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Spencer Danes
After serving in the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II, Spencer’s career was varied until he settled into broadcasting at WLW in Cincinnati and then WKBV in Richmond, Indiana, in 1954. Such was his entrance into the realm of broadcasting and the beginning of a long career in radio and news reporting.
In the 1960’s, during eight years with WGBS in Miami, he covered the space program at Cape Canaveral (the Gemini to Apollo NASA missions) in person, interviewing astronauts John Glenn (pilot of the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft, and the first American to orbit the Earth) and Frank Borman (Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon). He reported firsthand on island politics offshore, most importantly, the Cuban Missile Crisis, conducted person-to-person interviews with Muhammad Ali (when he was known as Cassius Clay), various mob informants against organized crime figure Meyer Lansky, and covered Miami Dolphins home football games.
Spencer left Miami in 1969 to manage a fairly new FM in Winter Haven, 97.5 WXKL-FM (formerly WINT-FM). Although he had been with WGBS since 1961, he stayed at WXKL for only about a year before leaving to fill the general manager’s chair at Cypress Gardens’ 50,000-watt WGTO in 1970.
In 1975, he left local radio and headed for Washington, D.C. where he became a news editor for the Voice of America, a stop that lasted until his death in 1999.
Station History
1969 - 1970 Other Polk County Stations (Management)
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