Re: The Duke

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

I share Dan's sadness and admiration for Bob.  I worked with him at WYNZ and
also in the early 1990's at WMGX.  I produced the morning show on WGAN while
he worked across the hall at WMGX and ran the board for dozens of remote
broadcasts for him.  When reading Dan's post, one thing that came to my mind
was that in my several years working with Bob, I don't think I ever had a
cross word with him.  He was as pleasant a guy off the air as on, and that's
not always the case.  Radio stations are not always fun places to work due
to the big egos and stress, but Bob was always a good guy to be around.

There are others we can more accurately detail Bob's career, but he was on
the air in Portland for 40 years.  He was on the air at WLOB when that
station was the big Top 40 station in town.  As I mentioned in a post
earlier this week, Bob was the morning man at WIGY during the late 1970's
and early 1980's when the station was a strong Top 40 station and we
listened to Bob every morning on the school bus.  After WIGY, Bob went to
WMGX where he did mornings until 1993.  During that period, the station
moved towards the top of the ratings in the Portland market for the first
time and there were several ratings period when Bob's show was #1 or #2
25-54.  It was at WMGX that he was given the nickname "The Duke of
Portland."  After WMGX, Bob did mornings at WTHT for several years and had
been doing mornings at WYNZ since the fall of 2000.

Portland radio won't be the same.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine