A collection of photos that I'm always wanting to show everybody, most don't fit onto any of the other websites I do. Complete with the stories that go along with each. Most pictures have larger versions that can be seen if you mouse click the smaller versions, below.

My First Time EVER in a Radio Station, 9/10/74. Upon beginning my junior year at Cave Spring High, I'd been doing photography for over a year and decided to join the staff of the school newspaper, The Knight Letter. This is where I first officially met Cliff Beach, one of the writers, though I'd known of him for a few years—notably, a few years prior Cliff was the star of the school talent show when he performed many celebrity impersonations including Nixon, Jimmy Stewart and others. He began his act standing behind the curtain doing Dick Cavett so well that many people in the crowd thought Cavett was actually there.

Soon, I was paired with Cliff and as writer/photographer we did several local celebrity interviews including Mike Ives, columnist for the Roanoke Times and World News. But today, we were sent to WROV to interview afternoon star Bart Prater.

I grew up listing to WROV almost every day, and to Bart since he arrived in 1968. So, my first ever visit to the station was a big deal. We arrived to find the front desk manned (womaned?) by Lynne Wright, aka "Gum" because she was always chewing some. A very pretty lady, indeed. She took us back to the control room and we interviewed Bart. While there, we also met Rob O'Brady, Larry Bly and newsman Mark Fryburg.

This day was noteworthy because upon walking into the radio station, I then and there decided that I was going to do this one day. And, I did!

Pictures: The photo of Bart was to become one of the two most famous photos that I ever shot. The station sent a copy to the Times/World News and a cropped version became their stock photo of Bart for the next twenty years. Bottom left: Cliff interviewing Bart. Bottom right: Even though I was a dork with a bad haircut wearing clothes bought for me by my mother, Bart still did a hand clasp with me anyway.

After this interview, I became the WROV High School Correspondent from Cave Spring and started doing odd jobs there including "managing" the record library and photography. My "pay" was the privilege of meeting all the DJs, being able to get inside, and hang out there. At the time, it was well worth it!

Our interview was to be pulled out of the ready-to-distrubute newspapers at the last minute because the principal thought it to be "innapropriate for high school students." You can read the entire story of this day and the ensuing fiaso HERE.

To read the actual article from The Knight Letter, go HERE.

Suzi Quatro in April, 1975. Suzi was one of the first female heavy metal acts in the early 1970s and her popular songs included 48 Crash and Glycerine Queen. In 1978 she did Stumblin' In with Chris Norman. But she's most well-known for playing the role of Leather Tuscadero on the TV series Happy Days.

Suzi was on tour with Alice Cooper and came by WROV for an interview that day with midday man Dave Hunter. Dave made the mistake of telling Suzi "Gee, you play the guitar pretty good for a girl!" which pissed off Suzi, who then stormed out of the studio and out of the building. Fortunately, Cliff and I—who were there to interview her for the Cave Spring High School newspaper—got to see her BEFORE this happened!

An interesting note: I was asked to be Alice Cooper's "gopher" that night. My parents wouldn't let me do it because six months earlier I'd committed to participating in a Calvary Baptist Church choir event and this is when they chose to give me a "you need to honor your commitments" lesson. Alas.

Wolfman Jack in April, 1975. Wolfman was at WROV about two weeks after Suzi. My involvement with this came about because I had become the unofficial photographer for WROV. This, because I had a darkroom in the basement and would do the pictures for free—in exchange for the opportunity to be let in there to shoot them in the first place—and owner Burt Levine loved this arrangement.

It was an interesting night. Vince Miller remembers: "You know I think that night could be made into a play. You had all these egos and personalities changing with the wind. Grownups acting like children and children acting like babies." Everybody was like a kid with Wolfman. You had to have been there or, at least, listened to it on the air.

The top photo shows Larry (standing in the back), Bart, Wolfman, and Chuck Holloway. This is the other most famous photo that I ever shot and was featured in the May 2, 1975 issue of the industry newspaper, Radio & Records. If you want to see the actual page it's on, go HERE.

The photos of me were terribly out of focus because they were shot by the local Air Force recruiter—a client of the radio station—who was there that night and was three sheets to the wind (off he went, into the wild blue yonder...). In fact, at age 17 I wasn't old enough to drink and I think I was the only completely sober person in the building. The complete story of the Wolfman's visit to Roanoke can be found on the WROV History Site and is well worth the read.

