For years, Rob Durkee dreamed of writing prep sports for The Cleveland Press. He lived that dream by writing for The Willoughby News-Herald in the summers of 1964-67, plus he also wrote for The Sheveport Times, The Fort Worth Press, The Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram and The Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph. Thanks largely to the page layout skills he learned from long-time friend Larry Feese while in Fort Worth (and they stay in touch to this day), Rob was Sports Editor for about 15 months at The Painesville Telegraph.

In 1983, though, Rob Durkee ended his long newspaper career that included interviews with the late Tom Landry, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron, Bill Russell and even O.J. Simpson.

His love for pop music, though, started when, in 1981, after the encouragement of his then-boss, Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram Sports Editor Jerry Rombach, started writing a music column for the paper as "Rockin' Robin."

A follower of pop music since 1957, Rob graduated from The Ohio School Of Broadcast Technique in October, 1983, then landed his first radio job as News Director-DJ at WDMP/Dodgeville-Mineral Point, Wisconsin. While there, his voice was used on CBS News while covering the 1984 tornado that leveled Barneveld and his efforts helped WDMP earn a major Associated Press award.

Rob then was an oldies disc jockey at WAYY in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he interviewed performers like Bobby Vee, Tommy Roe, Gary Lewis and Neil Sedaka.

In 1989, Rob was hired to write and research for "American Top 40" (then with the ABC network) in the Los Angeles area, where he still lives. While with ABC, he also conducted many interviews for Dick Bartley, including those with Barry White, Smokey Robinson, Lesley Gore, Mary Wilson (Supremes) and Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere And The Raiders).

Since December 1, 1994, Rob has worked for Mediabase 24/7, a radio airplay research company. He is currently the Oldies Format Coordinator but also assists with the AC, Hot AC and Jammin' Oldies formats. Just picture in your mind a computer that calls up a radio station and you hear what's on the air for six seconds every two minutes...and Rob just plays name that tune. As Rob points out, "It beats working!"