Description

Remember when Cleveland radio was filled with larger-than-life characters?

Let's go behind the microphone to meet dozens of intriguing and innovative local radio personalities, including ...

• "Count" John Manolesco, the talk show host, astrologer, and former vampire who performed an exorcism live on-air
• A daytime host who raised eyebrows and gained headlines when he did his entire show in the nude
• Inventive Wayne Mack, whose make-believe big band concerts seemed so real that listeners drove around for hours in search of his fictional "Waltz Palace" ballroom
• Loudmouth Gary Dee, who scored big ratings interviewing strippers and once knocked a fellow DJ out cold
• Media mogul Milton Maltz, a "square" who teamed up with hippies to transform WMMS into a rock and roll giant
• Young Jack Paar, who nearly lost his first radio job while saving Cleveland from a Martian invasion
• The undaunted DJs of WABQ who broke FCC rules to stay on the air during the Glenville riots in 1968
• Teenage amateurs whose pirate radio stations drew loyal local listeners--and angry visits from the Feds

Plus stories of live remotes gone wrong, unruly in-studio guests, management scuffles, the river of booze that fueled radio ... and more strange but true tales