The Johnny Holliday Collection
Johnny Holliday, WHK Cleveland
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Johnny Holliday was born in Miami Florida, but his tour in Top 40 began in 1959 at one of the first big-time Top 40 stations: WHK in Cleveland.Johnny joined WINS, New York, in 1964, and played the last record on WINS before the switch to All News. He was named Gavin Top 40 DJ of the Year in 1965 while at KYA, San Francisco, where he stayed until 1969. Johnny is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Holliday has spent over 35 years in Washington D.C., beginning with morning drive for WWDC from 1969 to 1978, and sports reporting for WMAL from 1978 to 1991. He began working for ABC Sports in 1984, and his sports reports are heard coast to coast on the ABC Radio Network, including shows on XM and Sirius satellite radio. His credits include coverage of the Olympics in 1984, 1988, 1994, 1996 and 2000, championship boxing, The Masters, the USFL Game of the Week and the Liberty, Aloha, Orange, Peach and Gator Bowls. Since 1979, Johnny has been the voice of the University of Maryland Terrapins football and basketball teams. Off the air, Johnny has been featured in more than 30 leading roles in summer stock production, among them 42nd Street, How To Succeed In Business, Finian's Rainbow, Follies, Carnival, and Me And My Girl, which brought him a Helen Hayes nomination for Best Actor in a Washington Musical. Johnny's network announcing credits include NBC's Hullabaloo and The Roger Miller Show, ABC's This Week with David Brinkley and This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts. He was also seen on the CBS-TV comedy series Good Morning World, and is co-host of the nationally syndicated Catholic Radio Weekly. Johnny's book is titled From Rock to Jock and it's a memoir of Johhny's amazing broadcast career as a Top 40 Disc Jockey and a nationally known sportscaster. In October, 2003, Johnny Holliday was inducted into the Radio Television Broadcasters Hall Of Fame. The Repository thanks Johnny Holliday for sharing! |
The classic content cuts through the unfortunately high noise level and limited frequency response of this aircheck – this was top-flight personality Top 40 in Cleveland, circa 1963.
“SAN FRANCISCO  So strong are the personalities at KYA, the leading Hot 100 station here, that Johnny Holliday once out-Pulsed a baseball game in audience ratings. His real strength at being able to influence his teen-age listeners also cropped up in Billboard’s latest Radio Response Rating survey of the market. He was leading air personality at influencing sales of singles records with 42 per cent of the votes of record dealers, distributors, one-stop operators, and local and national record company executives. Billboard’s comprehensive survey showed the station over-all leading the singles market with a hefty 63 per cent of the votes; last year, the station had only 49 per cent of the votes, though it still led the market, because of stronger competition from KEWB.”
This short sample of Johnny Holliday in morning drive at KYA was recorded during his last year in Top 40. Note the excellent PAMS jingles and the upcoming “Folk and Rock Festival”, featuring some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll legends of all time.
If you heard Johnny Holliday broadcast Maryland’s win in the NCAA Basketball Championship game (2002), you will immediately recognize the same friendly voice, precision and enthusiasm in this short aircheck of Johnny from Labor Day weekend, 1963.
Then it was Hootenanny. Now it is Hoops. Johnny is undoubtedly the only Top 40 jock to have broadcast a national championship basketball game.
This may have been the end of Johnny’s New York Top 40 adventures, but it was barely the beginning of his long career in broadcasting. Still to come was KYA, San Francisco, over 35 years in Washington D.C. at WWDC and WMAL, and a continuing association with ABC Sports and the University of Maryland Terrapins football and basketball teams.
