Veteran radio announcer Ted Hallaman has passed away at the age of 83.
A native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, “Tall Ted” (so nicknamed because of his 6″1′ stature) originally was a newspaper writer, contributing for The Ambridge Daily Citizen, and then for The Beaver Valley Times in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He first entered radio in 1949 while as a journalism major at Duquesne University, answering a casting call for then-upstart radio station WDUQ/90.5 Pittsburgh.
After working in the Pittsburgh and Youngstown markets, respectively, Ted came to Cleveland in 1960, joining easy listening WGAR/1220 for a nine-year stay. Ted then went to beautiful music WHK/1420 in 1969, leaving when new owner Malrite installed an ill-fated “Cover Hits” format. Other stations Ted was at included WQAL/104.1 from 1973 to 1979, WDOK/102.1 from 1979 until 1986, WRMR/850 from 1988 to 1990, and WELW/1330 from 1991 until 1994.
He rejoined the adult standards-formatted WRMR in April of 1998 to host their afternoon drive program following Bill Randle’s promotion to morning drive. Ultimately, Hallaman succeeded Randle as morning host in June of 2001 while WRMR’s intellectual property and music library was sold off in a last-minute deal by owner Salem Communications to WCLV’s parent company, Radio Seaway, and became “Classic Pops” WCLV/1420.
After leaving the rechristened WRMR/1420 in late 2003, Ted retired from commercial radio. Aside from a brief period when he was a secondary host of WERE/1300’s “‘Your Music’ with Jim Davis” (a four-hour afternoon block of adult standards music brokered by some former WRMR advertisers), he last worked as a volunteer host on Kenston Local School District’s WKHR/91.5 Bainbridge, mainly on Saturday afternoons.
A public wake for family and friends will be held at DeJohn-Flynn-Mylott Funeral Home in South Euclid, Wednesday night from 4 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010, at 10 a.m. at Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland Heights.
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