Remembering WMEX the music years..

[Neggy]

I'm not quite old enough to remember WMEX as a music powerhouse, but I remeber WRKO and WBZ clearly.

I was listening to XM6 on my way up 93 yesterday afternoon (an hour of friday fun) and the 60's channel does this retro thing where they play airchecks, sweepers, commercials, promo's of one long gone radio station. This week they did WMEX again.

(it's sad to see how a once mighty signal has faded into obscurity)

All the plugs for Adventure Car Hop, Arnie "woo-woo" Ginsberg, the WMEX Good Guys motorbike a day in May contest, record stores that are long gone. I particularly liked the Jerry Williams promo's.

In an interesting peice of production, as they rolled out of the airscheck into the song that was from some long ago tape, about 5 seconds into the song they faded up the song off thier source. And all of a sudden there was stereo. In the car it was like hey!

If you have AOL radio, or a cable provider that uses XM for thie music stations you might want to check it outfridays from 3 to 6

 

[Varulven]

Neggy, I DO remember WMEX and it was a LOT of fun

You can get WMEX airchecks on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/Radio-Show-Arni...goryZ307QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I don't know the dealer but they only have 4 negs out of 4500 responses, which is pretty darn good


There's also the famous "Crusin' " LP series with Arnie Woo Woo

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cruisin-1961-Hi...oryZ1600QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

I have the volume that has "Sunny", of course, since we have the Bobby Hebb archives here.

here's eBay's current WMEX items catalog
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=wmex


Actual Broadcast Recording (Aircheck)
Station: WMEX - Boston, Massachusetts
DJ and Show: Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg and the Night Train Show
Date of Broadcast: 12 December, 1965
RIR #267
Length: 45 minutes (digitally remastered and placed on CD at our studios here at Rock-it Radio





This is an actual Broadcast from 1964 unedited and you hear everything just like you did back in 1964! This show is from the Top 40 East Coast giant of the time WMEX Radio on your AM dial from Boston, Massachusetts. The DJ -- Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg an extremely popular DJ with a huge following of his Night Train Show on WMEX.

Along with the great tunes of that era you will also hear some jingles and vintage ads. Here is a partial playlist of what is on this broadcast.



1. Postal ad
2. Beatles song "Drive My Car"
3. Gasoline ad --"ugly" rag doll offer
4. Beach Boys song "Little Girl That I Once Knew"
5. WMEX
6. Dell Stereo and Electronics ad -- featuring a record changer for your automobile! Holds up to dozen 45 records!
7. "Jingle Bell Rock" song By Bobby Helms
8. Plug for Larry Justice's Morning Show
9.* Dave Clark Five song "Over & Over & Over Again" "Be My Date"
10. Christmas party at Manfield's Beauty Academy with the Titans to entertain you.
11. The Four Seasons song "A Little Boy In Grown Up Clothes"
12. Unicorn Nightclub advertisement: featuring Paul Butterfield Blues Band this weekend. Also, remember Hootenany Night on Monday's, and on Tuesday catch local comic sensation Biff Rose.
13. Song: "Sunday and Me" by Jay and the Americans
14. Phone Call in with a Christmas song sing along with Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg.
As the caller "John" sings Jingle bells over the phone with Arnie and wins a prize.
15. Song: "We can work it out" The Beatles
16. Record Promotion Announcement for Gene Pitney's Latest Record Album --
"Looking through the eyes of Love" featuring the hit single .. "Princess in Rags"
17. Song: "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkle
18. WMEX in Boston Jingle
19. Advertisement for Giblee's -- Clothing store for Men.
20. Song: "A young Girl" by Noel Harrison.
21. Announcement by Nedge Herman <sp?> WMEX Executive wishing everyone happy holidays.
22. Advertisement Jingle for Coca Cola -- Arnie sings along!
23. Song: "Michelle" -- The Beatles
24. Pledge drive and Christmas Drive announcement for the Salvation Army
25. Song: "Turn, Turn, Turn" The Byrds
26. Advertisement: For Kemp's Hamburgers! "Great Hamburgers for only 15 cents! at Kemp's!"
27. Special Promotional Announcement by Sonny and Cher for Arnie Ginsburg and the Night Train Show. Sonny Bono states "I got Woo Babe"
28. Christmas Song: "There won't be any snow" Unknown Artist - Story of Soldier being away during Christmas.
29. Advertisement: for the Thom McAn GTO Driving Shoe! With Accelerator Heel to Toe!
(note: I ran a google search myself as them seemed like such a unique item. Pontiac GTO came up with several sales gimmicks to promote the GTO -- And this happens to be one of them! along with GTO Cologne at the time).
30. Station ID with the Night Train Show with Woo Woo Ginsburg at WMEX
31. Song: "Fever" -- The McCoys (Song is cut off) End of Broadcast.



