Robert F. Martz, 75, radio personality heard on Toledo airwaves for more than 50 years
ZapRatz
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080804/NEWS13/808040375
ROBERT F. MARTZ, 1932-2008
Disc jockey on local radio 50-plus years
Robert F. Martz, 75, a radio personality whose smooth voice and quick
wit were heard on Toledo airwaves for more than 50 years, died
Saturday in the Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg Township.
The family declined to give a cause of death.
Mr. Martz of Sylvania began his radio career 52 years ago as a disc
jockey in Coldwater, Mich.
"He had this wonderful, magnificent voice," his lifelong friend Connie
Swartz said. "Very rich, friendly, and warm. If you ever heard his
voice or one of his commercials, you would know it was Bob Martz."
Mr. Martz won many awards from the advertising and broadcasting
industry throughout his career, such as the Toledo Advertising
Federation's Silver Medal Award for lifetime achievement. In 2004, he
was inducted into the Radio/Television Broadcaster's Hall of Fame of
Ohio.
In 1958, he made his debut in Toledo on WSPD-AM, and then was general
manager of WTOD-AM until the mid-1960s. There, he worked with four or
five other radio personalities, where he was the leader of the pack,
said Mike Zapiecki, who worked with Mr. Martz at WTOD-AM.
"He was absolutely among the most entertaining guys you could ever
meet," Mr. Zapiecki said. "He was an enormous talent in terms of
creative writing and being an on-air personality."
He recalled Mr. Martz would sit down at a typewriter and write radio
spots, then produce them several hours later.
"He was like a one-man band of production - he would write it, be in
it, record it, sell it himself," daughter Stacy Martz said. "He was
the whole package."
Mr. Martz also spent time at WOHO-AM and WCWA-AM.
Throughout his career, he brought a variety of music genres - such as
country, rhythm and blues, and big band - to Toledo radio, and was
known for the comedic commercials that he wrote and performed.
"You couldn't be around him and not laugh," his friend Ms. Swartz
said. "He had a wit that was beyond belief."
In 1980, Mr. Martz formed a production company with his friend Terry
Shaw. When Mr. Shaw died a few years later, Mr. Martz continued to run
the company under the name Robert F. Martz Productions.
Mr. Martz graduated from Waite High School in 1950, and majored in
English at the University of Toledo. He then moved to Chicago, where
he enrolled in broadcasting school.
"It seems like he was cut out for radio," his daughter Stacy Martz
said. "I don't think he ever planned it. It was just something he was
good at."
While at UT, he met his future wife, Suzanne. They wed in 1956 and
marked 50 years of marriage before she died.
As a father, Mr. Martz was "really silly, all the time," his daughter
Stacy Martz said.
"He had a lot of fun with life, and it was fun for us to grow up with
that kind of attitude," his daughter Amy Sarachman said.
"I don't understand people who don't have a sense of humor," Mr. Martz
told The Blade in March when he celebrated 50 years on the air
locally. "Must be a terribly boring life."
Mr. Martz was an avid reader and enjoyed trying new things, his
daughter Ms. Martz said.
He raised his daughters with a simple dictum, Ms. Sarachman said: "You
can do anything boys can do."
"We played baseball and softball, we were skiers and sailors," she
said. "Back then, people didn't raise their daughters like that. This
changed because of men like my dad."
Surviving are his daughters, Amy Sarachman, Stacy Martz, and Kristen
Bach, and six grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 1 to 5 p.m. August 16 at the Walker Funeral
Home on Sylvania Avenue.
The family suggests tributes to PLAN of Southwest Ohio, which plans
and provides lifelong assistance for people with disabilities.
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