The Sharon Leach Collection
Sharon Leach, in her radio days (1964)
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Sharon Leach was born in the same town as country singer Patsy Cline — Winchester, Virginia. She writes:
"I still live there. I am divorced with 3 grown children and currently work in healthcare. I have a nephew who works in radio in nearby West Virginia. In fact, he was the one who told me about REELRADIO. I've been visiting the site for several years and I have to say it's among my favorites. My ties to radio go back to the early 1960s. I grew up listening to WABC out of New York and Buffalo's WKBW. Locally, I listened to WHPL in Winchester. They were on the air for nearly 21 years, from 1961 through 1982. Their Top 40 days are what I remember the most. Thanks to my then-employer (the long defunct Diana Shops chain stores) I was able to cut radio commercials for them. That lead to other commercials (there were not many women on the air back then.) I never did get into radio full-time myself, but over the years I did manage to develop close friendships with many of local radio DJs. I also developed a "hobby" of taping things off the radio. At first, I did it just for the music, but later, I did it to hear both the announcer and the music. The collection grew over the years. I hope you enjoy them!"
The Repository thanks Sharon Leach for sharing!
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[Description by Sharon Leach]
In 1983, I was vacationing in nearby Virginia Beach when I first heard Z104. A couple on the beach were playing it on their radio. I liked what I heard. That night I went to a nearby Zayre and bought a radio, since I had left mine at home, 180 miles away.
I didn’t know at that time that Z104 had made its debut not long before. I recorded Z104 right on the beach. I can still remember the sunburn I got.
In July 1984, exactly a year later, I went back to the same Virginia Beach motel. This time it rained, so no sunburn, but I did manage to get this aircheck of Z104. Only problem is, I have no idea who the DJ is! He never said his name.
[REELRADIO 09/14/2003: Our educated visitors identified Brian Murphy. Murphy passed away on November 29, 2011, after battling cancer for many years.]
