Q: I was wondering if you could update us on some of the radio and TV personalities from the 1950s and ’60s. Some examples are Paul Drew, Tony “The Tiger” Taylor, “Fun with Fran” and Officer Don and the “Popeye Club.” I realize this is going back a while and some of them may not be with us.
—Kathy Brady, Buford
A: Tony Taylor has a simple message for his fans.
“Tell them that ‘The Tiger’ still lives,” he said during a recent phone interview.
Taylor will be 80 next month and looks back fondly on his days at WQXI — “Quixie in Dixie” — in the 1960s, and later, WGST.
“I’ve had a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve got so many memories. My mind wanders when I try to relive them all. It was all kinds of fun.”
Taylor and Drew were among the pioneer DJs in Atlanta who introduced their fans to the new sounds of rock and roll and R&B music.
Taylor, who was at WQXI from 1963-67, said he mixed his playlists with songs with Southern flavor and local hits. Drew was with WAKE and then WQXI, where he helped bring The Beatles to Atlanta in 1965.
“We had a nice sound,” said Taylor, who lives in the metro Atlanta area.
Taylor and Drew, who died in 2013, later became successful radio execs, and Taylor became known for his commercial voice work, including with The Home Depot and RBM of Atlanta, an automobile dealership.
Don Kennedy — aka Officer Don — was in charge of the incredibly popular “Popeye Club” on WSB-TV in the 1950s and ’60s. The demand was so great, local kids sometimes would grow old waiting for their chance to appear on the show.
Kennedy, who is retired from TV and radio, also later became an executive and did voice work for animated TV shows.
All three are in the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame (grhof.com).
Fran Kearton was the host of “Fun with Fran,” which was a daily televised birthday party for kids on WLWA (now WXIA) in the 1950s.
She was 91 years old and living in Menlo Park, Calif., when we spoke for a 2011 column. She died in 2014.
“It was a wonderful show,” Kearton said. “I thought I’d still be there doing it and it would be called ‘Fun with Granny Franny.’ ”
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