Dave Mann - Former 62WHEN Morning Man
62 WHEN Radio - Syracuse, NY

"In His Own Words"

Yes, I'm still alive and living in the most corrupt little state in the union: Rhode Island, home of mobsters and lobsters. And I still do voiceovers: commercials and documentaries. I was at WHEN for 4 years; which, in radio, is a mini-lifetime. I was hired away from WFBL where I was doing mornings by Paul Adante, who was the then GM. I took Dean Harris' place doing Morning Drive; Dean left for greener pastures in Watertown (???). I wasn't there too long before we finally beat Ed Murphy from WSYR in the ratings and were #1 in mornings. One of the crazy things I did back then was to institute "The Order of the Early Eyeball Club," which would be ridiculously corny now, but worked well then. We often broadcast from outside the station, and members of the OEE would drive by and stop for coffee and donuts. Gordon Symonds worked as a sales guy for the station and helped coordinate the promotion. We literally had many hundreds of people stop by just to say "hello." My PD the entire time I was there was John Scott who was very consistent...he managed to consistently drive me and alot of other on-air people crazy. And my sign-off song every damned day for 4 years was Scotty's choice, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." Occasionally I would veer from his "script" and ideas; then I could literally hear him flying down the hallway toward the broadcast booth! All in all I enjoyed my years at WHEN and value my place in its history. When I left, Jack Morse and his rubber ducky took over, and I went to work for Senator John Hughes. I later had an ad agency in Syracuse from 1974 to 1983, MANN AND BUTLER. In 1983 I married BUTLER (Rona Butler), and we went off to Ohio where I once again went on air for a time doing mornings. The biggest thing in Lima, Ohio other than my station, was the weekly truck pulls where locals would vie to see who could pull their rig out of the mud quickest. Rona and I left shortly thereafter, and I continued to do mornings in Laconia, New Hampshire and then for a few years at WSRS-FM, Worcester-Boston. We settled in Rhode Island in 1986 where Rona works as a writer and performer, and I sit in my chair nightly, drinking my Chivas Regal and lying to the neighbors about my former radio career. Thanks for this fun opportunity. Would love to rekindle friendships with those who are willing to go along with the lies or whose memories have failed enough to remember I was the best in the city! Best to you all,