Posted by KCJackson on August 13, 2004 at 17:34:08:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Chuck Leonard Passed Away Today posted by Steve Green on August 13, 2004 at 14:04:37:
Steve, it's not heresy to not have been a fan of Musicradio WABC. It wasn't everyone's cup of tea despite what I felt was their incredible ability to blend many different styles of music into a single package. Whenever we kids were at Grandma's, she allowed us kids to listen to WABC at the beach or in the car, but in Grandma's home, it was WNEW 1130... and ironically, that was the reason I appreciate standards and swing as much as the classic top 40 songs WABC played.
But just as there was a large group of people who didn't know McCartney before Wings, there are those who didn't know Chuck Leonard before Kiss-FM. However you recall Chuck, you can't help but marvel at his ability to project the same smooth (that word again) demeanor regardless of the format. He could probably have made polka sound hip.
The aircheck that everyone should listen to if they haven't already is Chuck Leonard on the air at WABC the day MLK Jr was assassinated - it's in the Sounds/aircheck section of the main Musicradio77.com site. His tone was certainly subdued under the circumstances, but in hindsight, it was the same voice you had come to know, good times or bad. As Allan's description of that aircheck says, Chuck recognized how many people were listening and chose his words very carefully. It's often how you perform in adverse situations that "define" you as a broadcaster, and this was one of Chuck's finest moments.