Phil D. [Phillip G. Drumheller] has been an active broadcaster in the central-western Massachusetts area for nearly sixty years. And today the epitome of the small-market owner-operator – GM, morning man, sales executive, and general manager at WIZZ-AM Greenfield.MA.
Phil D. (Phillip G. Drumheller) has been an active broadcaster in the central-western Massachusetts area for nearly 60 years. And today the epitome of the small-market owner-operator – GM, morning man, sales executive, and general manager at WIZZ-AM Greenfield, Mass. He began as a DJ in 1955 at WJKO in Springfield but his greatest prominence came as a Top 40-style DJ at WHYN-AM/FM in Springfield, beginning in the mid-1960s. “There was a time when he had 70% of the audience in western Massachusetts,” notes one colleague. Phil later became Program Director and then General Manager of WHYN. He also hosted “Springfield’s answer to American Bandstand” on WHYN-TV (Channel 40). Over the years, Phil D. got to meet and introduce many of Rock ‘n’ Roll stars of the era, including Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Pitney and the Beach Boys.
In 2003, he purchased WGAM in Greenfield, a sunrise-to-sunset AM station, changing the call letters to its present WIZZ. “He has seen and created much of the history of independent radio in Springfield and western Massachusetts,” states another of his colleagues. “Localism to him means more than a few spots and interviews here and there — for him, it’s walking the streets of the community, sharing coffee with his listeners, managing to make it all work while keeping his vision of radio alive.”
MASSACHUSETTS BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION
PO Box 857 Clark, NJ 07066 800-471-1875 info@massbroadcasters.org