Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Happy Radio Day

Happy Monday! I LOVE all Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you.

#TheRecipeDetective

#NationalRadioDay

Wednesday will be celebrating National Radio Day, among other things. In the early 1990s, August 20^th was established to honor the invention of radio and its impact on mankind, while withstanding the “tests-of-time”. Since well before television, radio has been a source for news, information, and entertainment – even companionship.

I’ve written several blog posts about Mom’s friendship with radio. This was a special celebration to her. After all, she talked about her copycat cookery concept and advertised her secret recipes, cookbooks, and newsletters, while on radio talk shows, for over 40 years – since it first began in 1973, until Mom semi-fully retired in 2014.

When she wasn’t writing or cooking or writing about cooking, Mom’s happy place was in radio, doing interviews almost daily, all around the U.S. and Canada. She was often told that she had a great radio voice. Some overseas shows called her, too, following her appearances on “The Phil Donahue Show” (1981 and 1993), as the episodes aired worldwide.

Mom loved doing radio show interviews because she could do it from the comfort of home. Also because it was all “talk” (and Mom loved to talk – especially about her passions). There were no “demonstrations”, like the TV “talk” shows always wanted. Nor did she have to look a certain way to appease the producers.

Radio was a major cornerstone in the success of the family recipe business that Mom and Dad built. She always described her wonderful experiences with radio shows (as well as the people she got to know) in almost every book and newsletter issue that she wrote.

Radio felt like home to Mom. The audiences felt like close friends and the shows’ hosts felt like family. In fact, it was the “listeners” of her regular radio visits (in the Detroit area) with Bob Allison, on his “Ask Your Neighbor” show, who initially dubbed her “The Recipe Detective”. Mom further developed that persona into her own trademarked identity.

“When I am broadcasting over the numerous radio stations around the country, sometimes around the world, I try to lift the listener to a new height of interest and enthusiasm, and I leave the serious side of nutrition to the experts, who have the medical background to support their claims. My hope is to present my recipes in such a way that cooking is a joy and never a job! I try to present these recipes with the same concern as I do giving a gift to a special friend.” – by Gloria Pitzer, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 75)

Working from home, Mom could do multiple radio talk show interviews on any given day and at any given time, with very little notice. It didn’t matter what she looked like. “They” (whoever “they” are) say that television adds five pounds, compared to how you look in person (10 with inflation). Mom used to say that radio made her feel 10 pounds slimmer.

There were many radio shows in which she participated on a regular basis – either weekly or monthly and a few were on certain holidays every year. Some shows were only 15-30 minutes long. Many shows were for an hour or two. Sometimes, it was like Mom was a remote co-host, discussing the subject of the day. She enjoyed it so much.

My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, pp. 58-59)

RADIO – SPECIAL PEOPLE

RADIO HAS BECOME ONE of the biggest blessings in our work and my recipe visits came about as a result of my initial work with Bob Allison and his ‘Ask Your Neighbor’ show. Other broadcasts it became a tradition with us involved all of the stations listed here – and then some.

The contacts of most of these came as a result of the wire service carrying a story about our recipes from time to time, the biggest occurring after a write up in ‘Mother Jones Magazine’ in 1976 [when it first began]. Zodiac news service carried the story and from that we must have been contacted by 100 stations in less than a week.

Many of those have remained among our regular visits even today. Others have come to us from the publicity we have mailed out to several hundred stations that are listed in the national Radio Directory [found in many public library systems].

Putting together such publicity was a huge project and a 10% return of such contacts is gratifying. So, for that reason, many people back off from using direct-mailing publicity. The behind-the-scenes work, involved in making our contacts, entails days and days of putting one of these projects together. None of it ever just happened.

The favorite broadcasts that I have considered my home-away-from-home include KNX-Radio, in Los Angeles, where I first met Jackie Olden; and now, Mel Baldwin and Melinda Lee carry on the Food-News show [there]. You will note that I mentioned them frequently in our newsletters.

There was also my introduction to WHIO-Radio, in Dayton [Ohio], where Lou Emm first introduced me to his listeners – before Donahue, as that is where Phil originated his TV show years ago.

The monthly visits that I now enjoy participating in are with Andy Thomas of WVOC-Radio, in Columbia [SC] and with Marty Kaye, on a weekly basis, at WIBA-Radio, in Madison, Wisconsin.

