I’m from the small Georgia town of Quitman, about 15 miles outside of Valdosta. As a high school football player and champion debater, and hanging out at the local radio station, I began broadcasting local football games after being sidelined with an injury. I bolstered that salary of $10 a game by doing an afternoon music show for an additional $20 a week. My other duties included sweeping up the studio and feeding the owner's horses. My radio job initially was a way to pay for college. I learned to fly by age 14, and after hanging around at a local airstrip, wanted to study astrophysics and become an astronaut. In the year 1964, at the age of 18, I was about to make my Orlando radio debut at WLOF-AM 950. But, WROD-AM 1340 in Daytona Beach also made me an offer and broadcasting from Daytona seemed more appealing. At WROD I was Mike Addams, the only time in my career I didn't use my real name. I had a meteoric rise in the radio business. At the age21 I was promoted to Program Director at WFUN in Miami, and by 24 it was off to New York City. My accomplishments include programming stations in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. I have won Billboard Magazine's Program Director of the Year award 3 times and my stations have twice won the Billboard Magazine Radio Station of the Year award.
In 1982, I launched the Trans-Star Radio Networks, a company that pioneered satellite distribution of radio programming. I became Vice President of Transtar and developed and programmed the Networks' 41 channels. In 1987, United Stations entered into an advertising sales and marketing alliance with Transtar Radio Networks. This alliance worked so well that in 1989 the two companies merged. The new entity became known as Unistar Communications.
I was heard weekday mornings on WEBG-FM 100.3 and Saturday nights coast to coast as host of "SuperGold"
