• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

John Garabedian--open house party

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

When in Burlington VT, I taped some WXXX 95.5 for a tape trader. turns out they were doing a syndie
show that also runs on stations like Kiss 108: the open house party with John Garabedian (hmm! I'd
heard that name before...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Garabedian

I'd known of WVJV-TV, "V-66", our own version of MTV (project with Woo Woo Ginsburg) and WGTR...
Anyway, the show I taped featured CHR music by request and a brief interview with Avril Lavigne. The
Open House Party site has more info on John (as well as a portrait of the late Sunny Joe White). You
may know of this guy...

One memory of V66: they couldn't get the rights, apparently, to Prince's "Raspberry Beret" video so
they played the song but showed various 'scenes' from the album cover...


>>At the age of 17, John joined Worcester station WORC-AM as a disc jockey. Several years after joining, he became a co-host of the original Open House Party radio program...In 1969, John and partners founded WGTR-AM (now WBIX) as a top-40 station serving MetroWest from Natick...Two years after MTV's 1981 debut, John and fellow WMEX alumnus Arnie Ginsburg started a Boston-area 24-hour music video station, WVJV-TV

(Open House Party started in 1987 on Kiss 108...he does it from
any of his 3 homes: suburban Boston; Vermont, and the Cape)

From the Open House Party site:
http://www.openhouseparty.com/history.html
 
One memory of V66: they couldn't get the rights, apparently, to Prince's "Raspberry Beret" video so
they played the song but showed various 'scenes' from the album cover...
Click to expand...

Actually they made their own video because there was no video yet and Prince had announced that there were going to be no singles from his album The Ladder. They played the regular Prince video once it came out.
 
raccoonradio said:
In 1969, John and partners founded WGTR-AM (now WBIX) as a top-40 station serving MetroWest from Natick...
Click to expand...

Maybe that's when they founded the business, but WGTR didn't make it onto the air until a couple of years later. In late 1969 and 1970 there was a powerful pirate called "WEGN" on 1060 AM, some guys partying in a basement in Waltham with an old converted shortwave transmitter playing free-form progressive album rock. They went off the air just months before WGTR came on, claimed that their transmitter died. I'm sure they would've gotten in trouble if John H. had found them still on the air.
 
>>Actually they made their own video because there was no video yet and Prince had announced that there were going to be no singles from his album The Ladder. They played the regular Prince video once it came out.

Ah, OK! I think I now remember reading about that somewhere. Anyway, V-66 (remember those bumper
stickers?) played music videos a la MTV...they may well have played some by local artists as part of that
(and another indie UHF station in town, WQTV-TV 68, used to have a show--Friday nights at 6, I think?--
that would play videos or taped performances by local bands. This was a station which used to scramble
its signal and play movies (pay TV) but at times the signal was unscrambled.

Ch 68: http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/7692

"Channel 68 signed on in January 1979 as WQTV, licensed to Boston Heritage Broadcasting, with studios at 390 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. WQTV began as a subscription-television station. In 1982, Boston Star Broadcasting, which ran the subscription TV operation, bought WQTV for $600,000. In the fall of 1983, the subscription broadcasts moved to WSMW-TV 27 in Worcester, and WQTV became a new independent station."

As for V-66...
http://www.worcestermass.com/dynamix/v66.shtml

"The VJs were some of the best and the brightest in Boston -- John Garabedian (now doing "Open House Party" on Saturday night radio) and David O'Leary (now at WBOS 92.9) among them. Also, I remember a bizarre commercial that Garabedian and Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsberg did when the Patriots were playing the Bears in the Super Bowl -- they had a teddy bear bound and gagged and tortured it between videos."

The comments bring back memories:

David O'Leary was a VJ. Artists played (local) included New Man, The Stompers, and Robert Ellis Orrall.
The logo, as seen on the page linked above, had a purple "V", slightly off kilter, with yellow lightning
bolts that form a "66" in the middle

Even more local artist memories (Joe Vig, jump right in!):
"What I liked the most was the way V-66 showcased Boston bands: The Fools, Digney Fignus, New Man, Rods & Cones, The Lyres, Rubber Rodeo, Ball & Pivot, Til Tuesday & The November Group, were just some of the many local talent I remember watching."