I was so sorry to see Ed and Sydney Busch retire from their ‘America Over the Weekend’ broadcasts, for I began broadcasting with them at WFAA-Radio, in Dallas, in 1976 or 1977 – and it was over that station that I met Colonel Sanders.

Many of the stations with which I have worked in the past 20-plus years have made me feel so much a part of their regular staff, and their family of listeners, that I have come to think of them as my home-away-from-home.

When I work with WHO-Radio, in Des Moines, and Jan Michaelson, it is like ‘family’; for I worked with Jan at a Cincinnati station for many years prior to his move to Iowa. I was made to feel right at home. The listeners also accepted me like ‘family’.

From other radio experiences, I have come to know and love the staff and the listening audiences of each of the stations, which include KSDO-Radio, in San Diego [and] WIBC-Radio, in Indianapolis with Jeff Pigeon; who, after talking to me for only five minutes, had so inspired his listeners to want to try our recipes that we received nearly 1000 letters within two days after the radio visit!

My other radio visits cover KLIF-Radio, in Dallas, with Kevin McCarthy; KSL-Radio, in Salt Lake City, with Bob Lee; and WJR-Radio, in Detroit, with Bob Hynes on late-night and Jack Mindy and daytime.

There is also a long and friendly relationship between Toni Harblin and her listeners and me at WTNY-Radio, in Watertown, New York; as well as, WBKV-Radio, in West Bend, Wisconsin and WKRC-Radio, in Cincinnati, with JB Miller. I first met JB when he was with a West Virginia radio station, perhaps 12 or 13 years ago.

KTAR-Radio, in Phoenix, is a long-time friendship that comes along during the holidays, when I visit with Preston Westmoreland or Pat McMahon. And there are regular visits with Mike Donavon at WSTV-Radio, in the Steubenville, Ohio area.

Kathy Keene, at WHBY-Radio, in Appleton, Wisconsin, has an enthusiastic following. There are so many others that I hope I haven’t forgotten to mention these wonderful friends and the story of how we have grown.

WSUB-Radio, in the New London, Connecticut area, is [where I visit] with my pal, Margie Kreschollek – The Micro Whiz – and is a new radio visit that I thoroughly enjoy. Margie takes my conventional recipes and converts them to micro cooking in no time at all!

Another outstanding experience I had recently was with Jim Warren and Prime Time America. Beth Albright and I hit it off like old friends on her show at WISN-Radio, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; where we had two hours with which to acquaint her listeners with my recipe secrets.

Tim Regler, of KLIN-Radio, in Lincoln Nebraska, and I found his family of listeners just like neighbors on our street – friendly and receptive. Another recent visit that has become a regular event with us is with WFIR-Radio, in Roanoke, Virginia.

Dennis Elliott, of WMFR-Radio, in High Point North Carolina, was another challenging broadcast that brought wonderful letters from his listeners. When Dan Leonard left WEBR-Radio, in Buffalo, I was honored to be one of his last guests. I’ll really miss him there.

But the second Tuesday of every month, if you are in the Oklahoma City listening area, please tune into KTOK-Radio in my regular visit with Carol Arnold and her audience. We promise to give you chocolate recipes if nothing else!

When it all began, there wasn’t any home internet and computers, social media platforms, or cell phones. Yet word spread quickly about Mom’s copycat cookery concept – at least, as quickly as the 1970s were capable. It was more than 30 years later, on August 4^th (2008), when my brother, Mike, launched TheRecipeDetective.com’s original website.

For the first three decades that Mom and Dad were in business, full time (1974-2004), not a day went by without a generous amount of mail or phone calls, expressing an enthusiastic interest in the recipes they developed and published. A couple of years in the middle were actually overwhelming (from “The Donahue Effect”).

Mom had so many happy memories from her association with radio. One was of a 1995 “working” road trip/vacation that she and Dad took to Branson, Missouri with the hosts and crew of one of her favorite “local” radio shows, Listen To The Mrs., which aired on WSGW-Radio (Saginaw, MI), from its beginning in 1952, until 2019, shifting to podcast-form.

Check out this website’s Media Friends tab for Mom’s “Thank You” notes to her media friends (mostly in radio broadcasting). I collected them from her various books and newsletters and combined them into one large post. Mom was always grateful for all of her media friends, especially those in the radio industry.

LAST THOUGHTS…

Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253

IN CLOSING…

In honor of tomorrow, being National Potato Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Stuffed (Twice) Baked Potatoes”, like The Golden Lion’s (in Detroit, MI); as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 134). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition)]. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.

#NationalPotatoDay