WTIC HARTFORD CT SALUTES BOB STEELE.
Comments & Air Checks courtesy of Rick Kelly of Northeast Air Checks
On
Friday, December 6, 2002 longtime WTIC morning man and Connecticut radio
legend Bob Steele died at the age of 91. For those of you not familiar with
Steele, he worked at one radio station – WTIC – for his entire radio
career. He started at WTIC in
1936 – and continued working there (very part time) until November of
2002. Incredibly, his radio
career spanned seven decades.
In addition, he did mornings six days a week… even when he was in
his late seventies!
Steele’s show was filled with elements that
might not have been unusual in the 1940 and ‘50s, but certainly
extraordinary for late 20th century radio. The show regularly featured
musical selections like Sousa marches, short classical pieces, and novelty
records. Other features
included Steele’s “Word of the Day”, poetry readings, and corny
jokes. Throughout the years
and WTIC’s migration from old style Middle of the road to a more adult
contemporary approach in the late 1970’s, and toward news/talk in the
90’s, Steele’s show remained the same.
The program
saluting Steele was broadcast the morning of December 7, hosted by WTIC’s
long standing sports announcer Arnold Dean; Dean himself started at WTIC
in 1965. Glen Colligan
co-hosted, Colligan was the producer of Steele’s once monthly Saturday
morning show. I managed to
air check many segments of the program, where many of Steele’s faithful
listeners phoned in their remembrances:
(Listener 1), (Listener 2),
(Listener
3).
Dean and
Colligan did several segments on personal remembrances.
Scott Gray did some outstanding
and touching pieces
(1),
(2)
on his professional and personal relationship with Steele.
One of my favorite segments of
Steele’s program was his announce of WTIC’s change of directional signal
pattern every morning, which he called the
“Antenna
Switch”.
WTIC’s news
department did segments on Steele all morning long
(1),
(2); (1)
features a brief air check of Steele’s last show in November of 2002.
Two
poetry readings were featured; you can hear
“Albert and the
Lion” and
“The Return of
Albert”.
Steele even did “bits” occasionally on the show: two are
featured here – one is Steele’s
“audition” to do
baseball play by play, and once weekly,
Steele read mail he
received from his listeners.
Arnold Dean tells one of Steele's
favorite
jokes.
Steele’s favorite records got played as well;
“Two Buffaloes” by
Rolf Harris and
“Angelina” by Louie
Prima both got airplay on WTIC’s salute to Steele.
The salute
ended with a Sousa March, and a great moment where WTIC actually
dropped their 50,000 watt signal for 20 seconds marking the passing of Bob
Steele. As Arnold Dean states at the
end of the broadcast... "Thanks, Bob."
[Webmaster's correction: This is actually
"The Second Connecticut Regiment March" by David W. Reeves, and most
likely performed by "The Second Company Governor's Footguard Band". Thanks
to a web viewer for the correction, with corroboration by Phil Steele!]
...Rick Kelly