Wally "Gator" Sale

2005


Wally wrote us the following after viewing the website. He's going to write us a short bio to put here, but in the meantime we'll share his letter!

I just had a chance to go through the web-site and roll down memory lane. Looked at all the pictures, read the history, and suddenly realized I had tears in my eyes. What a tremendous effort and thanks for a great job.

It's so ironic that about two years ago I was in town on business and drove by the old studios just to see what they looked like. It was then that I realized they were abandoned. Little did I realize that they were scheduled for demolition only a few short months later. Even though it's gone now I'm glad to have been at 15th and Cleveland one more time.

I noticed you had a picture page of "Where are they now?", so even though I was only one of the minor players for a few short years, I still thank the Lord to this day for allowing me make the team, who during my time were: Dan Alexander, Larry Bly, Bart Prater, Ron Tompkins, Phil Beckman, others who I worked with and I still remember their names were Bill Thomas, Terry "motor-mouth" Young, Larry Dowdy and Paul Houston. Please find attached a pix of what Wally"Gator" Sale looks like now, and thanks for allowing me to be a part of radio history that I'll never forget.

Don't know if you can, or wish to use this piece of nostalgia, but did you know that three of the WROV Alumni were all from the same radio station before coming to WROV? Sammy Russell, Bart Prater and WallyGator Sale all came from the same small town radio station, WOLD-AM 1330. And Sammy is the person who gave Wally his "Gator" nickname.

Like WROV-AM, WOLD-AM is now gone, it's listed as a "Dark" AM frequency at the FCC. (remember the Harry Chapin tune, I'm the Morning DJ at WOLD) Well, all of us, Sammy, Bart & Wally, can say we were, Morning DJ's at WOLD. But for all of us our time at Roanoke Radio was more than words can express, and that's saying something when you've been a Top 40 Rock and Roll radio announcer.

I'll never forget the excitement of turning up the studio monitor, pushing that cart button to start the "top of the hour" Station ID, and hearing Gary Gears (of WLS Radio fame) say over the drum roll -- WROV, Roanoke - Rock'n Steady Baby!! And then you'd hit the button for one of the rock'n-ist tunes you could find to play that hour.

And who could forget the contest of the stolen "W". When the "W" of the ROV got ripped off and there was a scavenger hunt to find it, with clues on the air to keep the listeners listening for the ratings period. I remember everyone saying "practice and don't screw it up", "NO W's, it's ROV", until someone finds the "W". The jingles were cut down to ROV, all the liners were ROV and the city was going nuts trying to find that missing "W".

I couldn't help but feel sad when I read the narration about Larry Bly playing the last song - "American Pie". As for me the music and memories will never die in this man's heart, and 1240 WROV-AM & PM is still at 15th and Cleveland next to the "pole in the hole."

I'll leave all of us with this thought. Remember the Righteous Brothers song "Rock & Roll Heaven?" It talks about having "one hell of a band" when all the rockers get to heaven. Well, hopefully we'll also have "one hell of an air staff" to be there to play the records, tell jokes, and play contests, but most of all entertain the listeners ---- on "one hell of a radio station."