We have other vintage radio broadcasts from the era of Top 40 and early Rock and Roll / Rhythm and Blues Radio including Alan Freed, Mad Daddy Pete Myers, Casey Kasem, Bill Ballance, The Real Don Steele and others in our ebay store.
===============================================================
NOTICE: This isn't my store - just found it and thought WMEX fans would like to see it,
http://cgi.ebay.com/Radio-Show-Arni...goryZ307QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I don't know the dealer but they only have 4 negs out of 4500 responses, which is pretty darn good

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I'm not quite old enough to remember WMEX as a music powerhouse, but I remeber WRKO and WBZ clearly.

I first turned on the radio as a ten year old kid in 1966. WMEX, WBZ, and WRKO-FM 98.5 were Top 40 rockin' (and I remember WILD 1090 was hitting what are now heavy soul/R&B classics).

WRKO-FM was a newcomer to the format, having just broken away from being a simulcast of talk 680 AM WNAC. It was automated Top 40 with drop-ins by "Arko, the shy but friendly robot".

WMEX was a music and personality powerhouse, but not a signal powerhouse for those of us growing up more than a few miles inland from the coast. I grew up in Newton, where the signal was weak especially at night, but that didn't keep me from being blown away by great DJ's circa 1966/1967 such as Larry Justice, Mel Miller, Rockin' Ron Robin, Charlie Tuna, and of course Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg. I got a station tour of the WMEX studios on Broadway from Ron Robin in 1967, and still have my kids size (adult small) WMEX sweatshirt.

WBZ was excellent too, but with a slightly less frenetic delivery, a somewhat more adult and full-service approach to Top 40 in the daytime, and Dick Summer's evening shows were pioneering the softer side of the new progressive album rock that was coming out, a precursor to what would eventually become the "soft-rock" format.

WNAC became Drake formatted Top 40 "The Big 68" WRKO in spring 1967. The signal was (still is) gangbusters in the west suburbs within 128, and most of my Newton friends switched over to WRKO rather than enduring the poor signal of WMEX. Still, I continued to listen to all of them.

WRKO was a great Top 40 station, but WMEX had a certain spontaniety that WRKO's formatting didn't have. I wanted to be a WMEX DJ when I was ten years old. Twenty years later, I got to do weekend overnights and evening fill-ins for a while (as "Eric Parker") on Boston's second WMEX, the AM 1150 oldies station (now WTTT) that was then owned by Greater Media. It couldn't survive for long once WODS came on, but it was fun while it lasted. They had heavy reverb and were running some of the same jingles as the original WMEX, and they were certainly playing a lot of the same music. It was the closest thing available at that time to fulfilling my old childhood fantasy.

In 2003 I was privileged to have Arnie Ginsburg as my guest for an interview on M.I.T. college station WMBR (with former fellow WMBR host Larry Azrin) on the "Lost & Found" 60's/70's show, which I've done off-and-on for almost 25 years using my own name. It brought a lifetime of radio listening around full circle for me in a certain way, to have one of my original radio inspirations live on-air in the studio so many years later.

Here's an ID for the WMBR "Lost & Found" show that Arnie recorded at that time:

Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg WMBR ID .mp3

Arnie told me something very interesting about radio history at M.I.T. He was a consulting radio engineer in the 50's and 60's as well as a popular DJ. In the mid-50's, M.I.T. administration tried to apply for a 50,000 watt radio license, with Arnie as consulting engineer. However, even by the mid-1950's, there was no more space available on the dial for a new 50 kW station right around Boston proper per FCC regulations at the time.

