Bob Donze
His Story
These two photographs are republished with the kind permission of The Templar, the Temple University Yearbook. The pix come from the 1967 edition. Bob Donze was Station Manager of WRTI-FM from September, 1966 to May, 1967. He was also the famous (or infamous) co-host of SCIM (Some Call It Madness), Party Time and The Bob & Jerry Show. Some of the well-known and not so well-known area personalities appeared on "Party Time." These two photographs are a couple of good examples. The first one is Ed Hurst of the "950 Club." His air partner was Joe Grady. Ed, by the way, is still doing weekends at WPEN. He's also one of the top insurance salesmen in the area.
Click on the photos to see a larger version of the picture.
The second photo is that of Bob Donze and the WIBBAGE (WIBG) Good Guy, Hy Lit. Hy is still around playing oldies on WOGL-FM. Here's an e-mail from Bob Donze to Gerry Wilkinson........Hi! Keep up the great work on the WRTI Web Site. To answer some of your questions, you are correct, Debbie was my date in the photo (the ones uploaded by Jerry Klein), and is my wife of 27 years, and the mother of my three daughters, Nikki, Nina and Laura. Nikki is 25, a high school English Teacher, and will be married on April 4th. Nina is 23, a graduate student in education at Villanova, an accopmplished singer and actress and soon to be engaged. (Another wedding!) My baby is 19 year old Laura who studies fashion design at the Art Institute of Phila.) My company is Lamacraft Inc. We manufacture countertops. We have three plants and 65 employees. It grew out of my involvement in a previous family business. I stay involved in the radio industry through my association with Jerry Del Colliano, the publisher of Inside Radio. I help Jerry (in my "spare" time with his "Radio Only Management Conference" held each year in Scottsdale AZ. Unfortunately I have no web site or scanner capability at this time. Keep up the good work!
I (Gerry Wilkinson) received an e-mail from down Kentucky way. It came from the WRTI-FM host of "The Record Shelf," Professor Mike Biel. He corrected something I wrote above and then sent the following information. I have since revised the above copy and am reproducing Mike's e-mail here for all to read. It is very informative.
In your narrative in the Bob Donze 1967 photos section you have mistakely combined several different shows. (Jerry Klein has uploaded SCIM program synopses.)SCIM was an entirely different show from "The Bob and Jerry Show." And neither of these was the source of the pictures. "The Bob and Jerry Show" was done in the Fall 64 and Spring 65 year. It was the half-hour variety show with a band that was done from the lobby of Peabody Hall on Friday and aired on Sat 7-7:30. "Some Call It Madness" grew out of Bob's Friday afternoon DJ show in the fall of 65 because Jerry did not want to continue doing the variety show. One week early in the semester, Bob had Bill Stock and Barry Robert Molich do Shakespearian traffic reports from a weather balloon, and when I arrived from class to engineer the show the following Friday. I was shoved over to Studio A by Bob Cirillo where there was a whole studio set-up and a large cast including Phil Sabatelli. The following week someone else was doing the Friday afternoon DJ slot, and we were taping "Some Call It Madness" from studio A for Saturday night 7 to 8. That was the Fall of 65 and Spring 66. I have some photos that I'll try to find in a few weeks. In 66-67 Ron Wertheimer did a veriety show from Studio B, and I guess in the same year Bob was able to get Jerry to rejoin him with a variety show "Party Time With Bob and Jerry." This also was taped from Peabody Hall, and it is from this show that the two pictures with Hy Lit and Ed Hurst come from. The format had a middle section with an interview with an established DJ when the guys could talk one into coming to the girls dorm. The only one I still remember is Jerry Blavat. I'm glad you don't have a picture of that.
In an e-mail from Jerry Klein to Mike Biel, Jerry writes.........That (Ron Wertheimer's program) was called "The Radio Show." I was just looking at my bound collection of all the scripts this evening. I did engineering on that show. (I would have sworn it was later than 66-67. That was my freshman year; I just didn't remember that show being done during my freshman year. I guess I got really immersed very quickly.) At least one of "The Radio Show" episodes was also taped in Peabody Hall. In his e-mail, Jerry Klein writes to Mike about Biel's memory......
In an e-mail, Mike Biel replied.......Because most of what we old fogies do is usually not worth remembering! The only reason why I remember what I did this afternoon is because I attended the funeral of a friend, our Director of Sports at MSU who used to pitch for the New York Yankies, Steve Hamilton. A couple of years ago I bowled Steve over by giving him a dub of an audio tape of his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show back around 1969. I had recorded the show because the other guests were Georgie Jessel and Tiny Tim. In his e-mail, Jerry Klein writes to Mike......
From Gerry Wilkinson.....That was then. Let's see him do it now! (The call signs seem to change once a week)
In an e-mail, Mike Biel replied....That wasn't me--that was Kenn Venit! And actually you remembered a few names like Rich Mayk and Sandy Skalka that I would never have remembered. And I would have been up all night trying to remember Marlene Patrick's name. What I would have remembered is her always tracking us down to get us to fix our mistakes in the log!
From Gerry Wilkinson....obviously, Mike, you didn't see Jerry's original page where he didn't have her last name. I sent it to him, now if I could only remember where I put my shoes.
From Jerry Klein....It's great to revisit all these memories. Too bad we can't turn back the clock and actually re-live it all. Things were a lot simpler then!! (And if only I could do it all over knowing what I know now!!!!!) Talk to you soon.
From Gerry Wilkinson...You're right Jerry. It's a real shame that youth is wasted on the young.
In May of 1998, Bob Donze gave Gerry Wilkinson some of the old Donze scripts from different programs, including SCIM. Check out the scripts.
This is the WRTI Old Gang Web Site
