following day, August 4, 1978. Lindsey Buckingham hadn’t sufficiently recovered from a spinal tap. He’d been hospitalized following a collapse on July 30, but was able to play a concert later that night in Philadelphia. At the press conference it was announced that the show was being rescheduled for August 26.
Since all radio and TV stations were invited to cover the press conference, we were not allowed to display any WMMS Buzzards, even though we were co-sponsors of the World Series of Rock. It was understandable – but we asked anyway.
Actually, we didn’t mind since those penguins looked suspiciously like Buzzard cousins.
David Helton remembers:
It was when the band had to postpone the show because of Lindsey’s illness. They decided to have a major press conference in Cleveland to explain the problem. After all, it was a big stadium show and they knew how passionate Cleveland fans were about music and about Fleetwood Mac. They wanted a sincere effort to explain that they would be back when Lindsey had recovered.
I was asked by the show’s promoter, Belkin Productions, to paint and construct some penguins to personalize the band’s dressing room for the show – but when it was postponed, Belkin decided to use the penguins in the press conference.
I remember the guys from our rival station were going to the press conference as well, so when they walked in and saw those penguins that look strangely like our own WMMS Buzzard, they flipped out! There were all these penguins in front of the band during the conference and it was glorious! It made me very proud.
Later in the summer, when the band returned for the show, my penguins were used to decorate Fleetwood Mac’s dressing rooms.
I used acrylic paint on a somewhat stiff board called foamcore. Each one was hand-painted and cut out individually. It looks like they were about 3 to 4 feet tall. I think I may have done about 8 to 10 of them. They took 2 or 3 with them when they left. I don’t know what happened to the rest.
I received one of them back, all signed with gratitude from the band. It’s one of my prized possessions and I’ll never forget the experience.
Here are a couple of bonus Fleetwood Mac items I came across over the weekend.
The first is what we used to call a “hype sheet;” a one-pager, selling our attributes of advertising on WMMS to prospective clients.
With Fleetwood Mac-mania in full throttle at the time of this piece, we took the Rumours penguins and transformed them into Buzzards.
The second is an additional shot from the Fleetwood Mac press conference at the Bond Court Hotel (see story below), taken by Bob Farrell, who should’ve been Fleetwood Mac’s official photographer.
It was September 1973. We had just added the Buckingham-Nicks album and the track “Long Distance Winner”was picking up a few curiosity calls and requests. At that time we did not have a relationship with the Agora, so we called Rodger Bohn at the Smiling Dog Saloon, where we sponsored “nights out” at and mentioned the act as a possible WMMS-sponsored show. Rodger put in a few calls to see if they were touring. They were – but their label Polygram, wasn’t really supporting the act because the album was getting only spotty airplay in a couple of cities. Logistics for a “night out” didn’t work out. We played a couple of other tracks from the album (“Crying in the Night” and “Don’t Let Me Down Again”) before it faded into that limbo land of forgotten albums.
That same month Fleetwood Mac released the albumHeroes are Hard to Find, whose title cut ended up being one of the most played and requested tunes on WMMS. Fleetwood
Fleetwood Mac's mirrors designed and hand-painted by David Helton
Mac formed as British blues-based group that eventually evolved into the mainstream, but suffered from a steady stream of personnel and musical style changes. Though it got extensive play, the track was largely a turntable hit and never translated into sales.
John Gorman, Mick Fleetwood, Rhonda Kiefer at WMMS
Fast forward to July 1975. The Fleetwood Mac album is released – and we noted that Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, whom we remembered from that Buckingham-Nicks album, were now band members.
Fan banner at the Coliseum
The band went on tour in support of the album and played Kent State on a Sunday night. As was customary at the station, our airstaff took turns on m.c’ing WMMS-sponsored concerts – and Kid Leo did Fleetwood Mac. Though I planned to go I had to bow out because of an early Monday morning department head meeting. Later that day, Leo told me Fleetwood Mac live
Mick Fleetwood just returned from a vacation in Bora Bora and flew to Cleveland to surprise Christine McVie and Bob Welch. Christine was touring with Bob Welch as a surprise guest singer on "Sentimental Lady."
were nothing like the softer version on the album – and that the Buckingham-Nicks material rocked, citing a balls-out version of “Rhiannon”and a reworked “I’m So Afraid”that showed Lindsay as a guitarist to be reckoned with.
Around the same time, The King Biscuit Flower Hour, a syndicated concert show we carried on Sunday nights featured a live Fleetwood Mac performance – and like Leo said – it rocked. We swapped the softer studio versions for the live rock versions – and within days the live “Rhiannon” became our most-requested song on nights and weekends – and the other live Macs from that
All that Jazz: Bruce Ravid (Capitol), Len "Boom" Goldberg, Steve Lushbaugh, Dan Garfinkel, Bob Welch, Denny Sanders, John Gorman, David Helton, Barry Haughin (Capitol), Matt the Cat
concert were also in our requested top 15.
