RICH DAVIS
This building was the home to my first and second real radio stations! After making a tape in my bedroom (true story!) I sent it here to Radio Road in Hanover PA, the home to Top 40 station 98YCR. Having no experience, PD Davy Crockett passed it along to Pat Case, PD of their sister station WHVR-AM. Pat hired me to initially run Orioles baseball and do the weather once an hour. It was awesome. That turned into a part time shift with Pat becoming my first mentor, air checking the tapes I’d leave him on a weekly basis and leaving them taped to the window that separated the WHVR and 98YCR studios. Finally, I got good enough to graduate to the overnight shift on 98YCR and my Top 40 career was born.
Meantime I was attending Towson State University in Maryland working on my degree in Mass Communication and I decided to apply for an internship at B104 WBSB in Baltimore. B104 was another Top 40 station I had grown up listening to, so the prospect of even getting into the building was pretty cool. I got hired by Peggy Jackson Crute as an intern in the Public Service Department. This is where a first met my buddy Jason Kidd. After much badgering on my part, Todd Fisher eventually hired me for weekend overnights. As you can see I was stoked to be on the air there and I of course needed to make sure you could see the board in the picture.
After graduating from Towson State University in Maryland and sending out tapes and resumes to everywhere I could think of, a friend of mine told me there was an overnight opening in Allentown PA. The posting had been out there for a while, and Brian Check the PD was about to make a decision. I literally got in my car and drove the nearly three hours to drop off my package in person. When I arrived I told the secretary I was there to meet Brian Check who I didn’t know was also the midday guy currently on air (he was using the name Brian Steele). I told her I had just driven up from Maryland to drop off my package, she took pity on me and told me to take a seat. 15 minutes or so later Brian came bouncing down the steps to meet with me and later hired me for my first full time job in radio!
My goal while in Allentown was to get to the next biggest market I could. Philadelphia was a short hour or so away and in 1994 Chuck Knight hired me for weekends at WYXR, Star 104.5. After a year doing part time, I was offered Nights and Music Director and made the full time move to Philly. In 1996 Chuck moved on and Dave Allan who had been the longtime PD of Power 99 WUSL came in to take his spot. Dave and I had an amazing relationship and he remains one of the best I’ve ever worked for. I was also lucky enough to meet Guy Zapoleon for the first time while there. I had no idea how important that relationship would be throughout the rest of my career.
Rich Davis
In 1997 I got hired to join the mighty 101.3 KDWB in Minneapolis and my connection to both KDWB and the Twin Cities began. This was a shot with a lot of the staff from back in ’98.
Pictured: Kris Cegla-promotions, Rob Morris-PD, Dave Ryan-Mornings, Myself, Pat Ebertz-Mornings, Jeff Rizzo-Jive, Jack Satter-Jive, Lee Valsvik Mornings, Angie Taylor-Mornings and of course the Backstreet Boys.
The itch to become a PD during my time at KDWB was growing and I got a call about a PD opening 4 hours down the road in Madison Wisconsin for Heritage top 40 WZEE Z104. Jeff Tyler GM at the time, hired me and for the first time I was in charge of the magic that was coming out of the speakers. 1999 was the stations 25th Anniversary and we threw a massive PARTY! The first big show I ever booked was our Z104 25th Birthday Bash starring 98 Degrees, Shaggy, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Citizen King, and The Baha Men…After a quick brainstorm we decided to use one of the vinyl billboards we had up in town as the backdrop for the show and it worked perfectly!
In late 2000 I made the move to WRVW in Nashville for what ended up being the next nearly 12 years of my career. In 2001 I started a little show called Acoustic Christmas. Little did I know that this would go on to become a franchise event for me and the station. One that over the years would host the likes of Maroon 5, Uncle Kracker, Jason Mraz, Gavin DeGraw, Switchfoot, The Fray, Mat Kearney, Sara Bareilles, Boys Like Girls, Brandy, Kesha, Owl City, Sean Kingston, Jay Sean, Robyn, Plain White T’s, Hot Chelle Rae, Natasha Bedingfiled, Andy Grammer, Colbie Caillat, Cobra Starship, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and more. Alicia Keys was our very first Acoustic Christmas artist!
In late 2011 I got the call to come back to the Twin Cites and become the Program Director for KDWB, it was a job I couldn’t pass up. This pic was from the first KDWB Jingle Ball that I booked back in 2012 onstage along with my APD/MD at the time Lucas.
In 2013 I took over the PD job of Cities 97.1 and our annual Cities Sampler Compilation and Show. Here’s my buddy Gavin DeGraw and I celebrating another great Sampler and show!
In 2015 I had the opportunity to head to the Pacific Northwest as the SVPP and PD of KBKS. While there, in another one of those oh wow career moments, I got the opportunity to be a guest mentor on American Idol. Florida Gerogia Line was one of the musical guests!
Then in 2016 it was back to KDWB and Cities 97.1 and honestly none of my career would be possible without my wife Mandi and our kids Mason, Maddy and McKinley! Here we are enjoying a frozen lake trek earlier this year!
