1972--What a great year... graduated from Canfield HS, and started college at YSU ! Love hearing Boots' voice again ! Boots' grave is in the Geeburg Methodist Church cemetery in Ellsworth, Ohio.
This the guy that inspired me to get into radio. I listened to him on WHOT in Youngstown when I was a teenager and thought he was the coolest guy ever. It's your Bearded Buddy Boots Bell , with his catch phrases "Yes indeedy doody daddy" & "Take A Ride On The Booter Scooter" . I never thought I'd get to do that, but I did. Never got a chance to meet him in person, but I wish I could have and given him a big thanks for the inspiration.
Really appreciate this. I am now a professional radio broadcaster (talk radio) and I have NEVER forgotten Boots. He was such a celebrity to us! What is amazing is that- when you realize how great a DJ he was-he spent pretty much his entire career in Youngstown.
Wow, the first place I took my x wife (girlfriend at the time) to WHOT Radio station to hang with Jerry Vincent, memories and Boots DJing at IDORA Park, been a long time.
Listening now and missing you, Boots. Met in the 60s and you taught me to love radio and current music, as I was stuck in the '20s, '30s, and beyond with what my parents listened to. Thank you for being a fun guy for the teens of the 70s. We love and miss you!!!
back in the day, (late 60's)Boots would let my friends and I in the back door to watch him do his work. looking back, I'd have to say he was a great guy for being so tolerant of us kids and making an attempt to give us some guidance. only later in life did I realize what a top-notch DJ he was.
Ohhhhh, I remember him. You almost mad me CRY listening to this. There was a time when Y-town was a bustling, busy and nice place to raise children, live and vacation. Now it is depressing, sad, filthy and dark. Oh, YOUNGSTOWN, how you have fallen.😭😭😭😭😭😭. Idora Park, North Side Drive In, North Side Swimming pool, North Side Drive In. Memories in deed. I left in 1988 and do NOT miss that place.
Youngstown is just ANOTHER example of a city "lead" by Liberal Democrats run into poverty due to their Socialists leanings. I'm from that area; Boardman. I remember Boots, A.C. McCullough, Jerry Starr, and more from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. WHOT, WFMJ, and the Wizard 100.7. Great times, but they are all a memory now. It'll never be a great city again until those stupid people wise-up and elect Conservative Republicans and get rid of those useless unions. Until then, Y-town is just a place to visit my parents' graves and to get some chipped-chopped ham...
Boots Bell lived 2 houses up from me when I was a kid for about 2 yrs He walked with a cane and very soft spoken man when he was not on radio or being a DJ in person He had a daughter very nice man
Oh, the cane! I was in Oasis Record store in Boardman in 1980-ish and he was there. He had on a red suit and his cane. We chatted a bit about music. Very nice and soft-spoken. Genuine, honest smile. A gentleman all the way....
Lived in Youngstown from 60 to 67 and remember Boots Bell and WHOT. If he liked a song he would do an "INSTANT REPLAY" I also remember Idora Park and riding the Wildcat and the Jackrabbit. WOW!
In the 70s, I wrote/produced an audio taped show called "Do You Want To Dance?" a history of dance crazes from the 50s-70s. I contacted Boots and asked if he him to do the narration, and he agreed! Fuzzy Palumbo and Susan Chalkin were the dancers -- the show was only performed once, at Delmonico's on Coitsville Rd, next to the Sky Hi drive-in. That night someone stole the tape, our only copy. I also did an extensive interveiw with Boots for a newspaper called Pierre & The Pussycat.
W Michael Novotny: Please contact me at watchpocket007@yahoo.com - I'd be very interested in seeing the interview you did with Boots Bell. I can also be reached on Facebook. Please get in touch, thanks.
Among all the great listening he provided he & Wes Boyd also sent me a tape of part of his show when I was overseas on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. Long Live the memory of The Booter Skooter!
WDVE took over the fm position in the afternoon till the next morning when WHOT broadcast am/fm. Good 👍 memories of WDVE playing whole album's and letting us record them from both sides
I forgot how great Boots Bell was! He was the BEST DJ EVER!!! And WHOT was THE radio station all the teens of my era listened to! Thanks for the memories!!!
