RIP: Longtime Cleveland Personality Carl Reese

Carl Reese

Carl Reese, whose warm voice was heard for more than 50 years on Cleveland radio, died last Wednesday after a long illness.

He was 83-years-of-age, according to cleveland.com.

Long known to friends as "Captain Carl" -- which was said to derive from a nautical cap he wore -- he aspired from childhood to work in radio, but found himself disqualified from scholastic announcing contests and child-actor roles because of the adult-sounding baritone that became his living after he aged into it.

Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Reese grew up in Akron and got his start in radio in the Army, with the Armed Forces Network in Germany in 1948. After working at small stations in the Akron-Canton area, he came to Cleveland in 1952 on WTAM radio and its TV sister, WNBK.

The job was temporary, but it introduced him to television, where he was a popular pitchman through the 1960s. More importantly, it set him up in 1954 to become overnight host on WERE, a hot station whose top names included Bill Randle, Tommy Edwards and Phil McLean.

He moved in 1961 to WHK, the reigning top-40 station, spent a brief time on KYW, and started an 18-year run on WJW in 1964 -- playing the pop standards he later spun on WBBG, WRMR and the short-lived WCLV-AM.

Johnny Holliday, a "Good Guy" colleague at WHK, called Reese "one of the most gracious human beings I've had the pleasure of knowing. He was not only a consummate professional but someone that didn't have an enemy in the world."

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