Where Are They Now?

     

Jim Clark (Mike Apsey)

WLCY Swingin' Gentleman Jim Clark is a pseudonym I used as Mike Apsey in the days of Roy Nilson, Dick Stambaugh, Johnny Dart, "Bachelor" Bob Collins, Marshall Cleaver, The Weather Chick, Claire Lynn, and my good friend Dan Lunin, faithful boy wonder who kept all the toys working and "Fun Radio" on the air. There were others, too.

I began at Sam Rahall's WLCY while a Jr. at Robinson HS of Tampa (class of '61). I'd walk from my parent's house on Rogers Avenue on the Tampa side, across the old span of the Gandy bridge just to "hang" with my radio heroes in the control room and be an errand boy--which was my license for being there.

Sometimes, Roy would let me drive the station's red Opal newsmobile to Webb's Outpost to get burgers and shakes for my starving heroes. They liked me. Sometimes, I could even play in the production room and other times, my voice would be used on commercials and silly promos. Eventually, promos I did would be put into rotation.

Even though I was legally still a minor, I was allowed to take the shifts nobody wanted. Sunday Morning was one of those shifts. Eventually, I worked into yet another unwanted shift: Saturday night.

That was a gold mine for me. I became a familiar weekend name to the high-school crowd. Some treated me like I was famous or something. I wasn't.

Dick Stambaugh would have too many record hops and would let me use his superior record hop "stuff" to wow the High School WLCY groupies. I did lots of those, and my Saturday night audience grew. Dick let me keep the money for the ones I did. I loved that guy. Back then, Saturday didn't count in the ratings, which is probably why I was allowed to play radio in the time slot.

Once, WLCY locked me in a trailer in a parking lot for the March of Dimes. Photos on my blog link.

Why "Jim Clark?" Welp, custom radio jingles were expensive things and I unearthed a sample tape in the WLCY production room that used the name Jim Clark. What followed for me was a no-brainer. PAMS never found out about it and Bill Meeks, the man who created the PAMS Jingle legacy in Dallas died in 2002 at age 78. In later years, I recorded at PAMS studio in Dallas but I didn't confess my Jim Clark jingle sins.

I worked as much in the production room as on the air. I wrote several of those little "Sayings" that used be on a Rolodex™ on top of the console. It was chock-full of little slogans like, "WLCY FUN RADIO - WITH THE TOPS IN POPS, AND MOMS TOO!" (Everything was in upper case in those days).

The girl I was most hoping to snag with my disc-jockey status just wasn't impressed. She would marry me anyway and give me five kids, but only after I joined the Navy, saw the world, and came back to WLCY all grown-up and stuff.

Looking back, those WLCY radio days were some of my most enjoyable.

Even though I have outlived Dick, Roy, and Claire as I write this, Let me thank Roy, Dick, Claire, Sam, Johnny, Marshall, Dan, Bob, and all my friends of the era who let me make memories playing "Fun Radio" in those Gandy Blvd. studios. I had a great time.

"73 degrees on great Tampa bay. It's 4:30!" -Claire Linn circa 1960...

More of misadventures here: http://apsey.org/blog

Update: 12/30/2014
Jim Clark (Mike Apsey) passed away Christmas weekend 2014.