Thu 4/11 @ 7PM
For two decades, the Buzzard ruled Cleveland radio and the Cleveland music scene — and if you were a rock & roll fan in northeast Ohio, you didn’t need call letters to tell you what station the Buzzard represented.
The powerhouse station, which had a national reputation and broke artists such as David Bowie, Rush, Pat Benatar and Southside Johnny, was identified with this seemingly unprepossessing character drawn by artist David Helton since April 1974. Over the years it appeared in countless contexts, promoting an array of events, and appearing on station merch, which meant you’d see it on bumper stickers on the backs of cars or on T-shirts sported by fans at concerts. It’s still the station’s calling card (look on its website!) although WMMS’s glory days are behind it.
Learn the full story of the Buzzard at the Music Box Supper Club, when Helton, who now lives and works as a graphic artist out of Tennessee, joins his two old colleagues who brought him aboard to join them in shaping the station’s identity in the mid 70s: nighttime air personality and director/producer of its long-running Coffeebreak Concerts Denny Sanders, who joined the station in 1971, and program director John Gorman, a vengeful spirit behind the “wrath of the Buzzard,” who tells the story in his 2007 book The Buzzard.
The program is free, but you can come early (doors open at 5) for dinner — please make a reservation. Or come even earlier and Join Helton and Gorman for a Buzzard Flea Market from 3-5pm when they’ll be offering some vintage WMMS merchandise and Helton’s original art. That’s free and does NOT require a reservation.
musicboxcle/the-wmms-buzzard-50/
Cleveland, OH 44113