The Pee Dee's 'King of Swing'

Finch Bandwagon keep rollin’ along

Golden Life - Vol. 8, No. 9 - August 2002 

By Stella Miller

There is an oasis in the oh-so-young desert of today’s radio music for mature audiences, and it’s located on your AM dial on Saturday mornings from eight o’clock until eleven o’clock.  If you tune in to either 1230 WOLS in Florence or 1260 WHYM in Lake City, you’ll find The Finch Bandwagon, a radio program devoted to the timeless classics of music that revolves around big bands instead of boys bands and crooners instead of rappers.  This show is packed with over four decades of music and is enriched by the detailed anecdotes and observations of Bill Finch, a man with a passionate love for a vast knowledge of the songs and instrumental pieces he presents for his listeners’ pleasure.

Bill was born in Wellington, Illinois on June 22, 1922 and grew up in nearby Chicago.  He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, starting out in the Signal Corps.  During his four-year stint, the young officer operated a Special Services recreation hall for the entertainment of troops, served as a Trial Judge Advocate for Special Court-Martial, and ended up in Tokyo with the Army Security Agency as a courier.

After leaving the service, Bill earned a degree in radio and television from Denver University with his GI Bill.  He built his first 250-watt radio station in Nebraska with a friend in 1954.  There were many other stations after that, taking him literally from coast to coast as he made it possible for others to share the passion for music that he has known all his life.

Bill was captivated by the big bands of the 1930’s and 1940’s.  He enjoyed playing the clarinet and saxophone and being around the people who played these same kinds of horns.  He liked to listen at the bandstands where the magical music of those days was created.

“Being raised in the Big Band Era was the best thing a person who was musically inclined could possibly experience,” Bill enthuses.  “Because you were there…you could see Glenn Miller, Wayne King, Guy Lombardo and Spike Jones.  It was thrilling – a great time for music.”

Bill's favorite musical style is ‘swing.’  It is a word probably coined in the 1930’s by Duke Ellington, who used the term in his song entitled “It Don’t Mean A Thing If You Ain’t Got That Swing.”  The word referred to a particular style of jazz with its distinctive lilt.  A new dance was created out of the swing craze:  the jitterbug.  And Bill loved to jitterbug.

“Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Count Basie…all of these great bands,” he recalls.  “And the problem was that they came in to play at these wonderful ballrooms, and you weren’t allowed to dance the jitterbug.  They played, and we had to stand around and do a little dance…you know.”  There is a definite twinkle in his eye as he adds, “If you got into a jitterbug, a bouncer would come up and tap you on the shoulder and tell you not to do that.”

Bill also likes good country and western music.  He once had a band in Nebraska made up of a variety of country musicians.  “It was called Curly’s Corral. It was named for me,” its leader laughs, “because I was bald and had been since my early twenties.”  The Grand Ole Opry heard about the band and sent Jim Reeves out to perform with them providing backup.  “All of the great musicians and singers – Jim, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins – they all wanted to get out in the boondocks and get on stage,” Bill tells us, “because they made pretty good money.  And the members of the band just loved it.”

Broadcasting was actually more of a hobby for Bill, since he was trained for the management and construction of radio stations.  But he had always liked to keep his hand in announcing.  It was while working as an announcer for the Armed Forces Radio shows that he lost his voice and was forced to have a vocal cord clipped.  The operation enabled him to talk once again, but it changed his voice considerably, and he no longer viewed himself as a viable radio announcer.

But Bill still did shows and remained in radio through its many changes.  “The radio industry changed because it had to with the advent of television,” he explains.  “Radio had Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, the Kraft Music Show, the Manhattan Merry Go Round .. but people wanted to see what the singers and actors looked like.”  It was a competitive force that steered radio into a medium they had not previously exploited—FM radio.  Then talk radio came in on both the AM and FM bands.  “The industry floundered around trying to find something that could compete,” Bill says.  “WOLS went to a lot of music…and it was beautiful music.”

It was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Bill met and married his bride of 38 years, Patricia Lane Finch, on New Year’s Day.  Then it was on to Casper, Wyoming, for the married couple where Pat worked in the traffic department of one of Bill’s radio stations, and eventually, Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they spent 10 years.

In 1975, the Finches decided to settle in Pamplico and have remained, living in the house Pat’s grandparents built and where she was born.  The couple has a grown son who resides in Columbia.  Bill also has a son and daughter for a previous marriage.  Pat has recently retired from Florence School District Two after working as a secretary for Hannah-Pamplico High School for many years.

There is an obvious love and respect in this marriage.  But did the common bond of music bring them – and keep them – together?  Not according to Pat.  “Bill loved the big bands,” she chuckles, “I was into Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker and the Twist.”  But she recognizes and respects the undeniable impact of her husband’s lifelong love for his chosen field.  “Music is his wellspring,” she relates.  “It’s what keeps him going.”

This is especially true since the stroke Bill recently suffered on his 80^th birthday.  Some people would have remained daunted by what most would consider a frightening and debilitating experience.  But the vigorous and intoxicating music that has enriched and guided his life soon lured its biggest fan back to the helm he shares with Hal Boykin at WOLS.  Although the physical challenges of doing a three-hour radio show are extremely demanding, it is more than evident that the joy he derives from his work makes it more than to him and to his listeners.  We delight in the fact that Bill Finch still has that wing…and it means everything.