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Perry Marshall 10 - 2 pm |
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Perry Marshall 10 - 2 pm |
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| Perry Marshall came to Pittsburgh
from Chicago. Born, Sheldon Roy Lewis, he worked as "Roy Silver" in Chicago
before coming to Pittsburgh. In Chicago he began his career as a writer
and editor of news at WBBM. His first Pittsburgh radio job was at WPGH
Radio in East Liberty in 1951. From there he became the morning deejay
at WEDO in McKeesport using the name Roy Lewis.. He then became the first
Top 40 Rock & Roll deejay in Pittsburgh at WEEP when it went top 40
in October, 1957. He was given the name "Perry Marshall" by Ernie Tannen
when he went to work as a DJ at WEEP. Perry Marshall was a Pittsburgh radio
pioneer. In 1961 it was back to Chicago and WIND. In March, 1963, Perry
reached 18% of the afternoon audience at WIND, while competing against
WLS.
Perry Marshall returned to Pittsburgh and WTAE in the mid 1960's. He then became part of the talk format at WJAS in 1968. On November 6, 1972, the Marshall's Office opened when Perry joined KQV for middays replacing another Pittsburgh legend, Chuck Brinkman. His People Poll was the only midday two-way talk in Pittsburgh, according to KQV program director, Bob Harper. Harper told broadcasting magazine in April 1973, " As a music radio station, the other things are worked in to enhance the sound. But it's not paramount; it's icing," he says Perry Marshall airs only about 10 calls a day, which are taped from a larger number of callers the day before and edited. "It's still basically music" Perry remained at KQV until March, 1974 when he moved over to KDKA part time. Perry told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's Ron Weiskind in May 1988, "I was working at WJAS. John Gibbs was the program director at KQV at the time. He asked me to come work for him. I went over there for a couple of years. It was a combination of music and talk. A couple of years later they went back to bubble-gum music. I said to John 'How do you feel about a guy my age sitting in the window screaming "14K!" And Gibbs said "Interesting that you should bring that up." So he fired me. It was a favor. He called Bill Hartman at KDKA and said "I'm firing Marshall." That part time job led to long career at KDKA. Perry replaced Jack Wheeler in overnights at KQV and the rest is history. Perry retired from full time work at KDKA on May 25, 1988. Perry Marshall passed away on November 5, 2011. He was 86. One of his daughters has followed in his footsteps. Robin Marshall does voice over work and can be heard on hundreds of commercials all over the country. (Thanks to John Mehno for some of the background information used on this page.) |
