8/24/12

Is It Mack or John Mackin Ade


 
I’ve receive a bunch of emails on “who the hell is John Mackin Ade?”, and “is your name John or Mack".

John Mackin Ade

My name is not Mack Ade. It is John Mackin Ade. I chose the nickname of ‘Mack’ when I became a sportswriter 10 years ago for a local newspaper.

A little history.

I came out of Ozone Park after my mother dies when I was six, and my father died when I was 13 (brother 16). I went to school, then washed dishes at Mabee's Charcoal Broil, on Atlantic Ave.,  until 11pm, and then went to bed. That was life until I joined the Air Force when I was 17 (1964-1968).

I began working in the radio industry in 1970 for Pro Times Sales, NYC, a national sales representative company. It was our job to sell commercials to advertising agencies for radio stations that our company represented.

I left Pro Time to join Katz Radio, the largest radio representative field in the business and worked there until 1975. I then became General Sales Manager for. ‘The Mellow Sound’, 98.7FM, WKTU, New York. I was promoted to Assistant General Manager in 1978 (format change to “Disco 92”) until 1980.

I then became General Sales Manger of WTAE/WXKX, Pittsburgh (1980-1982), VP and General Manager of KLUV-FM, Dallas (1982-1984), and General Sales Manager of WIP-AM, Philadelphia (1984).

In late 1984 I became President of Specter Broadcast, a company owned by myself, a lawyer, a dentist, and his spouse. We went on to own radio stations licensed to Beaufort, South Carolina, and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We went ‘under’ in 1989 and I became VP of General Electric and General Manager of KEYI/KNOW, Austin, Texas.

I successfully sold those stations to Clear Channel in 1991, returned to Dallas for six months to help a friend-owner at KLUV-FM radio, and became General Manager of WIXV/WBMQ, in Savannah, Georgia, from 1992-1997. The stations were eventually sold to Cumulus Broadcasting and I became Senior Vice president of National Sales for Capstar Broadcasting.

Capstar was spun into Clear Channel Broadcasting and I remained working with the old CEO, who had formed NextMedia. I worked as a trustee for them in both Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Panama City, Florida.

I then had a low blood sugar, causing me to faint and slam my head into my dining room table. My wife found me hours later and I was sent to Candler Hospital with both inter-cranial bleeding and brain swelling. I lost two years of my short term memory and have continued to struggle in that area.

Doctors told me that I would have trouble typing, reading, spelling, etc. and my symptoms would be similar to early-onset Alzheimer’s. I think he is right.

I started reading more. Then I started writing. I wrote five novels, none of which were published. The content wasn’t as important as the act of writing them. I was trying to keep my brain alive.

My wife had just accepted a contract assignment as a food writer at our local newspaper. I walked in there and convinced the editor that they needed someone to cover the local high schools in sports. We agreed on $50 a page.  My name was John until the day I walked out of that office. It then became ‘Mack'

I added the duties of 'beat reporter' for Morris Communications in 2007 and covered the Savannah Sand Gnats for their newspapers in Hardeeville and Bluffton, South Carolina, neighboring counties to Savannah, Georgia. I wrote a weekly full page spread on the Sand Gnats for three years, but then chose to resign that position. I continue to have press passes, as a blogger, for both Savannah and the St. Lucie Mets

I now live in Hardeeville with my bride of 42-years. I write for Mack's Mets and continue to help local inner city high schoolers obtain scholarship money to further their education. To date, I have seven players who have received "rides" because of work done my myself, their coaches, their teachers, and their parents. Oh yeah, they did a little too :)

I made a lot of money in my life. Like many of you, I lost more . Tonight's a big night for me. My local high school, Ridgeland-Hardeeville, opens their football season against rival Bluffton High School. There are seven players left on that team that I used to write about and I will be standing next to the head coach, as his guest, for the game.  

8 comments:

Brian Joura said...

