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HomeNewsArchivesRICK RICARDO LEAVING ST. THOMAS---AGAIN

RICK RICARDO LEAVING ST. THOMAS—AGAIN

After almost 45 years as one of the most well-known radio personalities in St. Thomas, Rick Ricardo is retiring, and moving to West Palm Beach with wife Lydia. Again. He first "retired" nine years ago, but that is getting ahead of things. Let him tell it.
"We're sitting right about where the tower used to be," said Ricardo, referring to the old days at WSTA where be began his radio career in 1954.
Sitting in a Frenchtown coffee shop on that same spot of land, he recalled his long and checkered broadcasting career on St. Thomas.
"Bill Greer owned WSTA then, which was in a little building on the road to Villa Olga, and he had a restaurant out at Villa Olga, too, but he kept the supplies at the station and we had to climb over the liquor stock to get in the bathroom. We had no AP wire service, no teletype. . . . nothing. I'd go downtown and get the New York Times, and then read it on the air when it was anywhere between 24 to 48 hours old!"
"When I got hungry, I'd announce 'an interlude of uninterrupted music,' put a 30 minute LP on the turntable and run down to Greaux's for something to eat, and the Normandie for something to wash it down with," Ricardo continued.
His brown eyes sparkled as he recalled the 50's and 60's. "We had lots of famous musicians come down, and they would sit in at Sebastian's on the Waterfront—Bobby Short (New York's famed jazz stylist), Cy Coleman, you name it. They would play with Bruce Cobb, Marty Clark, anybody who happened to be around. This was even before Marty had the Galleon House—remember "I'm in Love with an Octopus?"
The army interrupted this (in some minds) idyllic existence in 1959, and Ricardo became a member of Armed Forces Radio and Good Morning America, where he picked up somewhat more sophisticated broadcasting skills.
A native St. Thomian, and a graduate of Sts. Peter and Paul, Ricardo returned to St. Thomas in the early 60's, and went to work for Bob Noble at WBNB at the old Hilton Hotel headquarters, complete with the turtle races, not on the radio, but in the spirit of the day. And a lot was happening in St. Thomas then.
Ricardo was instrumental in getting two major league teams to play exhibition games here at Lionel Roberts stadium. He somehow wangled getting both the Yankees and the Red Sox complete with Mickey Mantle and Carl Yastrzemski. "They look one look at the right field fence at the stadium and cracked up," Ricardo said. "They were hitting balls into the old cemetery and the Knud Hansen hospital grounds."
In the late 60's Ricardo was up to his ears in logistics when then Gov. Ralph Paiewonsky managed to woo the National Governor's Conference for the island. This meant talking the Navy into lending the aircraft carrier Independence as a floating communications base, as the island had no adequate equipment for this coverage. This was before satellites, way before.
In 1968 Ricardo decided he needed a change of pace, and tried Public Relations for ITT for a couple years, but his heart wasn't in it. In 1970 he was right back with Bob Noble, at what was now WVWI, and where he spent the ensuing two decades covering the many events and changes in those years. His early morning dialogs with Stan Stolkowski in the early 70's are still fondly remembered by those who like to wake up laughing. Ricardo went through a series of storms at the station; David, Frederick and Klaus. Then came Hurricane Hugo.
Ricardo decided to give the airways and himself a rest and retired to West Palm, Florida in 1990, his first "retirement."
In 1994 Bob Noble came to West Palm to ask his old pal if he would once again return to WVWI, and Ricardo gave in, only to experience Hurricane Marilyn in 1995. Many will remember his last broadcast from the Franklin Building the night of the storm. Ricardo along with his wife, their dog, Leo Moron and Buddy Kennings, were in the studio that night. They broadcast storm conditions, call-ins and updates amid the clanking of falling ceiling tiles, intermittent power, and the rumblings of a 500-gallon water tower on the roof which finally toppled. The foursome and dog then crept down the hallway and spent the night in the stairwell. And that was the last of WVWI in the Franklin Building.
Ricardo returned to the station's new Frenchtown location in 1996, finally leaving radio the next year for a year's stint doing public relations at the legislature.
Is he happy about leaving? Yup, with some reservations, of course. And he will be not too far from his old buddy, Bob Noble. Is there Florida broadcasting in his future? Well, maybe.
Perhaps Trent Lawrence who worked with Ricardo at WVWI in Franklin Building days says it best:
"Rick is the most professional person I've ever worked with."

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