Communiqué
WOUB launches lengthy radio career for Greg Koogler
< < Back toKoogler graduated in 1976
ATHENS, OH – When Greg Koogler came to Ohio University on a college visit in the early 1970s and found out about the opportunities available to students at WOUB Public Media, he was intimidated.
“The radio on-air talent I heard was better than people I heard on the air in my hometown of Dayton,” said Koogler. “But I knew WOUB was where I had to be. I just fell in love with the facilities and opportunities at WOUB.”
Koogler said he got the “radio bug” when he was 13 or 14 years old. And he was fortunate that his high school had a 10-watt FM station where they allowed students to “cut their teeth” because it prepared him to work at a professional station like WOUB.
“I was able to get on air as a freshman at WOUB in the spring of 1973,” said Koogler. “I eventually started hosting the 7 to 9 p.m. shift on WOUB AM. It was a Top 40 format, which was right up my alley. It’s what I wanted to do in my career.”
The radio/television major worked over the summer at WOUB during 1974 and 1975 and gained more valuable hands-on experience that helped him launch his career.
“I met Lionel Ritchie when I was working at WOUB. The Commodores were in Athens doing a concert at the Athena in 1974. He was the first big celebrity I met,” said Koogler. “I had so much fun at WOUB and learned so much. I learned the importance of paying attention to detail working there.”
When Koogler graduated in 1976, he stayed in the region by getting his first job at WXIL in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He went by the name Greg MacArthur on the air and started as the 6 p.m. to midnight disc jockey. Koogler was later promoted to program director. He left Parkersburg after about a year a half and over the course of the next several decades, Koogler worked in on-air and production director roles in Canton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; Omaha, Nebraska; and Seattle before landing a position as production director at CBS Radio in 2000.
“I truly loved the production side of things and the role at CBS Radio let me focus on that,” said Koogler. “I’m so grateful for the opportunities I had.”
In 2017, after CBS Radio was sold to Entercom and then eventually to iHeartRadio, Koogler worked as a creative production designer for iHeartRadio. He retired in 2020.
“My career was really wonderful,” said Koogler. “I wouldn’t trade my experience with WOUB for anything. All the people I worked with were just great. We were all good friends. At the time I don’t think I realized it, but the whole experience was the foundation of my career.”