Post by ۞Quaalude™۞ on Apr 6, 2011 4:11:12 GMT -5
When Chrysler Corp. took out a newspaper ad in 1981 offering to trade vehicles for commercial time on radio and TV stations, Charles "Charlie" Stanley II hustled to Detroit, his family in tow, to cut a deal.
Negotiating with the owner of the lowly WEW radio station in St. Louis may not have been what auto executives had in mind, but that was before they met the man known among his broadcast peers as "The Trade-Out King."
"A few weeks after we left Detroit, the cars started arriving," said Mr. Stanley's son Charles "Patrick" Stanley III, of St. Louis. "New Yorkers, TrailDusters, K-cars. We ended up getting 22 cars, in all."
Mr. Stanley died Saturday (April 2, 2011) of congestive heart failure at Nazareth Living Center, a retirement home in south St. Louis County. He was 85 and had lived in Richmond Heights.
Mr. Stanley grew up in the Central West End. He attended St. Louis University and was a Korean War veteran.
Early in his sales career, he sold cigars for his grandfather at the Charles P. Stanley Cigar Company (now resurrected in downtown St. Louis under the ownership of two of his sons). Mr. Stanley joined the sales team at WEW in 1954 before becoming owner 10 years later. The stable of on-air talent included Russ David, Buddy Moreno and Marty Bronson. The station also helped bring such acts as Count Basie and the Glen Miller Orchestra to town.
In 1977, Mr. Stanley moved the station to a renovated building in the Soulard neighborhood, a building he and his children had helped gut and restore and which included six townhouse apartments. A few years later, the station would move again, this time to St. Louis County, after a fire destroyed the station.
The 1,000-watt channel had a daytime-only license; in winter, it went off the air as early as 4:30 p.m. Attracting listeners and advertisers proved a perennial struggle. To compete, Mr. Stanley mastered the art of bartering. "He traded air time for lawn mowers, meals at restaurants, go-karts, dune buggies, trips — we traveled everywhere on trades he made with the travel companies who advertised on WEW," Patrick Stanley said.
Mr. Stanley sold the station in 1992. He was inducted into the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.
He was active in numerous charities and was a founder of the Judevine Center for Autism (now called TouchPoint Autism Services) in south St. Louis, and was a founder and president of the Museum of Transportation. He was a fan of antique cars and restored a 1945 Mack Fire Truck that he parked in his back yard and brought out for fundraisers, parades and parties.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lupton Chapel, 7233 Delmar Boulevard, University City. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Thursday at the Church of the Immacolata, 8900 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
In addition to his son, survivors include two daughters, Ruth Stanley of Vail, Colo., and Kate Mehle, of Columbia, Mo; four other sons, Ralph Stanley of Ballwin, Michael Stanley of Chesterfield, and Gerry Stanley and Kevin Stanley, both of Richmond Heights; and six grandchildren. His marriage to Ruth Stanley ended in 1994. She was with him at his death
QC
Negotiating with the owner of the lowly WEW radio station in St. Louis may not have been what auto executives had in mind, but that was before they met the man known among his broadcast peers as "The Trade-Out King."
"A few weeks after we left Detroit, the cars started arriving," said Mr. Stanley's son Charles "Patrick" Stanley III, of St. Louis. "New Yorkers, TrailDusters, K-cars. We ended up getting 22 cars, in all."
Mr. Stanley died Saturday (April 2, 2011) of congestive heart failure at Nazareth Living Center, a retirement home in south St. Louis County. He was 85 and had lived in Richmond Heights.
Mr. Stanley grew up in the Central West End. He attended St. Louis University and was a Korean War veteran.
Early in his sales career, he sold cigars for his grandfather at the Charles P. Stanley Cigar Company (now resurrected in downtown St. Louis under the ownership of two of his sons). Mr. Stanley joined the sales team at WEW in 1954 before becoming owner 10 years later. The stable of on-air talent included Russ David, Buddy Moreno and Marty Bronson. The station also helped bring such acts as Count Basie and the Glen Miller Orchestra to town.
In 1977, Mr. Stanley moved the station to a renovated building in the Soulard neighborhood, a building he and his children had helped gut and restore and which included six townhouse apartments. A few years later, the station would move again, this time to St. Louis County, after a fire destroyed the station.
The 1,000-watt channel had a daytime-only license; in winter, it went off the air as early as 4:30 p.m. Attracting listeners and advertisers proved a perennial struggle. To compete, Mr. Stanley mastered the art of bartering. "He traded air time for lawn mowers, meals at restaurants, go-karts, dune buggies, trips — we traveled everywhere on trades he made with the travel companies who advertised on WEW," Patrick Stanley said.
Mr. Stanley sold the station in 1992. He was inducted into the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.
He was active in numerous charities and was a founder of the Judevine Center for Autism (now called TouchPoint Autism Services) in south St. Louis, and was a founder and president of the Museum of Transportation. He was a fan of antique cars and restored a 1945 Mack Fire Truck that he parked in his back yard and brought out for fundraisers, parades and parties.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lupton Chapel, 7233 Delmar Boulevard, University City. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Thursday at the Church of the Immacolata, 8900 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
In addition to his son, survivors include two daughters, Ruth Stanley of Vail, Colo., and Kate Mehle, of Columbia, Mo; four other sons, Ralph Stanley of Ballwin, Michael Stanley of Chesterfield, and Gerry Stanley and Kevin Stanley, both of Richmond Heights; and six grandchildren. His marriage to Ruth Stanley ended in 1994. She was with him at his death
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