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Ruth Meyer was already a legendary figure in New York radio when we first met her at WHN. Born in Kansas City, when her dream of writing for a newspaper didn't pan out, Ruth turned to radio, getting a job as a copywriter at KCKN. Even back then, her enthusiasm for radio was evident and she quickly ended up at WHB working for legendary Top 40 innovator, Todd Storz. Ruth was a quick study, learning Storz Top 40 lessons, and in 1958 she moved to NYC and WMGM. Unfortunately, the management at WMGM wasn't able to grasp the way Top 40 worked, and after just three months, a frustrated Ruth quit. It wasn't long before Ruth was hired at WMCA, and as they say, the rest is history! Early in my time at WHN, Ruth was hired as the Program Director. Legendary WMCA Good Guy Jack Spector was already at the station (see my blog WMCA Good Guys http://fd3qa.blogspot.com/2010/09/wmca-good-guys.html), and knowing Jack, he probably had something to do with Ruth's hiring. Ruth came into the halls of 400 Park Avenue like a tornado blowing through the Kansas plains! She realized that radio was supposed to be fun, and she wanted that for everyone who worked for her! She tried to enthuse many of the WHN veterans to see radio her way, but frankly, some of the older folks were very set in their ways and resisted her overture as just another management tactic to hoodwink them into something. She was much more successful with those of us who were new to the business and still in awe of working in radio. Fellow C.W. Post College and radio station WCWP alumni, Joe Honnerkamp, remembered Ruth this way during his stay with the WHN Engineering Department. "Ruth was the best PD I ever worked for. She would light up any room in that dreary place. She even tried to include our rag-tag engineering dept. in the team effort at the time. Her memos to the airstaff always started "To: All Airmen...From Ruth Meyer" The former Good Guy members were a bonus....even Joe O'Brien. She would always suggest a better way of doing things. Never any threats of "my way or the highway nonsense" so common with other radio management." As Joe mentioned, along with Ruth came not only the style she'd developed at WMCA, but most of the Good Guy air staff as well! Jack was soon joined on the air by Dan Daniels, Joe O'Brien, Dean Anthony, Ed Baer and even newsman Steve Powers. It was great to watch them all interact and almost seamlessly pick up where they left off. Ruth and WHN were also making a huge change at this point too - - changing the format and bringing country music to New York City! That was a real change for all of us who worked at WHN. When Jack Spector played the first country song in late February, 1973, the world seemed to slip off its axis just a little bit! WHN had a new General Manager, Chuck Renwick, who was a Storer Broadcasting veteran, and had a lot of history with country music. He also was someone who came from the Programming side, and that was a real change for many of us. He was about the only one on the floor who really knew anything about country music - - but we were all about to learn! One of the first things we learned was that country records were a lot shorter than the MOR cuts we'd been playing. In fact, they seemed more akin to the 50s and early 60s top 40 hits in length. We were constantly being caught as a record would end around the 2 minute mark and we'd be grabbing the next element or getting the DJ off the phone! It was also hard in the beginning to be playing music that we had absolutely zero familiarity with. We'd never heard of any of the current songs, the vast majority of the oldies or most of the artists we were playing. It must be like working at a foreign language station when you don't speak that language! Be that as it may, Ruth immediately opened her bag of tricks, and we were doing all we could as a station to become a part of our listeners' lives. There were dinner and concert venues in Manhattan that contest winners were invited to (with the concert starring a young Barbara Mandrell), a huge concert out on the campus of C.W. Post College that featured not only country acts (like Johnny Cash), but the WHN DJs in a very a "Good Guy Style" presentation, and a huge WHN Country Picnic that first summer. The picnic was held on the Queens campus of St. John's which was the "Super Secret Location" that was only revealed to contest winners. This was a huge affair staring Bill Anderson as well as several other country groups, and featuring the WHN DJs front and center! There were all kinds of food and events beside the concert, and in typical Ruth style, the DJs were at the heart of it all. Ruth's philosophy was simple...become a part of the listeners life and touch them in a way that made them a real part of the station's success. Getting