Airlift Mike (as John Saint John) personal certificate proclaiming him an “Elephant Equestrian Extraordinaire” in the Greatest Show on Earth
Here in 2026, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus has given way to changing times, dwindling ticket sales & digital distractions, as well as a growing respect for the dignity of all animals – and taken down the tent poles for the FINAL time.
Allow me to sidestep the front-page politics and animal rights issues for some rather remarkable personal reflection.
As Sherman on Rocky & Bullwinkle used to say, “Mr. Peabody, set the Way-back machine for 1978!”
Years before New Orleans, the days of ‘Mike McCann’, and my decades-long contributions to the broadcast backdrop of the Crescent City, there was this incredible story…
It was May that year, shortly before my WKBO/Harrisburg exit for St. Louis that yours truly – as John Saint John – felt the calling.
“The Smell of the Greasepaint and the Roar of the Crowd!”
You see, as afternoon drive air personality for five years at WKBO, I was invited by the PR Team at Ringling Brothers to ‘run off to join the circus’ – to help promote the circus coming to town.
Gunther Gebel-Williams showing-off! Hey, it’s his JOB.
That May day in 1978 I showed up in Hershey, PA to help out with the circus parade, as all the animals made their way from the nearest train tracks on to the Hershey Park Arena for the show.
Gunther Gebel-Williams himself, long-famous at this point for his appearances with Johnny Carson & Ed Sullivan, the heroic, blonde, Germanic ‘Caesar of the Sawdust’ & Head Animal Trainer shouted to me, “John, let me help you UP”
John Saint John high atop the largest elephant in the Greatest Show on Earth
He then cupped his hands at knee-height, I stepped in, and he proceeded to catapult me to the top of the largest African bull elephant in the show for my circus parade ride to the arena.
Wow-ee-wow! There I was riding this humongous animal bareback, no saddle – his skin felt like corrugated cardboard – and there I was, steering him as I held him BY THE EARS!
As if this experience wasn’t already enough, after reaching the arena I was escorted past the maze of entertainers from all over the world, listening to a symphony of foreign tongues from all around the earth… to a makeup trailer.
Lou Jacobs, Dean of Clowns for over 60 years with Ringling Brothers
So, Lou proceeds to personally make me up for the show… red-nosed, white-faced, arched eyebrows, a shockingly-orange wig and some crazy duds, so I can join them IN PERFORMANCE!
Micheal Ziants all ‘tricked-out’ as a Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey ‘Clown for a Day’, Hershey Park Arena, May 1978
Now I’m IN the “Clown Car” – a wild customized VW Beetle with all the seats taken out and the windows painted so no one could see in, and they pile a dozen of us into this one little car.
We tear into the arena on-cue and are stopped to a screeching halt on the sawdust by a fellow clown cop who then proceeds to knock us all out as we exit the car!
All to the shrieks and howls of the delighted packed crowd.
What seemed so remarkable at this moment to me was that this was the first time I’d ever made people laugh – WITHOUT EVEN OPENING MY MOUTH!
Heading back to my humble apartment later that May night I couldn’t help but feel a bit small, ya know?
Backstage at the circus I listened to every voice and tongue you can imagine, from entertainers who’d traveled from all over the planet to Hershey, PA – the high wire act was from Rio de Janeiro, Gunther & Lou were from Germany, the dog act crowd was Parisian, etc. – and I was just this over-hyped, fast-talking, ego-filled American disc jockey, born just north of Pittsburgh in New Castle.
But I certainly learned a lot about life that day. About community. About teamwork. And a love & appreciation for the most majestic creature on the face of the earth – the elephant.
“Mike McCann sounds good over any music…he used to be on WQUE when I was a kid. And I thought that if I’m gonna’ do a national show, he’s gonna’ be my voice!” ~ Michael DelGiorno, Host of iHeart/Premiere Network’s “Your Morning Show”
In early 1980, Nashville was a very different place. Today’s Country SuperStars were on the playgrounds, if they were even born yet… Conway Twitty was very much alive, George Jones was still rattin’ the Printers Alley bars… and yours truly was ridin’ herd on the afternoon radio rodeo – as John Saint John!
Think about it: Forty-five years ago, Jimmy Carter sat in the Oval Office, John Travolta’s ‘Urban Cowboy’ was huge at the box office, and my “office” was the afternoon drive air chair at WLAC, Nashville.
