(I used to write a bi-weekly column, RadioRadio, for Players magazine in the Tampa Bay area. The following story appeared in 1990.)

Profile: Jon Anthony

By Bob Andelman

Jon "Rock 'n' Roll" Anthony is looking for a job again.

The mercurial Power Pig (WFLZ 93 FM) afternoon drive personality for the last three years called it quits on Monday Nov. 19 at 5:15 p.m. - during his shift.

"I quit on the air," he says. "Packed my bags."

Anthony, 35, says he split due to a disagreement over the station's Thanksgiving Day work schedule. He previously understood he'd have the holiday off and made plans with family, only to come in on Monday and find himself scheduled to work his regular 2-6 p.m. shift. When no accommodation was made, the DJ quit.

"I copped a 'Homey the Clown' attitude - I don't think so," he says. "Homey don't play that - I quit."

No indication was given on the air that anything was amiss.

"That was the icing on the cake," says Anthony. "They had no respect for me. I am pretty bitter. I wasn't treated right."

The Power Pig became one of the brightest stars in American radio history when it debuted in late 1989, taking broad potshots at Q105 and presenting an aggressive dance music mix. The station rocketed to number one in the Tampa Bay Arbitron ratings in its first book and became the talk of the radio industry nationally.

Ratings have fallen since then and the Pig has cleaned up its obnoxious, take no prisoners act, leaving the sensationalism behind and becoming more and more like the old Q105 it once taunted into obscurity.

Anthony is the first of 93's original staff to leave the station.

A few choice details revealed by Anthony:

o His salary - $30,000 annually.

"I was making chump change," says Anthony. "All the DJs were making chump change. You've got people over there making $15,000. I'm not going to lose sleep over a $30,000 a year job. I never got a raise in three years. And I was one of the highest paid there, other than Jack Harris."

o He was making $45,000 at Q105.

o And then there's this weirdness:

"If you're late for a staff meeting you have to stand against the wall with your nose against the wall," according to Anthony. "It's like 'Romper Room.'"

This is the second time Anthony has left a top-rated station in Tampa Bay. Before coming to WFLZ in 1987, he followed Mason Dixon as the nighttime jock at the old Q105.

"I bounced back before, I'll bounce back again," he says. Anthony is already talking turkey with a trio of Tampa Bay radio stations.

A newlywed with a home in Brandon, a baby on the way and a lucrative mobile DJ service - Florida Suncoast Promotions - Jon "Rock 'n' Roll" Anthony says he's going to stick around. "I'll land on my feet," he says.

(Management at WFLZ was unavailable for comment at deadline.)

Tune In! Panasonic is advertising a new car radio, model CQ-ID90, that the manufacturer claims can find your favorite type of radio station no matter where you are in the country. An ad in Esquire states that the radio has a computer chip that stores information on over 10,000 stations in 4,300 U.S. cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. You program it to know what town you live in, "then, the CQ-ID90 will not only pick up all the local stations, it will find them by format." The radio has buttons labeled "Clas," "C&W," "Rock," "Jazz," "Easy," and "Talk." It allegedly can adjust to new areas every 30 miles or so if you indicate which direction you're driving. Wonder what happens when a station changes format. After all, the radio is searching according to its programming, not sound.

I guess I'd like to give the radio a test run - sounds like a radio critic's dream. On the other hand, it comes with a cassette instead of a CD player, which the next car radio I buy will have to have. Because sometimes, even if you have every station in the country to choose from, there's still going to be nothing you want to listen to. And with the proliferation of CDs, I've discontinued investing in tape.

Talk Fans! Have I got a newspaper for you. It's called "Talkers" and it is the publication for anybody who lives for talk radio. It's a weekly industry paper that's exceedingly listener friendly. Subscriptions aren't cheap - $75 a year - but if you absolutely, positively have to know what's going on in talk radio, give it a look. The address: Talkers, Box 60781, Longmeadow, MA 01116-0781. Telephone is (413) 567-3189.

Our Man in Toronto Returns! Joe Klich, RadioRadio's 26-year-old correspondent from the Great White North, was in the Bay area last week for a friend's wedding. Klich, you'll recall, is a producer at CFRB, an AM talk station in Toronto. Here's his most recent assessment of Tampa Bay radio:

"I hear the Power Pig kind of softening up a bit. I don't hear that vulgarness coming out. And they've lessened their attacks on Q105, which is sounding pretty good.

"Another station which I think is sounding better is 98 Rock. They're going - I don't know if it's alternative, but they're backing off on the metal in the daytime. I heard the 98 morning show. All requests - it's different. To me, all request is usually a night-time thing. I didn't think people were in a condition to use the phone that early in the morning. And I've heard some pretty strange varieties of music from them.

"Mix 96. Hmmm. They're kind of ... I don't know what they're trying to do. They seem to be playing not bad lite rock and then they play absolute garbage, like Elton John's 'Crocodile Rock.' And this reverb they're using is terrible."

