Ed Weigle 96 connections

For nearly 30 years, ED WEIGLE has remained one of the most prolific and distinctive voices in America. He began lending his voice to industrial videos and commercials at the tender age of 13, while still attending Latrobe High School (Years later, he would voice a national ad campaign for "84 Lumber," with another graduate of his alma mater, Arnold Palmer). Ed's voice began getting peoples' attention when he was barely out of diapers. "When I was five, I went in for minor surgery and the anesthesiologist, who was a close family friend, insisted on checking my vocal chords, when he intubated me to see if everything was normal. Apparently, it was." Ed's first job in radio came a few years after he began doing voiceovers, the result of a request for a meeting with one of Hollywood's most beloved screen actors. "I was listening to a local radio station and they were talking about how they were helping to organize a 75th birthday party for Jimmy Stewart, in his hometown, Indiana, PA." At the time, Ed hadn't yet fully embraced the microphone as his key to future success, rather, colored pencils, pastels, and an artist's palette. "I was always an admirer of Mr. Stewart, so I thought I'd do a portrait of him and see if I could personally give it to him." When he called the station to make his proposition, the woman who answered the phone immediately recognized his voice. "She asked me what station I was with. I told her, 'I'm fifteen years old, still in school and not with any station, yet.' She said, 'Well, you are now! Do your portrait and I'll see that you get to meet the Stewarts.’” He visited with them again in 1987, the last time they visited Pittsburgh, for a tribute to Jimmy by the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters. Ed kept in occasional contact with the famous couple, until Gloria Stewart's death. "Mrs. Stewart got a kick out of the fact that her husband indirectly got me my first gig in radio. That effectively put the kibosh on my art career." Today, a picture of Jimmy Stewart, holding Ed’s artwork, graces the wall in his studio.

Throughout the 1980s and early ‘90s, Ed worked for several Pittsburgh area radio stations as an oldies DJ. In spite of Ed's encyclopedic knowledge of pre-Beatles R&B and doo wop, he wasn’t allowed to do remote broadcasts or personal appearances in his early years, since it was feared that his teenage face might compromise the credibility of the radio station. His major influence was his close friend and mentor, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebrant and Pittsburgh disc jockey pioneer, Porky Chedwick. "It's because of Porky that we're known as the Oldies Capital of the World. We still play records that nobody outside of Pittsburgh grew up with, which were as popular, locally, as Elvis records were everywhere else." Porky Chedwick is given credit for being the first white DJ to broadcast what were then called "race records" (recordings by black artists), within earshot of a major city. When it became known that Porky was white, he became rock and roll's first anti-hero. For the last decade, through numerous articles Ed has written for magazines and websites, he's encouraged scholars to finally give the 91-year-old Chedwick the credit that has eluded him for more than 60 years, rather than celebrate his more famous successors. "Porky was playing this music on the air before anyone, on WHOD in Homestead," Ed insists. "In 1948, he became a trailblazer, not only by playing what Alan Freed would call 'rock and roll,' some four years later, but he was featuring old records the local stores couldn't sell. He simultaneously created an entire industry dedicated to rock and roll nostalgia." Still, as Ed observes, "Being a pioneer, especially in the music business, might buy you a bit of immortality, but it doesn't pay your grocer or your doctor." Read one of his articles at: http://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/porky.htm. He’s currently working on an updated biography of Porky Chedwick.

Ed Weigle graduated in 1990 from Point Park College (now Point Park University) in his birthplace, Pittsburgh, PA, with a BA in Journalism and Communications. "I should've graduated in '89, but I pissed away a year to manage a rock band and run all over the country with The Marcels—But I don’t regret a second of it!” The downtown college had no campus, in the classical sense; instead, the whole city of Pittsburgh was the campus. Point Park College’s claim to fame was that some soap opera stars, Radio City Rockettes, local TV personalities and comedian Dennis Miller had graduated from there. Also, Ed's friend, the late Don Brockett, who played Chef Brockett on "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" and parts in movies ("Silence of the Lambs," “Fletch Lives” and George Romero’s “Day of the Dead”) was an instructor at Point Park. “The opportunities there were amazing,” remembers Ed. While still a sophomore, Ed landed his first national voiceover job, while dining at a New York City restaurant with some fellow students and their Professor, Joan Williams. “I actually “auditioned” by telling a dirty joke at the table. I finished the story and this fellow, who had just sat down, said to the professor, “I think he’s who we’re looking for.” The fellow was an executive with a Manhattan production company, and one of Prof. Williams’ former students. For five years, Ed voiced promos for cable networks including HBO, Cinemax and Lifetime, for the company.

In 1989, Ed finally convinced his friend, Fred Johnson, the legendary bass vocalist of The Marcels, whose #1 record, “Blue Moon,” became a rock and roll anthem in 1961, to reunite with his cousins, the group’s original lead vocalist, Cornelius “Nini” Harp and founding tenor, Ronald “Bingo” Mundy, to record some acapella tracks in Ed’s basement studio at his home in Greensburg. “They hadn’t sung together for decades and when they started harmonizing, the guys just looked at each other and said, ‘Damn! We can still do it!’” The reunion sparked a CD on Staten Island-based label, Starlight Discs, called “Starlight Serenade Volume 4” and a brief tour of the three original group members, for the first time since the early 60s.

