After 34 years at Midwest Communications,<\/a> where he\u2019s been a mainstay on the air and off at WIXX-FM\u00a0<\/a>and then Y100 (WNCY-FM)<\/a>, Dan Stone is retiring from full-time radio.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll bid listeners goodbye on his final midday shift from 9 to 11\u00a0a.m. Oct. 23 on Y100, where he\u2019s also the brand manager.<\/p>\n He been at the Green Bay country station since 2006 but first introduced himself to northeast Wisconsin listeners in 1991 when he started at its Top 40 sister station,\u00a0WIXX, as program director. He remembers the year, because it was the same time Brett\u00a0Favre\u00a0joined the Green Bay Packers. In between, in 2005, was a brief stint in the afternoons at Midwest\u2019s former Fox Valley soft rock station,\u00a0WROE-FM.<\/p>\n It has been a remarkable 54-year career in broadcasting for Stone, who got his start working part time at a station as a teen growing up in Marquette, Michigan. A\u00a0Yooper\u00a0who eventually left the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, he never left radio.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like that corny old saying they have that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,\u201d Stone said. \u201cI mean, I sound funny even saying it but … like my wife said, \u2018This is really your hobby and you get paid to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Y100 midday personality and brand manager Dan Stone will sign off from the Green Bay country station for the final time on Oct. 23. After 34 years with Midwest Communications, including a long run at its Top 40 station WIXX-FM, Stone is retiring from full-time radio.<\/p>\n He has felt so lucky to be able to do it all these years that he never really zeroed in on a retirement date. He remembers thinking on his birthday last year that he would give it another year and then see how it goes. When his birthday rolled around in August, he told himself, \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere yet.\u201d<\/p>\n As he and his wife of 52 years, Mindy, talked in the weeks since then, the timing seemed right to return to the\u00a0U.P. His 93-year-old father still lives there in a house on the water. They\u2019ll move in with him, not because he needs the help, but because it\u2019s a chance to spend time together and enjoy all that nature has to offer up that way.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is great, but I want to make sure that I have time to enjoy all those things,\u201d said Stone, who may do some part-time voice work for local stations there. \u201cThis is a job I\u2019ve done since I was 15 or 16 years old and just to walk away from it is going to be very different, but I\u2019m very excited about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Stone is the second Y100\u00a0Yooper\u00a0to feel the tug of home in recent months. On Aug. 1, morning show co-host and music director\u00a0Charli\u00a0McKenzie left the station after 20 years<\/a> to move back to the\u00a0Escanaba\u00a0area with her daughters and be closer to family.<\/p>\n Stone got into radio after falling in love with it as a young listener. Sometimes people like him reach a point in their 30s when they realize it\u2019s not a career that\u2019s going to make them a lot of money and they “get a real job,” he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI never had that moment, so I just stayed with it and stayed with it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been a great ride. I love being on the air and, at the same time, I love helping other people with their careers, because it\u2019s the air personalities, the big ones, that really make me look good. I\u2019m a decent announcer and stuff like that, but it\u2019s the real personalities that make a station great.\u201d<\/p>\n Listeners know him as Dan \u201cThe Man\u201d Stone, a nickname that came from the 1987 movie \u201cGood Morning, Vietnam,\u201d where the person with the next on-air shift after Robin Williams\u2019 DJ character was Dan \u201cThe Man\u201d\u00a0Levitan. Stone used it with his own name one day as a joke and it stuck.<\/p>\n More: <\/strong>‘That ’70s Show’ 1969 Vista Cruiser gets the star treatment at its new home in Green Bay. It’s just the beginning<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n As for concerts, he’s been to far too many to count during his half-century in radio.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many … but all of them,\u201d he said, especially when it comes to country shows in his last 19 years with Y100.<\/p>\n He’s met countless country artists as they were just starting out and watched them grow into arena and stadium headliners. He\u2019s seen how willing they are to do interviews or be a part of station benefits for St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one thing I\u2019ll say about country artists is they really are accessible and appreciate the support of their fans and of country radio. That\u2019s something I did not get when I was in rock radio,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the people are genuinely nice that I\u2019ve met.\u201d<\/p>\n He insists his long career has more to do with the listeners than it does him. Without so many of them he says he wouldn\u2019t have been able to stick around for so many years at two stations with\u00a0consistently\u00a0high ratings. He knows a lot of them by name, and some come to community events just to say hello. It\u2019s a connection that transcends any playlist.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that great radio stations are not just about the music. Anybody can play music, but it\u2019s really about companionship, and that\u2019s what I tried to bring to every radio station that I worked with. It was especially prevalent with Y100, because the Y100 listeners, they love the music, No. 1, and they love the radio station, and they love the people who are on the radio station,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe even call them the Y100 family, and I\u2019m not kidding about that. Some of the phone calls and live interactions person to person I\u2019ve had with these people, you would swear that they were like an actual member of your family.\u201d<\/p>\n One that has forever stuck with him is a relative who called into Y100 with an on-air request for a loved one who had passed away. They asked the station to play \u201cWhen I Get Where I\u2019m Going\u201d by Brad Paisley featuring Dolly\u00a0Parton\u00a0as the funeral procession drove by the studios.<\/p>\n \u201cThe radio station was her final request,\u201d Stone said. \u201cBoy, it would be tough to top that one. That\u2019s probably the best phone call I ever got at any radio station right there.\u201d<\/p>\n More: <\/strong>Former Packers player lands a sweet cameo in Door County movie ‘A Wisconsin Christmas Pie’<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s grateful to Duke Wright, the late president and CEO of Midwest Communications<\/a>, his wife and board chair, Pegge Wright, and the extended Wright family, along with vice president of programming Jeff McCarthy and operations manager Jason\u00a0Hillery, for his time with the company. All the late concert nights, weekend festivals and long days wouldn\u2019t have been doable without Mindy\u2019s support.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make sure I credit these people, because a lot of times people go out and it\u2019s just all about me, me, me, me, and I don\u2019t want to be like that,\u201d Stone said. \u201cThat was always me, humble Dan in the midday.\u201d<\/p>\n If his final on-air shift for Midwest wasn\u2019t on a country station, he might have picked \u201cWith a Little Help from My Friends\u201d or \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band\u201d for his final song before he signs off. He\u2019s still working on his format-friendly track.<\/p>\n What his days will look like without full-time radio at the center, Stone\u2019s not sure.<\/p>\n \u201cI will have to obtain some skills outside of radio and see if I\u2019m good at anything else. I\u2019m not sure I will be,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to a whole new future. I don\u2019t know what it will bring exactly, and maybe that\u2019s part of the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Kendra Meinert\u00a0is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com<\/a>. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Dan Stone is leaving Y100 and heading north after 34 years at Midwest<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
His Dan ‘The Man’ Stone nickname came from a 1980s movie<\/h2>\n
Y100 listeners are like family, with one on-air call unforgettable<\/h2>\n