Those of you outside of New York may not recognize the name Bob Shannon.  Actually, some of you within New York may not recognize the name Bob Shannon.  But if you ever listened to the best oldies station ever for 33 years, WCBS-FM (101.1) – even for just one afternoon – you’d know the voice.

Bob Shannon has been in radio for nearly 40 years and was instantly recognizeable as the voice of afternoon drivetime on WCBS for many, many years, until June of 2005, when he and the rest of the WCBS staff were laid off to make room for the pitiful JACK-FM format.  I posted about the loss back on my old blog.  I’ve said it before and I won’t harp on it, but it does need to be reiterated: I don’t have a problem with JACK, but I have a problem with it thoughtlessly replacing a piece of NY history.  Okay, I’m done.

Thankfully, Bob is still in radio, along with his wife, Connie T. Empress, on Long Island’s WLNG.  The co-author of a 1986 book entitled Behind The Hits (which, sadly, seems to be out-of-print), Bob and Connie broadcast a weekly "Behind The Hits" show on WLNG, featuring, well, the stories.  You know, behind the hits.

I’m just a schmuck with a shiny new website, but Bob somehow caught wind of my What A Fool Believesapalooza post and deemed it worthy of mention on his 9/26/06 broadcast.  But here’s why Bob impresses me: going beyond the fact that it’s unbelievably cool to hear Bob Shannon say "jasonhare.com," he took the time to really check out my website, even noting a silly little bit on the bottom of my acting resumé.  (I know the rest of you bastards just took the files and ran.)

But enough narcissism.  Here’s why you should find this interesting: Bob has the entire story behind the creation of "What A Fool Believes."  All I knew about the original was that Ted Templeman encouraged Michael to use the riff, and at some point, McD and Kenny got together and made sweet, sweet love.  But Bob knows the truth in one of his classic "Behind The Hits" stories.

I’m pleased to give you the relevant portion of the show.  Warning: some of you may not be used to this style of disc jockeying.  See, kids, this is back when radio DJs were allowed to have their own personalities. It’s hard to understand now that most DJs are corporate robots clicking a mouse.  But trust me here: at one point, most DJs sounded like this!  It’s true!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Can you believe it?  They wrote it together before Kenny even walked in!  I knew it.  Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald: A Match Made In Heaven.  I’ll be covering this in an upcoming Mellow Gold post.