John Lanigan (broadcaster)

[4] Lanigan's Cleveland debut occurred at WGAR (1220 AM) in December 1971, taking over as that station's morning-drive host after the departure of Don Imus for WNBC (660 AM) in New York City.

[5] He was hired by WGAR general manager Jack G. Thayer after attracting his attention at a New Orleans industry convention, and bypassed 65 other applicants for the on-air position.

By the end of 1972, Lanigan was battling WIXY's Mike Reineri, WJW's Ed Fisher and WERE shock jock Gary Dee for the top-rated spot in morning drive[9] a ranking Imus also attained in his first year at WGAR.

[15] Unique for its time, Lanigan regularly featured politicians on his show, beginning with Cleveland mayor Ralph Perk[16] and continuing throughout the rest of his career.

One stunt promoting the Cleveland National Air Show had Lanigan parasailing to open the event, but the person driving the boat lost control,[20] resulting in him crashing into the water and nearly missing a breakwall.

[22] Not all publicity was solicited: when Lanigan was ticketed by police one morning in August 1978 for driving 91 mph (146 km/h) on Interstate 77, one of the two officers admitted to being a fan of his show.

[29] Lanigan also is well known in Cleveland for his television work, as in conjunction with his radio shows, he was host of the daily afternoon Prize Movie on WUAB channel 43 during the '70s through the early '90s (with a hiatus when he was in Tampa, during which time the movie program was hosted by WWWE Radio morning man Dave "Fig" Newton).

[35] In late 2014, Lanigan made somewhat of a comeback to Cleveland radio, becoming a co-host alongside Mike Trivisonno on The Spew, a daily hour-long debate program on WMJI sister station WTAM AM 1100.