Did "Chickenman" ever air in Boston?

[Don Juannn]

PRI's This American Life recently did a piece on Chickenman, the short little comedy vignette that aired on some stations in the late 60's early 70's.

I spent all of those years in Boston and thought I heard it a few times.

Did some station in Boston run Chickenman?

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/252/poultry-slam-2003

 

[Sales Reptile]

I do know it was on Kiss 108 in the late 70's (Sunny Joe White and the Great Awakening)

 

[raccoonradio]

Poss. WHDH 850

 

[Early Byrd]

I believe that WKBW (1520 AM), Buffalo and/or WPTR (1540 AM), Albany, both 50,000 watt New York stations, ran Chickenman back then. If, at that time, you listened to WMEX (1510 AM), Boston, on a regular basis you might have thought Chickenman was on that station because of the close proximity of the dial position to WKBW and WPTR.

 

[diamondj]

Not quite Boston, but Providence did for sure. In the early 80s, McDonald's first introduced the McChicken and JB-105 (WPJB at the time) ran Chickenman as a tie in with McD.

 

[Don Juannn]

I do know it was on Kiss 108 in the late 70's (Sunny Joe White and the Great Awakening)

Seems like more of an AM Top40 feature...as it originated on WCFL in Chicago.

 

[bigtom101]

PRI's This American Life recently did a piece on Chickenman, the short little comedy vignette that aired on some stations in the late 60's early 70's.

I spent all of those years in Boston and thought I heard it a few times.

Did some station in Boston run Chickenman?

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/252/poultry-slam-2003

I have all of the Chickenman episodes on CD...I was introduced to them when KB was revived and they used to run 'em during Jack Armstrongs show.

 

[aerie]

The MIT station, which was WTBS at the time, played them on Saturday nights. WTBS was only 10 watts then I think, and I remember hanging aluminum foil sheets on my FM antenna in Medford trying to hear them.

 

[pqgeorge]

The MIT station, which was WTBS at the time, played them on Saturday nights. WTBS was only 10 watts then I think, and I remember hanging aluminum foil sheets on my FM antenna in Medford trying to hear them.

Yes, "Chicken Man" did air in Boston originally on WCOP/1150 from the summer of 1966 until the station adopted their Country format in 1968.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Many years ago, WCRB AM & FM aired a Saturday night comedy-album show after the Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts. It was hosted by the late Richard L. Kaye, and if I remember correctement, "Chickenman" was included among the clips played on that show.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Poss. WHDH 850

Not only did Dick Orkin's Chickenman air on WHDH 850 for several years in the late '60s or early '70s, it did so while one of the key voices, Jim Runyon (the announcer on each episode, who is probably best known for his basso "well....") was a major local personality on 'HDH. I'm not positive about which daypart Runyon covered, but it was most likely either late morning or midday. The 'HDH lineup was very strong back then: AM drive, Jess Cain; PM drive, Norm Nathan. Stan Roberts, who came to Boston from Buffalo and returned to Buffalo when he left Boston, was also part of the lineup at that time, IIRC. WHDH did full-service MOR the way it was meant to be and it sounded great. Although Norm Nathan is probably still best remembered for Sounds in the Night, which he did for many years before he moved to PM drive, he did some of his best schtick in the PM-drive show. I hadn't yet arrived in Boston when Bob and Ray anchored the 'HDH lineup, but I think Nathan got a lot of his ideas from them. And he carried it off with only one voice (all of Norm's "voices" sounded the same, too); it took Bob and Ray two voices to do the job.

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

Wikipedia has an article on ChickenMan.
And here is the "origin episode", found on this page, complete with the famous opening!

 

[Don Juannn]

Poss. WHDH 850

Not only did Dick Orkin's Chickenman air on WHDH 850 for several years in the late '60s or early '70s, it did so while one of the key voices, Jim Runyon (the announcer on each episode, who is probably best known for his basso "well....") was a major local personality on 'HDH.

I believe it's the "late" Jim Runyon...no?

Wasn't WHDH a rather boring MOR station during those years?

Chickenman was a little silly and juvenile.....and seemed like it would be more of a Top 40 feature...like it's originating station WCFL.

 

[Deleted User]

they were running Chicken Man on XM6 for a while, I have not heard it promo'd in quite a while now, probably since " Cousin Brucie" came to XM

Wiki-Pedia says it runs on XM 151 now

 

[DanStrassberg]

I believe it's the "late" Jim Runyon...no?

Yes

Wasn't WHDH a rather boring MOR station during those years?

Jess Cain and Norm Nathan were GREAT. I found the the others good to listen to. I suppose some people were bored. You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Chickenman was a little silly and juvenile.....and seemed like it would be more of a Top 40 feature...like it's originating station WCFL.

I'm sure that some people thought ChickenMan was silly. I thought it was fun. Very droll. Kind of like kids TV cartoon shows of the same era. Parts of it went over the heads of the supposed audience (that is, teens). That was part of the fun. Older listeners could tell when there was inside schtick aimed at them. Made you feel part of an in-group. If you were around back then, you were probably too young to fully appreciate it.

 

[blackgold]

Yes, it aired on Sean Casey's show on WHDH 850 and on Kiss-108 FM with Sonny Joe White.