Later that year, Ed and Fred Johnson were cast as extras in the movie “Diary of a Hitman,” starring Forrest Whitaker, appearing within the first few minutes of the picture, in a scene shot at the Pittsburgh Train Station. It was Fred’s first movie role (although neither of the two appear in the movie credits), since he co-starred with The Marcels, Chubby Checker and Dion DiMucci in the picture, “Twist Around the Clock.” At least, that 1961 movie made it to theaters; “Hitman” went straight to video. “We’d already been part of a car chase they shot around spring. The brand new Grand Am I drove ended up getting stolen and destroyed, a few months later,” remembers Ed. “They needed snow in one of the outdoor scenes, so they used potato buds. It rained and the sidewalk was covered with mashed potatoes. That’s no fun getting off your shoes, let me tell you!” The scene Ed and Fred appear in was shot on the first extremely hot day of summer. “The casting director called me out of the blue that June and wondered if I could find Fred and our winter clothing. I said, ‘But its 93 degrees out!’ She said, “In Hitman, it's freezing.’” Ed assumed they’d never be in the final cut, until he accidentally found the movie at a video rental store, more than a year later. He didn’t even know it had been released. ”Just look for the tall bowlegged white guy, next to the shorter black guy, lugging suitcases and wearing layers of winter clothing. People getting off the trains in halter tops and swim trunks were looking at us like we were crazy.”

Shortly before the first Gulf War broke out, Ed was hired as the overnight DJ at classic rocker, Magic 97 WMYG, to lead into the Jimmy and Steve morning show (Jimmy Roach and Steve Hansen were the city’s top morning team at WDVE in the 1980s). Two years later, he returned to the station, now called WRRK, to briefly do the same for newly-hired Pittsburgh radio institution, Jim Quinn. He left the station when a production director position failed to materialize. “I thought that it was time to leave Pittsburgh. As much as I loved my city, I wasn’t going anywhere there.” He would remain the station ID and promo voice of WRRK, for the next couple years, working from his home studio.

Ed left home for Chicago, where he accepted a job as the afternoon DJ and production director at a suburban country station, WCCQ. “I had a great time and created a gimmick by calling my listeners my “Party Monkeys.” Soon, we had Party Monkey billboards going up around Chicago plugging my show, featuring the famous evolution of man drawing in reverse, ending up with a little smiling chimpanzee holding a mug of beer.” However, after only two years, he realized that he enjoyed being in the production studio, rather than in the air chair. “I’ve made some dumbass decisions in my 42 years,” recalls Ed, “One of them was leaving Chicago.” The station owner was shocked when Ed announced he was heading back to Pittsburgh, assuming it would be another Chicago radio station that would steal him away.

The job which lured him back home was with a production company that produced on-hold telephone messages. When his employer didn’t honor his contract and his paychecks began bouncing, Ed bounced, too. “My boss and I had the same bank and the branch managers there knew about this guy. When I’d get a paycheck, the bank would actually call me and say, ‘Get in here and cash your check now, the money’s in the guy’s account! It was a ridiculous situation.” Ed used his own studio equipment, which he kept in the office. He’d warned his boss that if he were given another bad check, he would take his toys and go home. “There was an attorney in the same building, who was aware of my situation, and actually helped me move all of my stuff out of the office. I started to load up my car, but he directed me downstairs to his office. He showed me to a large extra room and said, ‘This is now your office!’ Predictably, Ed’s former boss was not pleased, having Ed working directly below his office. “He tried to hold me to a non-compete clause in my contract, but since he breached it from the get-go, the attorney made him sign off on it, or be sued.” The ex-boss even tried to deny Ed his last paycheck. “The bank told me to hang on to one of the bad paychecks, from a couple months before, that it might come in handy. They called me when it was good, so I got part of what was owed.”

While back in Pittsburgh, Ed’s freelance business was growing and he was the ID/ promo voice of many radio stations, over several years, including WAKR, Akron, Ohio; WSRZ Oldies 106 in Sarasota, FL and WTAE, Pittsburgh. His voice was also prominent on stations in the United Kingdom. “I’d voice the tracks and send them to Birmingham, England, where a tremendous talent named Marc Silk would produce them. We remain great friends and he became my agent in Europe.” Silk, a fellow voiceover pro—now known as England’s “Man of 1000 voices”—became the voice of minor character, “Aks Moe,” in the motion picture, “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” and numerous cartoons, including the UK’s version of “Johnny Bravo.”