Mick checking out the artwork in my office
That set the stage for Rumours.Shelley Stile was music director and pulled off a daylong exclusive of the album in February 1977. The immediate reaction gave little clue of how huge the album would be. But we new it was something unique and special – product that would draw more audience from AM to FM, and from other stations to WMMS. We cemented our relationship with the band, getting to know everyone in it and connected to it. What gave us a solid edge with the band was our airplay of their pet side projects, which
Dan Garfinkel, Jeff Kinzbach, Denny Sanders, Bruce Ravid (Capitol), Mick Fleetwood, Bob Welch
were all gems – but usually neglected in other markets.
Walter Egan, formerly of the cult surf band the Malibooz, had one hit song nationally, “Magnet and Steel,”a duet with Stevie Nicks, off the Not Shy album coproduced by Buckingham and Nicks, who also played on it; in Cleveland he was a superstar, with a half-dozen tracks receiving airplay. Buckingham and Nicks also played on John Stewart’sBombs Away, Dream Babies, with the song “Gold,”which was a major hit in Cleveland months before it broke nationally. Rob Grill, the former lead singer of the Grassroots,
Another day, another penguin: John McVie, Cleveland Metropark Zoo official, John Gorman, Rhonda Kiefer
was a fishing buddy of John McVie, who produced his one solo album, Uprooted– with guest appearances by Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. Most successful of all was Bob Welch, a former Fleetwood Mac guitarist, who scored three hit singles off his 1977 album, French Kiss. Cleveland was also one of the few markets that supported Welch’s earlier project, Paris, which had a popular track,“Big Town 2061,”in 1975.
At the zoo: Jeff Kinzbach, Matt the Cat, Steve Lushbaugh, David Helton, Debbie O'Donnell, Dan Garfinkel, Betty Korvan, Denny Sanders, John Gorman, Dave Lucas (Warner Bros.), John McVie, Christine McVie. Front: Unknown , Rhonda Kiefer
By the time Fleetwood Mac played the Coliseum in September 1977, the band supposedly sold a million copies of Rumours from the Cleveland distribution branch alone. We launched what we called our “WMMS Fleetwood Mac Attack,” and took full ownership of what had become the biggest act in the world. We landed exclusive interviews, and we had them cut station IDs. The day after Stevie Nicks flubbed on stage and accidentally thanked Cincinnati instead of Cleveland, she cut a humorous ID, which said, “When I’m not in Cincinnati, I’m in Cleveland, and listening to WMMS.”
John & Christine at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo with the donated penguin
We also landed an exclusive with advance tracks from the Tuskalbum, early fall 1979. That one came on cassette, from a New York record executive, whose identity I promised I would never reveal – and never will. I had to buy a seat for it on a commercial
Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks at the Bond Court Hotel press conference
flight. When it arrived at Hopkins, I drove it to the station where it was transferred for broadcast and Denny Sanders immediately put it on the air. We played one cut every half-hour, inserting “WMMS exclusive” in case a rival station tried to tape it. Warner Bros. was furious because Fleetwood Mac was the label’s most important act, and they worried about Tusk being a somewhat experimental double-album, which sounded nothing like its predecessor.
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood at Bond Court Hotel press conference
Fleetwood Mac and WMMS donated penguins (the Fleetwood Mac mascot) to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. We
At WMMS: Denny Sanders, Marty Schwartz (Elektra), Lindsay Buckingham, John Gorman, Matt the Cat, Murray Saul. On table: Kid Leo
outfitted the band with WMMS merchandise and paraphernalia. For months to come, it wasn’t usual to see a band member or associate of Fleetwood Mac sporting a WMMS item on national TV.
When a WMMS World Series of Rock concert at Cleveland Stadium was postponed due to a spinal problem suffered by Lindsay Buckingham, the other members of the band, plus Bob Welch, flew to Cleveland to do a press conference at the Bond Court Hotel, we strung up lines and carried it live.
A few weeks later, backstage at the rescheduled WMMS World Series of Rock concert, we presented the band with personalized, hand-painted mirrors individually created by David Helton. By that time they were consuming massive quantities of cocaine. Christine McVie, who got the first one, commented, “I’m afraid we’ll scrape the mirror down to the paint.”
Photos byBob Ferrellexcept mirror photo by David Helton
Click images multiple times to enlarge size and click on song titles to hear the music.
The Buzzard Blog celebrated its second year. For those new to the blog, you can use the search engine or reference the archives for hours of audio (including original airchecks and music) and video and hundreds of photos and documents covering WMMS from 1973 to 1986.
The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio — A Memoir 
