John
Dalton (John Scott)
Growing up in Tampa Bay was really great.
I grew up listening to some of the best radio personalities in
the business. People like Jim Stanley, Mark Wheeler, Claire
Linn, Daylon Rushing . And later actually working
with some of them at Tampa Bay radio stations, like Rick Morgan,
(aka Rick Shaw, Swinging Sweeney), Tedd Webb, Jerry Peterson.
In 1968 when I was 17, Columbia
School of Broadcasing came to Tampa. Up till that time
I was not sure how to get into radio. Well I enrolled with CSB but
soon found myself hanging out at area radio stations. Like WCWR in
Dunedin where I met some great guys like Tedd Webb, Scott
Owens and Frank Scott.
The late Bob Stone was the first
to put me on the air at WALT. I finally landed my first
full time gig at WHBO in July of 1969. Wayne K (Kyser )
was the PD. In 1970 Ed Ripley hired me to do overnights
at WDAE ,which was unbelievable to me knowing all the
great personalities that had been at AM1250.
So I was on my way to doing what I had only
dreamed of doing. The 70's found me changing my air name to John
Scott at WQYK working for station owner Marshall
Rowland. When WSUN went country in 1974 I did evenings
and was told I was now going to be Ron Jordan, but no
one was fooled. I went back to WQYK later. Other
stations in the 70's were WPAS, WILZ, WYOU, WFLA . It
was about here that I took a hobby and turn it into a side career.
Like my friend Tedd Webb, my love for photography helped
to pay the bills too. I still do some photography work
these days. I did what was necessary to stay on the air so I
had to leave Tampa Bay a couple times. Stops along the way included WKLS
Atlanta, WBIR and WRJZ Knoxville, WSIX Nashville.
The 80's found me back in Tampa Bay at WFLA where Bill
Garcia was PD. And later moving over to nights at WFLA-FM
( '93 FLA-FM ). Then it's on to WDAE/WIQ (later WUSA known
as W-101). Owned then by Gannett. Worked for
PD Bob DeCarlo and later Chris Miller. These
were great years for me back at WDAE again this time
with PD Jim Nettelton and Rick Morgan. The 90's
found me at WKTK in Gainesville, evenings at WGUL Tampa
Bay, and a morning gig at WBKJ ( The Dalton Gang ) in
Jackson, MS. But in 1999 I landed in Jacksonville FL at WEJZ,
(Lite 96.1) www.wejz.com.
I do the middays here. Arbatron rated # 1 with women 25-54.
Life is great these days. All 4 of my
children are grown and I have 5 grandchildren. It's a wonderful
thing if in life one is able to do just what they dreamed.
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<= Taken
in 1970 at WHBO...
Left to Right
are station
owner
Bob Martin, A
record rep
(Decca
maybe), me at
age
19 and country singer Lynn Anderson.
Check out those old mikes. |
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