In 1995, Ed received a call from Tour Design in Indianapolis, which would mark the start of the most successful phase of Ed’s career. The company was, and still is, one of only several in the world who create radio and TV for concert tours and live events (now Ed’s competitors). “I was told they wanted me to replace the guy who basically put their company on the map. When they sent me a tape of him, I said, holy shit, I hear this guy every time I fire up the toaster—He was on the concert spots for The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Paul McCartney and you name it!” The voice talent was Nick Sommers. He and his family were in the process of selling their home, to move to Florida and start their own business. Ed and Nick became fast friends and hoped to one day join forces.

After a couple years, when Tour Design opted not to renew Ed’s contract, he again embraced his freelance work, even doing some shifts on Indianapolis radio stations. Months later, he was off to Lexington, Kentucky to accept the job as production director at WVLK-AM/ K-93 and, eventually, three more stations the company would purchase. Under Ed’s management, the production department of HMH Broadcasting (later bought by Cumulus) filled the station’s lobby with Addy Awards and became the place where the major ad agencies would come to record their commercials. “Those were the greatest days I ever spent in radio,” he says. “I’ve never felt more at home at a radio station, than I did with those folks.”

His days in the heart of the Bluegrass ended when his soon-to-be ex-wife and legal issues forced him back to Indianapolis. There, he became production director for a downtown alternative rock station called Rock 107 WEDJ, which was only about a year old. “It was a David and Goliath situation,” says Ed. “We were really trying to tear into Clear Channel’s alternative outlet, X-103 (The X), with our edgier music format and lots of attitude. I tried to write and voice station IDs and promos that were fun, but very biting. Unfortunately, we didn’t have very powerful signal and very few advertisers—and you can’t run a radio station without ad revenue.” Within a couple months of Ed’s arrival, the station owners had no choice but to abandon the format and fire the entire air staff and program director. A few days after Rock 107’s demise, Ed learned from Rock 107’s former program director that the disc jockeys at X-103 asked their program director not to hire any of Rock 107’s former DJs. “What really offended them (at X-103) was one of my liners, in which I said, ‘Ever notice, if you draw a line through the letter X, it sort of looks like an asshole?’ (bleeped, of course). All our jocks did was play the liner! If the X jocks were mad at anyone, it should’ve been me! I was actually trying to emulate the “assassin” radio technique used back in the 80s by Clear Channel’s own “Power Pig” WFLZ in Tampa, to ridicule and essentially beat the longtime market leader, Q105, to death. Rock 107 didn’t have a prayer, but it was sure fun trying!”

After the Rock 107 experiment was shut down, Ed was invited by WEDJ’s owners to stay on to oversee the transition to a Hispanic format. “We made more money as a radio station in a couple months as a Hispanic outlet than we did during the whole rock thing.” Ed was given his Operations Manger stripes and oversaw both WEDJ and its sister AM, all-Spanish “Fiesta Mexicana.” “It was unique and fun experience, for someone who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish.”

In the fall of 2001, the long awaited call from Nick Sommers finally came. He needed someone to take over the creation of radio commercials for what was still the World Wrestling Federation. The spots would run in all English-speaking markets around the world, where there was WWF pay per view, TV show broadcast or non-televised event. “I’d always loved WWF and used to watch it in college. It’s not often you get to promote something you truly enjoy,” says Ed. For the first several months, he worked from a studio he had set up in his office at WEDJ. When the workload for what had become WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) became too much to handle from Indianapolis, he gave his notice to the radio station, packed up and moved, for the 11th time in seven years. “I had never realized where Nick’s studios were, until right before I came down here to Florida. I couldn’t believe it when he told me he was in Englewood—only fifteen minutes from the family condo we’ve owned on Venice Island since 1974!” Ed moved into the family retreat, decades before he planned to retire there, and went to work. “My wife, Colleen, and I are Floridians, for keeps. I tell people that my next move will be into a casket or an urn.”

More than seven years later, Ed remains the national radio voice of WWE. In 2007, he wrapped up six years as the radio and TV voice for Celine Dion’s “A New Day” engagement at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and is now creating radio and TV audio for Bette Midler’s “The Showgirl Must Go On” at Caesar’s. Additionally, he can be heard promoting “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit,” across the country, as well as many other projects. He even voices the national commercials for Jig-A-Loo spray lubricant.

Nick Sommers Productions creates radio and TV for Elton John, The Commodores, Feld Entertainment, AEG Live, Disney, Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus, High School Musical, The Bodies Exhibit and many more of the world’s greatest entertainment providers.

___________________________________________________________________

Ed Weigle resides in Venice, Florida with his wife and toddler son, Zachary, who is Nick's godson. He may be reached at 941-870-8700. Ed’s wife voices all the national radio and TV tag lines for Playhouse Disney and a growing list of projects. Reach Colleen Weigle at 941-870-8700.

Ed wrote the final appendix of Michael C. Keith’s book, “Sounds in the Dark: All-Night Radio in American Life,” sharing some humorous recollections of his on-air days. “Larry King wrote the foreword, I wrote the last chapter,” says Ed, “That’s the only time I’ll ever get the last word with Larry King!” The book is available at Amazon.com.

For a list of his employment history, visit http://www.440.com/440sat.html , select the "name" option and look up Ed Weigle.