{{short description|American radio personality (1925–2008)}} {{Infobox presenter |name = Wally Phillips |alias = |image = Phillips-wally.jpg |image_upright = 1 |caption = |birth_name = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|7|7}} |birth_place = Portsmouth, Ohio, United States |death_date = {{death date and age|2008|3|26|1925|7|7}} |death_place = Naples, Florida, U.S. |show = |station = WGN, Chicago, Illinois |timeslot = |show2 = |station2 = |timeslot2 = |style = |country = United States |prevshow = |web = }}
'''Walter Phillips''' (July 7, 1925 – March 26, 2008<ref name="CT032708" />) was an American radio personality best known for hosting WGN's morning radio show from Chicago for 21 years from January 1965 until July 1986, and was number one in the morning slot from 1968 until he left for an afternoon radio slot in 1986.<ref name="CT032708" />
A pioneer of the radio call-in talk show format,<ref name="WBBMNR032708" /><ref name="CST032708" /> Phillips frequently used a format now banned by the FCC: putting people on the air without their knowledge.<ref name="JSO032808" />
==Early life== Phillips was born in Portsmouth, Ohio. Six years later, after his father's death from tuberculosis, his family (including three siblings) moved to Cincinnati.<ref name="CST-DH032808" /> Phillips later dropped out of high school to join the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, but he ended up in Georgia in a tow target squadron assigned to fly practice targets for fighter pilots and anti-aircraft artillery.<ref name="CT032708" />
After the end of World War II, he attended drama school for a while and then became a disc jockey in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After a year of the beginning of his DJ career, he returned to Cincinnati.<ref name="CT-FU032808" />
==Radio career==
===Cincinnati=== Phillips expanded his career as a radio personality at WLW in Cincinnati where he established his call-in format and his trademark style of remixing prerecorded interviews as a comedy piece. He was eventually fired after he inserted a phony item into a newscast.<ref name="CT-FU032808" /> Discussing this piece in a 1976 interview with the ''Chicago Tribune'', Phillips said,
<blockquote>''"I wrote, 'All members of infantry company so-and-so report immediately to your draft board,' and I described an insurrection in some phony country. He read it on the air. Hell, they even had the FBI all over the station."''<ref name="CT-FU032808" /></blockquote>
===Chicago=== Later, Phillips moved to Chicago, Illinois along with staff announcer, and future ''Bozo the Clown'' star, Bob Bell. The two started at WGN (AM) in 1956 after being introduced as "comedians from Cincinnati".<ref name="CT-FU032808" />
His WGN morning show was consistently top-rated in Chicago,<ref name="CT032708" /> and led to his being labeled "the king of morning radio". At the height of his popularity, Phillips attracted nearly 1.5 million listeners, a now unheard-of 50% market share.<ref name="WBBMNR032708" /><ref name="CST032708" /><ref name="MSNBC032808" />
==Innovations== Phillips was one of the first broadcasters to routinely use humorous and offbeat phone calls in his show, including prank phone calls. Sometimes, he called random payphones to see who would answer.<ref name="DH032808" /> For example, he called a pet cemetery to arrange a funeral for his mouse,<ref name="MSNBC032808" /> and on another occasion he tracked down Benjamin Gingiss, founder of Gingiss Formal Wear, while the man was on vacation in the Bahamas to ask him where the fire extinguishers were kept in the store.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
Another time, Phillips called Ipanema, a neighborhood located on the southern region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and inquired whether there were any women there who were "tall and tan and young and lovely". He tried to order pizza from Rome and even tried to return a natural Christmas tree weeks into the new year because it had browned and lost all its needles. On one occasion, he managed to obtain Luciano Pavarotti's hotel room number, and called to ask if the singer would give Phillips opera lessons and "teach [Phillips] to sing flat, like you do."<ref name="CT-R032808" />
Phillips was the first to offer a $1 million prize to listeners—as a part one of his promotions in which he would debunk self-proclaimed psychics on the air. Listeners were invited to guess what celebrity name was written inside "Wally's Black Box". No one ever successfully guessed the name. He eventually revealed the note bearing the name of Jean Rogers, a movie heroine Phillips admired for her role as Dale Arden in several Flash Gordon film serials.<ref name="CST032708" /><ref name="JSO032808" /><ref name="CST-DH032808" /><ref name="CT-FU032808" />
Another unique aspect of Phillips' show was a large library of sound bites, each just a few seconds in length, which could be played on short notice in response to something that was said.<ref name="JSO032808" /><ref name="DH032808" /><ref name="CT-R032808" /> A mundane example would be an announcement by Phillips followed by Groucho Marx's voice (from a line in ''Duck Soup'') saying, "Make a note of that!"<ref name="Fybush" /> Instead of using carts or reels, Phillips' engineers found it more convenient to cut a disk with a transcription lathe to keep everything at the ready. WGN was still using the devices strictly for the Phillips show as late as 1985, costing the station more than $20,000 yearly.<ref name="Fybush" />
