Rob’s radio gigs were his first love and became his first career. Beginning at 17, he worked on the air at WCSR AM 1340, the 500 watt am station in Hillsdale, where he went to high school and college. Rob had been interviewed before his final basketball game as a player at Hillsdale High School, and had mentioned he was going to college at Hillsdale College and studying communications and broadcasting. They hired him that summer and turned him loose to jump in on-air (filling in on all the air shifts morning, midday, nights, and doing lots of Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons and nights on the weekends) for the next four years. He then worked at 96.7M WORX, a great little heritage station in Madison, Indiana, doing mornings and programming, including creating and hosting a popular Sunday night show playing deep cuts, called The Recliner. Rob also broadcast the IHSAA Football Class A Championship for the IHSAA Radio Network, the Boys Basketball State Finals, and regular season high school and college baseball, football, and basketball for a number of stations. He served as the staff advisor for a college radio station WBKE, at Manchester University, and worked on-air at WOWO in Fort Wayne when it still had its massive 50,000 watt signal, broadcasting to about 40 states at night, playing the greatest oldies of all time.
Here’s a few pieces of audio from his early career – just for fun.
Rob Nichols radio soundcheck archive
WOWO
WORX SPORTS PLAY-BY-PLAY / SECTIONAL BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
SPORTS/PREGAME RADIO FROM STUDIO
WBKE