Bill Rock(formerly Chuck Cooper)remembers Bwana Johnny

The first time I met Bwana Johnny I was amazed with the zeal and excitement

this guy brought to the whole 97DJ effort. He was funny, but more than that he

was creative and jumped through the speaker at you. He was equally as funny

and creative in person.

Every station has a "spark plug" and Bwana was WWDJ's. At the time I was

a young guy programming in Albany NY trying to break into the city. When

Nick Anthony called me and offered me a weekend gig I jumped at the chance.

I often tell the story that it cost me more to fly down to NJ and do weekends

than I got paid. The WWDJ job  turned out to be the beginning of a 36 year

(and counting) on air presence in New York for me.

The whole team was eager to bring their own brand of "jocking" to America's

largest radio market.. I know it was Hackensack, but when you stop and think of it,

all the antenna's for the NY stations were in Jersey, so what was the difference.

There were guys like Bill Bailey, Al Brady, Gary Cory, Dino (Anthony) who was actually

a NY jock and Bwana . Bwana's voice ALWAYS had a smile in it. You could hear

the twinkle in his eye. When he said Bwwwaaaana Johnny on 97DJ he filled up the

speaker on your radio.

Working on the same station with him was exciting. We were all doing "kick ass" radio

with a fierce sense of competition to crack the Big Apple radio market. As calm and laid

back as Nick Anthony was, his station was intense with excitement and enthusiasm.

And Bwana was leading the charge. 97WWDJ was in town!!

I once had a communications' professor in college who used to say " we are a distillation

of all that has come before". These days when I'm on the air on Sirius , I can't help but

think that that Bwana is one of the many who have influenced what I do everyday as

I am sure he has others. 

When I learned where he was on the west coast, I had the opportunity to email him just

prior to his passing. We work in a constantly changing business. He was a trooper in an

industry that usually burns out its people quickly. Radio lost a great talent..