One of the most popular radio personalities in Columbus was going through a midlife crisis in 1994. John Corby was 38 and still unsure if radio was his calling.
Corby did afternoon drive at WTVN-AM from 1984 to 1994. He also hosted ‘Team Talk’ with sports director George Lehner. KDKA in Pittsburgh had an opening for an afternoon sports talk host. John was going through some personal issues, and the new WTVN program director didn’t like him much. The timing couldn’t be better to take another job. Right?
According to Corby, his ratings were tremendous in Pittsburgh. By this point in his life, however, John – an old soul – longed for more. “If I’d made that move when I was 28 instead of 38, it might have been different.” After a short stint, Corby decided to leave Pittsburgh.
John moved back to Hocking County, bought a farm for $250,000 with the plan to build rental cabins and take advantage of the growing tourism boom in the area. Unfortunately, he almost went bankrupt twice. Corby ended up selling all but a couple of parcels to his partners while saving one for himself.
Then he decided to get back into radio. After turning down a more substantial offer from WBNS radio to be a part of the Ohio State football coverage, Corby decided to return to WTVN. The ratings for their afternoon drive slot had suffered in his absence.
John had been gone for two years but a Jan 1996 radio survey still registered Corby second only to Bob Conners in name recognition. Huge in the radio world. Though still hesitant, John agreed to return to his old afternoon slot. One of his conditions, however, was that he could smoke in his studio.
Corby consented to a lengthy interview with Columbus Monthly in 1999. He and writer Jeff Long met at his Grandview hangout, the Knotty Pine, an unpretentious, laid back, burgers & beer bar. Much like Corby’s personality.
“You have to be yourself. If you’re not being honest, they’ll know in ten minutes, then you’re done,” Corby would say about radio. That, and what to talk about, apparently gave him stress.
John grew up in Logan, was a star athlete and worked summers at the local radio station WLGN. He then attended Ohio State University where he got a degree in Journalism and played catcher on the baseball team. Upon graduation, Corby began working for WNCI in Columbus doing news, before moving over to WTVN in 1984.
He is remembered for his regular guy personality, easy going demeaner and compassion on air when talking to his callers. One of his bits in the 1980s was the made up character of Billy Ray Vulgar, which was the creation of local comedian and impersonator Jay Gabriel. Jay was incredibly talented, naturally very funny and could do multiple impersonations, including Ronald Reagan and former football coach John Madden.
Billy Ray Vulgar was a gun totin, tobacco chewin, Boosh Beer drinking, no filter talkin, backwoods kinda guy who would call into Corby’s show. “He says things that I want to say, but couldn’t get away with,” Corby said. “People react to him on two levels. The Muirfield crowd says, ‘Yeah, that’s funny, but the guy’s an idiot.’ The others are people who say ‘Yeah, he’s right.”
Corby’s Big Bass Brothers segment was a regular on his show where he & two station mates – mostly Joel Riley and his co-host Joe Bradley – would do restaurant reviews. These reviews were not always positive and included a bathroom report.
One year they decided to rate the food at the Ohio State Fair. Corby announced that he was looking forward to trying the deep fried buckeyes because they included three of his favorite items “chocolate, peanut butter and grease.” His verdict however, “don’t eat the Buckeyes. They suck.”
John was never flashy, sometimes grumpy, and rarely annoying as he talked literally about everyday things. The radio version of the Seinfeld TV show. Corby’s WTVN audience was predominantly white males 30 to 50. “He was irreverent but not disrespectful, sarcastic, but not cruel, off-color occasionally but not obscene,” according to writer Jeff Long.
John would talk a fair amount about retreating to his cabin near Logan every weekend. You kinda got the feel that – despite being on the radio – he wasn’t a big ‘people person.’ As he was shopping for a new SUV that could seat nine passengers, Corby admitted, “I don’t even know nine people I’d like to be in the same vehicle with.”
With his deep pipes, John Corby had a great radio voice, but his normal chatter was like radio comfort food, the kind of guy you wanted to have a beer with. He was voted best afternoon radio show virtually every year upon returning to Columbus in 1997 until he passed.
It was a shock to his large central Ohio radio audience one cold Monday afternoon in January 2018 when the station announced his unexpected passing due to complications from the flu the previous weekend.
His last producer at WTVN – Josh Seas – hosted a six hour call-in tribute show to Corby two days after his passing. It was emotional to hear others call in and try to describe the connection they had with this man. Most, like me, had never met him.
I like to think I shared a kinship with Corby because he rode with me in my car every day for thirty years and because of a fondly remembered shared experience working at WLGN in Logan. Our timing was off and so was our symmetry. He wanted to be an engineer but ended up in radio, leaving WLGN in 1978. I wanted to be in radio but ended up in sales, arriving at WLGN in 1983.
Timing is everything.
John Corby would’ve turned seventy on March 26, 2026. As most callers would say to him as they hopped on his show, “Happy Birthday, John.”
Sources: 610WTVN Radio, The Final Corby Show (A Tribute), Jan 23, 2018; www.legacy.com; www.abc6onyourside.com; https://doodahparade.com/the-players/lessthangrandmarshal/; Up close and personal with WTVN’s reg’lar guy, August, 1989, Columbus Monthly, www.columbusmonthly.com; Mr. Insecure by Jeff Long, April 1999, Columbus Monthly, www.columbusmonthly.com; Featured picture is courtesy of Columbus Monthly.