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7/11: Whatever happened to… Willard?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Willard Arbour was a fixture in Atlanta rock radio for 32 years, starting at WRAS-FM at Georgia State and seguing for most of his career to 96rock, then a final stint at Z93.
He left the airwaves in 2004 but he only recently has left radio itself, switching to sales the past four years after Z93 became Dave FM. And he wasn’t half bad at it.
Nonetheless, the 52-year-old has decided to retire today from radio and move to the North Georgia mountains. I talked to him last week.
He said the turning point was late last year when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he’s okay right now) and received an unspecified big financial inheritance: “It changed my outlook and priorities.” And though he enjoyed sales, “the stress of the business was aging me and I’m not ready to be aged.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to retire. It’s a lifestyle change… I expect to live long enough to be a burden to my children,” he joked.
He said he loved his 35-plus years in radio: “I’ve had more fun that I’ve forgotten than most radio people remember in their lifetime.”
Ironically, he said he made this decision to retire in his mind earlier this year and proceeded to have his three best sales months of his life. “Maybe it’s because I didn’t need it,” he said. “People sense desperation.”
Willard’s reason for switching to sales after Z93 folded in 2004? “They don’t fire sales people. Sales people drive newer cars. It’s not bad.” His clients included Inview Lasik Vision and Live Nation, the concert promoter.
Not a huge number of DJs do well in sales, but Willard said he had a good feel for the market. “You need to know what’s a good match, what will fly and what won’t fly,” he said.
Willard’s longest stint was at 96rock for 20-plus years. “It was like WKRP on steroids in its heyday,” he said. “If you can think of anything crazy, anything wild, we did it. I remember riding up and down the ramps at Bobby Dodd Stadium during concerts in one of those carts and interviewing Aerosmith in the radio booth at Lakewood.”
He recalls Van Halen in 1984 using one of the studios next to 96rock to do the syndicated show “Rockline.” “They had a parade of people coming in and out,” he said. “Just chaos! There was a stripper. I was in the next room watching this through the glass.”
As mid-day host, he recalls playing “You Are So Beautiful” for his newborn daughter. He also recalls talking about his divorce over the air. His most embarrassing moment? Taking a sledgehammer to a car at a tractor pull before 60,000 people in the Georgia Dome and nothing happening. “You could have heard a pin drop,” he said. “It was so funny!”
He also remembers losing the 96rock van after he drank too much and a buddy drove him home. Fortunately, a man at a bar he couldn’t remember going to called and got him his van before he got in trouble. He recalls getting pulled over for speeding but cops recognizing him and letting him off scot free. He was never suspended but one time he let a gal in a nightie into the van, hanging outside the window, causing him to end up with a caravan of cars behind him.
He was blown out of 96rock five days before Christmas in the mid-1990s. “They brought in a guy who woudl work for half of what we were making,” he said. “I was devastated, That was the worst Christmas of my life.”
Z93 gave him a new lease on life in 1997, doing nights, then days. But in 2004, he lost his gig again. “I was pretty freaked out,” he said. Ironically, the woman who took over the station as Dave FM, Michelle Engel (now gone) was Willard’s intern years earlier at 96rock.
Mara Davis today did a lovely farewell segment to Willard at 9:15 a.m.
“You’ve touched a lot of people’s lives,” Davis said. “I still get people saying, ‘What’s happened to Willard?’ … You were one of the greatest people I’ve ever worked with.”
Coolest concert: “I saw the Stones at the Fox Theatre in the front row,” he said. Best interview: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. (oops—I wrote Yes, thinking Jon Anderson. Thanks for the correction, readers!)
He said he can be contacted (at least for the next three weeks) via this address: Willardfm@bellsouth.net.
-Jimmy Baron finished up his week as fill in for Zakk Tyler this week on Dave FM. What did you think of his stint? He worked it hard, interviewing George Stephanopoulus, Salman Rushdie, Warren Savage and Creed from “The Office.” And his mom texted him during his Stephanopoulus interviewing telling him he was talking too much. He ended his week with copious thank you’s to Dave FM program director Mike Wheeler and to Zakk and Jane.
“In the past couple of years, I’ve done a little bit of radio in other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit and San Francisco,” he told the listeners. “People ask me what’s the difference doing it in those cities? The difference is this is my home court. I love this city. So it’s like when you go to a party and know everybody. You can be yourself compared to when you walk into a party for your wife’s work.”
And for those who want to email him, Baron can be contacted through his myspace page at www.myspace.com/jimmybaron
Comments
By HaHa
July 11, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this
Willard got cancer from lying down?
By Robert Morton
July 11, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this
Ian Anderson is in Jethro Tull. The singer for Yes is JON Anderson.
By Steve Barton
July 11, 2008 11:33 AM | Link to this
…and it is tough to imagine Jon Anderson being a good interview.
