People of the Past

Arthur “Tom” Thomas aka ​The Great Old Man

The Great Old Man was a good friend to fellow Djs. He loved WTF, a good cup of coffee, and live music.
He moved WTF into his home and made everyone feel welcome.
His love for WTF was profound and his positive, good humored spirit is missed dearly in both the radio world and in daily life.
​The Great Old Man’s voice still lives on – Saturdays at 1pm on the Great Old Man Show.

Beezer Magoo

Beezer is a Broadcasting God from Planet X.
He eagerly took over the lead controls of the beloved Radio Robot.
Beezer also provided us The Big Broadcast, a Sunday morning collection of vintage radio
which featured such radio gems as Jack Benny, Amos & Andy, Duffy’s Tavern, 5 minute mysteries, & I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE F.B.I! to name a few.

​Beezer founded WTF and we still celebrate Beezer, especially on Beezer Magoo Day.

The Rootdoctor

The Rootdoctor was one of the first set of DJs to be heard on WTF. You could hear a wide variety of music on his show, and
he took pride in finding new music weekly. He is responsible for bringing a lot of new DJs onto the crew, and loved
having guests during his show. He is still in the creative world today and can be found with his beautiful photography
​ on Facebook as Rootdoctor Photography.

Brad DeJarlais aka Pine Top

Pine Top was most frequently a co-host on Rootdoctor’s show.
He loved a good bass guitar and had some of the best on-air stories.
You could sometimes catch him solo, filling in for an under the weather Dj.
His son, Red Pine, can be heard on the air on Mondays at 6pm.
Brad is missed in life, and on the radio, dearly. 

Mississippi Jack

​In the Mississippi Jack days, Blues on Friday made many stops along the “Blues Highway”. The show was all about the evolution of blues; it’s styles and personalities. Out of the honky tonks, junk joints, and rent parties of the Deep South came the blues men and women who, through their music, told the stories of their lives. Jack & Pinky still reside in NE Michigan.

Adventures in Hi-Fi with Pinky

Pinky covered all genres from the 30s to present times with some satirical humor. Often referred to as “all over the board”. She like to do themed shows such as “Doo Wop” and “Country Western”. Nothing on WTF has compared to her style of show since her departure. Pinky is a ​true character, no one can ever replicate.

C-Biscuit

C-Biscuit was heard during the very early stages of WTF. C-Biscuit tried to introduce people to the music they normally wouldn’t find on the radio. Music that in many cases is much better than what is floating around in the mainstream. He believed that a lot of rock and folk gets lost behind over produced pop music. That pop music can be great but you usually have to catch it early in an artists career. The aspect of his show he is most proud of is when he started letting people know concert dates of when artists/bands were coming to Michigan. He also had on-going pretend rivalry with Walker. He enjoyed the year that his show was on, and he still misses it.

Chubby McCarlson

Host of Chubby’s Rock Hard
The Chubster enjoys being a living embodiment of ALL 4 Ghostbusters combined. Chubby has achieved a state of ecto-plasmic fluxation and was often rumored to battle Godzilla! Chubby is a talented musician & has played in many bands including
Hot Property & Cosmic Key.
​Macho Man Randy Savage has called Chubby “America’s next heartthrob” & US Weekly says “That guy sucks”.

Chubby moved to the deserts of New Mexico to explore
the realms of nuclear physics.
He was last seen running naked in a sombrero claiming
“I have invented a taco that is lighter than air.”

Please let us know if you find him…

Mrs. Bitterson – Anna Perry

Anna was frequently interviewed by Tom E Boy as a hilarious
character known only as Mrs. Bitterson.
She was always complaining about the antics of her fictional accident-prone husband & their farm.
Anna was very creative in drawing cartoons.
She was a witty, sarcastic, amazingly funny woman whose off of the cuff
on air improvising would often throw the Tom E Boy for a loop.

She is missed on and off air dearly.

