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Bygone Stations/Formats/DJs/Etc

Eli Polonsky said:
Arnie Ginsburg WAS very briefly live on the air on WRKO. I remember I followed him over from WMEX, and heard him DJ’ing in his unique style on WRKO and announcing the songs. Must’ve been for only maybe a week or two at the most.
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I also heard him there in the spring of '67. WRKO's new jock lineup was printed in the radio section of the Globe, I saw him listed and decided to check it out. I expected to hear his WMEX schtik, but he was doing it straight.

IMHO, both Ginsburg and WMEX benefitted from WRKO coming on the scene. It gave Arnie the chance to ditch his 50s style presentation with the horns, slide whistle, etc. He was a smart guy, he couldn't have helped noticing that style of radio was beginning to sound very dated. Ditto for WMEX in general. The big loser in that game was WBZ, and within a year they folded and went MOR.

Ed Nielson said:
I believe Woo Woo was also at WBZ for a time during the early 70s, doing a Saturday night oldies show.
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I remember him doing weekends in the late 70s, it sure sounded weird hearing him introducing "How Deep Is Your Love" and other AC music from that era.
 
No one has yet mentioned the late David Brudnoy. He was one of the more intelligent talk show hosts in Boston radio. He worked at WHDH, WRKO and WBZ. Management at WBZ stupidly replaced him with the syndicated Tom Snyder show, which I believe lasted only months before David was rehired.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Arnie Ginsburg WAS very briefly live on the air on WRKO. I remember I followed him over from WMEX, and heard him DJ’ing in his unique style on WRKO and announcing the songs. Must’ve been for only maybe a week or two at the most.
When I no longer heard him, I called WRKO and asked why. They couldn’t tell me.
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Though I have zero recollection of Arnie's being live on the air on WRKO, Eli, your input is always worthy of trust.
 
I think it was only about 2 weeks that he was on WRKO before the court ruled that WMEX could enforce the non-compete. I think he had to wait like a year before he could be on WRKO. Didn't something similar happen to Jerry Williams when he tried to jump directly from WMEX to WBZ?
 
AerieAlso said:
Didn't something similar happen to Jerry Williams when he tried to jump directly from WMEX to WBZ?
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Westinghouse (WBZ) and Richmond Brothers (WMEX) fought this to Supreme Judicial Court.

Richmond Brothers v. Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.​


My understanding is that the court found that such non-competes had to be "reasonable".

Later that was tested to find that reasonable mean no longer than 1 year, and no further than 50 miles.

(The Richmond Brothers had contracts that were 5 year non-competes and for a 500 miles radius.)

The case linked above is one that is occasionally referenced in Massachusetts law schools.

I don't think Arnie and WRKO wanted to fight this down to the wire for years and years and expend time and money, and they offered Arnie a sales position.
 
Oldie919 said:
Phillip James Laggias (my guess at spelling his last name....!) was at WTSV/WECM in Claremont, NH for a time in the 70s.
His weather forecasts ("....mostly cluddy skies....") were a real treat!!;)
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Phil Lagious was the son of Jimmy and Helen Lagious who did the Greek and Polka Shows on WOTW AM-FM Nashua for years. They retired in 1980.
 
Ed Nielson said:
At some point they were what was called "Easy Listening" at the time, under the calls WSSH-FM ("wish.") Their studios were in Woburn. They also owned 1510 which went through a number of callsign/format changes, including WSSH (same format as the FM, don't know if it was simulcast), WKKU (Country) and WNRB (Religious) among others.
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99.5 is still licensed to Lowell. The original WSSH 99.5 doing an Easy Listening format had its studio in Lowell with co-owned WLLH 1400. 99.5 was WLLH-FM from 1948 when it signed on till around 1970 when it split from the AM.
 
Oldbones said:
IMHO, both Ginsburg and WMEX benefitted from WRKO coming on the scene. It gave Arnie the chance to ditch his 50s style presentation with the horns, slide whistle, etc. He was a smart guy, he couldn't have helped noticing that style of radio was beginning to sound very dated. Ditto for WMEX in general. The big loser in that game was WBZ, and within a year they folded and went MOR.
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Chuck Knapp, though, was a high-energy screamer on 'RKO. "I'm your LEEEEEEA-der, babeeeeee!!!!" What pre-teen could ever prefer WBZ's sedate approach over that, even if the playlists had much in common?

1966-68 was an important period in my young listening life and I can still recall it vividly. I was a faithful WBZ listener in 1966 until discovering WRKO-FM that fall. Immediately, all my listening was to Arko with the exception of Bruce Bradley's countdown show on Tuesdays on 'BZ. Then came WRKO(AM) in March 1967 and both RKO-FM and 'BZ were in the rear view for me. The following year, I started to split my listening between 'RKO and WBCN. At 13, I was starting to outgrow Top 40, though I never completely left it due to my love of soul music and the Motown sound, which 'BCN largely ignored. Absent in all this personal radio geekery was WMEX, which, for some reason, I never liked much, not even Arnie. I barely listened to it at all.
 
