Cleveland Radio Tales: Stories from the Local Radio Scene of the 1960s, ?70s, ?80s, and ?90s

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!

Mike Olszewski is a veteran Cleveland radio and television personality and the curator and archivist for the Ohio Broadcast Archive and Museum. He also teaches media and communications classes at Kent State University, The University of Akron, and Notre Dame College.

Janice Olszewski has more than three decades’ experience in the travel and tourism industry. Her photography has been published in "Filmfax," "Outre," and other national magazines.