WKBN Radio’s Dan Rivers to Retire after Long Career

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – After a career of more than 34 years on the air in the Mahoning Valley and beyond, Dan Rivers is calling it quits.

The WKBN-AM 570 talk show host’s final day will be Nov. 27.

The 76-year-old Rivers has been an on-air fixture at WKBN since 1981 and has had his own show since 1999. The conservative host and Navy veteran told his listeners of his impending retirement at the end of his show Monday – Veterans Day.

With the election that will put Donald Trump back in the White House over, he felt like it’s a good time to walk away from the grind and ease his daily routine.

“I’ve been working tirelessly for the last four years to tell everyone we have a huge problem with the [Mexico] border and with inflation and the endless amount of issues that came up in the Biden administration, and I thought we could do better,” Rivers said. “We were able to get Trump back in, and I feel like the country is in a better situation now.”

Rivers is on the air from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays, but his day is a lot longer than that.

“My workday is intense,” he said. “From 7 at night to 11:30, I’m preparing for the next day’s show. And on Saturday mornings, I go to the station and record commercials.”

The list of famous dignitaries and officials Rivers has interviewed in his career is a long one, and includes Trump, Gov. Mike DeWine and many others.

He is looking forward to having more time to spend with his wife and their three sons and grandchildren.

But Rivers’ voice will still be heard on the air and on the WKBN website after his retirement. He will be an occasional fill-in for afternoon host Ron Verb and will continue to do commercial endorsements.

He also plans to do brief daily commentaries for web and broadcast.

“I also have a special place in my heart for veterans, and I will help them anywhere I can,” he said.

Rivers served two tours in Vietnam as a Navy Seabee. After returning home, the Columbus Grove, Ohio, native attended a broadcasting school in Columbus.

“I had an interest in radio since a kid, and I kept that dream alive while I was in Vietnam,” he said. “When I came back, I went to a radio school and that opened the doors.”

He did brief stints in Marysville, Delaware, Coshocton and Toledo, Ohio, and also in Waynesboro, Pa., before landing a job at WKBN radio and TV (the two outlets were part of the same company at the time). Shortly after, he enrolled at Youngstown State University under the GI bill.

“I was fortunate to have landed in Youngstown,” he said.

Rivers has seen a lot of change in the radio industry, including much downsizing in the past decade. But his devotion to the field hasn’t wavered.

“It’s so rare to get these positions that Ron [Verb] and I have,” he said. “In a market this size, you can get the job and then grow into it, and that was the beauty of it. I always wanted to be a talk show host, and I learned something every day to make a better presentation on air.”

Radio – and “the spoken word format” – is still the place where people turn for information, he said.

The station will say goodbye to Rivers on his final day with an open house at its Boardman studios. Guests and advertisers Rivers worked with over the years, and the public, are invited.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.