Name this person

[Towntalk]

By the way, Dan is in the national radio hall of fame.

[Towntalk]

Dan and I were friends for over 40 years, he encouraged me to build a web site that was all news, and for 19 years I furnished him with show prep material that amounted to 12 pages 7 days a week, and to this very day WKBN 570 links to my web site.

There were several callers that he hung up on, but never explained why he did it, because to be perfectly honest, it was none of their business. All talk hosts have callers that they hang up on, that's just the way the game's played.

Newspapers get dozens of letters to the editor, but 95% of those letters end up in the waste basket, and the same holds true in talk radio. The host has a producer who gets the call, and decides which one will go on the air (the exception is the small time hosts in cracker barrel stations like 1570 where the host takes all the calls). The callers and topics are fed to the host's computer, and he makes the final decision.

As to his policy as a DJ is concerned, it didn't hurt his ratings ... he was the number one DJ in Youngstown the whole time he spun records first in the afternoon then in the early morning.

[iwasthere]

dr had his moments with his regular callers by hanging up on them esp the woman from austintown. i thought dr was against censorship of any kind in which i was surprised that he would not play records that were censored by other djs.

[Towntalk]

You're absolutely right. It is Dan Ryan, the father of talk radio in the Youngstown market first at WBBW then later WKBN. Dan was without any question the best talk radio host that this market ever had. He was a no nonsense host that wouldn't let guests get away with dodging his questions unlike hosts today. He also did a short stint at WYTV, but preferred radio. Few people know that he had the opportunity to take his program national but was so committed to the valley that he turned it down.

Before doing talk radio Dan was one of the most popular DJ's in local radio while at WBBW and operated by the rule that if he wouldn't allow a record to be played in his home, he wouldn't play it on air regardless of how popular it was.

[cc4]

Dan Ryan was his name.

[Towntalk]

Put a name to this picture.