In the 1950s, my interest in Rock ‘n’ Roll began when my sister and her friends danced in our basement to their favorite records.
After playing radio disc jockey in my basement with my friend Von, I moved up to the “BIG” time as a volunteer “newsreader” in Muncie, Indiana at WBST-FM while attending Ball State University (“Go Cardinals!”). To this day I can still remember the face of the engineer on the other side of the studio glass window as I pronounced “Tucson”, Arizona as “Tuck-sun.” Oops!
My first professional radio job was in Muncie, Indiana. I started as weekend newsman at the Top-40 station, WERK-AM were I was “One of the men at WERK”! Instead of reporting the news, I really wanted to “spin” the Top 40 Hits. Up the road, in New Castle, Indiana was my first chance to do that at WCTW-AM.
Since the late 1960’s, I have been a D.J. at many Top 40 radio stations from small to large markets including…
- WCVS-AM Springfield, Illinois (When I accepted the job over the phone, I could have sworn the guy said he was calling from W “CBS”.)
- KELI-AM Tulsa, Oklahoma
- WCOF-FM (“Coast 107.3”) Tampa Bay, Florida (Worked with the Legendary Scott Robbins)
- WSUN-FM (“Oldies 97.1”) Tampa Bay, Florida (Back with Scott again!)
- WRQQ-FM (“Oldies 97.1) Nashville, Tennessee (Broadcasting from historic Music Row)
Tiring of working for “the man”, I purchased my own broadcast facility WWON-AM in Waynesboro, Tennessee. On the first day of ownership, I flipped the format from Country to “BIG Oldies 930” featuring Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel.
In addition to being a live, on-the-air D.J. I’ve spent the last 25 years syndicating my own program “Oldies Coast-to-Coast™ specializing in ’50s & 60s Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was broadcast on many radio stations throughout the U.S.A. Recently, I was selected by the National Top 40 Hall of Fame and Radio Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee to broadcast my newest syndicated program playing ‘60s & ‘70s Rock ‘n’ Roll from the historic BIG JET-FLI studios (WFLI-FM-AM).
At Oldies Coast-to-Coast™ we’re stuck in the Super ‘60s & ‘70s, and we love it! I know you do too. So, every week, roll down the your car window and crank up the radio with my weekly Oldies Coast-to-Coast Top 40 Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio Show.
Will you do me a “BIG” favor? If you know of a Oldies radio station that is not broadcasting Top 40 Coast-to-Coast™, tell them to contact me
Great Rock ‘n’ Roll…just like it used to be!
Jonathan Apple
Top 40 DJ on duty
