I was 10 when I first heard Ron Chavis on a new thing called FM radio. My friend Tina and I were strongly influenced by older siblings and what was going on in general around us in the world. The Viet Nam war played out nightly on tv; FM music was the soundtrack to our coming of age. People like Ron, Jessie and Little Jimmy Roach gave us bright ideas that it might be more fun to play music than to be child psychologists, teachers or nurses, etc.
When I was in college as a psychology/media student, Ron and Steve Downs were on WYDD and none of us wanted on air shifts or to read news at the college station up against them. In Atlanta a few years later, I heard him there, then back in Pittsburgh on WAMO. His voice was always so easy to pick out on radio or tv ads. For about 14 months in 2004-05, he brought his nightly show to a little mountain station in the sticks 5 minutes from here. He started out playing ballads and love songs, but blended in some guitar songs from his AOR days and blues-- in particular, Roy Buchanan and Boz Scaggs/Duane Allamon got my attention. We talked and he started to play Pittsburgh artists such as Jill West, Bobby Wayne and Erin Burkett. I continued to give him bizarre and funny news stories and then wrote this following article on him. After it went to press, he asked me to write a book with him and regretfully, I had to decline.
Recently, I had to go to Texas, jumped into a rental car and instinctly turned on a radio. Without changing a station, I heard that familiar voice. There he was...The Nighttime Dog. The fine people of Texas are fortunate to have him. We miss him here in the sticks outside of Pittsburgh............
jt
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Quiet Storm' Continues To Grow
By Julie Toye, for The Herald Standard
7-10-2005
Legendary Pittsburgh radio personality Ron Chavis' audience continues to grow since he returned to the airways weeknights to host "Nightflight: The Original Quiet Storm."
An internationally known voice on radio, television, and non-broadcast items like Sony Play Station, Chavis does not simply come on nightly and bid his listeners a quiet good evening at 9 PM on WLSW FM 104.
Each show starts in grand Chavis fashion with his dramatic trademark opening resurrected from his days on WAMO FM. He discloses being born in the basement of a steel mill and baptized in the Monongahela River.
Chavis tells his listeners and that he's one of the last of the original Pittsburgh DJs and lets them know that they are tuned into the continuing saga of the adventures of his nom de plume, The Nighttime Dog. His monologue fades to the start of his Smooth Jazz theme music. On most nights, an introduction by a sexy female voice and comedic exchange between the two follow.
Meanwhile, Chavis is alone in the mountain top radio station studio with his black lab dog, Easy, talking over breaks in the female's pre-recorded introduction. Often at the start of his shift, he has already worked a busy day at his internationally recognized media company, mowed 4 acres or spent some of the day at the gym. He refers to his air shift as his relaxation time.
'Nightflight' takes off with a mix of Smooth Jazz and R&B Ballad material that starts off mid to up-tempo and winds down to slow, romantic songs from the genres as the late night hours unfold. Chavis has no set format and strongly emphasizes that there is no such thing called "programming" involved. It's not uncommon to hear a slow jam by rock artist Jeff Beck or a Gospel cross-over artist like Smokie Norful, that somehow magically fits into the Nightflight musical tapestry.
In between songs, Chavis is quite comfortably at home talking about his day, items in the news or the songs and artists he plays. It is easy to understand why an area university professor tells his media students to listen to Chavis to learn their craft.
"This is a living, organic show, never exactly the same from day to day," Chavis explained. "But that doesn't mean there is no logic or pattern to what I am doing. I'm setting a mood, creating an ambiance aimed at an adult audience, who can't find what I'm delivering anywhere this side of San Diego. The Nighttime Dog is the Delilah After Dark for people 35 Plus."
As long as the music "deserves to be played" within his selected musical genres, he features songs that are sometimes little known by major or even local artists. Chavis said that WLSW owner Stan Wall allowed him the "freedom from behind the microphone" that motivated him to return to radio and set his sights on an ambitious goal to take his show to syndication or world wide web/internet radio.
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