My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Dennis “Wildman” Walker who started with WEBN 102.7 FM in Cincinnati back in 1983 and was a full time member of the morning show crew called the Dawn Patrol from 1985-2011. Wildman has written a book called Wild Man: The Book with co-author Gerry Schultz. He has organized a book signing tour and the initial schedule is at the bottom of this section. Wildman was first noticed by WEBN disc jockey Michael Luczak in 1983 while he was collecting money to fly a banner over Riverfront Stadium. Wildman, like many fans, was disgruntled about the performance of Reds general manager Dick Wagner and arranged to have airplane fly over the stadium with a banner that said, “Pete Rose Forever… Dick Wagner never.” When Wagner was fired days later, the folks at WEBN realized Wildman’s role and decided to hire him as a freelancer collecting postgame soundbites to be used for the sports reports. After two years, Wildman is hired full-time at WEBN in 1985 as a member of the Dawn Patrol. The Dawn Patrol was the name morning drive-time talent and for over two decades was the top rated group in the city. Wildman also talks about how he was given the Wildman moniker which of course is really just an exaggeration of his true personality. This persona was exactly what WEBN was looking for when it came to their sports guy was it was a perfect storm leading to Wildman joining the team. We talk about the personal relationships that Wildman has developed and has continued to maintain of the years with some of the top sports personalities in the Cincinnati sports scene. It’s no secret that the “Hit King” Pete Rose was Wildman’s favorite baseball player. He talks about how it all started for his fandom of Pete when he first met him collecting autographs as a kid at Crosley Field. Another guy Wildman developed a great friendship with was former University of Cincinnati Bearcats head basketball coach Bob Huggins. We talk about an interaction he had with “Hugs” in the media room at Northern Kentucky University after the Norse played against West Virginia. This leads into a great discussion about Wildman’s biggest claim to fame when he spent 61 days on a billboard vowing to never come down until the Bengals win a game. In addition to covering sports for WEBN, Wildman also had a chance to go to concerts and interview all of the top Rock n’ Roll acts of the time. He talks about some of those interesting interactions. Wildman is also a very accomplished public address announcer and one of his highest profile jobs was for the Cincinnati Cyclones hockey team. He spent 20 years with the team that won two Kelly Cups Championships. Before going to the Cyclones, he was the PA announcer for NKU men’s and women’s basketball teams in the 1980’s. He remembers how the women’s team had a legit chance of winning the NCAA Division-II championship but an injury to star player Melissa Wood derailed that season. We talk about him attending games with his buddies known as the “Rail Gang.” One of their favorite players was John “Moose” Campbell who played for the Cincinnati Slammers of the CBA. They were also able to meet Phil Jackson and Cazzie Russell while going to Slammers games and jeering the visiting team. Now in what he describes as semi-retirement, Wildman stays busy as a PA announcer for both Seven Hills and Indian Hill High School. Recently, Joe Danneman from Fox 19 did a feature of Wildman in action. Click here to see that story. Finally we go into some detail about his newly release book Wild Man: The Book. He teases a story about an incident between him and former Reds pitcher Danny Graves that developed into a full fledged feud between the two that is far from settled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
