Bill Randle

Randle was the antithesis of the 1950’s screaming radio jock and his style was very down-to-earth and straightforward, focusing on the artists and their music, not on himself.

Bill Randle hosted a popular show on WJLB-AM radio called The Interracial Goodwill Hour, featuring rhythm and blues music and hot jazz.As a pioneering disc jockey at radio station WERE in Cleveland, Ohio, he helped change the face of American music. In the 1950s, Time magazine called Randle the top DJ in America. His popularity and huge listening audience allowed him to bolster the careers of a number of young musicians, including the Four Lads, Bobby Darin, and Fats Domino. Nicknamed "The Pied Piper of Cleveland", a 1955 musical documentary film was made about him titled The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous Disc Jockey. The film includes a Cleveland concert at Brooklyn High School on October 20, 1955, featuring Pat Boone and Bill Haley & His Comets with Elvis Presley as the opening act. It is the first commercial film footage of a Presley performance but has never been released.

He landed in Cleveland in 1949 on WERE-AM and Time magazine eventually hailed him as the top DJ in America.

His deep voice brought him early radio work in Detroit. Spinning records and promoting Jazz shows in Detroit led to freelance gigs in Chicago, Cleveland and Akron.

While working in Cleveland, Randle would travel back to Detroit for some radio programs. In the late 1950s, Randle would fly back and forth from Cleveland to New York where he produced radio shows in both markets (at WERE and WCBS-AM, respectively). He sat alongside other top DJs of the era including Carl Reese, Phil McLean and Howie Lund.

Randle was pivotal in bringing Presley to the ears of America and helped the careers of dozens of other stars, including Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Rosemary Clooney, Johnnie Ray and Fats Domino.

In spring of 1955 Randle told listeners to his WERE radio show that while in New York City he had received a recording of a hot new talent from the singer's manager, Colonel Tom Parker. He decided to premiere it in Cleveland (understanding the crossover appeal there of a young Elvis Presley). Randle championed Elvis' early recordings on Sun Records and those following his signing by RCA Victor that fall On January 28, 1956, Bill Randle introduced Elvis on TV to America on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show. Randle arranged in 1955 for Presley to appear in Cleveland with headliners Pat Boone and Bill Haley and the Comets. The two concerts, only Presley's second foray north, became part of rock lore because they were filmed for a Universal short on "The Pied Piper of Cleveland," about Randle.

"Randle has predicted every tune but one that appeared among the first five best sellers in 1954." "For years, he has also discovered and masterminded tunes and stars."
Time Magazine

During the 1970s and 1980s, Randle resurfaced on several different Cleveland radio stations, even hosting a talk show on WBBG 1260-AM in 1977. In the 1990s, Randle joined the airstaff of the now-defunct WRMR 850-AM, anchoring the Big Show on Sunday afternoons and a late-afternoon program. His success in afternoon drive time prompted station management to move him to morning drive time in April 1998. While the station's format was adult standards similar to the Music of Your Life satellite network, Randle's shows bucked the mold, featuring a unique combination of big band standards, early rock and roll, and new artists such as Norah Jones, Michael Buble, *N Sync, Jewel, Sarah Vaughn, Dido and the Backstreet Boys. Following an ownership, format and frequency swap in 2001, Randle retired from full-time on-air duties at WRMR. However, he would rejoin the rechristened WCLV 1420-AM a year later with a Saturday night music show, which would ultimately move back to Sunday afternoons as the Big Show. (WCLV would revert to the WRMR call letters in 2003.)

Bill Randle, at the age of 81, died of cancer in Cleveland on July 9, 2004.