In the mid 60's I got to know afew DJ's at WNJR,Newark,NJ. Sonny Taylor was one ,Sonny knew Charlie Greer at WABC ,it was Charlie that got Sonny into radio.
In 1968 Sonny asked me ,you want to go up and sit in on Charlies show some early morning ,yes I said. Well I got to do this ,not once or twice with Sonny but about 10 times in a 12 month period . . . it was a ball. Even brought my date ,girlfriend at the time ,now wife up there. We'd stay the entire 6 hours ,usually on a Friday night / Saturday morning. Sometimes other nights. I met ( often ) Harry Harrison in the mornings when he came in.
Charlie was really nice. All involved had fun doing the show. Charlie & the engineer were in the same room ,no glass window between the two.
There were two engineers ( board ops ) on duty thru the early morning hours . . . they alternated 1 hour on the board & one hour off . . . when you were off the board you set in Master Control and had to monitor the transmitter ( over the air signal ) and take transmitter readings. There were two news people on duty overnight ,doing live newscast . . . a short one out of the hourly network news and a short newscast on the 1/2 hour.
The nutty & unusual part was the night security guy . . . everytime he made his rounds ( on the hour ) he'd wait outside the door to the studio and when the ON AIR light went off ( he knew exactly when to come in ,since WABC was back into music ) ,he'd come in thru the door and have a dirty joke . . . I kid you not . . . every hour in his rounds he'd have a new joke.
I use to think ,gosh my friends are listening right now to this great station and people up and down the east coast can hear it.
What an experience , Sonny ,who went on to a station in Chicago ,then back to NYC at WWRL & WRKS-FM , later to Washington,DC, passed away around 1998, Thanks Sonny ,it was fun . . . Thanks again.
Al
In 1968 Sonny asked me ,you want to go up and sit in on Charlies show some early morning ,yes I said. Well I got to do this ,not once or twice with Sonny but about 10 times in a 12 month period . . . it was a ball. Even brought my date ,girlfriend at the time ,now wife up there. We'd stay the entire 6 hours ,usually on a Friday night / Saturday morning. Sometimes other nights. I met ( often ) Harry Harrison in the mornings when he came in.
Charlie was really nice. All involved had fun doing the show. Charlie & the engineer were in the same room ,no glass window between the two.
There were two engineers ( board ops ) on duty thru the early morning hours . . . they alternated 1 hour on the board & one hour off . . . when you were off the board you set in Master Control and had to monitor the transmitter ( over the air signal ) and take transmitter readings. There were two news people on duty overnight ,doing live newscast . . . a short one out of the hourly network news and a short newscast on the 1/2 hour.
The nutty & unusual part was the night security guy . . . everytime he made his rounds ( on the hour ) he'd wait outside the door to the studio and when the ON AIR light went off ( he knew exactly when to come in ,since WABC was back into music ) ,he'd come in thru the door and have a dirty joke . . . I kid you not . . . every hour in his rounds he'd have a new joke.
I use to think ,gosh my friends are listening right now to this great station and people up and down the east coast can hear it.
What an experience , Sonny ,who went on to a station in Chicago ,then back to NYC at WWRL & WRKS-FM , later to Washington,DC, passed away around 1998, Thanks Sonny ,it was fun . . . Thanks again.
Al
