Barney would have been 73 today. This thread is just to honor his memory and his greatness. He was the most talented dj to ever work at WCFL.
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MAY 26TH WCFL'S BARNEY PIP'S BIRTHDAY
- Thread starter RADIO TRUTH
- Start date
Barney was fun to listen to. I have many good memories of him.
Barney had a brief stay at 1310 WISH in Indianapolis and for a short time did his show from a downtown department store display window. I remember driving downtown to watch his show. There he was standing up, doing his show and blowing his trumpet.
Loved to listen to his show on 'CFL.
One of the great nighttime personalities.
Loved to listen to his show on 'CFL.
One of the great nighttime personalities.
Eating Peanut Butter as I write this.
Icangelp said:Barney had a brief stay at 1310 WISH in Indianapolis and for a short time did his show from a downtown department store display window. I remember driving downtown to watch his show. There he was standing up, doing his show and blowing his trumpet.
Loved to listen to his show on 'CFL.
One of the great nighttime personalities.
When did he work in Indianapolis? I had heard that he was from there.
Barney worked on WISH, Indianapolis, in 1962 at the same time that Dick Summer worked there. Before WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WHOT, Youngstown. After WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WOKY, Milwaukee, circa 1964. After WOKY, Milwaukee, Barney got a job offer from WDGY, Minneapolis. He drove to Minneapolis but, never did an airshift there. Before he was scheduled to go on-the-air at WDGY, Barney got a call from Ken Draper, program director of WCFL, Chicago, and the rest is history.
RADIO TRUTH said:Barney worked on WISH, Indianapolis, in 1962 at the same time that Dick Summer worked there. Before WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WHOT, Youngstown. After WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WOKY, Milwaukee, circa 1964. After WOKY, Milwaukee, Barney got a job offer from WDGY, Minneapolis. He drove to Minneapolis but, never did an airshift there. Before he was scheduled to go on-the-air at WDGY, Barney got a call from Ken Draper, program director of WCFL, Chicago, and the rest is history.
I never knew about the WDGY offer. Thanks for sharing.
For some reason, the automatic quote thing isn't working for me, so I had to do it the hard way.Barney worked on WISH, Indianapolis, in 1962 at the same time that Dick Summer worked there. Before WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WHOT, Youngstown. After WISH, Indianapolis, Barney worked at WOKY, Milwaukee, circa 1964. After WOKY, Milwaukee, Barney got a job offer from WDGY, Minneapolis. He drove to Minneapolis but, never did an airshift there. Before he was scheduled to go on-the-air at WDGY, Barney got a call from Ken Draper, program director of WCFL, Chicago, and the rest is history.
It's a shame Barney couldn't have been with us longer.
In my mind, Indianapolis was pretty much void of my type of Disc Jockeys, but Barney and Dick on the same station is pretty strong. Frankly, I hadn't realized Dick Summer had come back to Indy until I saw it on 440:Satisfaction.
The first question should be.....Why did he leave WCFL? The answer to that is that Barney suffered from bipolar disorder which was not called that in 1967. It was called maniac depression. There was one point, when he was working at WCFL, that Barney put himself in the hospital. When he came out of the hospital the first time, he went back to work on WCFL. A few years later, Barney put himself in the hospital again but, when he came out, Lou Witz, the then current gm of WCFL would not put him back on-the-air. Barney's career, at that point, started spiraling downward. That was in 1970. He went from there to doing afternoon drive at WHHY, Montgomery, Alabama. He got fired from WHHY because they decided that they didn't want to pay him as much as they were paying him versus the other djs at the station for the size of the market. His next job was a country station in Miami whose call letters escape me. He got fired from there also. His next job was at top forty KXOL, Fort Worth, where he was hired by pd John Rook, former WLS pd. This was in 1971. He did well at KXOL. Early in 1972, Ken Draper, the pd who hired him at WCFL, got a job consulting WPIX-FM in New York City. Draper immediately called Barney and offered him a job doing evenings and Barney also got the job as music director. There were many nights in 1972 after work in New York City where Barney could be seen eating at one of his three favorite places.....the Carnegie Deli, Nathans in Time Square and the Howard Johnson's by Grand Central Station. We all used to go out to eat with the New York City record company promotion men. The one promo man who Barney was friendliest with was Juggy Gayles of Atlantic Records. Those nights were a lot of fun. The New York Daily News, who when it came to running a radio station, were so tight, they squeaked, got rid of Draper's consultant contract and fired anybody who was not making minimum AFTRA wages. Barney got fired along with Draper. This was sometime in early 1973. Digest all of this. If you have any questions, I will answer them.Where did Barney go after he left WCFL up until his death and when where and how did he die?
I will come back on here later and tell the rest of the story from 1973 up until Barney's untimely death in June of 1994 and how and why he died.