Thanks, Joe. We look forward to your next critique.

Crash! Bam! Thank You, Ma'am Hoser! While Joe was on the phone, I asked him if all Canadians drive as poorly as the ones vacationing here.

"Oh. Oh, God," he says.

"I was going down Gulf to Bay Boulevard in Clearwater and I saw an early model K car in front of me with Ontario plates. The guy was about ready to turn room temperature, he was so old. He was going 3 mph. I just pulled off the road, had a cigarette and waited for him to get where he was going.

"When I see someone from Ontario - forget it. They're the worst drivers. And they're even worse at home. They all drive 4-door sedans. They always have a stunned look on their face."

The Ballad Continues! WYUU (92 FM) has scheduled "Remembering Lennon: Ten Years Later" for Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. The 4-hour program, hosted by Graham Nash, looks back at the slain singer/songwriter through his music, interviews and remembrance by friends.

Thanks, Jon! Bob DeCarlo, program director of WUSA (101 FM) and half of the long-running morning team of Bob & Judd, was beside himself with giddiness about the switch by WNLT (FM) from "Lite Rock 95.7" to "Mix 96" without changing formats. It was like an early Christmas gift.

"I don't think we could have (planned) that better ourselves," he says. "They've historically done that - shot themselves in the foot when things were going well. ... And we all owe Q105 for putting the rest of us back in the radio business."

Okay, okay, Bob.

Here's the news at W101: Former Q105 jock and PD at "Lite Rock" Chuck Crane is doing part-time work at 101 and practicing dentistry in St. Petersburg. (Good to have a career to fall back on, Mom always said.) And Rick Morgan, late of WDAE afternoons, is also doing fill work at the station.

WTSP-TV Ch. 10 dumped Q105's traffic reports for W101 and Lisa Cohen, according to DeCarlo.

Scalped! We've heard a number of people buzzing about 98's all-request morning show. To add our two-bits: that Big Chief is a real hot foot. So, so droll.

Studio Chatter! It seems we're a little behind the curve. Two weeks ago, RadioRadio commented favorably on the growing number of artists to turn up live in local studios for interviews and even a few impromptu jams. WYNF (95 FM) deserves more credit than it received for its lineup of exclusives: Robert Plant, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Black Crowes, Scorpions, Vixen and Nelson have all dropped by. And how quickly we forgot about XTC's in-studio performance.

Hope that evens the score.

It does give us a chance to remind stations that RadioRadio - and even its loyal network of spies - can't be everywhere at once. Sometimes you're just going to have to call us and tell us about something special that's going on - don't always assume we'll hear it just cause it's way cool, dude.

Cowabunga! Did I just write, "Way cool, dude"? Time for a vacation, man.

Attention Shoppers! Fans of 98 Rock nighttime jock Austin Keys' now legendary sarcasm will enjoy the latest example of his wit:

On Thanksgiving night, about 7:55 p.m., a Sears commercial ran, promoting "Flex" slacks and exhorting men to rush out to Sears and buy a pair the next day. In the best interest of client-station relations, Keys followed the spot by saying, "Yeah, riiight. I'm going to rush right out to Sears and buy some Flex slacks." Then he and Junior laughed. The inference - if it's not clear in print - was Keys would sooner walk naked in the Bamboleo Festival than patronize their sponsor.

Dead Elsewhere! Charlie Logan's guests on "Live at Morrisound" in the coming weeks include Robert Wegmann (Dec. 2) and Stranger (Dec. 16). The show airs every other week at 9 p.m.

Wango Tango! Was that really Damn Yankees - Ted "Cat Scratch Fever" Nugent" and all - being played on Q105?

Thank You, Chuck Keating! WMNF (88.5 FM) devoted four solid days of broadcasting in mid-November to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the opening sessions of testimony in the "Keating Five" congressional hearings. It's the kind of thing only a non-profit, community radio station can do and if you've never tuned in to such hearings, it can be quite an eye-opener.

"It has a dramatic appeal," admits PD Randy Wynne. "Our regular listeners don't mind. It takes on a soap opera appeal - it's addictive. It's real foreground material, real gripping if you're driving your car. Although they like music, they're tuned in to current events."

This isn't the first time the station has broadcast gavel-to-gavel coverage of a hearing. Previous efforts include the Souter and Bork confirmation hearings and the Iran Contra hearings.

Wynne says the political broadcasts attract a lot of people who wouldn't normally listen to MNF, including many older folks.

Next up: Will America go to war with Iraq?

"If Congress is going to debate going to war in the Persian Gulf, we'll broadcast those hearings live," according to Wynne.

Slow Hand! Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" on oldies U92? Talk about reality vs. perception, huh?
Next Week! RadioRadio will run down all the special holiday programming you can expect to hear for Christmas and New Year's. If your station has something going on, the deadline for submitting details is December 5 at 5 p.m. The address: RadioRadio, c/o Players, P.O. Box 1867, Pinellas Park, FL 34664.