ROBERT CONRAD, PRESIDENT, ORCHESTRA COMMENTATOR AND HOST OF "WEEKEND RADIO" 



Co-founder and President of WCLV, Robert
is the dean of orchestra commentators,
having been the host for the broadcasts
of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1965.
Research indicates that Robert has been
the continuos commentator for an orchestra
broadcast series longer than anyone else
in the history of American radio. Also, he
hosts Weekend Radio (Saturdays
at 10:00 pm on WCLV), a unique and award-winning conglomeration of comedy and
light classical music heard on some 80 radio stations throughout the country.

Robert entered the broadcasting business at the age of 14 over WKAN in his home town of Kankakee, Illinois, when he was chosen to write and announce a weekly high school program. Eventually, he became a full time announcer and the host of a weekly live country and western broadcast called Hayloft Jamboree, where he was called Sagebrush Bob. He graduated from the School of Communications at Northwestern University. While in school, he worked at WEAW AM/FM in Evanston, and WFMT, Chicago. After graduation, Uncle Sam provided him with an all-expense paid vacation in Hawaii with the 14th Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion. During off hours, Robert graced the Hawaiian airwaves from KAIM AM/FM and KULA. While in Hawaii, he won Second Place in  "Most Beautiful Voice in America" contest. on the NBC Radio network program Monitor.  First place was won by a lady in Los Angeles, so he can say "Most Beautiful Male Voice."  He won a grand piano and other prizes, enough loot to sell and buy a Volkswagon when he was discharged from the Army.  When discharged, he returned to WFMT for several years, moving to Detroit in 1960, to become the program director of a new station, WDTM. Then in 1962, it was on to Cleveland and WCLV.

Activities outside WCLV include appearing as narrator with area ensembles including The Cleveland Orchestra. He has also performed the non-dancing role of "The Speaker for the Jury" in Morton Gould's Fall River Legend with The Cleveland Ballet, and he and his wife Jean starred in the Beck Center production of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters. On Saturdays, he puts on the academic gown of an Adjunct Professor of Broadcasting at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the Spring of 1998, Robert gave the commencement speech at the CIM graduation ceremonies and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree. In 1982, he received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Baldwin-Wallace College. His third honorary degree (Doctor of Humanities) was given him by Oberlin College in the Spring of 2002. He has received the "Life Time Achievement Awards" of the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters, the Cleveland AIR Awards, and the "Glissando Award" from Rainey Institute..

He is a member of the Boards of Trustees of The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Music School Settlement, the Rainey Institute, the Music Theatre Project. the Cliffside Foundation and the Cleveland Playhouse. 

Wife Jean is a retired social worker, and there are four grown Conrad daughters. A son is deceased. They have six grandchildren, Emily, Christian, Amy and Jonathan, Sarah and Aaron, and two step-grandchildren, Dominique and Alexandra.

During the winter, Jean and Robert are part-time residents of Bonita Springs, Florida., where
Robert's voice is occasionally heard on local stations.  When he's not doing radio things,
he's running his N gauge model railroad, the WC&LV. (Western Cuyahoga and Lorain
Valley Railroad).

Photo by Roger Mastroianni