Rick Nelson. Summer of 1975. Rick was appearing at Salem's Lakeside Amusement Park. WROV's Rich Randall was doing a remote there and I went along. Prior to the show we all got to see Rick and get photos taken. Though I had absolutely no idea at the time because I didn't recognize him, 1960s WROV star Jack Fisher was also there. Jack had been a friend of Rick for years, going back to his big Atlantic City Steel Pier show in 1958 (Rick drew about 43,000 people to this show which was A LOT, especially back then).

Rick was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth celebs I ever met. He treated everyone politely and with respect, and made you feel like he'd known you all your life. After the photos were taken I rode a few rides at Lakeside, hung out with Rich at the remote board, then watched Rick's show on the stage at the end of the Lakeside picnic shelter. A very fun night for a guy who wasn't even yet a senior in high school. Note that Rick obviously knew how to pose for a photo and I didn't.

WVWR-FM, Spring, 1977. After getting some "radio" experience in high school as the WROV high school correspondent and at the school's closed circuit "station" WCSH, I was hired to my first REAL radio job in October, 1976, at WVWR-FM.

WVWR was on the campus of Virginia Western Community College, where I'd later earn my first degree, and was affiliated with NPR. I worked weekend mornings, mostly running pre-recorded shows which typically featured classical music. I later became the producer of the station's weekday "Midday" news/magazine show and performed other tasks.

Pictures: Top left: The door says "Master Control - No Admittance" yet they still let ME in there. Go figure. Top right: Sitting in the chair and no, I'm not a Steelers fan, my mother bought that shirt for me somewhere. Bottom left: Newsman Rick Howell, who remains a best friend today. Bottom right: Candace Hensley, a very talented person whom I last saw in 2009. Candace, if you read this, get in touch!

The Night I Got Arrested, 11/13/77. The Doobie Brothers were huge stars in Roanoke, where two years prior, WROV had been the first station to play "Black Water", which was supposed to have been the B-side of "Another Park, Another Sunday". However, WROV Music Director Chuck Holloway liked the B-side best and decided to add both to the playlist and later received a gold record for this. Phil Beckman did the same thing in Newport News at WQRK.

So when the Doobie Brothers came to the Roanoke Civic Center, it was a big deal. I got tickets and went with a friend named Mona—who was a few years older and like a "big sister" to me. The opening act was Pablo Cruise who were known for several big hits at the time. It was "Fillmore Seating", a term used for concerts where there were no floor seats, you just got there and staked out the best place you could get to on the floor. This was largely banished in December, 1979 when The Who planed in Cincinnati, OH and eleven people died when the crowd tried to rush toward the stage.

After Pablo Cruise and a short intermission, the announcer came out and said, "ALL RIGHT! Let's LIGHT ONE UP FOR THE DOOBIE BROTHERS!" The band started playing "Jesus Is Just Allright With Me", we did as we were told and lighted one up, and about thirty seconds later we were grabbed by two big guys with beards wearing stocking caps and olive drab "army jackets" and escorted out of the venue and into a room off of the concourse where we were arrested for possession of marijuana. We were given the equivalent of "traffic tickets" and told "Be there for court on January 11!" We were then told to leave the building. In retrospect, the worst part of this was that it caused us to miss the Doobie Brothers.

I did NOT tell my parents about this, I was already in enough trouble and didn't want more from them. Worrying about it pretty much ruined my birthday and Xmas that year. Finally, it was time to go to court. So my parents wouldn't catch on, I spent the night before at Steve Finnegan's apartment and he went with me to court the next morning. Upon arriving, I saw Officer Wills, the scruffy-looking guy with the beard who'd arrested me, only now he was clean-shaven and in a suit and tie and looked like Sgt. Joe Friday. He was a nice guy and told me "Good luck."

Before we came up on the docket, we had to sit through several other cases including one involving a guy who went into an all-night greasy spoon hamburger joint on Henry Street, ordered a cheeseburger, and was charged an extra ten cents for the cheese. This caused him to have a meltdown, he then took out a gun and shot all six shots into the ceiling of the place. When they finally got to me, I was fined $50 with $27 added for "court costs" and this was a blessing, as I'd only managed to come up with $85 beforehand.

