Aaron Yonka tuned in to 97X back in high school, then got a full-blown fever for the station and the music the summer before he started at Miami University in 1991. He became an around-the-clock listener… other than when he was co-hosting a music show on Miami’s student radio station. And after he graduated, he still tuned in, especially to catch his college friend Matt Sledge, and joined the 97X message boards to keep a sense of community with fellow listeners and station staff. In this “Rumblings” episode, Aaron shares tales of gift card laundering, grilled breakfast pastries, anchovy pizzas and what makes a tune a “97X song.”
If the embed link above isn’t working, you can listen to the podcast here.
Here’s Aaron’s “Last Supper” – a.k.a. the meal he had the night that 97X signed off the airwaves back in 2004:
If you’re a 97X superfan too, please plan to join Steve “Bakerman” Baker, Dave Tellmann, Jen Dalton (former 97X co-producer), Matt Sledge, Bill Douglas and Damian at the 97X “Back to the Future of Rock & Roll” event on Saturday, June 27 in Fairfield.
It’s a fundraiser for the Butler County Historical Society.
Get tickets here and learn more about the event in this article from WVXU, this article from the Hamilton Journal-News, and this interview Bake did with Jen Dalton on WKRC.
It’s been 43 years since 97X first started airing “modern rock for Cincinnati and Dayton” from a nondescript building in Oxford, Ohio. And it’s been 22 years since it signed off – and 16 years since woxy.com went silent. Time flies… and the Butler County Historical Society wants to celebrate the station in a fundraising event on June 27, with THE Voice of 97X, Steve “Bakerman” Baker, Jen Dalton, co-host of Good Morning Cincinnati on Channel 12 (she got her media start as a student intern at 97X), Matt Sledge (who worked at 97X, WNKU and Inhailer radio) and your ol’ 97X pals Dave and Damian. We talked to Bake, Jen and Sledge about the upcoming trip down memory lane.
The event is a fundraiser for the Butler County Historical Society. And it should be a lot of fun. You can get tickets here.
Bake’s a stone cold double legend. The voice of 97X (that’s his voice in the movie Rainman), longtime co-host of The Breakfast Club, and also THE voice of Miami University football and basketball. (He’s quite fittingly a member of Miami U.’s Hall of Fame.
Jen Dalton has been gracing the Cincinnati TV airwaves since 2006.
Jen landed her first television job as co-host of Cinema 64 with Bob Herzog. She was then reunited with Bob when she made the switch to Local 12 in October of 2006. They now work together on Good Morning Cincinnati and co-anchor the ARC Cincinnati program at 8am on STAR-64. Jen also co-anchors the 9am news on Local 12 and anchors the breaking news/traffic desk.
Matt Waller (better known simply as “Sledge”) not only spent a decade at 97X, he later worked weekends for WNKU-FM, another Cincinnati area radio station that played similar artists and was near and dear to its listeners’ hearts. And he spent a few years doing a weekly airshift at Inhailer Radio, the current bastion of “modern rock” in Cincinnati (and streaming worldwide!). Inhailer also hosted the 40th anniversary Modern Rock 500 in 2023, and every year since has presented their own spin on that cherished countdown with their “Indie 500” over Memorial Day weekend.
And your friendly neighborhood 97X Rumblings podcast co-hosts (and 97X alums) Dave and Damian will be there. Mostly because we thought we could dress in period clothing and do a reenactment of the infamous Goo Goo Dolls/sound man fight at “Day in Eden” back in 1993.
Kerry Gray was the program director at 97X in the late 80s/early 90s, and a radio “lifer.” He was a real live wire – super-energetic, enthusiastic, funny as heck… and also completely into the music. In fact, Kerry and Phil Manning teamed up to expand the back catalogue of the station, and they also launched the first ever “Modern Rock 500” in 1989.
In this episode, Julie Maxwell, Julie Maxwell, Jeff Rohrs, Mike Taylor and Steve Baker join Dave and Damian to share their remembrances, and the episode wraps up with some archival audio of Kerry and Brett Heartz on-air at 97X back in October of 1989.
Kerry also launched the radio career of “Bubba the Love Sponge” – whom Kerry met at a nightclub in Terre Haute, Indiana, then brought onto his show as an intern. In 2016, Kerry was on his way a new job as co-host of a syndicated morning show with Bubba in Florida when he was in a car accident. At the hospital, testing revealed multiple tumors on his brain… and Kerry battled brain cancer for a year before passing away in March of 2017 at the age of 50.
Very fitting that Kerry’s celebration of life was a dance party.
KERRY began his radio career at 15 and spent 30+ years in radio, which included WEQX/MANCHESTER, VT-ALBANY, NY, KBCO/DENVER, WEDG (103.3 THE EDGE)/BUFFALO, and CJXY (Y108)/HAMILTON, ON.
KERRY had a larger-than-life personality and a really great heart. His presence made people around him want to be better. He was one of the sweetest and weirdest guys I ever knew.” — former WEDG Program Director James Kurdziel
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two decades since that fateful evening when Steve Baker said “goodbye to the future of rock and roll.” For current and former staffers and loyal listeners, it was like the death of a loved one. We reunited an all-star cast of folks who were at the station at the bittersweet end (Bakerman, Shiv, Barb, Mike Taylor, Sledge, Bryan J., Gentleman Jim Mercer) to share their memories of that time.
