Monday, November 21, 1994. 6:00 AM.
My partner Rob Main and I walked into the studio of WHND to begin what would be the last week of live broadcasts from Honey Radio. We had heard the news weeks prior to this that the radio station was going off the air in favor of Spanish programming. When the station was not broadcasting from our studios, we were airing satellite programming from the Cool Gold Network, which was no longer going to providing services. Honey was no longer financially viable.
At the time, Honey Radio was the oldest Oldies station in the country. While there were stations that played oldies in the Detroit market, none were focusing exclusively on the “first decade of rock and roll”. We primarily focused on the songs that were hits from 1955-1965, while occasionally playing some of those earlier songs from the 1950’s, too. I think that was one of the reasons I loved working at this station so much. When you think of the music from that decade it included rockabilly, doo wop, surf music, Motown, British Invasion music, songs from the “Brill Building”, and early soul and R&B.
We not only played the hits from this decade, but we also played songs that were local hits from local artists that were not being played anywhere else! We played music from Nolan Strong, The Dynamics, Gino Washington, Jack Scott, and so many other local acts. We did a daily show (The Top 12 at 12), which focused on a different year of the decade and counted down the Top 12 songs in Detroit from that particular day. We always used a local chart to count down the hits. Those charts could be from The Detroit News, WJBK, WKNR, WXYZ, or other charts. It was unique to our station!
Today’s radio is what many refer to as “liner card radio”. The DJ’s on the air rarely have any content and read things from cards in the studio (usually promoting station events, station appearances, or sponsor information). The most entertaining DJ’s are usually the morning show hosts, but even they are overloaded with sponsor reads and liners. One of my radio mentors, Jay Trachman, used to say “People say that DJ’s talk too much. This isn’t true. The truth is that DJ’s tend to waste their listener’s time by not having anything to say. They don’t have any REAL content to share.” This is where Honey was different.
Honey Radio DJs were “personalities” – each unique. Boogie Brian was the “Bard of Lincoln Park” and often spoke in Rhyme. Richard D. was the “Silly DJ from Savage Minnesota” who now lived on Lack Of Drive in Warren with his wife Oldielocks and kids Doo Wop and Bee Bop. Other personalities included Bill Stewart, Ron T., Greg Russell, Dr. Bob, “Young” Jon Ray, Scottie OJay, Rob (and every one of his characters), and me. Each of us had our “features”. Scottie hosted the “Soul Patrol” show, Richard had the “Off the Wall Record” and “Poor Richard D’s Almanac”, Boogie had “Cruise Casts” and Boogie’s Forgotten Favorites”, and the list goes on and on. There was always something fun and unique happening on Honey.
Another thing I loved about Honey was the jingles. Our jingles were PAMS jingles. They were many of the same tracks/jingles that were used by local radio stations all across the country during the 60’s. They were just re-sung with our call letters. These jingles were just awesome! Today, you can hear many of these same jingles on Sirius XM’s 50’s on 5 and 60’s on 6. I am lucky to have many of these jingles that were taken from the master tapes on CD in my collection.
With Honey going off the air, many of us would be out of a job. Rob and I had been working together off and on whenever I was on air for a while. After Honey went off the air, we hoped to find a job doing mornings somewhere. In order to do this, we needed some more “tape” of us together. Richard D gave us permission to go on the air instead of the satellite show in the morning that final week. We had free reign to “play around” and have fun on the air. At the same time, we’d be getting hours of material that we could potentially use to try to get a show somewhere.
25 years ago today, Rob and I hit the studio with a few ideas, many voices, many characters, some great music, and had the best week of our career! It was Thanksgiving week. Music was scheduled for Monday-Wednesday and Friday. Thursday we were supposed to air satellite programming. Instead, we were on for 6 hours that Thanksgiving and played songs with a different theme each hour (Number songs, Songs with girls names or guys names, Instrumentals, Songs with body parts in the title, etc…) Originally, those shows were recorded to cassette tapes. Those tapes were called “Skimmers”. The tape recorded only when the microphone was turned on. Some time ago, I took those tapes and recorded them digitally and transferred them to CD. I still pop them into my car and listen to that final week whenever I need a laugh. I am guessing, I will need to pull them out to honor the 25th anniversary of Honey’s end.
The only CD I have a difficult time listening to is the last show, from November 25, 1994. It was the last day of live broadcasting. We had friends visit us in the studio (South Bronx Johnny, Helen & Beverly, my dad, and others). The calls we got from listeners that day were very emotional. They made us feel so loved. The last break of our show, Boogie’s wife had recorded a message for him that we played right before he went on the air. He did the final four hours of live programming. He had prerecorded a sign off that lasted about 15 minutes with his personal reflections on the station, the staff, the listeners, and the end. I remember Rob, his girlfriend Mary, and I all listening to this and just sobbing. Boogie expressed what everyone was feeling and it was the perfect ending to an amazing station.
It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since that last broadcast. When I look back, I can’t believe I was lucky enough to work with those legends! I can’t believe I was lucky enough to be a part of such an amazing station. I had only been in radio about 6 years when I started at Honey, and I learned SO much from watching and talking to Boogie and Richard! What an honor to have had them as coaches, mentors, and friends.
