https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/04/20/rape-genetic-genealogy-don-geronimo/

Good cold case work.

Very thankful Don did not get arrested to this crime in a common case of identity confusion!

Also glad no one would dare want to impersonate the main chair of the tmos show!

So sorry for the victim but actually being touched by the real Don Geronimo would have been arguably grosser.

Hobble do gee!

Good guy radio!

A little late but a solid catch.

The guy got away with it for almost 35 years. That sucks!

Has anyone read the case file to see what address he lured the victim to?

They keep saying "a radio station in Fairfax City". At that time, there were only two. WEEL-AM (1310), and WEZR-FM, both on Oak Street.

Both stations were originally owned owned by the same company, but I think they were separately sold by the time this crime happened.

WEEL turned into a Korean Christian/Talk station, and the building became a child daycare. The transmitter used to be in the building, but I think it's now in a shack near the antennas (on the ball field by the American Legion...except I think the American Legion building might be gone now, too...) I don't think there is any studio now, just syndicated content. The control room is presumably with the new WDCT business office. Which is all over at the Fairfax Circle Building across the street from Arties.

Anyway, my guess is that he lured her to the WEEL parking lot. Adjacent to the Paul VI High School, which had recently been a campus for George Mason University (1972-1983), and was originally Fairfax County High School(1932).

But I'm just guessing. The place of abduction would be in the police file.

WAVA was in Arlington. The closest stations to Fairfax City were in Falls Church.

Don and Mike Show was broadcasting from WJFK in 1987 from the studio on Main St.

Smash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don and Mike Show was broadcasting
> from WJFK in 1987
> from the studio on Main St.

WJFK did not exist in 1987.

However, WJFK-FM is the former WEZR-FM.
Let me clear up your confusion.

In 1985 WEZR changed it's calls to WBMW and switched from easy listening to Top 40. In 1987 it was sold to Inifinity Broadcasting and they fucked around with various different music formats.

In 1988 they changed calls again, this time to WJFK, and the format was AOR plus Howard Stern (who had not been heard around these parts since he left WWDC back in 1982). The station began adding more and more syndicated talk shows.

The abduction happened a year before WJFK first signed on. (And "Don and Mike" would be even later in the station's future.

In 1987 the former WEZR was still called WBMW. Don Geronimo was on a competing AOR station: WAVA, whose studio and transmitter were both in Arlington.

The "Morning Zoo", which became "The Don and Mike Show" wasn't on the Fairfax radio station until years later.

Don Geronimo first appeared around here in 1978 and worked for sevral stations before quickly disappearing. Then in 1979 he came back, this time to on WPGC for a few years. (That's the Top-40 era where many of us older folks remember him from.) Then he left the market again.

In 1985 he came back again, this time on WAVA-FM (Arlington) which had switched from news to AOR. I think Geronimo stayed at WAVA until 1991. Then he went to WJFK.

Why do you think he was broadcasting from the corner of Oak Street and Main Street in the former WEZR studio?

My guess is that that the rapist used the name Don Geronimo, but gave directions not to WAVA in Arlington, but instead to WBMW (WEZR) in Fairfax City.

Probably because it might create a problem with the victim showing up at the real WAVA and looking for the real Don Geronimo. Who might even be there! I don't know what the WAVA property was like; there could have been other reasons it would be an unsuitable location.

Better to confuse a little girl into going to a secluded radio studio parking lot in Fairfax City.

Just hearing about the whole thig seems to have mixed you up.

(However, do correct me if I am wrong!)

Anyway, do we even know it was actually the WEZR parking lot, and not the WEEL parking lot? 3909 Oak Street doesn't look like much.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2022 11:45PM by 5050man.

You(5050man) are completely correct! Totally forgot about WBMW(Bee 106.7) and the rest in your thorough timeline/outline. You have a god memory.

So, back to square-one. I haven't any idea of the specific address where the crime might have taken place in Northern VA.