Don Swindell, man behind WDFN's best musical, comedy bits, dies at 70

Don Swindell wasn't a radio star, at least not in the conventional sense.

But he sure made stations tick, none more than the upstart WDFN 1130-AM, which was more fraternity than corporate radio station when it launched in 1994. Swindell, the oddest of hires on the surface, was a perfect fit.

"Because WDFN was such a s---hole, the facility, I knew most production directors think they're God's gift to production, and most of them are. They're amazing people," said Art Regner, a longtime player in Metro Detroit's sports-talk radio scene. "For the most part, the production director is the lifeline of any major radio station. With these working conditions, we were not going to get one of those God's gifts to production.

"I'm not going to say I was desperate, but I knew I was gonna probably have to hire someone unconventional. This was not gonna be a conventional production job."

After a test run with a conventional candidate that, by Regner's estimate, lasted two hours, he called up Swindell, a local musician by trade, and offered him the job. Swindell, in his deep, cool and calm voice, said yes, and started a few days before the station launched on a Wednesday in 1994. He stayed for eight years, creating some of the most memorable content for Detroit's first all-sports radio station, as part of a career of 30-plus years in radio.

Swindell died Monday, at the age of 70. A Dearborn native, he lived in Davison.

At WDFN, Swindell, a trained trumpet player who studied jazz at Indiana University, composed most of the musical bits, including the theme song for the "Stoney & Wojo" show, and did voice-over work. Most memorably, Swindell portrayed a drunk version of then-Lions owner William Clay Ford. He did George Burns; he did Keith Richards. He also portrayed basically every character on a takeoff of "Hollywood Squares."

"We would've never been able to create that content without him," said Regner, who worked with Swindell on many musical bits, most of them Lions-centric, to accompany Regner's regular meltdowns over Detroit's football team. "We came up with the initial ideas for a lot of stuff, but he was the guy that actually made it.

"If you wanted something, you ran it by Don, and he worked quick, he worked fast. He was so multi-dimensional. He could write, he could voice-over, he could put it together, he wrote music, he did everything.

"He virtually did everything."

Said Mike Stone, now at 97.1 The Ticket, in a Facebook post: "He had all the voices. A great musician who was a kind, sweet human being."

Said Marc Spindler, also on Facebook: "Don was always kind, gracious and patient every time I worked with him. Just loved his smile and humor."

Swindell was at WDFN — an eccentric man for the most eccentric of radio stations — until 2002, serving as creative services director, as well as executive producer of WDFN's morning show. From 2002-07, he was assistant program director and creative director for CBS Radio Detroit, at 1270-AM. And from 2008-15, he was imaging director for CBS Radio Detroit, including for 1270, 97.1 and WWJ 950-AM. During that time, Swindell created the in-game imaging for the Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Lions.

His musical roots never left him, as he continued performing throughout Metro Detroit.

Swindell, who graduated from Dearborn Fordson High School, also attended the combined program between Monteith College and Wayne State Law School, and studied at the famous Second City Players Workshop in Chicago — and used all that background, particularly in music and comedy, to create some of the funniest moments in Detroit sports-talk radio history, moments they still talk about today, even though WDFN is essentially gone, conceding local supremacy to 97.1 in 2009.

"We owed him everything, every one of us that crossed through WDFN. The equipment was bad, we wouldn't have lasted as a station (without Swindell), we wouldn't have been able to carry off our own ideas because we weren't production people," said Regner, who didn't know Swindell at all before he cold-called him one day about the job — and, by Day 2, Regner said, they already had become fast friends. "It was Don. Don made everything.

"He was the beginning and the end of WDFN. Everything that WDFN is memorable for, Don had a hand in."

Swindell's radio career also included stints at stations in Tampa, Fla., Chicago and Dallas, where he did in-game imaging for the Cowboys and Rangers, and he did some creative work for the University of Michigan.

Swindell is survived by sister Jill, and two nephews. A celebration of life is scheduled at a later date.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984