K.P. got into CB radio, which
was "the thing" in the late '60s and early '70s, and he
knew then that he wanted to be a Disc Jockey like the ones he heard in New
York City
. When he was 12, he hung out at the Fire Dept. in
West Hempstead
,
NY
in
Nassau
County
. He had a fire and police radio and would ride
his bike and usually be on scene before the officials got there. He was always
interested in what was going on in the community and this lead him into Radio
and Television as a career. At the age
of 13, K.P. began his radio career doing traffic reports for WGBB in
Freeport
,
N.Y.
, on
Long Island
, and then at 14 he became a weekend
DJ there. At the age of 16, K.P. moved from
West Hempstead
,
New York
to
Ormond Beach
, FL. and started working at WDAT-AM
1380 weekends, while he was a junior at
Seabreeze
High School. At WDAT, he worked with Gabe
Burton, Frank Reed,
"The Janitor", and other
Central Florida
names. "Going to Seabreeze
High School
and being a disc jockey was cool", as he remembers. After WDAT,
K.P. went to WROD-AM 1340 in
Daytona Beach
for a short stint, in ’75 to ’76. As we all move in radio, K.P. was hired
by a local radio legend Jim King,
(The Kingbird), now at WKRO-FM
93.1 doing mornings, when Kingbird was Program Director at WELE-AM
1380 and WELE-FM
105.9 in 1976. K.P. was moved from the AM to the FM side for a larger
audience, still part time, because he
was attending the University of Central Florida. In February of 1979,
K.P. was hired at WTRR-AM 1400 in
Sanford
as the Program Director and afternoon
drive personality. As P.D. he changed the format from MOR to Country. Keep in
mind he was still full time at UCF,
working at the TV department in school. Talk about burning the candle at both ends! K.P.
also produced, directed, shot, wrote, edited, and read the Crimewatch TV spots being produced at
UCF in 1978-79 with Orlando Police Department
Officer Jim Bishop. He also
directed the cable TV show
"Quest" seen on campus and
Orlando
cable as well. Marla
Weech was a co-host on the show
before she started at WFTV, Channel 9, now at CFNews13.
After graduation from UCF with a B.A. Degree
in Radio, Television, and Advertising in 1979, he was hired full time at WELE-FM
105.9 and did the 7PM-Midnight
shift, where during one rating period he had a 50%+ share of the audience at
night. After
his Dad died that year, he moved back to Ormond Beach
to be with his mother to comfort and live with her
to help her through her rough times. His Mom passed one day shy of her 81st
Birthday in 2002 the same day of his
son’s graduation. A bittersweet day for family and many friends to say the
least. He left WELE-FM and was
hired by Dave Laing, at WNDB
1150 AM working the 6p-Midnight slot, from 1980 until 1982.
"I remember doing those traffic reports almost daily for WNDB,
flying in a two-seater Grumman American
1000, which was great! He was concurrently worked at WWLV-FM
94.5 when they were "beautiful
music". In fact, they ran a program called "Symphony Hall"
from 8pm until 10pm that he had to
tape and edit. It was all automated and right across the room from WNDB's
studios, so you could keep an eye on
the tapes, (which were on) 4 reel to reel and cart carousel automation. K.P.
went back to WELE-FM in 1982,
and that same year quit radio to enter teaching for
Volusia
County
Schools where he taught Journalism and
Speech for a bit over a year. K.P. married Christine in 1984 and
bought a laundry and linen service they ran for 9 years. He owned an independent
television news service, working part and full time from 1985 till 2002, which
served the
Orlando
and Jacksonville
markets as well as selling to National networks. The
radio bug bit him once again in 2002. He
joined WFBO-LP 93.3, Flagler Beach/Palm
Coast. K.P. was the General
Manager/Program Director/Production
Director and Morning Air Talent until he decided to leave in July 2007. He
was added to the WELE-AM-1380 staff as
Program Director/Systems Manager as of January 2009 only to resign less than a
month seeing the station was not going anywhere. K.P.
has two children,
Clinton
, 25 who served in the
U.S.
Army as a Sgt. and intelligence analyst. He was named Soldier of
the Year 2009 for his Battalion while in
Iraq
.
Clinton
is presently living in our nation’s capitol and attends George
Washington
University
. Daughter Leeza, 23, is studying at the University of Phoenix
to become involved in the Mortuary Sciences, as
well as a 'huge' Barbra Streisand fan. Leeza says, “People who embalm people
are the luckiest people in the world”. Wonder if she gets that sense of humor
from K.P.?
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