Above is Governor Bert Combs with Ron Mendler.

Above is a photo of Bill Baker sent in by Ron Mendler. It is the earliest color photo I have seen of the WMIK control room.

Ronald Howard (Ron) Mendler was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts. He is the only son of Howard and Marguerite Mendler.

He discovered the excitement of radio during the golden years when The Lone Ranger, Superman and Amos and Andy were popular radio shows. Though Country Music was not popular in New England, he used to listen to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday evenings.

Ron started his radio career at WCFR in Springfield, Vermont. He later moved to neighboring New Hampshire and the early morning show on an ABC Network station. It was then he decided to move South to a warmer climate.

He accepted a position with WMIK in 1958 and headed South in a little green Hudson Hornet vehicle. Unfortunately, he lost his transmission in the mountains of West Virginia and traveled hundreds of miles in low gear.

Bill Baker and John Cawood took him into hand during his stay at WMIK. Ron did the mid morning show for two years at the station before heading up the road to WBVL in Barbourville, Kentucky. It was here he met his wife Thelma Jones.

He and his wife moved to Augusta, Georgia to a CBS station as Program Director. It was a short stay before moving to WSMN in Nashua, New Hampshire.

A year later and he moved back home to Attleboro, Massachusetts and became the General Manager of WPEP in Taunton.

In the early 1970’s Ron made the decision to leave radio rather than move his family. He became a bank Manager and remained in banking until 1979 when he became the Marketing Manager for the Pylon Company. Pylon was a manufacturer of test equipment for the Semiconductor market.

In 1991 he and a fellow engineer started a new company also making test equipment. Today Ron is a Senior Manager in charge of the companies Sales and Marketing Group.

Ron can be reach via email at rmend1935@cs.com.