Warren Byrne Tribute

Jeremy Levy back with you. Today I am going to write about one of my favorite shows that I have been a big fan of since 1997 - the Warren Byrne restaurant show. I know that Warren didn’t want any fan fair, but he is an important person in my listening to talk radio. Let's take a walk down memory lane. Warren first started on the air in the early 80’s on KOA radio. In the early 90’s he moved to 1430 KEZW. I can still remember when I first heard his show. One day I went with my mom and dad to help a friend move into his new house. My mom and dad wanted me to have something to listen to. I had brought my little boom box. I was flicking around the dial and I discovered 1430 KEZW. The show that was on was the Warren Byrne restaurant show. Back then he was on Saturdays from 11-2 and Sundays from 10-noon. I first tuned in on a Sunday. This was significant because this was his last Sunday show. Warren announced that he was moving his Sunday show to Wednesday evenings from 5-7 PM. I wished I had caught some more of his Sunday shows before then. I decided that I liked his style of broadcasting. His voice sounded high and light. He sounded like a elf in the Harry Potter books. I decided I would tune in on Wednesdays to hear him. He was still on Saturdays from 11-2 p.m. I had never heard a mid-week restaurant show. What would it be like? I was excited and maybe a little bit nervous about this new show. I wanted to turn it on right when it started. That day seemed to drag on forever. I tuned in at 4:50 so I wouldn’t miss any of it. Back then KEZW played songs from the 50’s like Frank Sinatra, and other singers from that era. Warren must have been a little nervous as well. When I would listen to him it sounded like he had a little bit of trouble with new things. That show was fantastic and I became a regular listener.When I first started listening to him a lot of people would call in which made the show very interesting. Callers would call in about American restaurants, Mexican Restaurants, Italian restaurants, German restaurants, and they would call in if they were looking for some unusual cuisine. Warren would put it out to the listeners and try and see if they could find what the caller was looking for. This was a fun part of the show to see what listeners would come up with. The show would also take calls about restaurant experiences that listeners had. Warren described it as the peoples show.Another thing I really enjoyed about his show was the music that he used. This is where I first learned about a type of music called no named music. This is where radio stations put together music for different shows that had instruments in the music, but there is no words to it or no title. Warren had this type of music and it was also catchy. Warren would take calls even if people didn’t like a particular restaurant. He would let the restaurant know and would try and correct the situation.Another thing that was interesting about his show was that Warren would put together meal deals with his sponsors. This was called the 1430 meal deal. The restaurants would have a couple of items on the menu for $14.30 per person or $14.30 per couple. These meals would be an appetizer, an entrée, and dessert. It would start on a Saturday and wrap up the following Thursday. I liked how Warren would describe these deals. My favorite days listening to Warren’s show were when callers would call in about hamburger restaurants because that is my favorite meal when I go to a restaurant. A restaurant that I tried from listening to his show was Poppies restaurant at Iliff and Colorado Blvd. The burgers and French fries are really delicious and they give you a good portion of food. One year during the holidays Warren was talking about a seafood restaurant called the Cherry Crest restaurant. He mentioned that they had a deal going on where you could get a steamer bucket of food which included fish, vegetables such as corn, and clams for people to take home and prepare at home. My mom, Dad, and I took advantage of the deal and the food was delicious.One of my favorite callers to Warren Byrne’s show was a caller named Lidia from Littleton. Lidia was blind and the way she would describe the restaurants that she went were really enjoyable to listen to. I always looked forward to hearing where she had been. There was another caller named Fred who had some disabilities as well. He also did a great job of explaining the restaurants and the dishes that he had.My dad called into one show to talk about a restaurant called the Denver buffalo Company. He said to Warren that the food was over priced, but the food was good. Warren Byrne said that’s part of what you pay if you want that great buffalo experience. Paul Macgregor Mr.