Monday, August 19, 2019

Hancock

It made me sad, a reminder that we're not getting any younger.

John Hancock, who does 3 to 6 PM on that blowtorch, WBT radio in Charlotte announced his retirement last week.  His last show is in October, but John said he will remain with the station, participating in public service efforts, doing commercials,  and maybe a little bit of commentary.

You might remember the name.  John spent a couple of years at WARM in the mid 80's.  He was best known for hanging from a platform, suspended by a crane, for 59 hours, to raise money for Easter Seals.  John performed his stunt in the parking lot of what was then Howard Johnson's in Pittston Township.  That's a much younger me on the left, John on the right.  The interview was done after John descended on a Sunday afternoon.

John came to us after serving as program director for an FM rocker in Boulder, Colorado.  I remember thinking, here was a guy who knew nothing about AM full service radio and he was going to bomb.

I was wrong.

John restored some stability to an absolute mess of a radio station.  He kept us hopping with live remotes from Kirby Park festivals, the Great American Race, the Comerford Theater (eventually the Kirby Center) etc.  It was a fun time, and I felt like I got kicked in the gut when John announced his resignation from WARM.  He took a job in Jacksonville, FL.

As you know by now, WARM was bungled into irrelevance.  I've been out of there since 1991, but it was my first "real" job and the Mighty 590 will always be special to me.  Great times.  Awful times.  Everything in between.

Thanks to the internet, I catch parts of John's show most days.  It's always a kick when he tells a WARM story and I get a mention.  Some photos of John's home office recently turned up on-line.  It was nice to see some things from his WARM years on one of the walls.  Yes, we've kept in touch over the years.  I value the friendship.

John is stepping away to battle some health problems and get some rest  29 years at WBT and he's in the station's hall of fame.

I'm lucky we crossed paths a long time ago.