Reverend Ed Melons

Reverend Ed constructed a studio in the backyard shed at his home in Lansing and provided shows from it. Musically, he was all over the place with an emphasis on late 60s/70s “progressive” and singer/songwriter. He would also throw in a broadway tune now and then. It was a random mix of stuff he enjoyed with no real continuity of theme. It was the same as if you were sitting in a room with him and he was playing records for you. He seemed to get his musical tastes from his mother, who was quite a character and was a major Zappa/Janis Joplin fan.

Sticks

“A Harrisville boy, born on the East end of Main Street.” – Sticks

​Sticks doesn’t like to talk about himself. His music did the talking. He did a great show and has great taste in music, not limiting himself to any one genre or time period, just damn good music.

Sticks is still residing in Alcona along with his lovely wife.

Beefloaf

Beefloaf first debuted on his show TxDP (Techno Exploration Dance Party) and that eventually evolved into Beefloaf’s Primal Cuts. TxDP was about teaching people that there are different genres of beeps and boops. Not all techno is the same, or equal. In that time he got his own Dj equipment and learned how to mix, and with Primal Cuts he pushed himself to learn faster by not listening to what he was about to mix. Which ultimately lead to a few explicits words being played over the airwaves, train wrecking, unbalanced levels and effects that weren’t synching with the beats but a fun listen and a good learning experience for him. He is known for doing an overnight 12 hour non-stop, Dj shift over St Patrick’s Day. He also got into vinyl and would go to thrift stores and buy random vinyl and just pick a spot on a side and play it. That lead to a monthly installment of random vinyl nights with Beefloaf. He made a brief reappearance in 2022 with ADHD Algorithm.

“The end isn’t the end, maybe a pause but never the end.” – Beefloaf

King Vinyl

Dan McCurdy aka King Vinyl, did exactly what his name suggests, played vinyl. He was the master of dusting off the old scratchy 45s and playing them through all of their imperfections.
It had been suggested that he play the digital version of the song (for better sound quality) and just tell a story about the where/when/why he bought the actual record. Where did it get so scratched up? He resisted and continued to play dusty albums giving his show authenticity and character.

Dan is also the singer of Alcona’s own
​Master Cylinder (circa 1973-1979)

Sparkie

Kim Wonderly, known on-air as Sparkie has done DJ work up and down the West Coast, but her specialty now is traffic reports. She’s been the morning traffic anchor for KCBS San Francisco for many years. In addition to her occasional themed show for WTF, she provided our Harrisville traffic updates. Of course, they were recorded way in advance but that worked out pretty good since traffic in Harrisville was pretty much the same every day. “…..23 southbound is light to and through Oscoda, and the traffic light is functioning. Kim Wonderley: WTF traffic.”
Kim also enjoys writing songs and playing guitar and has released an album with her band, The Flywheels.

Jazzy Jew

Early on he was responsible for the ever evolving Robot Show. During parties you might hear him singing and playing some live guitar. He co-hosted all over the place and eventually hosted Jazzy Jew’s Electric Boogaloo. He played an eclectic arrangement of music and never tied himself down to one genre. 

Rock N Roll Casey

Casey Redmond did a show for us called Casey’s Music Dustbin. He currently does a podcast, blogs, & plays multiple instruments. He performs in Ohio as well as Michigan as
​Rock N Roll Casey.​Check out some of his music here.

Lizzy Borden aka The Axe Lady

Lizzy Borden was fun to listen to on the radio. She was always laughing and telling cute stories. Sometimes she would have her daughter (Chesty Edison) join her for on-air antics. Her musical tastes ranged from top 40, to 70s and 80s rock and roll. She was heard in the early WTF days as part of the Sunday afternoon lineup.

“O”

O hails from Europe and was the host of Across the Big Pond. Born in Milan, Italy. Citizen of the World.
Owner of a digital mind and an analogue heart.
O is also a published author, indie musician, video maker and co-founder of Casscomics  (underground series of comic zines and music cassettes).