M.I.T. administration wanted all or nothing, and because they couldn't get 50 kW, they completely gave up on the idea of radio forever. Six years later, some M.I.T. students put ten-watt WTBS, which eventually became 720 watt WMBR, on the air, though it was a student project completely independent of M.I.T. administration, and WMBR is still viewed by M.I.T. administration mainly as an on-campus student activity.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

If you have AOL radio, or a cable provider that uses XM for thie music stations you might want to check it outfridays from 3 to 6

It actually runs 4 PM to 9 PM ET, and includes an all-request hour beginning at 6 PM ET.

 

[kalimba]

WMEX changed my life as a kid and young teen.
In fall of 1969 I won the top 100 record albums of the week. It was a scary monsters halloween contest, where they played a song at half speed or something and you had to call in and identify it. It was a line from Simon & Garfunkel's "sounds of silence." I took the T into the combat zone with a friend and carried those records home. My collection grew from 2 albums and a bunch of 45's from woolworth's, to 102 albums.

At the time, I absolutely loved Bud Ballou. I've googled around and I think he's no longer with us.

 

[Oldbones]

28. Christmas Song: "There won't be any snow" Unknown Artist - Story of Soldier being away during Christmas.

The song was by Derrik Roberts. Why I remember this I have no idea. If this is the aircheck I'm thinking of, doesn't Arnie start the song off at the wrong speed?

 

[Varulven]

Bud Ballou won't be down for breakfast. Sad to say.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Yes, sadly Ballou passed on a few years ago. As I recall, he joined WMEX a couple of years after I began listening in 1966. I used to hear him skipping in at night on "KB" 1520 WKBW Buffalo before he came to WMEX.

WMEX was so weak in the west suburbs at night that 1'st adjacent skywaves WKBW Buffalo and WTOP Washington, DC were loud and clear. Some nights they almost smothered the WMEX signal just seven miles west of Boston.

 

[canadiens 56]

My wife and I were listening to XM Friday and we were laughing at all the great sound checks. I used to listen to WMEX in those days. My wife is a member of a prominent North Carolina broadcasting family who is very familar with the golden days of top 40 radio. The cues were terrific to hear and we were laughing about the car hops in Saugus. Later had the priviledge of working with Arnue Ginsburg, one great personality who I see at the twice annual mettings of The Media Gang. I think that XM did cues almost as good as KHJ's. We listen every Friday faithfully.

 

[HHH]

WMEX 1510.

If you grew up in Boston between 1957 and the early 1970s, it was impossible to be unaware of Wimmex.

It was probably the single most important rock and roll radio station in the history of Boston broadcasting.

From the early days in the late 50s playing The Everly Brothers and Paul Anka, to their final "last gasp of glory" in the early 70s under John Garabidian playing a wide (for AM) mix of singles and album tracks, WMEX was the city of Boston's most energetic and colorful radio station.

Owned by The Richmond Brothers, and run by brother Mac, WMEX always had fabulous personalities, a great music mix, and wonderful production. Because they were not heard clearly in many suburbs (especially at night), WMEX always sounded more like "Boston" than their competition. Callers with the thickest Boston accents I ever heard were always calling in from Mattapan, Roslindale, Dorchester, and Southie. Many of the advertizers were these really cool city joints like Ripley's Clothes, G & G Bagels, Kemps Hamburgers, Ellis The Rim Man and the Unicorn Coffee House. Listening in the burbs, you really felt like you were getting a window into the city.

Here's an interesting piece of background on Mac Richmond, who sounds like a broadcasters' dream and nightmare rolled into one:

http://www.bambinomusical.com/David/WMEX.html

Anyway, it was a great station. Just find some old airchecks, especially from their "golden days" (1963-1967) and you will be amazed at how good they were.

 

[martin1945]

<<WRKO-FM was a newcomer to the format, having just broken away from being a simulcast of talk 680 AM WNAC. It was automated Top 40 with drop-ins by "Arko, the shy but friendly robot".>> OMG! I remember "Arko" Loved him too!

 

[tony r]

Memories, memories, when I think back, it was a better time for kiddos growing into adulthood.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Because they were not heard clearly in many suburbs (especially at night), WMEX always sounded more like "Boston" than their competition. Callers with the thickest Boston accents I ever heard were always calling in from Mattapan, Roslindale, Dorchester, and Southie.

Don't forget that their old signal also bombed in over the water on the North Shore. There were also lots of callers from Lynn, Revere, Saugus (home of the Adventure Car Hop), etc... I felt like an outcast when I used to call in from Newton.