After leaving the courtroom, I was sent to the clerk's office to pay the $77. Then, I had to go to the basement to be finger printed and have a "mug shot" taken. The cop who did this was an older guy wearing sergeant stripes, a very jovial guy who kept teasing me saying "Heh heh heh, yep, I'll betcha that once you walk outta here, you're gonna light up a big ol' fat one, aren't ya? That's what they all do, we bust 'em then as soon as they're outta here they're lighting up a big ol' fat one!" I assured him that "No sir! I'm absolutely NOT going to do that!!"

Finally, it was over, we left the courthouse and got into Finnegan's car. He said, "Well, wanna go to lunch?" I said "Yes!" As we pulled out of the parking lot onto Church Avenue, Finnegan reached into his pocket, pulled out a huge joint, lighted it up and said "HERE!" Well, how about that, the police sergeant was right!

Willie & Emmylou, May 1978. Cliff and I both worked at WFIR at the time. I can't recall if the station arranged this or if Cliff arranged it through Willie's office, but off we went that afternoon to see Willie in his room at the Williamson Road Holiday Inn. Cliff knocked on the door and we were standing there talking about "what should we say, 'hello Mr. Nelson?'" when a clean shaven Willie opened the door prompting Cliff to say "WILLIE! What the hell have you done to your face?" Willie said "I shaved it off. It gets hot in the summertime."

We went in, spent about forty minutes with Willie and smoked a joint with him (and it was HIS, not ours). Willie said that one day he was going to write a song that would go "Can we make it to heaven from here? And can we take marijuana and beer?" To the best of my knowledge, he never finished that one.

We then headed over to the Roanoke Civic Center (across the street) and got our backstage passes. It was backstage that we saw Willie's opening act, Emmylou Harris, who posed for this picture (remember that old song by the group Brush Arbor named Heaven Is A Girl Named Emmylou?? So very true!).

Chicago, October 1978, Johnson City, TN. I had just started back to junior college two weeks earlier, had met a beautiful girl and had been out with her two or three times when—out of the blue—a friend in Bristol, TN called and told me Chicago would be at East Tennesee State University's Freedom Hall that Friday. I had him get tickets then we drove down there from Roanoke (about three hours) and saw the show.

This was back during the good old days when you could walk into any venue with your camera and shoot pictures and you weren't harrassed by the arena goons for wanting to rip off the band by taking your own photos, accused of being a terrorist and having a hidden weapon in your camera lens, etc. Freedom used to be a wonderful thing. But I digress. This was one of Chicago's first tours following the tragic death of guitarist Terry Kath that previous January. L to R, top to bottom in the large versions: Danny Seraphine & Peter Cetera; Jim Pankow, Walt Parazaider, Lee Loughnane; Robert Lamm & Donnie Dacus; Peter & Laudir De Oliveira; Peter & Donnie; whole group.

WFIR / WPVR, Spring 1979. In December, 1979 I was hired at WFIR AM 960 / WPVR-FM 94.9, then owned by Jim Gibbons of Frederick, MD. Gibbons had previously been the announcer of the Maryland Terrapins games, then was a TV commentator for CBS Sports who did the Washington Redskins games. My first official "event" for the stations was attending their Xmas party, where I met Gibbons who looked exactly as I remembered him years earlier on TV. He went around handing out bonus checks, got to me, and said, "Who are you?" I told him, "I'm new." "Well, I'm sorry I don't have a check for you but I'll send you a cigar in the mail!" I don't guess it occurred to him to take out his checkbook—which was sticking out of his jacket pocket—and write me one. And, he never did send me the damned cigar!

Initially, I worked nights / weekends on WPVR, the "beautiful elevator dentist office music" station. My first big break—doing a live music shift on WFIR—came in April, 1978 as the result of the regular night guy Carl Foster getting elbowed in his balls while playing in a basketball game. Honest. Over the next two years I worked on both, eventually doing the WFIR overnight show after Carl left in 1979.

Interesting fact: My AM radio career almost exactly paralleled the run of WKRP in CINCINNATI on TV. It began in 4/78 and WKRP began in 9/78. WKRP ended in 5/81, and my AM career was over at WROV in early '82.

