Monday, October 10, 2022

R.I.P.: Todd Wallace, Veteran Radio Programmer

Todd Wallace (1947-2022)
Todd Wallace, known as The Godfather of radio research, died at the age of 75 earlier this month, according to Radio Today.

Born Todd Mueller in the US state of Kansas, he was fascinated by sportscasters as a child, and knew from a very early age that radio was his future.

In a 2017 Radio Today interview, Wallace told Greg Smith of a light bulb moment in his young life:

“I can clearly remember an assignment by the teacher that we needed to do a two-person skit in front of the entire class. So I posed as a radio sportscaster interviewing a chubby mate posing as Babe Ruth where I proceeded to ask him sophomoric questions like ‘So Babe, how did you feel when you hit home run #60?’ The class loved it and applauded, I got an A+ and never looked back. I was totally addicted to the radio stage from then on.”

Broadcasting under the professional name of Todd Wallace – his radio career began at the tender age of fifteen in his hometown of Wichita.

Over the coming years, Wallace would work at KLIF (Dallas), KIMN (Denver), KILT (Houston), CKLW (Detroit in Windsor, Ontario) and KEZY (Los Angeles) before joining KRUX in Phoenix as the morning host in 1970.


Within 6 months, he was promoted to Program Director at KRUX, and his legendary programming career took off.  In 1972, he was recruited to become the PD to turn around the ratings at KTSA in San Antonio, a feat he achieved within 4 months.  Wallace received national attention when – in 1974 – he was called in to rescue the ratings at KLIF.

In 1976, Wallace teamed up with renowned sales consultant Ken Greenwood in launching his research company, Radio Index.

Under the umbrella of Radio Index, he launched Todd Wallace/Associates.

His consulting practice achieved world-class status in the late 70s, advising over 100 radio stations worldwide.

During his days as a key on-air talent at nine different major market radio stations, Wallace worked with programming legends such as Bill Drake, Gordon McLendon, Paul Drew, Bill Young, Ted Atkins, and Ken Dowe.

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