Bill Gordon

“Stay Smoochie, You Rascal You.”

Cleveland had a long and well-deserved history as one of the most important radio markets in the country.  The city attracted top talent all offering their own unique perspective on the art of broadcasting.  Unique is a word that fit Bill Gordon “to a T”.  He arrived at WHK in 1950 leaving WHBQ / Memphis where he worked with Dewey Phillips, the legendary DJ who helped break Elvis Presley.  Gordon’s radio show was an immediate hit, and at one point he had three different shows on the station and even TV time co-hosting “The One O’Clock Club” with Dorothy Fuldheim on WEWS.  Part of his charm was that he set his own rules, much to the dismay of station management.  Gordon didn’t believe in dead air, and he filled it with stories and songs…but often didn’t know when to stop.  He often talked over records and commercials and even offered opinions in newscasts, and Gordon saw the schedule the program directors required him to strictly follow merely as a suggestion.   What could they do?  The audience loved him, the ratings showed it and the best plan seemed to be to let Gordon “stay smoochie”.

About that.  Gordon’s famous tag line was “Stay smoochie, you rascal you”, a saying that he adlibbed on his audition tape after Sarah Vaughn’s “I Feel So Smoochie”.  Station management loved that line and from that point on that’s the way Gordon would end his show.  For a time he also had a nightspot in Shaker Heights called “Smoochie’s Hideaway” that became a popular after-hours place for local media personalities.

Gordon also had a talk show on WERE-AM called “Apartment 13” that he broadcast from his home.  California called and Gordon worked in the San Diego market for several years before accepting an invitation to return to Cleveland to host a show on the newly rechristened WBBG-AM, the former WIXY 1260.  His last full time hosting position was at WERE in the mid-1980s, though he was often seen and heard on TV and radio for years after.

Gordon also kept up a schedule as a live entertainer often being booked at local clubs to play his guitar and spin tales about a wide range of topics.  Friends knew him as a health enthusiast and very vocal about the dangers of smoking, sometimes lecturing people he’d just met about what they were doing to their lungs.  Proper nutrition was also a top concern, and Gordon once had an impromptu TV debate with famed chef Julia Child about the dangers of too much white sugar. An avid runner, Gordon was often seen jogging near his home in Euclid and would usually take the steps to his eighteenth-floor apartment.

Bill Gordon left us in December 2008 at the age of 83.