Skip to main content

WIXYpedia

I started working on this post over a week ago, then got into a reading frenzy, where I read two books from cover to cover in three days, and posted reviews for both.

Anyway, over a week ago, I was checking my site meter. Sometimes I am curious about where the hits here are coming from. I saw that a particular hit came from Wikipedia, that very accurate source of information on the web. I know that, in the past, there have been things taken from this blog and used on Wikipedia, and I wanted to see the reason for the link.

The link was an article about Jay Lawrence, brother of comedian Larry Storch. In the article, it had mentioned that Jay Lawrence had died in 1987, and was a disc jockey during the 60's at KYW/WKYC-1100 in Cleveland, Ohio. The link here was this review of a book by "Big Chuck" Schodowski, long time late night television host, here in northeast Ohio. I had mentioned in the book that the famous recorded laugh used for many years in the skits was provided by Jay Lawrence.

Problem was, this was the wrong Jay Lawrence. The Jay Lawrence who was a Cleveland disc jockey is currently a talk show host at KTAR in Phoenix AZ. I had seen comments by Jay on Radio-Info.com as late as 2007. You know, about 20 years after he allegedly passed on the the great control room in the sky.

Anyway, I sent the living Jay Lawrence an email, telling him about the rumor of his death which, in the words of Mark Twain "were greatly exaggerated." Here's how he responded-"Larry Storch was a comedian who passed away, his brother Jay Lawrence also passed away. I assure you, this Jay Lawrence is alive and well. I am in a bad mood this morning but I'll make it through the day. I have a talk show on KTAR in Phoenix and look ,pretty good for a dead person. I was on the radio in Cleveland some years ago. KYW and WKYC

 Jay"

As one who likes to keep facts straight, I post this as a public service. Well, maybe for a couple of chuckles too.

Click here to hear the laugh at the end of this skit.

Comments

Chief 187 said…
Neat read, Cliff! Very interesting.
May 17, 2012 10:46 AM
Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said…
Larry Stitch is very much alive.
May 24, 2016 2:45 AM
Lib said…
I remember Jay Lawrence from KYW in Cleveland. He was my personal favorite late night DJ, at that time. I remember his the contest he had for naming his appendix in a jar contest, after he had to have it removed. Bendix the Appendix was the winner! I found this article because the Wiki I found made no sense to me, nor did the picture used. Didn't look like the Jay I remembered. Great to read he is alive and doing well.
July 18, 2018 10:59 PM
Unknown said…
As Lib said, the wiki article made no sense, ages didn't match up and it's hard to see how he could do a radio show each night and be doing standup in NYC at the same time. Jay was my fave too with games such as "onsey twosey " and many others. I have a couple of pics from that WKYC era including a smiling Jaybird but can't post them here.

Funny stuff about Jay on the WIXY blog since WIXY sorta killed the style of radio that made Jay, Jerry G and others Cleveland faves.
September 26, 2019 10:45 AM
Tony said…
I remember the term Shriver Driver. I loved your show in Cleveland.
May 19, 2020 6:20 PM
Tony Klco said…
Jay, I loved your "Stories with a moral" (the Cloth, Grass houses, Benny, etc.)
Glad you're still around.


Tony Klco (formerly of Willoughby)
June 29, 2022 4:06 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee...
12 comments
Read more

From a "Battleground State"

I am going to make this one short and sweet. I live in Ohio, in this election season, one of the so called "Battleground states," a state crucial for any candidate presidential hopes. Of course we have had many visits from presidential and vice presidential candidates. Other blogs have dissected both campaigns so I will not. The only questions I have is will the promises made by either of these candidates exclusive to these states be fulfilled, or will they prove only to be hot air?
19 comments
Read more

My job

I have worked at my company for, unofficially, 17 years. When I first started working there in June, 1992, the average work week was 55-57 hours. Sometimes you worked more than that. I was 36 years old at the time and I could handle the long hours and short nights of sleep. 17 years and three knee surgeries later, I need less hours work and more hours sleep. Even moving into a quasi desk job, I still find it difficult to crawl out of bed at 3am. I could get up later if I wanted to put up with both rush hours. But this morning, things will change slightly. I received a call from my department manager yesterday. I was notified that I had to cut my time down to 40 hours. This would be down from 44-45 that I normally work. No surprise there as all the other departments got notified before I was. And I had to split my time between plants, doing calibrations at the other shop 1-1/2 days a week. I'm actually looking forward to the change. I also like the prospect of getting an hour extra...
11 comments
Read more