Thanks Radio Truth.RADIO TRUTH said:The first question should be.....Why did he leave WCFL? The answer to that is that Barney suffered from bipolar disorder which was not called that in 1967. It was called maniac depression. There was one point, when he was working at WCFL, that Barney put himself in the hospital. When he came out of the hospital the first time, he went back to work on WCFL. A few years later, Barney put himself in the hospital again but, when he came out, Lou Witz, the then current gm of WCFL would not put him back on-the-air. Barney's career, at that point, started spiraling downward. That was in 1970. He went from there to doing afternoon drive at WHHY, Montgomery, Alabama. He got fired from WHHY because they decided that they didn't want to pay him as much as they were paying him versus the other djs at the station for the size of the market. His next job was a country station in Miami whose call letters escape me. He got fired from there also. His next job was at top forty KXOL, Fort Worth, where he was hired by pd John Rook, former WLS pd. This was in 1971. He did well at KXOL. Early in 1972, Ken Draper, the pd who hired him at WCFL, got a job consulting WPIX-FM in New York City. Draper immediately called Barney and offered him a job doing evenings and Barney also got the job as music director. There were many nights in 1972 after work in New York City where Barney could be seen eating at one of his three favorite places.....the Carnegie Deli, Nathans in Time Square and the Howard Johnson's by Grand Central Station. We all used to go out to eat with the New York City record company promotion men. The one promo man who Barney was friendliest with was Juggy Gayles of Atlantic Records. Those nights were a lot of fun. The New York Daily News, who when it came to running a radio station, were so tight, they squeaked, got rid of Draper's consultant contract and fired anybody who was not making minimum AFTRA wages. Barney got fired along with Draper. This was sometime in early 1973. Digest all of this. If you have any questions, I will answer them.Where did Barney go after he left WCFL up until his death and when where and how did he die?
I will come back on here later and tell the rest of the story from 1973 up until Barney's untimely death in June of 1994 and how and why he died.
Thanks Radio Truth.
Before we get back to our story, I wanted to mention Barney's ratings at WPIX-FM, New York. The penetration of FM stations in New York City in 1972 was minimal. FM was still in its infancy as a medium for top forty radio. WABC, in the spring 1972 book pulled about a 23 share. Barney pulled about a 4 share on his evening show. WPIX-FM pulled about a 2.9 24 hours a day. WOR-FM pulled about a 2 24 hours a day. WWDJ pulled about a 1.3 24 hours a day. This all means that other than WABC, Barney was the highest rated dj playing music in New York in the spring 72 book. The most amazing part of the spring 72 book was that Dave Herman, doing mornings on WNEW-FM pulled a zero. I didn't know that a zero was possible especially for a major market radio station. Getting back to Barney, from 1973 to 1979 Barney was in and out of the hospital and not on the radio. In 1980, I got Barney to go back on the radio on a station that I ran. He did this for a period of months in 1980 but, then went back in the hospital again for a period of months but, then came back to the station and went on-the-air again. Sometime in 1981 he went off the radio and just lived in a condo in Indianapolis. WJMK, Chicago, did a 60s dj reunion in 1985 that Barney was a part of. They asked him what happened to him over the years but, he didn't really give any information about what had happened to him over the years. He did go back on the radio for a while in 1986. He took a trip from Indianapolis to Long Island to see Bob Dayton whom he had worked with at WPIX-FM. Dayton was doing afternoon drive at WGLI, Babylon, at the time. Dayton convinced Barney to do morning drive on WGLI for about 9 months. This was the last time that Barney was ever on the radio. When someone who has bipolar disorder reaches the age of 50, the effects will usually subside. This happened to Barney. He was in better shape after the age of 50 in regard to bipolar disorder than he ever was. He was living in his condo in Indianapolis and was relatively peaceful and happy. The last time I saw Barney was in 1991 when he came and visited me. He seemed to be in pretty good shape. Barney died in June of 1994 and it is not a pretty story. Barney had emphysema and diabetes but, neither are the reason he died. Here is how he died. He was backing
his car out of his drive at his condo. The car ran into a fence and carbon monoxide came up from the floor boards and made him pass out at the wheel. He was smoking a cigarette at the time. The lit cigarette made the car's upholstery start on fire and Barney was burned to death. Barney was burned so badly that his body sat unidentified at the morgue in Indianapolis until they could do a dna test on one of his kids and Barney's corpse. I got a call from Barney's attorney, who attended the same high school and graduated in 1954 in Indianapolis as Barney did. His attorney told me that Barney had died. I, then, got a call from one of Barney's kids who flew me up to Louisville. His kid and I then drove from Louisville to Indianapolis on a Saturday morning to go to the funeral. I did the eulogy at Barney's funeral. It was a very emotional day. When Barney died,
there were a number of stories about it on Chicago television and Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun Times did a nice story. What does this all mean.....Barney's birthday was May 26th and the 15th anniversary of his untimely death is coming up. There is plenty more to this story but, I hope that I have answered most of the questions.
