97X - Rumblings from the Big Bush

Carlton Smith and Happy Chichester formed the super-cool, super-tight rhythm section of the Royal Crescent Mob. They -- along with lead singer David Ellison and guitarist "B" -- are getting the band back together to play two fundraiser shows to benefit cancer research. They'll be rocking the house at the Athenaeum Theatre in Columbus on Friday, December 16th and the Madison Theater in Covington, K...

The RC Mob is getting back on the bus for two fundraiser shows - Dec. 16th in Columbus and Dec. 17th at the Madison Theater in Covington, KY . Proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society and the Tri-State Cancer Research Fund. We talk to David about the reunion shows, the early RC Mob days, the impact cancer is having on the band, and his longtime career as a tour manager for many bands and...

Ken "Mr. K" Glidewell put the personality into "radio personality." He had the gift of gab, a wicked sense of humor and a way of making friends wherever he went. Ken worked at 97X during the station's formative years while also playing with fellow 97Xer Dan "Danny Crash" Reed in Chemdyne. He later moved on to WEBN-FM and 92.9 The Fox in Cincinnati for his day job, and co-founded the Americana band...

Back in the mid-70's, long before 97X came along, there was a free-form station on 97.7 FM in Oxford called WOXR. Chuck Cowdery was part of that merry gang playing progressive rock... and whatever else they wanted to. It's clear from talking to Chuck that WOXR was on the same frequency as 97X, both literally and figuratively - and that station influenced a generation who, if they stuck around the...

Keri Crawford was at 97X from 1998-2003, as a DJ and program director. She talks to us about her radio and record label background, the unique energy of 97X, the fun shows she got to organize and promote, the fervor of the listeners... and how her dog had free rein at the office. 

Rhett Leibecke (a.k.a. "Reed LeBeak") spent a single semester as a student co-op for Rictile and Dave on the Breakfast Club back in 1996... and it's clear that he's been scarred for life (and not just from the lawn jarts). He got the gig based on his shady past doing a SoundScam... and it was all downhill from there. Rhett and special guest Rictile join to talk about Rhett's stellar work cleaning...

Garin Pirnia grew up in Centerville, Ohio and discovered 97X when she returned to the area after stints in L.A. and Chicago. She's written about music (as well as film, food, and travel) for dozens of publications including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vanity Fair and The Atlantic. Her book about bands from the state of Ohio, Rebels and Underdogs , came out a few years ago. We chat with Garin about the...

Taylor Fox (a.k.a. "TayFo") is a co-founder and morning host on Inhailer , a streaming/HD radio station that plays indie rock and helps promote local bands and the music scene in Cincinnati. The impetus for the station came from losing other local stations that played cool music, first 97X and WVXU's Nightwaves, and later WNKU. Taylor tells us about how the station started, how he discovered 97X,...

Brian Niesz engineered more than 400 live on-air performances at the woxy.com studio in Longworth Hall in Cincinnati, as well as dozens more during the station's short-lived stint in Austin, Texas. No one had more of a hand in capturing the magic of those live music moments than he did. Brian tells us how he connected with woxy.com, lists some of his favorite live performances, and shares how he's...

Dave Tellmann spent nearly a decade on the air at 97X (1988-1997)... and sometimes he thinks he's still on the air there! Dave combed through his "aircheck" cassettes from 1993 and put together some snippets of audio that give you a feel for what listening to the station was like back in the day. Come for the Eavey's commercial, stay for the Marge Schott news story. 

Jim Vinch was a Cleveland-raised classic rocker... until he moved to Oxford for college and caught the earliest years of 97X. Jim credits the station and its community of listeners with helping him be open not just to new music, but to new ideas. As he puts it, "I am now an assistant visiting professor at Miami and every time I step onto campus I can’t help think about how the university and the l...

The second part of our conversation with Jay Batista, who helped WOXY-FM make the transition to the 97X we all know and love. Jay was the station manager, was involved in programming, did sales, and also knew how to whip an ancient transmitter into shape. In this episode, we hear about Dr. Demento, an "Army of Ticks" (not a Dr. Demento song, but it could be!) and the infamous "Beer or Buns" gueril...