==Retirement== In 1998, he retired from WGN radio after 42 years, twelve years after giving up the morning show where he was succeeded by Bob Collins, who continued the format and the high ratings. Phillips then hosted a two-hour Saturday morning radio show on WAIT in Crystal Lake, Illinois for some years afterward.<ref name="CT032708" /><ref name="WBBMNR032708" />{{Quote box | width = 50% | align = right | quote = "Wally Phillips was the biggest, most successful, most influential local radio broadcaster in Chicago history. He was the number one local radio personality in the United States." | source = Bruce DuMont, President of the Museum of Broadcast Communications"<ref name="MSNBC032808" /> }}
Phillips was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, in the Museum of Broadcast Communications in 1993<ref name="WBBMNR032708" /> and into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1997, marking his 50th year in radio.<ref name="CST032708" />
On October 21, 2004, the street corner of Rush Street and Delaware Street in Chicago was designated as ''Honorary Wally Phillips Way''.<ref name="WGNGOLD2" />
==Personal life== In 1969, Wally Phillips founded the Neediest Kids Fund, which has since raised $35 million for charity.<ref name="DH032808" />
Phillips was married three times – all to the same woman, Barbara.<ref name="CST-DH032808" /> He had two daughters Holly and Jennifer, and a son, Todd.<ref name="DH032808" />
He died in Naples, Florida on March 26, 2008, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the previous five years.<ref name="WBBMNR032708" /><ref name="CT-FU032808" /><ref name="DH032808" />
==References== <references>
<ref name="CT032708">{{cite news |title= Longtime WGN radio host Wally Phillips dead at 82 |publisher = Chicago Tribune |date = 2008-03-27 |url= http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wally-phillips-dead-webmar28,1,3425458.story}}</ref> <ref name="WBBMNR032708">{{cite news |title = Chicago Radio Voice Stilled: Legend Wally Phillips Dies |publisher = WBBM NewsRadio 780/Associated Press |date = 2008-03-27 |url = http://www.wbbm780.com/Chicago-Radio-Voice-Stilled:-Legend-Wally-Phillips/1898072}}</ref> <ref name="CST032708">{{cite news |title = Wally Phillips, WGN broadcaster and legend of Chicago Radio radio, dies at 82 |publisher = Chicago Sun-Times |url =https://groups.google.com/d/topic/alt.obituaries/MSsOmXM5ei8}}</ref> <ref name="JSO032808">{{cite news |last = Cuprisin |first = Tim |title = WGN stalwart Phillips was longtime king of talk-driven morning radio |publisher = Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |date = 2008-03-27 |url = http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=732951 |access-date = 2008-04-03 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080330030029/http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=732951 |archive-date = 2008-03-30}}</ref> <ref name="CST-DH032808">{{cite news |last = Hoekstra |first = Dave |title =Wally Phillips was Chicago radio - Known for cornball humor and giveaways, legendary WGN host ruled morning dial |publisher = Chicago Sun-Times |date = 2008-03-28 |url = http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/865682,CST-NWS-xphil28.article |access-date = 2008-04-02}}</ref> <ref name="CT-FU032808">{{cite news |last = Jensen |first = Trevor |title = City's 'favorite uncle' - WGN personality commanded the radio waves for 2 decades with his trend-setting format |work = Chicago Tribune |date = 2008-03-27 |url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wally-phillips-dead-webmar28,1,3425458.story |access-date = 2008-03-29}}</ref> <ref name="MSNBC032808">{{cite news |title = Wally Phillips, pioneer of talk radio, dies at 82 - Broadcaster was 'biggest, most successful, most influential' in Chicago |publisher = Today.com/Associated Press |date = 2008-03-28 |url = https://www.today.com/popculture/wally-phillips-pioneer-talk-radio-dies-82-wbna23834330 |access-date = 2008-03-28}}</ref> <ref name="DH032808">{{cite news |last = Cox |first = Ted |title = Wally Phillips let listeners in, too |publisher = Daily Herald |date = 2008-03-28 |url = http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=161796 |access-date = 2008-03-28}}</ref> <ref name="CT-R032808">{{cite news|last = Phil |first = Rosenthal |title = Phillips' new kind of show dominated Chicago radio |publisher = Chicago Tribune |date = 2008-03-28 |url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-fri_phil_0328mar28,0,420005.column |access-date = 2008-03-29}}</ref> <ref name="Fybush">[http://www.fybush.com/sites/2004/site-040101.html A look at the WGN transmitter and site where the two machines are now stored-2004]</ref> <ref name="WGNGOLD2">{{cite web|title=The History of Chicago's WGN Radio 720 |publisher=WGN (AM) |url=http://www.wgngold.com/people/wallyway/wallywaygalleryWP.htm |access-date=2008-03-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722120010/http://www.wgngold.com/people/wallyway/wallywaygalleryWP.htm |archive-date=July 22, 2012}}</ref>
</references>
==Further reading== *''The Wally Phillips people book: 1,762,913 heads are better than one'', Wally Phillips, forewords by Bob Newhart & Mike Douglas, {{ISBN|0-89803-012-9}}, 1979. *''Way to Go: Surviving in this World Until Something Better Comes Along'', Wally Phillips, {{ISBN|0-688-03907-3}}, 1985, William Morrow and Company, New York.
==External links== *[http://wgngold.com/people/phillips-wally.htm WGN's summary of Phillips' career] *{{rhof|246|Wally Phillips}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Wally}} Category:1925 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Radio personalities from Chicago Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:Mass media people from Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:People from Portsmouth, Ohio Category:People from Naples, Florida Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Florida Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Category:American talk radio hosts Category:Radio personalities from Cincinnati Category:People from Crystal Lake, Illinois Category:Military personnel from Illinois