Doug Shannon, who is now residing in Pompano Beach, FL, entertained audiences for over 40 years when living in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his career as a radio personality, he entertained many thousands of people as a disc jockey and emcee with every form of interactive participation through scores of diverse engagements, from nightclubs and corporate functions to civic festivals and private engagements.
The qualities of professionalism, sincerity, and empathy exhibited as both an entertainer and a college professor for decades in Ohio, are now brought to his fellow Floridians in entertaining them with a variety of game shows.
Doug’s successes as a DJ and as an entertainer have resulted in his being inducted into the Legends of Vinyl DJ Hall of Fame in August of 2016.
While having worked at 7 different radio stations in various capacities, the highlight of Doug’s broadcast career was as a radio personality at WGCL-FM (G-98), a top-forty station in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. In it’s heyday, G-98 was frequently one of the top rated stations in the market.
While at G-98, Doug started working as a master of ceremonies at the legendary Agora nightclub in downtown Cleveland. The Agora was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill venue, but where artists such as Bruce Springsteen, U2, ZZ Top and a host of many others became known.
Each time a band took a break, it was Doug’s responsibility as a master of ceremonies to create strategies to consume the time of hundreds of audience members for 20 to 30 minutes. It was here that he learned how to captivate an audience by experimenting with every imaginable form of interactive participation. Eventually extending his talents well beyond the nightclub environment, Doug continued to hone his skills, and became more than a master of ceremonies, emerging as an entertainer.
Air check of Doug on G-98 WGCL Radio, Cleveland OH
Because of Doug’s experience as an entertainer working in many venues, he developed a keen understanding of the best ways to design an environment to increase the success that entertainers have with their audiences. He began developing distinctive design and space planning concepts to maximize this relationship in nightclub environments. Doug grew to understand that this unique ability was the same as that shown by great golfers, who mastered the relationship between their craft and the courses upon which they play, lending them insights for designing championship-level golf courses.
He designed numerous facilities based on his creative concepts in various areas of the country, some of which were highlighted by feature magazine articles.
A sampling of the most notable were:
• The Excalibur Entertainment Complex, a three-story facility in Cleveland, Ohio (1984);
• Spanky’s, a three-story facility in the heart of Charleston, West Virginia (1988);
• Fitz Doogan’s, an up-scale Beachwood, Ohio lounge, located in a Holiday Inn (1989);
• Impact, a high energy, ultra contemporary dance club, Middleburg Heights, Ohio (1991 – pictured to the left).
Doug wrote an all-inclusive book, Off the Record: Everything Related to Playing Recorded Dance Music in the Nightclub Industry. It sold worldwide. This generated interviews on radio and television programs, as well as being featured in local, national and international articles in many trade magazines, Including Billboard.
As a nightclub and entertainment expert, Doug wrote for the following trade magazines:
• Nightclub & Bar
• Pro, Light & Sound
• Light, Sound & Video
• Harmonic Keys
Due to working in the broadcast and nightclub industries, and through writing Off the Record, Doug met and interviewed many celebrities, from Dick Clark of American Bandstand fame, to the late recording artist Van McCoy, whose hit, The Hustle is considered by many to have started the disco music era, to rock historian and infamous radio personality, Norm N. Nite, author of numerous books on the rock ‘n’ roll era.
Earning a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Speech Communication from Kent State University, qualified Doug to serve as an adjunct Professor of Speech Communication at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. This is where he taught Interpersonal Communication and Public Speaking for just under 30 years.
In 2013, he won the “Excellence in Teaching” award, the equivalent of “Professor of the Year” – the highest honor awarded to the school’s faculty.
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