DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Broadcasting big band music to Struthers and beyond

Saturday morning, 7 a.m.
FM 90.7 is pumping 13.5 kilowatts of power; Tommy Dorsey is swinging Struthers and the surrounding areas, and Doc Richards is broadcasting again.
Welcome to WKTL's Big Band Show. The station, run by Struthers high school, and operated by students weekdays, is turned over to international programming Saturdays. That day, volunteers like retired anesthesiologist R. S. Richards take over the airwaves with shows that feature Irish, German, Hungarian, Hellenic, Italian, Spanish, Ukrainian ... take a breath ... Slovak, Tamburitzan, polka and big band music.
Richards, who has been broadcasting on WKTL since 1992, started broadcasting while he was still working at St. Elizabeth's. He found his way to the station just like most area listeners -- by accident. When he heard radio host Al Jacob's big band tunes swinging from his radio, he left the dial there.
"After about eight or 10 shows," Richards said, " Al Jacobs asked, 'Anyone know where Sammy Kaye was born?' I called in and was right." After a few more call-ins, Jacobs invited Richards to the station.
Eventually, Jacobs asked Richards to go on the air with him. With the exception of the remodeling of Struthers high school, which temporarily shut down the station, Richards has been on ever since.
His three-hour show features big band trivia, music and quizzes. Labeled The Big Wind by Jacobs, because of his ready banter, Richards enjoys fielding calls from listeners. About 60 people call in regularly and from as far afield as Ashtabula.
A long love affair
"I've always loved the big bands," said 69-year-old Richards. "My mom and dad were fanatics. We had linoleum floors and the aunts and uncles came over and danced with us. At my granddad's, there was an old Victrola and they'd pull up the rug."
Richard's love affair deepened, however, when he and his wife started taking big band cruises in the 1980s. Of his wife of 42 years, Richards said, "Oh, she's a great dancer. She can do anything."
The big band cruises Richards and Charlotte went on usually featured four bands comprised of many of the original musicians who played the original arrangements.
"On a seven-day cruise, two bands played a night with staggered performances," Richards said. "One might start at 7:30, the next at 8:30. Then there were moonlight dances. Everyone is there for the big bands and you hear story after story. If you didn't like it before you went, you do by the end."
His themed shows, which focus on particular musicians, get a boost from Richard's cruise life. "The cruises have Q and A's with band leaders and musicians. You get to know the insides and outs," he said.
Retired
Though Richards retired from his 70 to 80 hours of weekly anesthesiology work, he still puts in about 15 hours a week consulting in the medical field. Jacobs has been off the air due to health reasons, but, said Richards, "I still announce him. We'll get him back there."
The mixes are still chosen by the two men though, who dip into their collection of "several thousand records, 1,500 or 1,800 CDs and tapes ... we can't count." Said Richards, "Al lives five minutes from the station. I bring the donuts; we listen to music, and he suggests things."
Big bands aren't Richard's only musical love. In college, he discovered opera. "I was on a football scholarship and for a class, I had to attend three operas. What did I know as a kid from a steel community?" he recalled.
Another student, Pasquale Caputo, helped him with the libretto. As they traveled on a bus, Pasquale started singing it. A woman started singing along. Soon, five passengers, hanging onto the bus straps, were singing opera.
"He taught me to appreciate music," Richards said.
Now it's Dr. Richards who is teaching others.
murphy@vindy.com