CTListener said:
Chuck Knapp, though, was a high-energy screamer on 'RKO. "I'm your LEEEEEEA-der, babeeeeee!!!!" What pre-teen could ever prefer WBZ's sedate approach over that, even if the playlists had much in common?
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So who originated that? I've heard Jackson Armstrong use it on WKBW in the70s. Maybe it was one of those lines that everybody "borrowed?"

Didn't see that Wimmmex had already responded to CTs post. It decided to tell me just before I go to post. :rolleyes:
 
Ed Nielson said:
So who originated that? I've heard Jackson Armstrong use it on WKBW in the70s. Maybe it was one of those lines that everybody "borrowed?"

Didn't see that Wimmmex had already responded to CTs post. It decided to tell me just before I go to post. :rolleyes:
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The line was included in the profiles of the RKO jocks that were printed in the inside liner notes of "30 Now Goldens," the RKO oldies album I won as a "lucky caller" in late '67 or early '68. I actually had no idea what Knapp was screaming before I saw it in print. All I could make out just by listening was the "baby" at the end.
 
CTListener said:
Chuck Knapp, though, was a high-energy screamer on 'RKO. "I'm your LEEEEEEA-der, babeeeeee!!!!" What pre-teen could ever prefer WBZ's sedate approach over that, even if the playlists had much in common?

1966-68 was an important period in my young listening life and I can still recall it vividly. I was a faithful WBZ listener in 1966 until discovering WRKO-FM that fall. Immediately, all my listening was to Arko with the exception of Bruce Bradley's countdown show on Tuesdays on 'BZ. Then came WRKO(AM) in March 1967 and both RKO-FM and 'BZ were in the rear view for me. The following year, I started to split my listening between 'RKO and WBCN. At 13, I was starting to outgrow Top 40, though I never completely left it due to my love of soul music and the Motown sound, which 'BCN largely ignored. Absent in all this personal radio geekery was WMEX, which, for some reason, I never liked much, not even Arnie. I barely listened to it at all.
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I had the same basic experience (although I couldn't pick up WMEX in Sharon, only a friend with a SW radio could hear it).
The one exception is that when I gravitated away from WRKO, I landed primarily on WKOX-FM and then stuck mostly with WVBF, IMO one of the great radio stations of the early 70s with jocks like Bud Ballou, Ron Robin, Charlie Kendall and Big John Gillis, plus their unique Top 40/AOR format and incomparable Heller jingles. Some people at the time were BCN people, but WVBF was the soundtrack of my college years and it was heard throughout almost every dorm on campus, except (from what I'm told) when my basketball pbp was on the college station lol.
(I became a BCN fan after college, although I listened to everything including one of my guilty pleasures, late nights on Super 16 with Soul Brother Daoud (sp?) Abdullah.)
 
CTListener said:
The line was included in the profiles of the RKO jocks that were printed in the inside liner notes of "30 Now Goldens," the RKO oldies album I won as a "lucky caller" in late '67 or early '68. I actually had no idea what Knapp was screaming before I saw it in print. All I could make out just by listening was the "baby" at the end.
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I always wondered who used it first (I'm guessing it was neither Chuckles or Jackson) - and I always thought Chuck said "THIS IS your leader, baby!" Or maybe that was Jack lol.
 
philsirkin said:
I had the same basic experience (although I couldn't pick up WMEX in Sharon, only a friend with a SW radio could hear it).
The one exception is that when I gravitated away from WRKO, I landed primarily on WKOX-FM and then stuck mostly with WVBF, IMO one of the great radio stations of the early 70s with jocks like Bud Ballou, Ron Robin, Charlie Kendall and Big John Gillis, plus their unique Top 40/AOR format and incomparable Heller jingles. Some people at the time were BCN people, but WVBF was the soundtrack of my college years and it was heard throughout almost every dorm on campus, except (from what I'm told) when my basketball pbp was on the college station lol.
(I became a BCN fan after college, although I listened to everything including one of my guilty pleasures, late nights on Super 16 with Soul Brother Daoud (sp?) Abdullah.)
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And Harvey Wharfield.

Eeeeelctronic Mamaaaa.....
 
Ed Nielson said:
And Harvey Wharfield.

Eeeeelctronic Mamaaaa.....
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VBF was the annoying station my sister (two years younger) was always listening to on the stereo when I wanted to listen to BCN. I used to have BCN on in the background while doing homework. My favorite memory of that station in its early years was listening to the Beatles' just-released "white album" played in its entirety one Saturday afternoon.
 
I was just listening to that Heller jingle package. Whoever wrote and produced those was obviously on some serious mind-altering chemicals. "James August Martin is a man of letters ... and he owes me one... WVBF." Must be some kind of inside joke!
 


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