Posted by Pat Banks on August 13, 2004 at 20:32:56:
In Reply to: Re: Chuck Leonard Passed Away Today posted by Roddy Freeman on August 13, 2004 at 11:23:45:
>>>I heard Chuck Leonard's very first show on the radio on Baltimore's WEBB, a black station, in 1963. I was just a kid getting interested in radio, and Chuck had been hired to do weekends.
I listened as he started perfecting his style and was later moved to middays during the week. He was "Chuck Leonard, sittin' tall and cool in the squeaky chair," one of the "WEBB Soul Rangers with their Soul 45's."
He disappeared during the summer of 1965, and I never expected to hear him again. Then that fall, I heard a Dan Ingram-voiced promo saying, "Join the newest All-American, Chuck Leonard." I thought, "it couldn't be." And even after hearing Chuck with the unique WABC processing, I didn't think it was the same person. I later learned he had moved from Baltimore to WWRL, and that WABC had lured him away.<<<<
Thanks for posting this, Roddy.
I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia -- just across the Potomac from DC.
1360-WEBB came BOOMING in where I lived, and that is where I, too, first heard Chuck Leonard.
I was listening on Ron Lundy's first night on WABC. It wasn't too long (within that week) before I heard a guy using the name 'Chuck Leonard' late one night on WABC. My reaction was IDENTICAL to yours, Roddy: "CAN'T be the same guy!" In fact, I, too, was convinced for a time it wasn't him. It later became apparent that it was indeed the same great jock I'd enjoyed so much on WEBB from '63-'65.
It's so sad to lose him to such a dreadful illness. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.