Boy oh boy! Met Boots in 1958 along with Dick Thompson (DT) when I lived in Sharon, PA while in high school. He drove an Alfa Romero. I remember Yes indeedy doody daddy...and In The Air Chair until.....I think they called their music survey sheet "Hitline Survey"? I remember when they put their sister FM station on the air WRED . In fact, Boots wrote a letter to me my first year at Indiana Univ. 1960! He was the best hands down! RIP, my buddy.
Bootsey gave me advise when I was a teen. "You may be talented son, but if you ever want to make money and a name for yourself don't ever get into radio!" LOL..Why didn't I listen!
Lived in Champion in 50s and 60s and listened to the HOT jocks and Johnny Andrews on WBBW who went on to WHLO...KYW and Wes Hopkins...WHK and Johnny Holiday...those were the top days of top 40 radio and NE Ohio was among the best in the USA !
We bought 45RPM records downtown at The Record Rendezvous, listened to Dan Ryan on HOT radio and had our TM's made at Lord Chesterfield Tailors...14" peg, French pleat, two inch drop and covered buttons please...about $35. I was lucky to have two pair and always wore them with a nice white T-shirt.
This is what radio and WHOT was back in the day. No doubt, Boots was WHOT. Grew up listening and finally met Boots at the Blaine Avenue studio! Just a shame Johnny K, DT and Jerry aren't out there on aircheck too. Loved the Idora WHOT days. Wow, just takes me back to the days of youth and I will never forget him.
I was at a record collectors show being held at the Holiday Inn banquet room in Austintown in the early 1980's and going through the hundreds and hundreds of boxes of records and 45's. Going through the same boxes was a guy dressed in a white Panama suit and a vest with a red tie and white shoes. It was Boots Bell and what a snazzy dresser was he! I loved when he did a commercial for a car dealer and pronounced the words, "SheHe Motors". What a talented guy!
This sounds great, there are not many of these airchecks from WHOT or copies the top 50 Tunedex for that matter, but Boots was the King. I listed to WHOT, CKLW Detroit/Windsor, WLS Chicago, WABC New York and WMMS Cleveland and Boots could hang with any of those DJ's, even Don Steele at Los Angeles KRLA. There are no DJ's of this caliber today, it's a lost art.
Thanks for posting this. I am part of an upcoming documentary on Boots Bell. I am trying to collect and restore any Boots Bell recordings. Really looking for "Yes indeedy doody daddy" I am working with his song and daughter on this project, Please, message me if anyone has any. Any media is welcomed.
Bryan- I love that you are doing a doc on Boots...so well deserved. If I -or my nationally syndicated radio show-can do anything to be of assistance, you have only to ask.
Boots was "our" (Youngstown) answer to the Super Jocks on CKLW and WIXY (The Motor Cityyyyy...) The 60's were great years to be a kid with a cheap transistor radio, hearing some of the best songs ever written.
I hate to tell you all that Montreal's Dean Hagopian was saying "Yes indeedy-doody-daddy in the mid-60s. I'm not sure Dean was the first but I know it long predates boots.
i remenber when Bootsy conducted a losers contest my friend was the winner in 1966 and he sent her a ciggerett butt smoked by Ringo Starr after an interview he had with Ringo in Pittsburg far out Bootsy WHOT 4 EVER
Great radio station. I remember Johnny Kay and A.C. McCullough as other HOT disc jockey. The night before this clip was taken they would have gone thru the Top 100 songs of the year with Number 1 being done at midnight.
