My Chat With 2 Philly Radio Engineering Legends
I’d like you to meet two friends of mine, who happen to be Philly radio engineering legends.
Over the course of my career, I’ve been lucky to work with some amazing pros. I don’t just mean pros on the air, or in the production room, or on the promotions or sales team. Some of the most interesting and funny people I’ve worked with are the men and women from the engineering department. Last month, I was reunited with two guys I’d worked with back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and I thought you might like to hear my chat with 2 Philly radio engineering legends.
Bill “Radar” Rinier – Radio Engineering Legend
Bill Rinier was one of the first friendly faces I met when I started at WIFI-92 in Philadelphia in December, 1979. He was the Chief Engineer at the station, the ONLY engineer in fact, and he’d come studio many nights and tell me some great stories of his time in the business. “Radar,” as we used to call him, was also one of the original board operators for WFIL during their heyday in the 60s, and worked with Philly radio legends like George Michael, Dr. Don Rose and even Joe Niagra.
My favorite Philly radio legend he worked with at WFIL was my brother, Bill Gardner! There is a legendary story about my brother getting stuck in the ‘FIL elevator while he was on the air, and Bill Rinier and the engineering crew had to rig it so he could somehow call in during his show while they pulled him out! This was in 1968, not an easy thing to do back then!
I found this Polaroid I took of Bill Rinier, taken in the sales department of WIFI-92, back in 1982:
Here’s an aircheck of me on WIFI-92, right around the time that photo was taken. Forget how horrible I sounded, listen how good that station sounds, even on someone’s cassette tape dub. That was the work of Bill Rinier:
After his time at WIFI, Bill continued his successful engineering run at WIP before leaving to run his own business. He was the guy who set up our meeting at MGK!
Richard Bagge (Yes You Can Call Him Dick) – Radio Engineering Legend
Dick Bagge was the first Chief Engineer of WYSP, hired back in 1973. He spent 35+ years as the Chief and, with his longtime assistant engineer F. Lane Massey, kept YSP sounding powerful and loud! He even implemented a Quad signal to WYSP back in 1974, when 4-speaker Quadrophonic sound was a thing.
I admit that some engineers I’ve worked with over the years were not exactly warm and fuzzy, but Dick is such a nice bloke and we’ve had some really fun times together. He even sold me the greatest pair of speakers I’ve ever owned, as you’ll hear in our conversation.
One of the most fun events Dick and I worked on together was the “Marathon For Meals.” We did this charity event from 1990-1993, which later grew a hundred-fold with Preston and Steve’s “Campout For Hunger.” Back then, Dick was responsible for getting a good quality signal from the parking lot of the old Adams Mark Hotel on City Line Avenue, back to the WYSP studios. I was living in an RV in that parking lot, day and night for two straight weeks, collecting food for the organization that would merge with PhilAbundance. Thanks to Dick, the around-the-clock broadcasts went flawlessly. Dick even got a phone line installed at some random pole right at the corner of City Avenue and Monument Road. Genius, I tell you!
Here’s a shot I took of Dick one early morning as he was setting up our Marathon For Meals broadcast. Always a friendly smile:
Dick is happily retired and enjoys all of his various hobbies and projects.
It was Bill Rinier who contacted me about wanting to come and visit our nice, new MGK studios. I hadn’t seen him in, easily, 40 years, and I was psyched to have him stop by. When he told me that has would be bringing Dick Bagge along, I couldn’t believe it! Although Dick and I had kept in touch, I hadn’t actually seen him since 1993.
They came by and, as we started talking, I realized I must roll the recorder and get this conversation recorded. Very hurriedly, I sat them down in the MGK air studio and we..talked. I had such a wonderful time chatting with these guys, and anyone who remembers the giants like WFIL, WIFI and WYSP might get a kick out of my chat with two Philly radio engineering legends.