his car out of his drive at his condo. The car ran into a fence and carbon monoxide came up from the floor boards and made him pass out at the wheel. He was smoking a cigarette at the time. The lit cigarette made the car's upholstery start on fire and Barney was burned to death. Barney was burned so badly that his body sat unidentified at the morgue in Indianapolis until they could do a dna test on one of his kids and Barney's corpse. I got a call from Barney's attorney, who attended the same high school and graduated in 1954 in Indianapolis as Barney did. His attorney told me that Barney had died. I, then, got a call from one of Barney's kids who flew me up to Louisville. His kid and I then drove from Louisville to Indianapolis on a Saturday morning to go to the funeral. I did the eulogy at Barney's funeral. It was a very emotional day. When Barney died,
there were a number of stories about it on Chicago television and Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun Times did a nice story. What does this all mean.....Barney's birthday was May 26th and the 15th anniversary of his untimely death is coming up. There is plenty more to this story but, I hope that I have answered most of the questions.
Thank you Radio Truth for telling the story. I had never really known much about Barney after his years in Chicago. I knew he died in an auto incident, but I never knew how horrific it was.
You mentioned Bob Dayton in NY who I'm familiar with. I know he died in 1995. By any chance do you know how he passed?
Thanks again for telling us about Barney Pip.
You mentioned Bob Dayton in NY who I'm familiar with. I know he died in 1995. By any chance do you know how he passed?
Thanks again for telling us about Barney Pip.
Before we get back to our story, I wanted to mention Barney's ratings at WPIX-FM, New York. The penetration of FM stations in New York City in 1972 was minimal. FM was still in its infancy as a medium for top forty radio. WABC, in the spring 1972 book pulled about a 23 share. Barney pulled about a 4 share on his evening show. WPIX-FM pulled about a 2.9 24 hours a day. WOR-FM pulled about a 2 24 hours a day. WWDJ pulled about a 1.3 24 hours a day. This all means that other than WABC, Barney was the highest rated dj playing music in New York in the spring 72 book. The most amazing part of the spring 72 book was that Dave Herman, doing mornings on WNEW-FM pulled a zero. I didn't know that a zero was possible especially for a major market radio station. Getting back to Barney, from 1973 to 1979 Barney was in and out of the hospital and not on the radio. In 1980, I got Barney to go back on the radio on a station that I ran. He did this for a period of months in 1980 but, then went back in the hospital again for a period of months but, then came back to the station and went on-the-air again. Sometime in 1981 he went off the radio and just lived in a condo in Indianapolis. WJMK, Chicago, did a 60s dj reunion in 1985 that Barney was a part of. They asked him what happened to him over the years but, he didn't really give any information about what had happened to him over the years. He did go back on the radio for a while in 1986. He took a trip from Indianapolis to Long Island to see Bob Dayton whom he had worked with at WPIX-FM. Dayton was doing afternoon drive at WGLI, Babylon, at the time. Dayton convinced Barney to do morning drive on WGLI for about 9 months. This was the last time that Barney was ever on the radio. When someone who has bipolar disorder reaches the age of 50, the effects will usually subside. This happened to Barney. He was in better shape after the age of 50 in regard to bipolar disorder than he ever was. He was living in his condo in Indianapolis and was relatively peaceful and happy. The last time I saw Barney was in 1991 when he came and visited me. He seemed to be in pretty good shape. Barney died in June of 1994 and it is not a pretty story. Barney had emphysema and diabetes but, neither are the reason he died. Here is how he died. He was backing
his car out of his drive at his condo. The car ran into a fence and carbon monoxide came up from the floor boards and made him pass out at the wheel. He was smoking a cigarette at the time. The lit cigarette made the car's upholstery start on fire and Barney was burned to death. Barney was burned so badly that his body sat unidentified at the morgue in Indianapolis until they could do a dna test on one of his kids and Barney's corpse. I got a call from Barney's attorney, who attended the same high school and graduated in 1954 in Indianapolis as Barney did. His attorney told me that Barney had died. I, then, got a call from one of Barney's kids who flew me up to Louisville. His kid and I then drove from Louisville to Indianapolis on a Saturday morning to go to the funeral. I did the eulogy at Barney's funeral. It was a very emotional day. When Barney died,
there were a number of stories about it on Chicago television and Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun Times did a nice story. What does this all mean.....Barney's birthday was May 26th and the 15th anniversary of his untimely death is coming up. There is plenty more to this story but, I hope that I have answered most of the questions.