I lived in Youngstown in the 50's as a teenager. I attended Harding Elementary, Hayes Jr High, East High and Fitch in Austintown. Even at that young age I knew one thing for sure...I had to get out of Youngstown, and I did it in 1959. Never heard of Boots Bell. It was Dan Ryan on WHOT in those days playing the new Rock & Roll music that grownups hated. In winter I would often wake up to find a beautiful blanket of pure white snow covering the ugliness of Youngstown only to see it turned to black slush by noon. Filth spewed from the mill stacks 24 hours a day and I watched my Mother's dismay as she gathered sheets from the clothes line that were dotted with specks of black. It seemed my only refuge was the movie theaters downtown. The Palace, Warners and a third theater whose name escapes me at the moment. 20 cents and could stay as long as I liked. There was another theater, The Strand, but it had a bad reputation among us and I never knew anyone who went there. R.I.P. Youngstown
Seems to me there was a State Theatre downtown where "The Sound of Music" ran for more than a year when I was a kid. Could that have been the other one you were trying to think of? I can remember being pretty young still when my parents started telling me that I was going away to college and that the goal needed to be get out of Youngstown in my professional life. I did.
Dude, why did you edit the songs??? It ruins the vibe, man! The songs are what it's all about, because they give it historical context. It's all about the zeitgeist, man.
I too would rather have heard more songs... but it's just like the car radio was back then, only AM was available, and there was way too much talk. It was very frustrating, especially since many of the songs were so awful - like Michael Jackson's "Ben." Ugh. You had to wait through how much talk and garbage to actually hear something good on WHOT.
InternetPilgrim HA-HA, yeah, you got that part right. There was and still is too much talk and not enough music, at least on AM. It's just great to hear what it was like back then. Some things have changed, others not so much.
What are you bitchin' about? This video is mainly about the DJ. It's great to hear his voice again. It really takes me back. The music is great but can be download all over the net. Get over it!!
@@InternetPilgrim Of course Internet Pilgrim, What you are listening to on that recording are called "Air Checks". They aren't intended to have the entire songs!!
@@chrisbell10460 correct. Air checks are just that- a dj's (and pd) way to critique theirself. tape would run when the mike was hot at the intros and outros of songs. Btw, Ron Leader is still kicking away out here!
i had boots bell in college when i was 38. he was kind of a blowhard and i couldn't help teasing him once in a while. my "bearded buddy bootsie." anyway, i took a test and got a 100% and he gave me an A- which still cracks me up.
back in the day, (late 60's)Boots would let my friends and I in the back door to watch him do his work. looking back, I'd have to say he was a great guy for being so tolerant of us kids and making an attempt to give us some guidance. only later in life did I realize what a top-notch DJ he was.
1972--What a great year... graduated from Canfield HS, and started college at YSU !
Love hearing Boots' voice again !
Boots' grave is in the Geeburg Methodist Church cemetery in Ellsworth, Ohio.
Luv You and miss You. Great voice and personality, I
The AM top-40 power-radio days are gone, but fondly remembered.
Alot of good memories !
Great American Radio and Great American deejays!!
I remember Boots. He gave generously of his time every Labor Day for the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, broadcast locally by WYTV.
This the guy that inspired me to get into radio. I listened to him on WHOT in Youngstown when I was a teenager and thought he was the coolest guy ever. It's your Bearded Buddy Boots Bell , with his catch phrases "Yes indeedy doody daddy" & "Take A Ride On The Booter Scooter" . I never thought I'd get to do that, but I did. Never got a chance to meet him in person, but I wish I could have and given him a big thanks for the inspiration.
Bootsie buddy!!! The best ever.
Remember picking up the "Hot 50" music sheet at Hills dept. store at Lincoln Knolls plaza (@12m marker)
Really appreciate this. I am now a professional radio broadcaster (talk radio) and I have NEVER forgotten Boots. He was such a celebrity to us! What is amazing is that- when you realize how great a DJ he was-he spent pretty much his entire career in Youngstown.
Great stuff😅
A treasured memory....5:59
WHOT, WFMJ, WFAR (Farrell, PA), and, farther away, WLS Chicago and WCBS New York were all AM Top 40 power-radio stations back then.
Wow, the first place I took my x wife (girlfriend at the time) to WHOT Radio station to hang with Jerry Vincent, memories and Boots DJing at IDORA Park, been a long time.
Only DJ, I ever listened too and ever interested in
69 grad Chaney Cowboys , why we cowboys I'll never know
Luv u, I believe I met Your son back in the 80's thru Joe Grecco
Listening now and missing you, Boots. Met in the 60s and you taught me to love radio and current music, as I was stuck in the '20s, '30s, and beyond with what my parents listened to. Thank you for being a fun guy for the teens of the 70s. We love and miss you!!!
