BORN TO BROADCAST

Ted Alexander Makes Oldies Cool Again

By John Matuszak

Ted Alexander grew up with Cleveland radio.

“Before I could walk, I was interested in that big machine Mom and Dad had,” Alexander recalls.

He pushed the tortoise shell buttons on his beige knit sweater as if they were the knobs on the radio. He spun the beads on his playpen like he was tuning in a station and used his rattle as a microphone. He sang along with Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole.

“I was being on the radio. And I’ve never lost the interest of being on the radio,” he says.

Alexander went on to become a broadcast legend at an alphabet soup of Cleveland stations – 3WE, WIXY 1260, WGAR, WHK and others.

Now 75, he’s still playing the hits at Gold 93.7 WQGR out of Mentor, as program director and host of the popular daily 10,000 Oldies show at noon. “I was being on the radio. And I’ve never lost the interest of being on the radio,” he says.

Alexander went on to become a broadcast legend at an alphabet soup of Cleveland stations – 3WE, WIXY 1260, WGAR, WHK and others. Now 75, he’s still playing the hits at Gold 93.7 WQGR out of Mentor, as program director and host of the popular daily 10,000 Oldies show at noon.

Nostalgic, Not Old

The station’s playlist extends from the ‘50s through the early ‘80s, with everything from Sinatra to Springsteen, Elvis to Elton John, Bob Dylan to The Doobie Brothers.

Drawing from a huge catalog, Alexander rarely has to repeat a song, unlike other classic rock stations that have a tight rotation.

He even throws in local hits and other nuggets from the rock-and-roll era (When was the last time you heard “Troglodytes” by the Jimmy Castor Bunch on the radio?).

“I don’t call it an oldies station; that’s why I call it gold. It’s a nostalgia station” for people 50 and over, Alexander says.

The station, one of the first FM outlets to broadcast from Lake County, includes high school sports, public service announcements for the area library, and other information of local interest.

That’s what distinguishes 93.7 from streaming and online music services.

“They are just a jukebox; we’re a radio station,” Alexander says.

A lot has changed in broadcasting since Alexander was a teenager at St. Joseph High School, hanging around Cleveland stations, trying to get his foot in the door.

One thing that has remained constant is Alexander’s dedication to his profession and his audience, putting together the best show possible.

The Mentor station is one of six operated by MediaOne Group, with the others in Ashtabula.

Only five people work for the six stations, and everything is done via computer, Alexander says.

He prepares his own show from his home in Parma. A computer program chooses the songs for each day’s broadcast, and then Alexander adds his own touches.

“The computer gives me the ingredients,” Alexander says, and then he tweaks them to give his broadcasts a smooth flow, avoiding what he calls “musical traffic crashes” of songs that don’t fit together.

The formula appears to work. In local newspaper surveys, 93.7 has been listed as one of the most popular stations in Lake County.

Listeners outside of the range of the station can tune in online, with a website that includes information about the artists and songs. The station has fans as far away as New Zealand.

With all the new technology, Alexander still strives to give his audience the quality broadcast he learned from the masters.

Tuning In

Having been bitten early by the radio bug, Alexander’s interest continued, including ham radio. By 18, he had his first-class radio operator’s license.

Alexander visited stations and remote broadcast sites, where he met Casey Kasem, working for WJW before his “American Top 40” days.

Alexander knocked on enough doors until one of them opened.

His early stints put him in the company of many of the greats of the industry, such as Bill Randle, “The Pied Piper of Cleveland.”

“He was incredibly informative. What a genius that man was,” Alexander says.

Other colleagues and mentors included Phil McLean at WERE and Johnny Holliday at WHK, who also was an announcer at Browns’ games.

Then there was Mad Daddy, “like a Ghoulardi show on the radio,” and Big Wilson. “They made the music sing,” Alexander says. “There was always something to listen to between the songs.”

Alexander’s work put him in touch with international celebrities. He tried to interview members of The Who at Music Carnival, but they were more interested in gathering groupies than jabbering with journalists, he says.

Alexander met Tony

Bennett, Bobby Vinton and Gordon Lightfoot.

“I got a hug from Charro,” he said. His brushes with celebrity weren’t limited to the music world. While doing a talk show on 1260, he interviewed an up-and-coming young author with a new book titled “The Dead Zone.” He says Stephen King was “a fascinating person.”

Don’t Touch That Dial

As musical trends changed, Alexander’s on-air versatility and engineering acumen kept him employed. He spent 32 years as a voice-over announcer on WUAB TV, working with Linn “Barnaby” Sheldon and Marty Sullivan, also known as Superhost.

With his talents, he could have moved to New York or Los Angeles, as many of his colleagues did. But he stuck with his hometown.

“I like Cleveland. I never had the desire to go to a bigger market,” Alexander says. “How many times can the number-one radio personality in Cleveland also be the chief engineer of a 50,000-watt clear-channel radio station? I did that.”

He took the gig at 93.7, which switched to its oldies format in 2018 when he was assured, “It’s completely your creation.”

Alexander acknowledges that the prospects for small, local stations are “pretty slim” right now. But he’s confident the medium he has devoted himself to for decades will never completely fade away.

“Nothing will ever replace local radio,” he says.” Local radio with local personalities talking about local events to local people, I think will always be around.”