I grew up mostly in Tampa, FL, where Scott Shannon was an everyday presence with Cleveland Wheeler and the Q Morning Zoo. I honestly found the format tiresome and unlistenable, but it got ratings. Eventually he did well enough to get the attention of New York City radio moguls and the rest is history.
In the context of Tampa this move was a big, huge, honkin’ deal. At least that’s how the media played it up. There was a tearful signoff (insincere by most estimates) and a sense that Shannon was taking a huge risk. I suppose he was but when he was gone he was gone…. Until I moved to New York. I remembered thinking the first thing I’d do when I got here was find Scott Shannon on the radio. I don’t think I ever did. In those mentally cluttered days I didn’t know where to find a radio schedule and I don’t even think my radio had an FM tuner on it. I never found him because I didn’t know where to look, and over time I guess I let that little ambition fade.
It was in recent years that I just happened to find him. I recognized the voice, though it soudned a little drier and crotchety than I remembered. He sounded older and happy. The format among he and his backup was well-oiled and effective.
I don’t put him on my pantheon of radio heroes like Joe Frank, Danny Stiles, Matt Drudge, Paul Harvey, Gene Scott, and others with styles I’d describe as more distinct than what Shannon did. Unique might be the word. But he was a calming, reliable, friendly presence. I don’t recall any scandals or missteps that would have erased his career. I also have no knowledge of any circumstances behind his departure. Is it straight retirement ora parting of ways? I don’t know, don’t care. I just remember that moment of closure which was actually an opening when I finally found him on the radio here.
I have some radio airchecks from Q105 in the 1980s. I forget is Shannon was in any of them. I listened to some of those a while back, amazed at how tiny they sounded to me now but how large and loud they seemed to loom in my life. They sound like scrappy 20-somethings, which is exactly what they were. Tampa and Central Florida in general were known as a prime starting ground for radio personalities. I think Rush got his start down there.
Who else did I tune in to? Tom Snyder, always acerbic and at times uncomfortably uptight. Lionel, who went to my high school and has a uniquely crotchety delivery. I read he failed as a morning show host and I could totally see why. That kind of crabgrass doesn’t lend itself to morning drivetime. Garrison Keillor was an early hero who became monotonous to me. When he went off to his “experience” I think nothing was ever the same.
But Scott Shannon is gone, at least from WCBS. I liked his style in later years but hearken back to how obnoxious and noisy the shows in Tampa were.There was another personality, Jack something, I think, who was nicer and funnier. More home spun, I guess. Can’t think of his name now. But the Q Morning Zoo made a schtick of ridiculing that other announcer, which I found tiresomely stupid and childish.
Jack Harris. That’s who it was. He was a favorite of mine. Haven’t heard his voice in decades. But it was Shannon and his crew that would skewer Harris and that’s why I ddin’t listen to Shannon much. They just seemed mean.