LOVED Boots Bell and WHOT . GOOD TIMES! GREAT Memories.
WHOT 1330!
back in the day, (late 60's)Boots would let my friends and I in the back door to watch him do his work. looking back, I'd have to say he was a great guy for being so tolerant of us kids and making an attempt to give us some guidance. only later in life did I realize what a top-notch DJ he was.
I was a senior in high school in 1973. WHOT was my station to listen to. Boots Bell was doing his show from a store and got to talk to him. Memories!
What a post. Everything about it is priceless to an old former Youngstowner like me. Thanks a ton!!!
Ohhhhh, I remember him. You almost mad me CRY listening to this. There was a time when Y-town was a bustling, busy and nice place to raise children, live and vacation. Now it is depressing, sad, filthy and dark. Oh, YOUNGSTOWN, how you have fallen.😭😭😭😭😭😭.
Idora Park, North Side Drive In, North Side Swimming pool, North Side Drive In. Memories in deed. I left in 1988 and do NOT miss that place.
Oh.... And the TV CHANNELS, that is IF I CAN REMEMBER THEM... Channels 21, 27, 33. NOSTALGIC, yeah?
Youngstown is just ANOTHER example of a city "lead" by Liberal Democrats run into poverty due to their Socialists leanings.
I'm from that area; Boardman.
I remember Boots, A.C. McCullough, Jerry Starr, and more from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. WHOT, WFMJ, and the Wizard 100.7.
Great times, but they are all a memory now. It'll never be a great city again until those stupid people wise-up and elect Conservative Republicans and get rid of those useless unions. Until then, Y-town is just a place to visit my parents' graves and to get some chipped-chopped ham...
WHOT also had A. C. McCullough, if I remember correctly.
"Yes In-Deedy Duty Daddy"
Have yourself a happy 😊😊
Boots Bell lived 2 houses up from me when I was a kid for about 2 yrs He walked with a cane and very soft spoken man when he was not on radio or being a DJ in person He had a daughter very nice man
Oh, the cane! I was in Oasis Record store in Boardman in 1980-ish and he was there. He had on a red suit and his cane. We chatted a bit about music. Very nice and soft-spoken. Genuine, honest smile. A gentleman all the way....
I met Boots in 1970 at WHOT Days at Idora Park! Have youself a happy...
3/10/17: What memories.... almost made me cry. Thank you so much for posting. I was born & raised in Y- town and remember this DJ.
Lived in Youngstown from 60 to 67 and remember Boots Bell and WHOT. If he liked a song he would do an "INSTANT REPLAY"
I also remember Idora Park and riding the Wildcat and the Jackrabbit. WOW!
In the 70s, I wrote/produced an audio taped show called "Do You Want To Dance?" a history of dance crazes from the 50s-70s. I contacted Boots and asked if he him to do the narration, and he agreed! Fuzzy Palumbo and Susan Chalkin were the dancers -- the show was only performed once, at Delmonico's on Coitsville Rd, next to the Sky Hi drive-in. That night someone stole the tape, our only copy.
I also did an extensive interveiw with Boots for a newspaper called Pierre & The Pussycat.
W Michael Novotny: Please contact me at watchpocket007@yahoo.com - I'd be very interested in seeing the interview you did with Boots Bell. I can also be reached on Facebook. Please get in touch, thanks.
Among all the great listening he provided he & Wes Boyd also sent me a tape of part of his show when I was overseas on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. Long Live the memory of The Booter Skooter!
Dave Smith, could you please contact me? Thanks! Christopher Bell
!972 was my graduation year. I especially remember WHOT playing "School's out" at my graduation party.
Listened to the whole recording with a smile on my face!! We miss you big time, Boots Bell!!!
WHOT is one of the very few stations that have migrated from AM (1570 then l330) to FM (101.1) and kept the same pop music format through the years.
WDVE took over the fm position in the afternoon till the next morning when WHOT broadcast am/fm. Good 👍 memories of WDVE playing whole album's and letting us record them from both sides
My bad,,WSRD was the call letters. Blaming my 58 year memory.