The Lyres--saw them in 1984 at Storyville (now the Pizzeria Uno in Kenmore Sq--is THAT still there?--
friends of mine from Washington DC, the Insect Surfers, opened up (and I have a tape of the Surfers
from that show)...Rubber Rodeo were a great "country new-wave band". Don Roze of Eat Records in Salem
signed them though they later did a couple albums on Mercury. I remember Don coming to Salem State
and showing me and a couple other WMWM-ers the video for "How The West Was Won" by RR on a VCR
in the media center (Meier Hall). Later the video for "Anywhere With You" would wind up on MTV...
 
We may be off on the years a little. I remember John on WMEX between 71 and 72. WGTR came on in 72 or 73. In 1969 Cousin Duffy was doing PM drive on MEX, and John replaced him sometime after that. MEX really kicked butt in those years!
 
Wow...I thought I was the only person on Earth who remembered that! If I remember correctly the video was an MTV exclusive.


One memory of V66: they couldn't get the rights, apparently, to Prince's "Raspberry Beret" video so
they played the song but showed various 'scenes' from the album cover...
 
They're not the only ones. WFTN Franklin, WJYY Concord and WKNE Keene all run OHP. Haven't checked the website but I'm sure there's many more.

Will said:
Garabedian isn't even on Kiss anymore. Apparently, Triple X is the last station to get the memo that he's no longer relevant.
Click to expand...
 
WILI-FM 98.3 of Willimantic, CT runs it, the last time I checked. WKSS-FM 95.7 of Hartford/Meriden use to run it on Sunday nights, but no longer.
 
John H. was Program Director of WMEX around 1970.

It was under his direction that WMEX fought back successfully against WRKO, by adding album cuts, a longer playlist, and more FM-like music elements, while retaining the production value and presentation flash of a typical hot AM.

The station's processing never sounded better, and their new 50,000 watt day signal from Squantum blanked the coast. Their 5,000 watt night signal was still from that site, and had yet to be ruined by the apartment building which would be constructed some years later.

During this era, as I recall, WMEX beat WRKO in some key demographics, and had their best numbers in years.

But it was all cut short by owner Mac Richmond's death in 1971. Mac reportedly understood and approved of what John H. was doing, but the new head guy didn't have a clue. I believe there was a falling out with John H., and he left. Shortly thereafter, the station reverted back to a typical, short-playlist Top 40, stupidly attempting to beat WRKO at their own game. That was the beginning of the end.
 
Alright, let me rephrase what I said:

Triple X is the last station with the resources to do any better that hasn't gotten the memo.
 
Will said:
Garabedian isn't even on Kiss anymore. Apparently, Triple X is the last station to get the memo that he's no longer relevant.
Click to expand...

Wow, so many armchair PDs around here who think they know it all...

"relevent" used in this way is what we call a "weasel word."

Look it up.

As for your "rephrase," this is no better since "resources to do any better" is still based on your personal opinion, which is subjective, and thus, the same thing.

Nice try though.
 
It looks like (from his webpage) that there are quite a number of stations nationwide that carry him.

He must be doing something right his home in a western suburb is huge, and you don't own 10 airplanes on chump change.... flying is a veeeeerrrry expensive hobby... I know.. at least 50 bucks an hour in fuel alone.

google garabedian and airport and read the lawsuit he and his neighbors battled out about his private airstrip.
 
Garrett said:
"relevent" used in this way is what we call a "weasel word."
Click to expand...

We?

As for your "rephrase," this is no better since "resources to do any better" is still based on your personal opinion, which is subjective, and thus, the same thing.

Nice try though.
Click to expand...

Opinion? Why not ask me about my background instead of guessing?

I worked at Triple X for a good long time. I know how their management ticks. Specificially in regard to OHP, they've been running a successful club promotion on Saturday night for several years. The jock talks for 60 seconds about how hot the party is, and how one can get away with anything in Canada (the club is in Quebec, just over the border.) This is then followed by corny old jokes from a 70-year old man, rather than a mix of music FROM THE ACTUAL CLUB!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom