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1966
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2005
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1966
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2005
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Well, in 1966 I enjoyed a happy but all-too-brief summer in Roanoke. I managed a very short stay in the Star City, a town I loved from day one but one that simply couldn't compete with the incredible lure of Swinging London of the 60's.
Earlier in the year, between California radio jobs, I began corresponding with Burt Levine about a spot with WROV. I was deeply impressed with the sincerity and professionalism of Burt's letters. He stressed that Roanoke would be nothing like my hometown of San Francisco and wanted me to understand that. I told him I was interested in a good, creative station in a place with friendly people no matter where. As far as I was concerned, Virginia was East Coast and at 22, I had never spent a day outside California. Another letter I sent that Spring went off to London after I read a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a new "pirate radio" station in England. I did not have a proper address and never got a reply so I promptly forgot about it.
Burt and I reached agreement and I climbed aboard a Greyhound bus one fine May morning and set off for Virginia. Upon arrival I was at the "Y" the first couple nights and then rented a room in the home of Burt's mother and sister where I stayed for the remainder of my time in Roanoke and where I was subsequently introduced to home-made chicken-liver pate and gefilte fish and some other ethnic delights for the first time.
To have moved across the country and come to work for a first-class gentleman and with an able and talented team of co-workers and to find that Southern hospitality REALLY existed was a marvelous experience. Though Burt wanted me to work mid-days, I had my heart set on the all-night shift and he finally relented after a few weeks and I did overnights as the "The Enormous Jack Curtiss Show" leading into the Fisher-Frelantz morning show each day. That allowed us to collaborate on a number of taped comedy bits with the team. I loved doing character voices and we had a grand time. Little did I know that I would be hearing those Big Ben chimes from the real thing before summer was over.
No sooner had July arrived than a long-distance phone call as well, one informing me that my letter did arrive in London and so impressed the management that they forthwith invited me to be a part of Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio. Now in a business where you get hired mostly on the sound of your voice, getting hired on the strength of a letter is pretty remarkable. I knew I couldn't resist the opportunity and felt terrible about walking out of WROV so quickly but Burt was a gentleman always. He understood what the offer represented and wished me well. I hopped an Allegheny Airlines flight to Washington, DC and then onto a quick stay in New York and finally across the Atlantic to Her Majesty's Realm. (I'm still in Her Majesty's Realm I suppose).
And that's my WROV story. A brief summer fling and a cherished memory still. The only other angle is that one of my pirate radio crewmates was a teen-aged Pennsylvanian using the air name of "Boom Boom" Branegan and I clearly recall sitting in the ship's dining area one evening as we discussed various places we had worked and I extolled WROV and its splendid owner to my colleagues. It was only decades later after I learned of his tragic death within a year of that very conversation that I also learned he had come to work in Roanoke after returning to the US. For more information on Offshore Radio in the 1960s and Boom Boom, check out this page.
Jack Curtiss
Adelaide, Australia