I'd like to believe that you were not instrumental in the format change for WKTU. If you were, I will henceforth refer to you not by Mack or John Mackin but rather simply as...

Boogie Man

Mack Ade said...

Brian, it's a great unwritten story.

Lots of people take credit for creating a radio station that overnight becamse the most listened to station in America.

There were six people in the meeting that decided to change that format.

One, was an observer. He was a disc jockey on our sister AM Hispanic station, WHOM-AM, that had no vote. His name was Paquito Navarro, a.k.a., 'Paco' (still a good friend of mine).

Four of us... me... VP David Rapaport, Program Consultant Kent Burkhardt, and program director, Matt Clennot, all voted NO.

The other person in the meeting was Ed Cosman, President of SJR Communications (San Juan Racing Assoication - origin: Meyer Lansky).

He was in his60's at the time andhad dinner the night before at a local french restaurant (Madion and 60s) when the manager asked him if they could be re-seated (it was 9pm) in the bar because his table was located where the "dance floor" was. Ed didn't know they place turned into a disco at 9 and agreed to move.He finished his dinner and watched 200-300 afluent, white, Park Avenue types flood the restaurant in what seems like minutes.

Ed voted yes.

He then asked when we could get it done. Our programming people said it would take "a few weeks".

I said "tomorrow". The logic was, if we're going to do it, let's do it right away. I called the editor of Billboard Magazine, got the name of the top 50 disco songs in the world, instructed Mark Cichon (Operations Manager) to go their and buy the 10" version of each hit, and pay for it with his credit card.

David and I then decided to promote a man named Michael Ellis to Music Director. Michael was our Traffic Director, but he lived in the disco world and this station needed someone on the inside that understood this music (David's favorite artist was Van Morrison; mine was Neil Young). Michael arranged a 'clock' where one 18-minute version of a song would be players, followed by up to three commercials.

And THAT became 'Disco 92'. Not a radio station, but a disco juke box.

The Arbitron survey before this had us dead last in the city with a 0.9 share A12+. The next survey placed us 1st, with an 11.3 share.

The world wanted to know all the work and all the research put into this project. We tried to tell them the truth but they thought we were making this up, so we just told everyone to call the program consultant and he gave them his 'official' version which sounded more sane.

David Rapaport is now retired and lives in NY. One of his sons, Michael Rapaport, who was the bat boy on our softball team, went on to become an accomplshed actor.

Paco remains one of New York's top dis jockies.

Ed Cosman passe away around ten years ago.

Mark Cichon had a long successful radio career and now lives in Austin, Texas.

Matt Clennot resigned after that meeting, was heard muttering to himself as he cleaned out his desk, and we never heard or seen him again.

Kent Burkhardt took the credit for the success and went on to a long, successful consultancy. He and I hooked up again in Austin in the late 90s.

The station was eventually turned into K-Rock, became the home for, first, Jay Thomas, and then Howard Stern, and was the first radio station bought by Mel Karmazin for Infinity Broadcasting.

Radi Ga Ga.

Mack Ade said...

Oh yeah...

Mihael Ellis went on to eventually become an editor at Billboard Magazine

Brian Joura said...

Great story Boogie Man!

Wagneruzar said...

Great story Boogie Man!

Anonymous said...

Actually, I stayed at 'KTU 'til spring '79. The late Rick Sklar (WABC) heard me on a panel at a (Billboard?) radio convention; I had dinner with him and two other ABC radio execs; went to Chicago to program Disco 'DAI. THEN I was never heard from again :) Well, then I went back on the air at WCFL, WMET, Satellite Music Network; programmed WGRD in Grand Rapids for 2 years; then I was never heard from again. Hi, John!
Matt Clenott

Mack Ade said...

Hey back to you Matt

Tom Brennan said...

Quite a story. Great stuff. Shows the life of a resouceful, creative and giving person. Lot to be proud of. Even still plugging away.


The Mets have been a Blues station. Time for Power Rock in 2015. Top of the charts.