The internet, world wide web, digital audio and mp3 downloads weren’t even dreams yet in a tech head’s head. Radio – and AM at that – was king!
~ 15-WLAC Logo, during it’s final hurrah as a music station, before yielding to changing times and becoming All News & Talk in late 1980 ~
Picked up ‘on waivers’ from KSD radio in Saint Louis, I was freshly hired by Billboard Broadcasting to do the afternoon drive shift from their swanky showroom studios at 14 Music Circle East every afternoon on the legendary 50,000 watt blowtorch – WLAC Radio.
Together with RJ Harris, Spider Harrison, Dennis John Cahill, Smokey Rivers, ‘Captain Sunshine’, Randy Davis and Jeff Warren, we held court as the last bastions of music on WLAC.
What an exciting and truly awesome gig this was. To work for Billboard Magazine in Music City, USA and broadcast every afternoon to the entire mid-south. No tape delay, no second takes…it was all LIVE – from my mouth into tens of thousands of ears in a split second!
~ Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants as alter-ego John Saint John, in the WLAC, Nashville Studios in 1980 ~
As most know, but few give thought to, Nashville is not only Music City USA, it is also the capital city of the great state of Tennessee, so much of the talk was centered around politics. In early 1980, that talk revolved around Carter, Reagan & Bush.
And do you remember the music of the 1980s? No, we weren’t playing country. It was more like Donna Summer, Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers, Michael Jackson, Eagles, Christopher Cross, Kim Carnes and the Electric Light Orchestra!
As John Saint John, I served them up like this —-
~ WLAC Radio & John Saint John, Wednesday July 30th, 1980 – broadcasting LIVE from Nashville’s Music Row ~
And the doors that were opened to me as afternoon air personality for WLAC ; to talk with – and get to know – the Legends of Nashville music: Brenda Lee, Charlie Daniels, George Jones, Dottie West, I even co-emceed an auto show benefit for Nashville’s Humane Society with Conway Twitty!
During my brief tour of duty at WLAC, I interviewed and sat down with Eddie Money, Ted Nugent, Terry Bradshaw, Eagles’ lead guitar Don Felder, the comic Gallagher … and Lawrence Welk ran his music publishing company in the offices upstairs. In fact, when he was in town, he’d occasionally knock on the studio window, make faces, and wave at me!
But you can never separate the words Radio & Business. And in the early 1980s, the handwriting was on the wall – FM penetration, together with it’s stereo & higher fidelity proved the death knell for music-formatted AM radio.
And with it went my job.
In the Fall of 1980, in fact it was Halloween weekend that year, thirteen months after I was hired, WLAC fired/terminated it’s entire air staff- “Trick or Treat”!! In favor of new owners… and a new all News/Talk format which forty-five years later it still is today.
As I sat in Antioch, TN – with a pregnant wife and our first child on the way!
Now, looking back on all these years, I have to admit that it was in the subsequent days of unemployment in Nashville that the seeds of one day being my own boss, having my own business – a recording studio – were first planted.
But there were still fields yet to plow, and Airlift Productions and New Orleans were not even on my radar yet. But we’ll save Philadelphia, WIFI-FM and that wacky city of Brotherly Love for another day.
That’s a story for another blog and another time.
But here in 2025, sweet irony of all ironies: 45 years later, same guy (me) as Mike McCann, has returned to the WLAC airwaves every weekday morning, serving as Imaging Announcer for Michael DelGiorno and his i-Heart Premiere Networks’ national ‘YOUR MORNING SHOW’!
Proof positive, I guess, of that old saying, ‘what goes around, comes around.’
To say nothing of being karmically kinda kinky,
In the meantime, the creative juices still bubble over daily at the Airlift Productions Studios on Pomona in New Orleans. Stop by for a cold one when you can. We’ll leave the mics hot for you!
“I met Mike in the mid 80’s when I was first starting out in the business … a consummate professional and just a really nice guy. He has seen me through the highs and lows of this business during my 33 year career. I walked away in 2014. He has produced countless air checks for me when I was fired and looking for a new gig. I have recorded in all 3 of his studios from a closet at Rock Creek in Metairie, Mid City, and just recently when I recorded a few pages of an audio book as a demo for a friend/author who just released a new book. Mike is a true friend.” ~ BO WALKER, New Orleans radio legend & Former Production Director, I-Heart Media, NOLA
