R.I.P.: Bob Middleton, Longtime NOLA Radio Personality

NOLA Radio Personality Bob Middleton

Bob Middleton, who spent nearly 60 years on New Orleans radio as a disc jockey and talk show host known by the nickname “Bo Mid,” died July 20 at East Jefferson General Hospital. 

He was 86, reports WWL-TV New Orleans.

For close to 20 years beginning in 1979, Middleton’s smooth baritone voice was heard spinning records, sharing jokes and bantering on WWIW, the AM radio station later rebranded as WBYU. Both stations, where Middleton also worked as program director, played the music of the big bands and standards from the Great American Songbook.

“The music is predictably pleasurable – Vikki Carr to Glenn Miller to Count Basie to Sam Cooke – and Middleton’s voice is the perfect bridge between tunes,” wrote Benjamin Morrison in a 1983 Times-Picayune profile. Middleton started on an afternoon shift and then built a following in the mornings, a time slot which perfectly suited his relaxed, easygoing style. He also made personal appearances and emceed big band concerts sponsored by the station.

His former co-worker Roy Quady, who worked under the name Dan Valentine on WWIW, said Middleton had an almost-encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and a lifelong love for radio.

After graduating from high school in 1953 and working for a few years at WWEZ, Middleton left for Atlanta, where he worked at WQXI-AM. Homesick, he returned to New Orleans after a few years for an early morning job at WSMB-AM. It was there that local legends Roy Roberts and Jeff Hug, whose “Nut and Jeff” show followed Middleton’s, gave him the “Bo Mid” nickname.

Later, Middleton worked at WDSU-AM and in the 1970s was operations manager and an on-air personality for WEZB-FM, the station now known as B-97. At the time it had an easy listening format and studios in the Jung Hotel. Middleton survived a station format change to adult contemporary music and even tried hosting a disco show for about a month before decamping to WWIW.

In 1998, Middleton was inducted into the New Orleans Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the Greater New Orleans Broadcasters Association.