Chris Holiday

I got into the business in college part time for weekend spending $$. I was in Cleveland, Mississippi at Delta State University in the mid-60’s. I also figured I could hear more Otis Redding, Ruby Winters & Clarence Carter if I was playing the music. I still have true Rock n Roll in my blood…. The Beach Boys, Rod Stewart & the Faces, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple…. Oh well……. Old rockers never die……..

My first big “blow in the industry” was hurricane Camille. As Program Director at WLOX in Biloxi Mississippi I got to see my first real rock station turned to rubble.

Buzz Bennett and the Real Robert Mitchell picked me up at WTIX in New Orleans in the late 60’s following a brief but successful three years with my rock group “Eternity’s Children”. We are still fighting with record companies for royalties due the group, Gary Paxton and Curt Boetcher.

I followed Cleveland Wheeler at WABB in Mobile as Music Director doing morning drive in the early 70’s, came to Tampa Bay radio warming up the crowd for Jack Harris in a brief stint at WFLA before moving to WLCY doing mid-days for Johnny Bridges and the “Last Contest”. Took over mornings as Program Director trying to keep control of Tedd Webb, Linda Gibson, Brother John Moore, Ron Parker, George Nix, George McGovern, Johnny Stevens, Rick Morgan, Bill Alford, Sharon Taylor, Arch Deal, Nancy Alexander, and Dick Crippen just to name a few. I tried to divorce myself from the industry in the late 70’s before I went blind…. was not successful until brief talk radio stints at WNSI (old WLCY) with Marshall Clever, briefly at KSUN (Jerry Van Dyke’s place) in Phoenix with Tom Straw (ex-Cheers fame) and Bruce Marr of Good Morning America recognition, I then returned to Florida.

I went back to college and law school in the early 80’s in New Hampshire, returned and settled permanently in Florida. Managed the Contracts Departments at Conax and Florida Power Corporation before settling in as head of the Contracts Group at the Aviation Recorders Division of L-3 Communications Corporation (we build the “Black Boxes” for the aviation industry). My lovely wife Judy, our four sons and four granddaughters still live in the Tampa Bay area. And, as you know Tedd…. all those memories remain, and go on forever. It really was different then! Remember those great shows, the Beach Boys, the two day extravaganza with Wolfman Jack, Led Zepplin, Pia Zadora, the Osmonds, Billy Preston, Gladys Knight, Kool and the Gang, and so many many more! The mind is a wonderful thing……. We miss those days don’t we……