Name: Bill Vogel
Age: was 68
Occupation: former radio personality and announcer
Last Seen: up there
Awarded For: being quite possibly the greatest northern Michigan jock ever
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In 1974, a radio station owner in Charlevoix, MI named Terry Edgerton received a phone call from a man from Detroit who cross-country skiing up north for the weekend.
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Age: was 68
Occupation: former radio personality and announcer
Last Seen: up there
Awarded For: being quite possibly the greatest northern Michigan jock ever
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In 1974, a radio station owner in Charlevoix, MI named Terry Edgerton received a phone call from a man from Detroit who cross-country skiing up north for the weekend.
The 22-year-old DJ, named Bill Vogel, worked at stations in Lansing and now was at WDRQ in Detroit. One would think that the young jock was crazy wanting to go from working for a radio giant in Detroit to an upstart 5,000-watt AM daytimer in a town of 3,000 folks. But, the 275-mile move paid off in the long run.
That station, WVOY 1270, was one of the first-ever radio stations in northern Michigan history to devote itself to being a Top 40 format full-time. Up until its 1974 sign-on, most of northern Michigan's other stations either aired middle-of-the-road (MOR) music, beautiful music (i.e. Muzak) or block formats, meaning that they did air some pop and rock music either in the afternoon or night. Most radio station owners up north believed that playing "kids music" was the job of 50,000-watt flamethrowers like WLS and WCFL in Chicago or CKLW in Windsor/Detroit. WVOY proved that CHR worked well in somewhat conservative northern Michigan. So well that not long after they signed on, they had competition.
In 1976, WJML 1110 AM/98.9 FM Petoskey's owner, John Harrington died and his family sold the MOR stations to a family from Muskegon who also owned WMUS in that city. WJML had something WVOY didn't: an FM simulcast, which allowed WJML to be on the air 24 hours a day. After the sale was finished, WJML went CHR. Not long afterward, WJML was consistently beating everybody in the ratings.
Eventually, programming guru Tim Moore took over ownership of WVOY and wanted to give them its own FM station to compete with WJML. In 1980, that wish came true with the birth of 106 KHQ. The two stations were neck-and-neck in the ratings throughout much of the early 80s when JML's morning show hosts, Bob and Tom, moved to Indianapolis. Rumor had it that it was Moore who sent that Indy station, Q95 an aircheck of their WJML show. Without Bob and Tom, WJML faltered in the ratings, and eventually went back to an MOR sound, now known as adult contemporary.
During the great WVOY/WJML battle, Vogel handled afternoons on WVOY. I remember hearing that he bought a small boat that only fit four adults on there. He packed it with ten and the boat sank. Therefore, he was christened "The Captain". He also started a commercial voiceover business called Vogelsound which did quite well. Commercials with Vogel's voice were heard all across the north for many, many years, including Glen's Market, Tallberg Chevrolet in Petoskey and Puff's of Petoskey.
But eventually, Vogel found himself at the helm of the Q Morning Zoo for nearly 20 years. His unique blend of humor and trivia made him one of northern Michigan's top jocks. If you were a kid who grew up in the 80s and 90s, his battle cry of "GET THE HECK OUTTA BED!" made sure that you stayed awake. His slurping of the morning's coffee was also a beloved trademark of his. But, he also did a lot of stunts as well, such as telling his audience that he was not going to leave the back of a truck until it was filled with canned goods for the Father Fred Foundation of Traverse City. Some 30 years ago, Vogel also broadcasted non-stop from KHQ's Traverse City studio to raise money to help the less fortunate.
As the 2000s roared in, Vogel shocked his longtime fans when he entered the realm of talk radio, hosting an afternoon program for the Michigan Talk Radio Network while continuing his KHQ morning show (MTRN's stations were forbidden to air Vogel's MTRN show due to a non-compete clause in his contract with KHQ). However, he left KHQ to focus on his MTRN show. It turned out that wasn't a great idea, unfortunately. Years ago, Vogel sent me an email with a scan of one of his paychecks from MTRN. The check was bounced, complete with an NSF stamp. Other hosts followed Vogel out the door, such as Dave Barber, Don Chiodo and Ron Jolly.
But, it wasn't the end of Bill Vogel. His voiceover business was booming, like his voice. Just a few years after his MTRN bust, he was the voice of MadTV during the last two original seasons of the series from 2007-2009. He voiced over what might have been the funniest pregnancy test ad, ever. Bill also reminded us to drink some water while downing shots of Crown Royal and voiced over hundreds - maybe thousands - of regional car dealership ads. Recently, he was the voice of Summit Place KIA here in Grand Rapids.
On Saturday, The Captain's old station, 106 KHQ made the sad announcement on Facebook that Bill Vogel had passed away. He was 68 years old. No word on his cause of death. As of this writing, no official obituary has been posted regarding his passing. On Monday, KHQ's current morning hosts, Robby and Rochelle paid tribute to him by officially naming their studio "The Bill Vogel Studio".
While Robby and Rochelle and KHQ deserve props for showing great sportsmanship in reporting Bill Vogel's passing, the rest of the northern Michigan media deserves a giant kick in the ass for keeping mum. None of northern Michigan's "big two" TV stations - 9&10 and 7&4 - or even the Record-Eagle have reported on Vogel's passing. When a media personality - past or present - dies here in Grand Rapids, the media is on it like white on rice. Traverse City media, however, is one giant joke. Hell, when Michael O'Shea of WCCW fame died a few weeks ago, the local media ignored his passing. Not only that, O'Shea was once an announcer at 7&4 (go to 4:20 in this video)!
Well, it's up to me, I guess, to pay homage to the great Bill Vogel, a man who was given a gift and used it well. So many people who worked with him have said that he was a wonderful man and he will be missed dearly. As for me, another part of my childhood has come and gone.
Rest In Peace, oh Captain our Captain.
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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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