the listener to do something for this involvement was a major part of the equation. She told me once about a contest she'd done early on at WMCA, where the listeners had to send in a postcard. She said that the station got listener response and thousands of postcards, which was capitalized on by the sales department, as they sold clients on how involved their listeners were with what was happening on the air! She was a great lady, and as Joe said, she tried to involve the staff in every way she could. Those of us who were not resistive of her efforts were rewarded by being a part of all the events that happened, which was great for our moral and only made us want to do more for the station. It was a lesson that I think alot of folks in radio station management I've worked with since could really learn, as so many of them seem to not have the same sense that including your staff only makes them work harder. For me, inclusive is always better than exclusive, but then I learned that lesson a long time ago from a true motivational genius. One thing that most who worked at WHN in those days will remember about Ruth, was that she was never separated from her can of Tab. If she was in the station, she probably had a can of Tab within reach. What many may not know, is that most days after lunch, there was about a 50-50 chance that the can was filled with Tab, or with white wine! This was a lesson that Chuck Renwick learned late one day when they were sitting next to each other in a meeting, and he started to choke and grabbed her can of Tab. He got a huge surprise when instead of a slug of Tab, got a slug of wine! Ruth and Chuck had a great working relationship, and the station was a real fun place to work when the two of them were at the helm. I remember a Christmas party that was a hell of a lot of fun and a real change from what we'd had the year before. The first year I worked at WHN, we had an incredible Christmas party at a fancy East Side restaurant, The Sign of the Dove. We all got a bonus from the company, and a Seiko watch as a gift! There was a rather dramatic change the next year when the party was in the General Manager's office, the food was Oscar Meyer liverwurst on a Ritz cracker, and the gift was sticking your hand in a grab bag (I got a $3 bottle of lady's perfume). Although money was still tight at 400 Park Avenue the next year, they managed to get a trade deal with an Italian restaurant on the upper west side, and once again have a real party. I remember that the day of the party was cold and snowy, and that getting to the location off Central Park West was a real pain that evening. It seemed like everyone was of the same mind that night; a nice drink now that we were in from the cold would be just the ticket. Unfortunately, the bartender had a heavy hand, and with that first drink, the majority of the staff was blotto! I remember having a conversation with Chuck Renwick that made no sense, and little else of the night. The one memory I do clearly have was of leaving the restaurant in a group that included our Production Director Allan Kaltor. Allan got outside the restaurant, raised his hand to hail a cab, and just kept going face first into a snow bank. Yes, it was just that kind of party! Ruth was gone from WHN before I moved on to WABC, and we kept in touch and would go out for lunch every couple of months. I learned quickly that it was best to not make plans for the rest of the day, if you could help it. We'd meet at her eastside apartment around noon, go to one of her favorite restaurants (usually French), and start lunch and the first bottle of white wine. We'd talk, she'd tell wonderful stories, and before we knew it, we'd be the only ones in the restaurant. It would be 3 PM and we'd have consumed not only that first bottle, but two more bottles of wine! Lunches with Ruth were incredible, but they were not something that you could fit into a busy day! A number of years later I worked with Guy Ludwig at WABC who had also worked with Ruth in a past job. One day (this is when Ruth was working at the ABC Radio Networks), we got the bright idea to schedule a lunch with Ruth. I remember we went to the Russian Tea Room for the lunch, but little else about that day. That's just the way lunches with Ruth Meyer went! She was a great lady and I was very sad to hear that she had died this past January, but very thankful for the lessons I learned, and the experiences she shared with me. She is but just one of the radio folks I have been lucky enough to work with along the way who shaped my knowledge and my perception of how radio is supposed to work. |
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| Bruce Bradley, Del Demontreux, Stan Martin, Johnny Cash and Dan Daniels at WHN concert at C.W. Post |
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