WZMO host Dunham loving new chapter
He used to drive a bread truck. Now he’s a radio personality – and he’s okay with that.
“I’m on the air and I have a personality,” said Greg Dunham. “So I guess I’m an on-air personality.”
“After spending 36 years hopping in and out of a bread truck,” he added, “I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be on the radio, in any capacity, let alone have a weekly show and help out with football game coverage. I’m having a blast on WZMO.”
Dunham was born in Columbus, moved to Marion when he was 13, then to Bucyrus. He graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1974, then Bluffton College with a history and secondary education degree — but, he said, “I had zero interest in teaching.”
“Like a lot of kids, I wanted to be a baseball player — or a cartoonist. I can draw a little,” he recalled.
“I’ve always been a radio guy,” Dunham noted. “When I was a kid, AM top 40 was king. The station we, and most everyone I knew, listened to was 1230 The New WCOL. AM top 40 was great because it exposed you to all genres of music — the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, the Stones, Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Stevie Wonder — and WCOL carried my favorite radio show, ‘Chickenman!’” Fast forward.
“After retirement, my wife, Gayle, and I fell into the best retirement job ever,” Dunham explained. “We’re on the guest service staff at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. We usher hockey games and any shows that come to the arena. Then to keep from going stir crazy during the COVID shut down, my son suggested I put my love of albums to good use. I kicked it around for a while and came up with a format. Tom Kennedy was cool with it, and the rest is Marion radio history!”
Dunham hosts the show Longplay, which airs Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.
“I play full albums front to back,” he
said, “the good, the ‘meh,’ and the ugly with a little commentary mixed in.”
He also has a weekly feature on WZMO called Yeah, That’s Weird.
“I introduce offbeat songs in an offbeat way,” he said. “I also do intros for comedy bits. Tom has allowed me to create my own little radio world and do whatever I want. Plus, I’ve also been fortunate to be the ‘color commentator’ on high school football games with Jeff Ruth. And if you’ve got a show, you have to do promos. I’ve let my imagination run wild on several spots; I’ve included my entire family, in one way or another, even my 4-year-old granddaughter.”
“Greg has a wonderful sense of humor,” assessed WZMO owner Tom Kennedy. “He began with us simply out of a request to sit in on one of our football broadcasts. By the third game he was providing color commentary and has done so ever since. He then came to me with an idea of hosting a show playing
full albums. The show is now a couple of years in production, and he has great fun with it. I thoroughly enjoy working with Greg.”
“I used to drive around in my bread truck thinking up goofy stuff,” Dunham responded. “Now I have the perfect outlet for my weirdness. For 36 years I ran a bread route, working hard and giving it my all and was rewarded with a comfortable retirement. Now I get to go to hockey games, concerts and play on the radio. Yeah, I’m a very lucky and very happy guy! By the way, I’m 66 years old.”
For more information, log on to wzmofm.com.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at news@marionstar.com.