The sultry-voiced Bass went from record-store manager to one of the city's top DJs. He DJ'd on WMMS in its first brief album-rock incarnation in the late '60s, then returned to the station in the early '70s after becoming a household name at top-rated top 40 WIXY 1260 to lay the foundation for the station's later success. He was associated with David Bowie due to his aggressive promotion of the artist, making Cleveland Bowie's first big market and one of his most successful. When WMMS changed ownership in late 1972, Bass left the station to work first for Bowie's RCA Records and later his management company. He later worked for R&B star Luther Vandross and returned to the airwaves on WMJI for a time in the '90s. - AP

Casey Coleman

Casey Coleman wasn't just born to be a sports broadcaster - he was born to be a Cleveland sports broadcaster. The son of former Browns radio man Ken Coleman, Casey grew up around the team and grew up to be the most knowledgeable journalist/fan the Browns have ever known. And he was by all accounts a genuinely classy guy, even when suffering through the inevitable comparisons to his popular play-by-play predecessor, Nev Chandler; and when later relegated to sideline duty; and when battling the cancer that finally claimed him in 2006. - FL

Alan Freed

Everyone knows the Alan Freed myths - coined the term "rock 'n' roll," put on the first rock concert at the old Cleveland Arena. Whether any of that's true, it's a sure thing that Freed was one of the most influential of the early '50s DJs who started to play R&B records - then called "race" records - for a white audience, sowing the seeds of rock. Coming up from Akron, he went on the air in Cleveland in 1950 before moving on to build an international reputation in New York, even appearing in several late '50s rock movies. Sadly, he was made a scapegoat in a payola scandal which ended his career, and died in 1965 at the age of 40, a victim of alcoholism. - AP

John Gorman

FREED - A true rock 'n' roll radio pioneer.

Brought to Cleveland from Boston in 1973 by his buddy Denny Sanders, who'd landed a job at fledgling album-rock station WMMS, Gorman intuitively connected with the town's working-class vibe, then fashioned the station's image around it. He assembled a talented team of rare stability in the fickle world of radio - morning team Jeff and Flash, Matt the Cat and Kid Leo among the more prominent - who built the station's market dominance, fueled by Gorman's take-no-prisoners aggressiveness. He was famous for his competitiveness, his frontal attacks on rival stations and his ability to trick record-company promo guys into inadvertently providing the station with exclusives on major releases. - AP

John Lanigan

Most Clevelanders can't remember when WMJI morning man John Lanigan, who started on WGAR in the early '70s, wasn't on the air. Currently host of the top-rated Lanigan & Malone show, he weathered an early '90s challenge from the syndicated Howard Stern with his own brand of outspokenness that avoided the Stern brand of frat-boy humor and crudity. - AP

Norm N. Nite

Cleveland-based syndicated DJ Norm N. Nite has been a tireless champion of rock's history, both with his radio program and his series of Rock On! encyclopedias. He's currently heard on Siruis Satellite Radio, broadcasting from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a building whose presence in Cleveland Nite was instrumental in achieving. It was he who, while serving on the Rock Hall board in the mid '80s, suggested considering locations other than New York, and focused the board's attention on Cleveland. - AP

Bill Peters

One of the unsung engines of Cleveland's music scene is its uniquely varied college radio. Starting in the late '70s and gaining in influence as they evolved from glorified PA systems into powered-up broadcast outlets that could be heard around much of the city, they're staffed by a winning combination of eager students and deeply knowledgeable community music-lovers. One of the latter is Bill Peters, who has hosted his Metal on Metal show on John Carroll's WJCU-88.7 FM for 25 years. With his vast knowledge of independent heavy metal from around the world, as well as an unflagging enthusiasm for the local metal scene, he has served as a connecting point for a couple of generations of Cleveland metalheads. - AP

Bill Randle

PETERS - He's a symbol of Cleveland's strong college radio.

One of the top DJs of the '50s, WERE's Bill Randle was forever associated with his promotion of Elvis Presley. He's credited with being the first DJ in the North to play Presley's records heavily and to promote Presley's performances. A 1955 concert at Brooklyn High School provided material for a documentary about Randle titled The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous Disc Jockey. He returned to the Cleveland airwaves in the '90s, with a show on WRMR that ran until his death in 2004 at the age of 81. - AP

Denny Sanders

Known as "The Professor" by his colleagues for his encyclopedic knowledge of broadcasting, Denny Sanders arrived in Cleveland from Boston in 1971 to take a job at the then-new WMMS. By the time it became the all-devouring giant in the late '70s, he had become its stalwart evening air personality and assistant program director. His contributions behind the scenes were incalculable, as he combined an ability to take a big-picture view of how the station presented itself with an eye for detail, as well as a true love of music and a devotion to the local music scene. - AP

Mike Trivisonno

Love him or loathe him (and we're not saying which side we come down on), Trivisonno is undeniably one of the loudest voices in Cleveland broadcasting, ever. Once just another radio listener and caller with more opinions than IQ points, he somehow parlayed that into his own radio career, which now exceeds 20 years. He is obnoxious, he is unwashed (metaphorically - physically, we don't know and don't want to know), but he is, for better or worse, one of us, that uncle whose visits everyone dreads but who will be missed when he's gone. - FL