"I first became aware of Carol Ford when I was working in Louisville in 1976 (at a radio station in an Indiana suburb that didn't mean anything to anyone-- the perfect place to work on my less than stellar on-air delivery where no one would hear me). I turned on WOWO in Ft. Wayne late one night and heard Carol Ford. I marveled at how good she was and wondered why I hadn't known of her. The next day, I mentioned it to Johnny Randolph, a good buddy who was programming WAKY at the time. He explained it was her first professional job as she just graduated college and she had started that week. My response was instant, 'That's it, I quit-- I can be doing this for the next 50 years and will never sound nearly as good.' I reached out to Carol and it was the start of a lifelong friendship. As we were both on the air in Indiana, we would (to the consternation of management) use the state newswire to communicate.
"Carol grew up in Shaker Heights. Cleveland was a great place to be if you loved radio. From the likes of Jack Armstrong locally, to the power of CKLW, which blanketed the market from Windsor/Detroit, she was hooked. Working at the college station at Ohio University, she was surprised to hear from Paul Drew who wanted to hire her until he heard she was still in school. He asked her to call him as soon as she got her degree. Before she could do that, upon graduation Westinghouse offered her 50,000 overnight watts on WOWO, where she spent the next two years.
"From there she went to KYA in San Francisco. She loved California, but after another two years, she tired of King Broadcasting. I was programming a forgettable radio station in Los Angeles at the time, If I hated her, I would have offered her a job. Instead, I offered her a place to stay for a while as she sorted out her next move. It was memorable and I cherish the thoughts of our antics.
"Ultimately, Carol moved back to Cleveland for family reasons, but it didn't take long for her to impact the market from her morning drive perch at WDMT. Lots of wonderful stories there too (well, not wonderful at the time, but in retrospect, a riot-- like being live on the air and having a cow pop its head through the control room window) until 1984 when Barry Mayo hired her for afternoon drive at Kiss-FM (WRKS) in New York. She figured she'd stay in town for a couple years and then move back to the Bay Area. She never left. Meanwhile, I probably moved half a dozen times, but no matter where I was, we were in touch almost daily.
"Her ratings at WRKS were amazing in both afternoon and morning drive. She worked with an assortment of people, who again, gave us a myriad of memorable stories for many, many years, through multiple owners and managers. When she left, it didn't take long for other stations to come calling. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember everywhere she worked after Kiss, but I'm writing this off the top of my head through my tears just hours after learning she left the planet. Z-100 and WNEW-FM come to mind... Jammin' 105... several years at Sirius. I bet many of you reading this can fill in the blanks. Even if you never knew her, if you heard her on the air, I'm sure she made the kind of impact on you that she made on me almost 50 years ago.
"At the time, women were becoming a necessity on the air due to FCC pressure. Some were an embarrassment to their gender, most were forgettable, but in their defense, few had any real experience. But then, late at night from Fort Wayne, there was Carol Ford with no professional experience at all sounding better than anyone of any gender, as memorable as it gets.
"It's a loss for the industry, which is why I'm sharing this. But there are no words that describe what a personal loss it is to me. I was honored by the privilege of being her friend and will think of her every day. My only solace is I firmly believe she is in a much better place now. It sounds trite to write that, but I know it is true. She's having the time of her life with all the legends who have left us. And in the blink of an eye, we'll join her and everyone else. Until then, take care of yourself, take time to have a good time, cherish the memories, and drink a toast to Carol Ford whose infectious personality made every day brighter."