I forgot how great Boots Bell was! He was the BEST DJ EVER!!! And WHOT was THE radio station all the teens of my era listened to! Thanks for the memories!!!
You are so right
Boots was one of the Coolest radio guys of all time that had a big time love for Volkswagons and he really appreciated veterans.
boots bell was the alltime best. he coud have been huge nation wide as well. great personality.
Boy oh boy! Met Boots in 1958 along with Dick Thompson (DT) when I lived in Sharon, PA while in high school. He drove an Alfa Romero. I remember Yes indeedy doody daddy...and In The Air Chair until.....I think they called their music survey sheet "Hitline Survey"? I remember when they put their sister FM station on the air WRED . In fact, Boots wrote a letter to me my first year at Indiana Univ. 1960! He was the best hands down! RIP, my buddy.
Grow up listening to Boots! Met him once on Wick ave .
Bootsey gave me advise when I was a teen. "You may be talented son, but if you ever want to make money and a name for yourself don't ever get into radio!" LOL..Why didn't I listen!
Lived in Champion in 50s and 60s and listened to the HOT jocks and Johnny Andrews on WBBW who went on to WHLO...KYW and Wes Hopkins...WHK and Johnny Holiday...those were the top days of top 40 radio and NE Ohio was among the best in the USA !
Wow, this brings back memories...I loved growing up in Youngstown...I had a wonderful childhood when I look back on it...such a nice place to grow up!
Nostalgia!
We bought 45RPM records downtown at The Record Rendezvous, listened to Dan Ryan on HOT radio and had our TM's made at Lord Chesterfield Tailors...14" peg, French pleat, two inch drop and covered buttons please...about $35. I was lucky to have two pair and always wore them with a nice white T-shirt.
Yes indeedy doody daddy, have yourself a happy!
This is what radio and WHOT was back in the day. No doubt, Boots was WHOT.
Grew up listening and finally met Boots at the Blaine Avenue studio! Just a shame Johnny K, DT and Jerry aren't out there on aircheck too. Loved the Idora WHOT days.
Wow, just takes me back to the days of youth and I will never forget him.
I miss those days...
Born and Raised In The YO!!! WHOT Radio....
Wow, Oh WOW! What memories this brought back ! He was the Best of the Best.
Oh what memories! I was a regular on his weekly TV Dance Party. Used to see Boots out all the time. What a guy! He is missed.
Pat Monaco, could you please contact me? Thanks, Chris Bell
we need to have this style of broadcasting on FM now
.........and have yourselves a happy!!! 1969 North High Sam, in China
I was at a record collectors show being held at the Holiday Inn banquet room in Austintown in the early 1980's and going through the hundreds and hundreds of boxes of records and 45's. Going through the same boxes was a guy dressed in a white Panama suit and a vest with a red tie and white shoes. It was Boots Bell and what a snazzy dresser was he! I loved when he did a commercial for a car dealer and pronounced the words, "SheHe Motors". What a talented guy!
The Immortal Bard of the Mahoning.
Boots was the bomb with that deep bass voice and schlick back mafia style hair!
This sounds great, there are not many of these airchecks from WHOT or copies the top 50 Tunedex for that matter, but Boots was the King. I listed to WHOT, CKLW Detroit/Windsor, WLS Chicago, WABC New York and WMMS Cleveland and Boots could hang with any of those DJ's, even Don Steele at Los Angeles KRLA. There are no DJ's of this caliber today, it's a lost art.
Thanks for posting this. I am part of an upcoming documentary on Boots Bell. I am trying to collect and restore any Boots Bell recordings. Really looking for "Yes indeedy doody daddy" I am working with his song and daughter on this project, Please, message me if anyone has any. Any media is welcomed.
Bryan- I love that you are doing a doc on Boots...so well deserved. If I -or my nationally syndicated radio show-can do anything to be of assistance, you have only to ask.
It was never Boots Bell in the morning it was YOUR Boots Bell in the morning he used to say
He was a true schlickmeister
Boots was "our" (Youngstown) answer to the Super Jocks on CKLW and WIXY (The Motor Cityyyyy...) The 60's were great years to be a kid with a cheap transistor radio, hearing some of the best songs ever written.