Pictures: Top: Back row: Ted Rogers, the well-known morning man there for about twenty years, and Jerry Joynes who'd worked at WROV from 1954-1964 then eventually WFIR and was a well-known local sports announcer, Bill Bratton the 7-MID guy. Front row: Bill Thomas, midday announcer, and yours truly. You can find another photo that was taken at this session and used in a local advertisement for the station on the WFIR News website. Bottom left: Me at WFIR, before they made me get a haircut for the top photo. Bottom right: Me across the hall on WPVR.

The WFIR "Oldies" Show, November 1978. Featuring Chuck Berry, Sam The Sham, and Jewel Akens & The Coasters. This was a fun night. I got to have dinner with the "Grandfather of Rock & Roll" Chuck Berry (I was one table over from Chuck, but still, he was there!). Later that night I got to meet Sam The Sham (of Little Red Riding Hood and Wooly Bully fame) and Jewel Akens (The Birds & The Bees) who was now fronting The Coasters (Charlie Brown). I asked Sam about one of my all-time favorite records, 1967s I Couldn't Spell !!@!" (!!@! is apparently how you spell the sound of a fart). Sam said he didn't even have a copy of that one and was surprised that I did.

Jan & Dean were also supposed to appear at this show but were snowed in somewhere in the NW. Jan & Dean's backup band were supposed to back up the other acts but couldn't because they were also snowed in. So at the last minute, the promoter had to find some local band who could step in at the last minute and do this. The band he found looked like a bunch of high school guys. They did their best but all throughout the show kept missing chords, prompting angry looks from the stars (especially Chuck, who appeared to be absolutely livid a time or two). I felt sorry for those guys!

Winter Sports? February, 1979. I was working in radio and always looking for ways to get publicity, so when it snowed about eight inches in Roanoke, I had this crazy idea—I'd put on a swimming suit and do various poses "Summer Fun" poses in the snow. There were a couple done with the tennis racket, a few with a golf club, and one with a beach towel, sunglasses, and my father's Jiffy Roll-Up Hat.

I later developed and printed the pictures in my darkroom, and the next day took them downtown to the headquarters of the Roanoke Times & World News, thinking they'd love to print these as a "human interest" sort of thing. The person at the front desk looked at them, then looked at me, handed them back to me and said "No thanks. You're crazy."

St. Jude's Telethon, February 1979. WSLS-TV 10 in Roanoke was hosting the Danny Thomas St. Jude's Children's Hospital Telethon and Danny was there. I grew up watching Danny Thomas and his show has always been one of my alltime favorites. He devoted his life to loving children. I loved him and look to him for inspiration when I'm about to lose my patience and strangle mine. Also, Larry Bly and Bart Prater of WROV were there serving as MCs. So I headed down there. Seems like Cliff was there, too.

We got there ten minutes after Danny had left so alas, I did not get to meet him. But I did get to meet Barbi Benton, former Playboy Playmate and girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, also a star of TV's HEE HAW and a country singer who'd just done an album. Barbi was nice.

The other star who was still there was George "Goober" Lindsay, formerly of The Andy Griffith Show. Goober's character on the show was a nice, shy, mannerly country boy. So I was kind of surprised to meet the actor who played him in person and find that he was a COMPLETE TOTAL ASSHOLE. He acted annoyed and angry to be there and pissed and moaned about everything. He signed an autograph for me but I decided I didn't want it and threw it away.

The Beach Boys, Spring, 1979. Doug Matthews, the General Manager of WFIR/WPVR, liked having his photo taken with celebrities and knew I had a camera and decided that he'd use his sales contacts to get me backstage at the Beach Boys concert so that I could bring my camera and take photos of him with all of the Beach Boys. Which I did.

I remember Mike Love being in the white "pimp" outfit. He was polite and signed autographs and posed for pictures but definitely seemed kind of impressed with himself. Dennis Wilson smiled and nodded and signed autographs but was very quiet and almost seemed shy.

Brian was not supposed to be there. This was during that period when he was supposedly having all sorts of problems. Yet, while bopping around backstage my girlfriend opened a door and there he was, sitting at a lone table in a big room all by himself eating a steak dinner. She wanted his autograph. I reasoned that her—being a beautiful girl—stood a much better chance of approaching him without him wanting to kill her than did I, so she went in by herself and came back with his autograph.

Carl was the nicest one of the bunch. Ricky Fataar—session musician who played the "George" character in the Beatles spoof The Rutles was their drummer.