his car out of his drive at his condo. The car ran into a fence and carbon monoxide came up from the floor boards and made him pass out at the wheel. He was smoking a cigarette at the time. The lit cigarette made the car's upholstery start on fire and Barney was burned to death. Barney was burned so badly that his body sat unidentified at the morgue in Indianapolis until they could do a dna test on one of his kids and Barney's corpse. I got a call from Barney's attorney, who attended the same high school and graduated in 1954 in Indianapolis as Barney did. His attorney told me that Barney had died. I, then, got a call from one of Barney's kids who flew me up to Louisville. His kid and I then drove from Louisville to Indianapolis on a Saturday morning to go to the funeral. I did the eulogy at Barney's funeral. It was a very emotional day. When Barney died,
there were a number of stories about it on Chicago television and Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun Times did a nice story. What does this all mean.....Barney's birthday was May 26th and the 15th anniversary of his untimely death is coming up. There is plenty more to this story but, I hope that I have answered most of the questions.
Thanks for the incredible detail about the life and work of dj Barney Pip; I've recently begun to listen to his station air checks for WCFL wherever I can find them. I grew up on AM radio WLS and WCFL but I honestly don't remember the personalities! Pip's shows have been my favorite to listen to; I'm tempted to buy his Christmas shows from 1965 and 1967 that are for sale. I started researching info about Pip and came across this page. I'm intrigued by your comment that FM radio had not penetrated the top 40 market in 1972. After watching a documentary about The Moody Blues where Justin Hayward said that FM radio had helped them become popular, I was wondering when it would have actually made an influence since their first album with Hayward came out in 1967. Justin claims that FM radio spread the message about that album, but I can't find any evidence that FM was playing album-oriented rock music at that time. If anyone has any info about this, especially regards to Chicago, let me know. All I can find is that WSDM started adding album rock to their light jazz format in the 1970s, and WXRT started playing album rock in 1972 during a night program.Before we get back to our story, I wanted to mention Barney's ratings at WPIX-FM, New York. The penetration of FM stations in New York City in 1972 was minimal. .
Thanks for the incredible detail about the life and work of dj Barney Pip; I've recently begun to listen to his station air checks for WCFL wherever I can find them. I grew up on AM radio WLS and WCFL but I honestly don't remember the personalities! Pip's shows have been my favorite to listen to; I'm tempted to buy his Christmas shows from 1965 and 1967 that are for sale. I started researching info about Pip and came across this page. I'm intrigued by your comment that FM radio had not penetrated the top 40 market in 1972. After watching a documentary about The Moody Blues where Justin Hayward said that FM radio had helped them become popular, I was wondering when it would have actually made an influence since their first album with Hayward came out in 1967. Justin claims that FM radio spread the message about that album, but I can't find any evidence that FM was playing album-oriented rock music at that time. If anyone has any info about this, especially regards to Chicago, let me know. All I can find is that WSDM started adding album rock to their light jazz format in the 1970s, and WXRT started playing album rock in 1972 during a night program.
A LOT of AM stations were playing Album Cuts in the 1960s. Often they would play the Single Edits during the Day and Album Cuts at Night, if they were substantially different, usually time variations from fadeouts or intro stunting. A lot of information is available on the ARSA (Airheads Radio Survey Archive) site. Usually, Album stations (usually on FM) usually didn't have a published playlist, but some did. A lot of AM stations had a list of Albums that they would play cuts from. Some listed the cuts in the regular survey positions. You just have to see what each station did. I suspect that the coowned FM Album Rock stations would play a lot of the same LPs and Album Cuts, perhaps more of them and more often. Also consider that groups like Moby Grape released nearly a whole album as singles. A lot of in house surveys are starting to show up on ARSA. You just have to see what is there. They presently have over 70,000 Surveys from well over 2,500 stations, mainly in the USA and Canada. When Album Rock really took hold when Sgt. Pepper was released, a lot of AM stations had one or more cuts of various albums in the regular survey listing. Smaller market stations seemed to get on the bandwagon first as far as survey listings. As far as I know, the ABC FM O and Os didn't have separate published surveys, nor did the ABC FM Network stations. You would have to find in house surveys for that, or extrapolate from the coowned AM (I know, WCFL didn't have an FM, but WLS had WDAI, etc.). Supposedly if they called themselves "Underground" or "Free Form", even in house surveys would be considered "unnecessary", but the truth is that many did have tighter formats and playlists than they let on. Like the stations that claim to play "everything", they really didn't and don't. Even carrier current stations had PDs that ruled with an Iron fist.
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Here's what a typical Free Form or Underground Playlist looked like. Couldn't find an FM one from Chicago from the 1960s, at least not yet. This one is from WABX Detroit.
http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=8948
http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=8948
Here's what a typical Free Form or Underground Playlist looked like. Couldn't find an FM one from Chicago from the 1960s, at least not yet. This one is from WABX Detroit.
http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=8948
Looks a lot like what I was listening to on WBCN Boston in December 1968. I was 13 then and there are some albums and performers on that playlist that I haven't thought about since then!
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