The one thing that I will always remember about working at Honey – is the laughter. There was always laughter whether you were in or out of the studio. There was laughter whether you were on air or off air. I always seemed to leave the building with my cheeks hurting from smiling and my sides hurting from laughter. Today, I can pop those shows in (or some of the Richard D shows I have on tape), and still laugh!
25 years later, Honey is no more. That makes me sad, because the world could sure use some laughter!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
I remember when you allowed me to go into the studio while Richard D was on the air. I video-taped it – just where is that tape at?? – and enjoyed the heck out of *seeing* my favorite station rather than just listening to it.
I also remember when you, me, and Richard D had lunch at Big Boys and I got to hear all of his wonderful stories about his early days in radio in the 1950s, when rock and roll was not the music of choice by so many at that time.
The Top 12 at 12 (with Record Time as one of the sponsors), the Off the Wall Record, and, the style of DJ patter was what Honey Radio was all about.
Like those who I knew and loved that have gone before me, I miss WHND, for it was like losing someone close.
And radio just has not been the same.
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An interesting broadcast background and share. I would say, Honey had its sweetness in time, flowering hearts. 💕🐝
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Loved Honey Radio. I loved the music and loved the little tid-bits the jocks would impart. In the early ‘80’s I was selling equipment all over the west. The Denver oldie station had a trivia night. The prizes were for dinners at various local places. I was in town for a day or two so I couldn’t use them. I was giving the answers to a table of girls next to me. The DJ later came over and wanted to know why I wasn’t answering and how I knew so much. I told him that the Detroit oldie station was by far the best in the country.
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Great story, Bill! Working at Honey was such a joy for me. The jocks we’re full of knowledge about artists and such. We had many sources that we used to get a lot of that info (the internet makes it so much easier today). As a young guy, working with those legends was just amazing. They were masters at what they did. It’s funny after all this time, I still remember little things like intro times to songs, who was singing backup on others, and trivia that only comes in handy when I watch Jeopardy or play a trivia game on my phone. Thanks for reading … And for listening!!
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I definitely remember this station being switched on in the car. Thank you so much for sharing this lovely tribute. It sounds like you were all such a family there; the best jobs are. I am glad you have the tapes to go back and revisit when you need to! :)
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It was such a wonderful time. One day, I will figure out how to share clips on WordPress. LOL
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I loved listening to honey radio as a kid. Sad we don’t have terrestrial stations like this anymore.
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Honey was the best! I loved being there.
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Boogie is my father and reading this brought me to tears. I love hearing about his life and the impact he made. With it being in his rear view he forgets that sometimes. I wish I could hear that recording my mom made that you all listened to!
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Hi Ashley! I’m so glad you found this. Honey, your dad and the rest of the crew were so special to me. What a wonderful place to work. Your dad was a MASTER! I wish I had a copy of your mom’s message to send you. I may know someone who has it. I will check. Drop an email to nostalgicitalian@yahoo.com. if I find it, I will send it to you. Say hi to your dad from me!
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I came across some tapes I’ve had for a number of years now. In fact since July 14 1988. I took it upon myself to record Honey Radio one day. I ended up with 5 90 minute TDK SA90 tapes. I’m in the process of digitizing them for upload to the Internet Archive. I’m using kind of a cheap setup at the moment. But if that doesn’t come out clean enough I’m going to put together something better. I had been a Honey Radio listener for a long time, not quite from the beginning. Also around that time I was a roadie for a local all girls oldies band. So I ended up going to many of the Honey Radio parties and meet with a lot of the on air personalities. That era was probably the best time of my life.
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Hi Tom! One of the things that made Honey Radio so special is listeners like you. Any time Honey was out and about, I loved listening to stories.
I was a listener before I joined the on air staff. It was bliss working there! Probably the most fun I had in the business.
Do let me know if you get the tapes done. I would love to hear what you have.
It’s nice to know that Honey Radio is something that people still think about.
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I meant to reply a little bit ago, but I’ve loaded the tapes up to the Internet Archive with key words “Honey Radio, WHND, Oldies, Monroe Michigan, Detroit Radio. And “honey-radio-july-14-1988-5-tapes-sides-a-and-b” as the Identifier. I hope people get some pleasure out of listening to them.
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I’ll be checking it out!
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I stumbled across your page here just now. Little did I know in 1980 what we’d be creating. I was the first Program Director of Honey Radio, when we went live, replacing the Drake-Chenault Classic Gold automated Format. I’d been doing mornings on Magic 95 across the hall, and Paul Christy (our consultant) and I convinced Greater Media corporate that we could grow the station (Honey) by adding live DJ’s. I left a year later to join TM Programming in Dallas, but my last hire was Dick Haase (Richard D), who took over as PD.
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Hi Phil! Thanks for your comment – it brought back some good memories. I remember Magic 95 well as my mom listened to it in the car. Paul Christy is responsible for my getting my first job in radio. He was Program Director at Kiss-FM, 102.7 and I was interning for him. One day he told me he needed me to do an overnight shift and I did that shift until they started messing with the station. Paul moved on to program 92.3 The Mix and had me do part time stuff for him there. Years later, I met Richard and landed a gig at Honey. Richard was a blast to work for. We always seemed to be laughing and loving our jobs. I am forever grateful for Paul’s belief in me. I guess it was 2010 when I started school to get a “real job.” I miss the radio days for sure. How long were you at TM? I’m guessing they did all of the music CDs that many of us used in radio. I do thank you for reaching out. Please keep in touch
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