Big Daddy

 

“Big Daddy” Ryan did a show for WTF all about 80s rock and hair bands.
He was very informative about the music and told great stories pertaining
to his experiences with the bands. He loves the band Kiss, and you definitely
could tell by listening to his show! Ryan is also known around town for
being a very good wedding/party Dj.

He can still be seen around locally as an accomplished paramedic.

DJ Wub-A-Dub

Wub-A-Dub hosted Mystery Mayhem, a show featuring mostly Dubstep but also

other songs with bleeps and bloops that appealed to her senses. Jess still resides in Alcona County.

The Flower Hour

Casey AKA Dee Spencer (pictured left)
& Bill AKA Gram Daily (pictured right)
did a show back in 2011-2012 – The Flower Hour.
It was mainly focused around, new at the time, medical marijuana. They had marijuana based stories, law updates, debates, and even recipes!
They played lots of stoner music, alternative,
SoCal based bands, and even some rap. They
had a good following despite the show lasting only half of a year. Bill did a recent stint as Co-Host of The Hip-Hop Time Machine under the name Kill Bill.

​Casey & Bill still reside locally.

Mr. T Risko

Brett Trisko was one of those that “heard about WTF and wanted to try some radio.” He provided 1 hour programs weekly that were part of the Saturday lineup. His on air name came from a mislabelled piece of junk mail. Eventually life got busy and he was forced to move on.

He still lives locally, is with the Air National Guard in Alpena,
​and still has great taste in music.

The Radio Robot

Radio Robot was found hosting WTFs Radio Robot Morning Show for quite a while. The Robot show was music centric but also included weather, traffic and WTF ACTIONnews information updates. Radio Robot is 70% male, 25% female, 5% other. Robot likes romantic walks on the beach and All-You-Can-Eat-Perch dinners. Musically, Robot enjoys anything but is especially fond of everything. Radio Robot’s favorite color is Blue. Green on Thursdays.

The Robot is doing well these days and says “high.”

Kathryn Kniep aka Bridgette the Goddess of Poetry

Kay was an accomplished writer. She wrote for many years for the Alpena News before starting the All Alcona Almanac with her husband, brother and sister-in-law. She was an editor and writer for the publication for a few years.

In the mid 80s she started writing her column “Puttin’ on the Fritz” for The Alcona Country Review. Within the column, which could be pertaining to many different topics, her pets were given their own voices and they told great stories.

She was the lead singer for the Sunrise Jammers, a group of local musicians who performed in the early 2000s.

In the early 2010s she starting coming in to WTF studios to record a poetry segment. She educated listeners about famous poets, and would read poems in her sweet, warm voice. Her daughter Katrina (known as Hipster Kat on-air) also had a show on WTF for a short time with the soon to be Crunchy Mom.

She has many more accomplishments that aren’t listed here.
She really was a woman of all trades, and she is missed by all who knew her.

Captain Slappy

Early in the WTF days, in the late hours of the evening, a pirate could be heard over the air-waves. Legend says that his recordings were found in bottles washed up to the beach of the studio. Weekly he took you with him on his rum-soaked adventures at sea (well Lake, really). One day, the bottles stopped arriving. No one really knows whatever happened to Captain Slappy. Did he find a young maiden on the water to make his own. Did he find trouble with another galleon? Did he ever find his treasure?

Sportsville

Sportville was our only sports show, presented by local Alconites Ethan (pictured left) and Brandon (right).
They gave us updates on sports both locally as
well as at professional level.

​Both still work and reside locally with their families.

Nick Danger Starship Trooper

His show would start off with “Rocket Man” and end with “Smoke 2 Joints”. It usually contained a random grab back of picks with a focus on lesser known songs or deep cuts by all the different artists played. Nick did like to play tried and true classics such as Aerosmith or Guns & Roses, but liked having new sounds to break up any routines he might have established. Nick also brought on Three Dog a character from the game Fallout 3 to give the Wasteland News. His goal at the station was to give everyone the best day he could, leading him to keeping the phrase, ‘Finding the Silver Lining’ as his mantra for the entertaining world.