But we’re not just here to rue the day and mourn once again. There’s actually a future for “the future of rock and roll.” We’re getting the gang back together for one last heist Modern Rock 500 this May.
It’ll be just like old times. Maybe even better. It’s like getting a present from your old friends, in the present day. We can’t wait to share the music and the love with you!
Speaking of love, you gotta love the Bakerman’s “now and then” coda for the episode:
“Day in Eden 1993” was the first concert that 97X produced. Things did not go as planned. Goo Goo Doll meltdowns, tainted food trays, wrestling moves, copious amounts of cheap beer and cheaper smokes, folk music slam-dancing…
Former staffers Steve Baker, Phil Manning, Jae Forman, Rob Ervin, Steve Roemer, Joe Sampson and Aaron Borns share their memories of that ill-fated afternoon – and reveal a couple of secrets along the way.
97X staffers and volunteers… in the calm before the storm
“Day in Eden” was an event created by the Cincinnati Park Board, and held in late-Spring/early-Summer at Eden Park in Cincinnati. In an effort to broaden the appeal of the event, they ask 97X to book bands for 1993. The lineup was:
In the second part of our interview with 97X station owners Doug & Linda Balogh, we find out why Steve Baker was the soul of the station, Dave was Mr. Sunshine, and Linda was the lady behind the curtain. Doug also talks about “buyer’s remorse” at his welcome BBQ and Linda recalls the 97X mission statement and the baby in the file cabinet. Oh, and we hear about how the Rainman movie appearance happened… and how legendary record exec Howie Klein freaked out about it.
Photo from a 1997 article about 97X in Spin magazine.
Doug and Linda talked about how indispensable Steve Baker was. Bake could — and did– do it all for the station for more than 20 years.
The Bakerman in the old 97X studioGentleman Jim Mercer with Bake at a Miami University football game
Nowadays, Steve Baker is the Assistant Athletic Director/Director of Broadcasting for Miami University. Please read this post to learn more about just how amazing “The Bakerman” truly is. (Also, our interview with Steve is in Episode 4 of the podcast.)
Dave Tellmann in the production studio
Doug and Linda also talked about how Dave was always in a good mood. I couldn’t agree more. We had as much fun off the air as on, thanks to Dave, who was (and still is) always making us smile.
Kathie Lucas at right with her “baby in the file cabinet” daughter SophieAd from Everybody’s News
The famous scene from Rainman:
Linda and Doug (center) with their children Marty (left) and Kristy (right). The award referenced above was presented by Ron “Jetson” Poore and Phil Manning
Steve also was — and still is — THE Voice of Miami Redhawks sports. He’s done play-by-play for Miami football and basketball broadcasts for 31 years. (In fact, he’s done it so long that he was THE Voice of the Miami Redskins back in a less enlightened time.) In my humble opinion, he’s one of the best play-by-play people in the whole wide world.
At 97X, Steve wore many hats: newsman, Breakfast Club host, station manager, engineer… if it needed to be done, Bake did it.
Baker at upper left… total (soft)baller! (front row is Rictile, Julie Maxwell and Jae Forman, back row is Bake, Bill Douglas, Phil Manning, listener Dan Mabry, and some ringer I can’t identify.
He’s still wearing many hats in his gig at Miami University, serving as Assistant Athletic Director/Director of Broadcasting. In addition to his play-by-play duties, Bake also coordinates all the broadcasts for MU sports, including tons of online programming.
But wait, there’s more… Bake’s so talented that he occasionally will sing the national anthem at Miami b-ball games, then do the play-by-play. Here’s photographic proof from a week ago, courtesy of former Breakfast Club co-producer (and now MU professor) Mighty Joe Sampson:
Killer pipes on the courtKiller pipes on the sidelines
Now that’s talent!
At an age when most people are content to veg out on the couch, the already-busy Bakerman managed to squeeze in college classes, and this past December he earned an Associates Degree in Humanities from Miami University. It was the culmination of a dream that started four decades earlier.
He had begun at Miami in the late 70s, but family circumstances pulled him away from his initial degree plans. Soon he began working in radio stations, leading to positions in Hamilton, Richmond (IN), Virginia, and Florida, before returning to Oxford and working at WOXY, the local station what would emerge as a national presence as “the future of rock and roll.”
Here’s an excerpt from our podcast interview with Steve where he talks about his journey.
Read this article for the full story of Steve Baker’s latest accomplishment. I love this line:
In another Middletown class, The History of Rock and Roll, it was Baker who often led the student discussion based on his years of experience.
It’s great that Steve is now an alum of the school to which he’s devoted countless hours over the past 30+ years.
And it’s totally fitting that the man who was THE Voice of a station that always challenged listeners with new music is still finding ways to challenge himself.
Here’s our Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast episode where we interviewed Steve, from January of last year:
Dave and Damian chat with the legendary Steve Baker, who worked at 97X for 20 years in a variety of roles: news reporter, Breakfast Club host, station manager, play-by-play announcer for Miami University football and basketball, singer of jingles and National Anthems, etc. Steve’s voice also stars in the movie Rainman (“97X… BAM!… the future of rock and roll!”)
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