-fix-it would do an interview with Warren before his show sometimes. One day Warren announced that he was kicking off a brand new contest to the show. Paul asked, “ Can I take part?” Warren said, “No we can’t we can’t win anything on the station Paul considered Warren like a father figure to him. He could always turned to him for advice on where to go and eat. The contest was that callers could win a gift certificate to a restaurant that was a sponsor to his show. This was a fun contest because the callers had to know who the sponsors were. Also on a Wednesday evening Warren announced that Rick Crandall was going to be out of town the next day. Warren was going to be filling in for Rick on the St. Joseph’s hospital health program that was on Thursdays from 6-7. They were going to be talking about chronic pain. Warren made a joke that some people call him a chronic pain. I tuned into that show and Warren had some good questions for the guest who was a doctor. On another Wednesday program Warren did a broadcast from a restaurant I can’t remember which restaurant this was. The broadcast went better because the remote technology was better. After a couple of months Warren moved his show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to 12-3 p.m. on Saturdays because the program schedule on KEZW grew to add The Garden Wise Guys which is now Ask the Garden Pros. This was a great show to listen to if you wanted to learn about all of the restaurants in Colorado and about dining in Colorado. Back then Warren had a lot of calls to his show. It was difficult to get in on those shows. When I got into middle school I found out that my teacher aid Mary Moden loved listening to Warren Byrnes show as well. Also one of my English teachers Mrs. Eileen Cox really enjoyed listening to the show as well.Back in 2003 or 2004 I was selected to be a guest/ co-host on the Nancy Merrill cooking show that was on Saturdays from 9-10 a.m. right before Warren ‘s show. Warren came in early to prepare for his show. I got to say a quick hello to him. Nancy told me that Warren gets really nervous before his show and that’s why he wasn’t in the talkative mood.One year Warren put together a trip for listeners to go on with listeners to his show. This trip was to Alaska. They first stopped in Seattle Washington for a couple of days and then the group went on to Alaska on a cruise ship. Warren was able to bring the equipment with him so he could broadcast from Seattle the first weekend and then on the Saturday coming back. During this time his show was on from 10 a.m. -1 p.. m The way he was able to do this was he was able to arrange with the intercom radio station KIRO radio to broadcast from their studios for the Saturday shows. The first Saturday things didn’t go according to plan. They had a couple of computer problems. The producer Janine must have had to work pretty hard that particular day. They finally got the computer problems worked out and Warren got on at 10:40 that day. 40 minutes after his show was supposed to start. On the Wednesday program that week when Warren was on the cruise Warren had Shannon Byrne his daughter fill in for him. She was a great host to listen to as well. It would have been great if she would carry on the tradition of hosting the show. On that particular show Shannon was looking for some suggestions from listeners on where to take her father when he got back from his trip for father’s day. She got some good suggestions.After a couple of years, the schedule on 1430 KEZW opened up a little bit and Warren moved his show again from 12-3p.m. to 9 A.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. During this time Warren tried a couple of things with the Wednesday shows. He tried for a couple of weeks doing a 1 hour show every day of the week and that didn’t quite work out. He reverted back to the 4-7 p.m. show that he did on Wednesdays. Around this time KEZW moved into a brand new studio in the Denver Tech center. This is where the intercom family of stations is now. Warren had a little bit of trouble adjusting to the new set up in the new studio. They had a new introductions for his show and one of them the introduction person paused in just the wrong place and Warren thought it was his turn to talk, and it wasn’t his turn. On that Wednesday show Warren told about some memories about radio from the past before they would tape everything was live so you could hear the mistakes as they happened. I thought that was interesting I always enjoyed listening to Warren’s show during the holiday time. He would bring a happy feeling to the holiday season.A couple of years later Warren moved his show to the new oldies station called Cruisin Oldies 950. He was on from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. then he moved again from 10 A.m. to 1 p.m. After a couple of years Warren moved back to 1430 KEZW because crusin 950 didn’t work out I am finishing writing this on November 18th of 2020 because on this day it is Warren’s birthday. I am hoping this will be a great present to him. On the 4th of July of 2020 Warren Byrne retired from doing the Warren Byrne restaurant show. Rick Crandall wrote on the KEZW website that he and Warren were talking in January of 2020 about Warren Retiring. Then the pandemic hit. He also wrote that there were times that Warren wanted to let his listeners know on the 4th of July Saturday that it was his last show, but decided to not mention it The final show was about reminiscing about restaurants from the past. This was a great last show to go out on. Warren wanted to go out on top just like he always did.The word I would use to describe the Warren Byrne restaurant show is successful. The show was really a success and I am hoping that the things I have learned from listening to the Warren Byrne restaurant show will transfer over when I start my own podcast in the next couple of months. Thanks to you Warren Byrne for teaching me about how to do a great show and also of how to be successful. Thanks for tuning in.