Tt1f MIGt1TY'MOX JON McSWff Nf Y Jon McSweeney worked for years in the KMOX newsroom in the 1970s and 1980s. McSweeney was born blind, but didn't stop his inter- est in sports and his ambition to work in broadcasting. Jack Buck heard about McSweeney's interest in baseball and broad- casting, and invited him to attend a Cardinals' game and sit in the KMOX booth. That led to an interview with Robert Hyland and McSweeney's job at KMOX. His primary job was to write features and transcribe interviews, many for the To Your Health segment hosted by Buck. Ct1fiRLIf MfNffS The Big Band Sounds of Charlie Menees was a regular feature on KMOX on Saturday nights from 1987 until his death in 1993. Menees was a well -known jazz scholar, lecturer, journalist, and disc jockey in St. Louis for almost 50 years. He played big -band and jazz recordings from his vast personal collection. Menees moved to KMOX from KWMU -FM, a public radio sta- tion, where his show was the most highly rated show on the station for most of the 1970s. Robert Hyland learned of Menees from several friends who were with Hyland in a limo on their way to a black -tie dinner in 1978. Hyland never listened to any station but KMOX, but these friends overruled him on this night and switched the limo's radio to Menees' show. Three days later, Hyland hired Menees for KMOX. Menees' show reached listeners in some far -flung places, as did other KMOX programs. "He had listeners call in from as far away as the Atlantic Ocean and 30 miles below the Arctic Circle," said his wife of 49 years, Mary, who helped her husband with the show every Saturday night. "One night, a taxi driver called him from New York and said he was listening to him from the middle of Times Square." His son estimated Menees' collection at 30,000 albums, not in- cluding the 78s. The foundation of his home in Kirkwood had to be reinforced with steel to accommodate the weight of the records. 254 www.americanradiohistory.com.