Johnstown man was a talk radio phenomenon
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 07-25-15
Richard W. Stander, Sr., of Johnstown, who almost made it to his 101st birthday, was an opinionated and entertaining caller to radio talk shows from the 1960s until shortly before his death in April 1993.
Born in 1892 in Newark, New Jersey, Richie, as he was known, really was the seventh son in his family, one of the many tales he enjoyed telling. Stander’s grandson Roger Stander, also of Johnstown, said his grandfather had four brothers who survived to adulthood plus two brothers who died as children. There were also two sisters.
Roger Stander said his grandfather lived to see great changes, from gaslights to computers, and accumulated a reservoir of stories. Richie was stubborn, according to Roger, for example clinging to belief in ancient astronauts as the basis of human life despite arguments Roger presented to the contrary.
As a youngster Richie stowed away on a freight train to get to his brother in California. He was captured by railroad police in Chicago and sent home. Later he made the trip by hitchhiking across the country.
Before World War I Richie was in the merchant marine and badly injured when he fell from the rigging of a ship as he was showing off his acrobatic skills. The injuries kept him out of World War I.
He and his brothers were sharecropper farmers in Stone Arabia and Ephratah in the Mohawk Valley among other places. After World War I, Richie worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; he built cabinets for the phone company to protect electronic equipment.
Richie and Alice Stahl of New York City married around 1923. They became caretakers for a wealthy homeowner in Westchester County but had to leave that job when their son Richard Stander, Jr., was born in Tarrytown in 1929.
Richie turned to truck farming, operating a farm stand in Westchester County. John D. Rockefeller stopped by and gave Richie a Rockefeller trademark dime to present to Richie and Alice’s son.
The Standers moved to Ames, south of Canajoharie and raised vegetables for Jewish resorts in Sharon Springs and Beech Nut in Canajoharie. Hearing that a Johnstown greenhouse had been abandoned, Richie refurbished it. He couldn’t find a buyer so the Standers went into the flower business in the 1940s on North Perry Street.
Richard Stander, Jr. was salutatorian of the Johnstown High class of 1947 and ended up running the family greenhouse until it closed in 1976 because of rising oil prices. Richie’s wife Alice died in 1972. Richard Stander, Jr. died in 2008.
By 1980 when I started hosting WGY radio’s talk show on weekday evenings, Richie already was an on-air phenomenon. He also regularly called WENT in Johnstown/Gloversville and radio stations in Amsterdam.
His daughter-in-law Mary Altomare Stander and grandson Roger would take Richie his pre-WGY talk show dinner every night. A friend would stop by with a couple beers. At some point in the 1980s Richie stopped drinking.
Bill Miller, my predecessor at WGY, had started a monthly program called Talent Night and Richie was a major contributor. Richie played harmonica, musical saw, sang and yodeled over the phone. The family dog Astra barked along with the harmonica.
Richie’s daughter-in-law Mary was a music teacher. Richie and Mary traveled to senior citizen homes to perform.
In 1981 a taxpayer group, We the People, presented Richie with a plaque at a dinner in Fultonville. As the years rolled by there were other dinners honoring Richie. Once he came to the WGY studios in Niskayuna to co-host the talk show.
Richie frequently remarked that such memorable experiences were “Too good for the poor.”
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