By Mazinski
July 11, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
I don’t think there’s any question that Jimmy’s one week on Dave (after not being on the air for two years) was far better than anything they’ve had on since the station started. It was cool to hear his voice again.
By Goat
July 11, 2008 1:55 PM | Link to this
Thank you Jimmy Barron and Yvonne Monet for making this week the best on DaveFM since Zakk and Jane came on board. No offense Z & J, but at least Jimmy knows what he’s talking about when he refers to things in the city.
Bring Jimmy to Dave, sorry Zakk, you just don’t fit.
By Goat
July 11, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
Thank you Jimmy Barron and Yvonne Monet for making this week the best on DaveFM since Zakk and Jane came on board. No offense Z & J, but at least Jimmy knows what he’s talking about when he refers to things in the city.
Bring Jimmy to Dave, sorry Zakk, you just don’t fit.
By Goat
July 11, 2008 2:01 PM | Link to this
Thank you Jimmy Barron and Yvonne Monet for making this week the best on DaveFM since Zakk and Jane came on board. No offense Z & J, but at least Jimmy knows what he’s talking about when he refers to things in the city.
Bring Jimmy to Dave, sorry Zakk, you just don’t fit.
By Jen
July 11, 2008 3:13 PM | Link to this
I agree…JB did a great job! I heard he would be doing the show this week so I tuned in, and would continue to do so if he was there every day. Bring back Jimmy to Atlanta radio!
By hm
July 11, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this
Ugh, hearing Jimmy tell his Jewish tales, oh please. Dave FM needs serious help with their morning show, but Jimmy Barron is not it.
By J
July 11, 2008 4:56 PM | Link to this
What is “prostrate” cancer? RODNEY ANSWERS: This is life without an editor. I fixed it!
By MM
July 12, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
I enjoyed hearing Jimmy on the radio this week, he was good. And he did sound relaxed. But he used a bad analogy. The reason he feels uncomfortable at his wife’s work party is because she works for right wing nut jobs. i wonder if she could get a job with someone who wanted to actually do something good for the country and took some pride in their work.
By The Truth
July 12, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
Baron will kill that stations rating within the year. Look at what he did at 99x, dead and gone. Please dont let him in, hes the death fog that will ruin any and all programs. Jimmy, if its money, gimme a call, ill loan you enough to start over in an other town. NO, really, I got a lot of money, you can have some. Come an get it.
By Hiawatha
July 12, 2008 3:09 PM | Link to this
Truth…What you fail to understand is that Dave has no ratings. Jimmy is probably the type of known personality that could finally get them recognition. Oh, wait, you just hate Jimmy flat-out, so it doesn’t really matter if it makes sense or not. Never mind.
By Jere
July 12, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this
It seems like there has been a Seinfeld like curse on all of the original Morning X cast.
I think Jimmy (with much help from Yvonne) has managed to break that curse.
If nothing else, I hope he showed whoever’s in charge at 92.9 that the morning show needs to be much more fast paced. The varied interviews and banter kept my attention. That ridiculous “guess the missing word game” that Zak plays everyday just makes me dozy.
Last week was the first time since 99X shut down that I turned on the radio on my desk when I got into work.
There’s no comparison between Zak and Jane and Jimmy and Yvonne.
By jeffrye
July 13, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this
Jimmy and Yvonne are a vast improvemement for DAVE fm. Sorry but Zak makes me yak!
By pythia
July 13, 2008 7:14 PM | Link to this
I started listening to DaveFM in the morning to get away from Jimmy’s idiocy - he’s crude, pompous, and ignorant - please don’t drive me away from another station!!
But I’ve always enjoyed Yvonne, though - welcome back!
By The Truth
July 14, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Jimmy got little man sindrom, his ego is bigger than himself.
By Les
July 14, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this
Jimmy Baron finished up his week as fill-in for Zakk Tyler on Dave FM. What did I think of his stint?
It was difficult to listen to. I know Jimmy Baron can do better. Jimmy stumbled and stammered too much. It seemed like it was impossible for him to finish a sentence, without interrupting himself and starting a new sentence. I don’t know if I heard him express a complete thought through the whole week. He did 3/4 sentences throughout the week. There were too many forced laughs; too much talking over top of others.
Jimmy is a great personality; is a great interviewer, and a great morning show host. He should be working everyday somewhere. But last week was a bit rough around the edges. Jimmy could certainly smooth out the discussion delivery is he were on the air on a more consistent basis.
By Rick
August 6, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
For anyone growing up in the 80s Willard was a fixture. Thanks for the memories.
By Deane Clark
December 24, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this
Any idea how I can get ahold of Willars Arbor? I worked at 96rock for the first 8 years of existence. I named the place and did the artwork for their first logo. I was fond of the place.
I remember when Willard cam aboard as a part-times when he graduated Georgia State. I’m really sorry to hear about his medical problems, but that’s something most of us go through. I’m happy he made it okay.