Jay Batista joined 97X before it was 97X... it was more like a real-life WKRP. Jay played a pivotal role in helping the station make the switch to the modern rock format. We talk to him about those formative days, going from spinning the Spinners to hanging with the Talking Heads.  

Aaron Sharpe never listened to 97X... but he wore many hats at WNKU-FM, a station that picked up the mantle from 97X/woxy.com in being a free-spirited, adventurous, community-oriented radio station that introduced many to music they couldn't hear elsewhere -- including plenty of local artists. Unfortunately, WNKU suffered a similar fate to 97X, signing off for good in September of 2017. In this ep...

Here's Part 2 of our interview with Jeff "DJ Sloth" Rohrs, where he talks about the community of music lovers at 97X, the great program directors during his tenure, his scary sighting on the Party Patio, his side hustles (DJ... and grocery bagger), and "Balogh University." 

Jeff Rorhs was hooked on 97X from the very first song he heard on the station. In fact, he attended Miami University mostly because of 97X, and he was so determined to work at the station that he played polka music at his hometown radio station just to get on-air experience. All that polka-playing paid off - he wound up working weekends and fill-in shifts at 97X for his entire college career, from...

Anthony Hartke was really into music even in grade school. He discovered 97X around 6th grade and stuck with the station throughout its existence. (He even tuned in to woxy.com when he was deployed overseas in the Army back in 2005-2006.) When woxy.com sold off vinyl LPs from the original 97X music library, Anthony picked up several albums that still contained an old school "grid" on the cover for...

Joe Voet was a mild-mannered student in a small Midwestern college town, working at the Miami U. student radio station and listening to 97X... until one day Rictile turned him into Joe "Rock the" Voet, political correspondent. That led to a Breakfast Club co-producer role, with highs (a meeting with The Cure) and lows (reading the news on-air without any prep). Joe claims he was the worst Breakfas...

Here's more from our chat with 97X/woxy.com alum Barb Abney. In this episode, Barb discloses her 97X souvenirs, we try to solve the mystery of where 97X's music library wound up, a secret prankster is revealed, and we get more scoop on Barb's new podcast " Tied to the Tracks ." 

Barb Abney, who was on-air at 97X and woxy.com from 1994-2006, returns to talk about weird promotional giveaway items, why corporate radio still sucks... oh, and her great podcast "Tied to the Tracks." Barb has some great podcasting pointers for Dave and Damian... which we will probably ignore.  On Barb's podcast, she and co-host Augustus Watkins are joined by a different guest each episode and th...

Matt Lacefield played cutting-edge music on a Cincinnati radio station... but it wasn't 97X. While Dave and Damian were on the air at 97X in the 90s, Matt was a DJ for Nightwaves, which aired overnights on WVXU-FM. So we were kindred spirits... and still are, because Matt loves discovering new music. He's sharing his favorites via his blog/podcast called "The Unfamiliar." We chat with Matt about h...

Jayne Sachs credits her discovery of 97X (thanks to her now-husband) with putting her on the singer/songwriter path. She's been able to carve out a career in music, and has picked up plenty of accolades along the way, including winning 97Xposure in 1995 and garnering two first place wins (in different years and different categories) in The John Lennon Songwriting Contest. We talked to Jayne about...

This is a shorter episode, but it's deep. The culmination of our conversation with 97X station owners Doug & Linda Balogh includes Doug's "big thought" about the legacy of the station... and how the listeners and the station alums will always be a connected community. 97X Forever! 

Here's Part II of our second interview with 97X station owners Doug and Linda Balogh. (It's like a Star Wars triple trilogy... the subtitle for this one is "Episode 5: Revenge of the Good Guys.") In this podcast, we talk about 97X's memorable artwork, the outside-the-box thinking that went on at the station, the diversity of programming, and we find out if Doug and Linda ever thought about getting...

Yes, we've interviewed 97X station owners Doug and Linda Balogh before (check out Episodes 56 and 57 ). But they are such founts of 97X knowledge and stories that we had to go back to the well. In this episode, Doug does a 97X role call, we talk about 97Xposure, the station's charitable endeavors, a Riverbend-adjacent party, and one of Linda's decidedly unglamorous yet crucial behind-the-scenes ro...