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Meet Frank Dill, the most
popular voice on Morning Radio
Pacific Sun — July 14-20,
1978
By Hut Landon
Morning radio in the Bay Area has long been
blessed with unique personalities, from the days of Don Sherwood
and Dave McElhatton to the likes of Jim Dunbar, Terry McGovern
and even Dr. Don Rose. Through it all, one man has survived it
better and longer than them all.
Every weekday morning, the alarm goes off at 4
am in Frank Dill's Peacock Gap home. Two hours later, he begins
his four-hour program on KNBR-68. He has been a fixture in that
6 to 10 am slot for 13-1/2 years. In the nomadic world of disc
jockeys, it's a longevity record that should be the envy of the
industry. To top it off, the latest ratings released two weeks
ago show that in the all-important 25-49 age group, more people
listen to Frank Dill in the morning than to anyone else in
radio.
So what's the secret of Dill's success? Loyal
listeners will tell you it's the spontaneous exuberance that
emanates from his show. Unlike most non-news stations, music is
not the prime ingredient on KNBR. The songs are contemporary,
middle-of-the road, familiar pop tunes that serve to frame the
station's three principal air personalities, Dill, Mike Cleary
and Carter B. Smith.
On Dill's program, music comprises no more than
50% of the time; much of the rest is taken up with what Dill
calls "interesting talk." Whether it's trading quips
with traffic reporter Hap Harper, soliciting movie reviews from
listeners or accepting ad-libbed phone calls from characters
created by the multi-talented Cleary, Dill manages to keep his
audience informed, amused and usually unsure about exactly what
to expect next. As he sees it, "I think that principally
people who listen to us listen because they get to know us and
they feel we're friends of theirs."
Much of the program's spontaneity and humor come
from Dill's repartee with good friend Cleary. With his excellent
ear for voices and nimble wit, Cleary has developed over the
years a stock of characters and impersonations that he delights
in showcasing on Dill's show. And although the two occasionally
discuss what they will do, more often than not Dill is just as
surprised as the listener by whichever character Cleary chooses
to be. "It could be Jack Benny calling collect from heaven,
Richard Nixon from San Clemente, Joey Garbanzo [a wonderful
spoof of greengrocer Joe Carcione] - I just never know. But
whoever it is, we go with it on the air."
As it is with many aspects of the format, the
Cleary call-ins were initiated on the spur of the moment; the
first one was nothing more than a Cleary whim. Similarly, when
Dill began discussing the practical jokes that have become a
part of their relationship, the audience loved every minute of
it. Listeners now delight in hearing the two plot elaborate
schemes over the air and the protestations of innocence that
follow each incident.
Dill still can't suppress a giggle as he recalls
Cleary's initial prank. "Mike stuck a whistle up my exhaust
pipe, and there was a screeching sound you wouldn't believe. I
thought the whole car was going to blow up. So of course I had
to pay him back and that's how the whole thing started."
Although sticking a whistle in an exhaust pipe
may sound a bit childish to some, they continue to provoke
positive audience reaction. "I think they get vicarious
pleasure out of hearing about them," Dill says.
Sometimes, they even let the listeners help them
out with their silliness. Last year the Morning Mayor (Dill's
radio "title") solicited balloons from people without
telling them what their purpose was. All he had to mention was
that Cleary was on vacation and he wanted balloons. Literally
thousands poured in, enabling Dill to fill Cleary's apartment
nearly to the ceiling with inflated balloons and leaving the
latter with the unenviable problem is disposing of them.
"I was a little worried about how to get
into Mike's apartment," Dill remembers, "but the
apartment manager turned out to be a KNBR listener. I told him
what I wanted and he was only too anxious to help. 'I'll bet it
has something to do with all those balloons you're collecting,'
was all he said."
FRANK DILL BROKE INTO the broadcasting business
in singular fashion back in high school. He appeared on a sports
trivia panel show on a Washington D.C. television station, and
his tremendous storehouse of sports knowledge made him a regular
on the program. Since he was also a high school athlete of some
repute, the station recruited him to play on their softball
team. Unfortunately, when Dill graduated from high school in
1949, he was no longer eligible to play on the station softball
team. Dill must have been a pretty fair hitter, because the
station decided they wanted him for their starting nine and
hired Dill as an office boy at $22.50 per week. Three months
later, he was promoted to floor man ("I worked with Dwight
Hemion, now a well-known TV producer, and a guy who wrote news
but who couldn't get on the air because of his funny voice —
David Brinkley"), and he was on his way.
Dill went on to work in both radio and
television, developing both skill and confidence in his
abilities. He developed so much confidence, in fact, that when
KNBR hired him in 1964, Dill insisted that he also be allowed to
do freelance television work if he could get it. KNBR agreed,
probably thinking nothing would ever come of it. Obviously they
did not know Frank Dill very well; six months later, he decided
to become a TV sportscaster.
Dill knew that Van Amburg had recently left
Channel 5 and that the new sports announcer was very weak. In an
impressive display of moxie (or youthful egocentricity), he
contacted the top brass at 5 and told them, "You need me,
and if you don't see me you'll never know what you're
missing." He cajoled his way into an on-the-spot,
unrehearsed audition, where with no preparation he rattled five
minutes of sports news off the top of his head and was hired on
the spot.
Now that his radio work is so successful, Dill
no longer works on TV, except to co-host locally the 22-hour
Jerry Lewis telethon every Labor Day. He is content to work his
five days (Dill's Saturday show is pre-taped during the week)
and appear at various luncheons, charity functions and station
promotions. He also plays golf and has a voracious appetite for
reading that is aided by the cartons of paperbacks he receives
each week from publishers anxious to get an on-the-air plug. He
says he still enjoys his work, even after 15 years, and gives
much of the credit to general manager Bill Dwyer.
"Dwyer's attitude is that what makes this
station work is Frank, Mike and Carter, so let them do their own
thing," says Dill. Often their "own thing"
involves one of the three barging into the studio in the middle
of another's show and sitting down for a few minutes to needle,
joke or comment on something that was said. It's an unheard-of
freedom that is granted the three (the studio even has an extra
microphone and chair set up for such cameo appearances), and
it's another example of Dwyer's faith in their talent and
judgment. |