I hate to tell you all that Montreal's Dean Hagopian was saying "Yes indeedy-doody-daddy in the mid-60s. I'm not sure Dean was the first but I know it long predates boots.
Johnny Kaye is still with us-unfortunately Boots is doing his radio show from the transmitter in the sky..........
i remenber when Bootsy conducted a losers contest my friend was the winner in 1966 and he sent her a ciggerett butt smoked by Ringo Starr after an interview he had with Ringo in Pittsburg far out Bootsy WHOT 4 EVER
Great Stuff!!!
Great radio station. I remember Johnny Kay and A.C. McCullough as other HOT disc jockey. The night before this clip was taken they would have gone thru the Top 100 songs of the year with Number 1 being done at midnight.
Is that Swinging Sweeney in one the first pics?
I lived in Youngstown in the 50's as a teenager. I attended Harding Elementary, Hayes Jr High, East High and Fitch in Austintown.
Even at that young age I knew one thing for sure...I had to get out of Youngstown, and I did it in 1959.
Never heard of Boots Bell. It was Dan Ryan on WHOT in those days playing the new Rock & Roll music that grownups hated.
In winter I would often wake up to find a beautiful blanket of pure white snow covering the ugliness of Youngstown only to see it turned to black slush by noon. Filth spewed from the mill stacks 24 hours a day and I watched my Mother's dismay as she gathered sheets from the clothes line that were dotted with specks of black.
It seemed my only refuge was the movie theaters downtown. The Palace, Warners and a third theater whose name escapes me at the moment. 20 cents and could stay as long as I liked. There was another theater, The Strand, but it had a bad reputation among us and I never knew anyone who went there.
R.I.P. Youngstown
Seems to me there was a State Theatre downtown where "The Sound of Music" ran for more than a year when I was a kid. Could that have been the other one you were trying to think of? I can remember being pretty young still when my parents started telling me that I was going away to college and that the goal needed to be get out of Youngstown in my professional life.
I did.
ah yes I remember him well from New Castle
Where is Johny Kaye and Boots Bell now ?
It's OK to edit the music, but why the commercials?
Air Checks were about the in between of the songs, not the songs.....
There's not much good about Y-town, except for Boots. Is Wes the mess still around?
Dude, why did you edit the songs??? It ruins the vibe, man! The songs are what it's all about, because they give it historical context. It's all about the zeitgeist, man.
I too would rather have heard more songs... but it's just like the car radio was back then, only AM was available, and there was way too much talk. It was very frustrating, especially since many of the songs were so awful - like Michael Jackson's "Ben." Ugh. You had to wait through how much talk and garbage to actually hear something good on WHOT.
InternetPilgrim
HA-HA, yeah, you got that part right. There was and still is too much talk and not enough music, at least on AM. It's just great to hear what it was like back then. Some things have changed, others not so much.
What are you bitchin' about? This video is mainly about the DJ. It's great to hear his voice again. It really takes me back. The music is great but can be download all over the net. Get over it!!
@@InternetPilgrim Of course Internet Pilgrim, What you are listening to on that recording are called "Air Checks". They aren't intended to have the entire songs!!
@@chrisbell10460 correct. Air checks are just that- a dj's (and pd) way to critique theirself. tape would run when the mike was hot at the intros and outros of songs.
Btw, Ron Leader is still kicking away out here!
i had boots bell in college when i was 38. he was kind of a blowhard and i couldn't help teasing him once in a while. my "bearded buddy bootsie." anyway, i took a test and got a 100% and he gave me an A- which still cracks me up.
If ever there was a dead-end rat hole existence in this country, it was Youngstown, Ohio!
Is...
Baby, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere
There are others. Rats are not choosy. They'll gather anywhere...
back in the day, (late 60's)Boots would let my friends and I in the back door to watch him do his work. looking back, I'd have to say he was a great guy for being so tolerant of us kids and making an attempt to give us some guidance. only later in life did I realize what a top-notch DJ he was.