Steve Martorano penned an article called Media:Tuned Out. It makes for some good reading from the early part of his career, forward.
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/media_tuned_out/page3
My comments on the article:
Hy Lit was the man who gave Steve Martorano his first job in radio. I remember Steve at WDAS FM. I grew up there and at WIBG myself. My step brother, (who’s father Robert A. Klein, was part owner and general manager WDAS AM/FM) and I grew up in radio, and we tooled around WDAS, like we owned it. Going between WDAS AM and WDAS FM, and engineering, and evaluating everything, because really, between my step brother and I, we really did know everything, about radio. At our tender little age of 12 we knew the business of radio, every piece of equipment and it’s economies of scale. So I remember it all too well. WDAS AM/FM was a magnificent pioneering broadcast facility located in Philadelphias majestic Fairmount Park.
Steve Martorano by 1968, was by all definition a modern day, free spirited flower power counter cultural literary revolutionary. Of course, Vitaman B modified Lysergic amino acid experimentation on the air, really won’t achieve measurable ratings, particularly when those recreational patterns leave no room for intrinsic intrusions. So, Steve Martorano along with Steven Leon (another on air personality and the son of WDAS’s majority owner Max Leon) were more into creating revolt for the sake of revolt and misguided mischief at WDAS FM. These early FM stalwarts had never meaningfully held a job before and really didn’t know to operate in a business environment, even with instructions. Steve refused to abandon the recreate and follow the format, rules and management of a radio station, because as horrific as it may seem, even in 1968, radio was a business, and someone has to pay the bills. The WDAS FM air staff erringly endorsed a chemically fuelled existence on and off the air, where Steve and his revolvers felt it appropriate to broadcast things like decrepitation contests, accurate accountings of the daily price of marijuana, and readings of the station memos on the air. All this while playing only the most obscure picks of music between the imbecilic bantering about nothing even remotely interesting if it didn’t identify with the immediate neighborhood around 22nd and Samsom, (the epicenter of the Philadelphia counter drug culture in 1968).. It was beyond FM’s contemporary cognoscence to attempt to do anything mass appeal either because they wouldn’t or couldn’t. It would be too establishment like to be liked, and dare I say do anything even remotely profitable, except split a pound of pot into 16 lightly measure ounces. In fact after reading this article, and Steve’s recollections of certain events, I can’t help but think the magnifications of the Lysergic effects of these delicate years on the growing mind, linger on. After he finally left WDAS FM and went to WMMR that station was an abysmal failure until new management in the mid 70’s came in and gutted the poisoned unprofitable obscure broadcast culture permeating that facility as well. But I’m sure he felt like he did at WDAS FM, that MetroMedia broadcasting, the owners of WMMR at the time, had enough money to support infantile radical broadcast nonsense, and deserved no more than the self effacing contemporary mind set of the moment.
I realize somewhere along the way, Steve, by default, if nothing else, matured, if only marginally, in to a relatively seasoned successful AM talk show pontificator at WIP. And I give him measured credit for that. Because after all even the mind of a child should grow up someday, no matter how long one wants to hang on to and bang ones rattle. But what has been left behind, in terms of brain damage from those early chemically induced underground radio years, is the failure to recognize the ruinous tides even if inadvertantly, he dumped on Hy Lit, the only man who was kind enough to give him his start. Even more important, regarding the editoral conclusions of the article, broadcasting, and the science of, doesn’t end with old style, terrestrial signal receiving devices.
Yes, I remember it well.
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/media_tuned_out/page3
My comments on the article:
Hy Lit was the man who gave Steve Martorano his first job in radio. I remember Steve at WDAS FM. I grew up there and at WIBG myself. My step brother, (who’s father Robert A. Klein, was part owner and general manager WDAS AM/FM) and I grew up in radio, and we tooled around WDAS, like we owned it. Going between WDAS AM and WDAS FM, and engineering, and evaluating everything, because really, between my step brother and I, we really did know everything, about radio. At our tender little age of 12 we knew the business of radio, every piece of equipment and it’s economies of scale. So I remember it all too well. WDAS AM/FM was a magnificent pioneering broadcast facility located in Philadelphias majestic Fairmount Park.
Steve Martorano by 1968, was by all definition a modern day, free spirited flower power counter cultural literary revolutionary. Of course, Vitaman B modified Lysergic amino acid experimentation on the air, really won’t achieve measurable ratings, particularly when those recreational patterns leave no room for intrinsic intrusions. So, Steve Martorano along with Steven Leon (another on air personality and the son of WDAS’s majority owner Max Leon) were more into creating revolt for the sake of revolt and misguided mischief at WDAS FM. These early FM stalwarts had never meaningfully held a job before and really didn’t know to operate in a business environment, even with instructions. Steve refused to abandon the recreate and follow the format, rules and management of a radio station, because as horrific as it may seem, even in 1968, radio was a business, and someone has to pay the bills. The WDAS FM air staff erringly endorsed a chemically fuelled existence on and off the air, where Steve and his revolvers felt it appropriate to broadcast things like decrepitation contests, accurate accountings of the daily price of marijuana, and readings of the station memos on the air. All this while playing only the most obscure picks of music between the imbecilic bantering about nothing even remotely interesting if it didn’t identify with the immediate neighborhood around 22nd and Samsom, (the epicenter of the Philadelphia counter drug culture in 1968).. It was beyond FM’s contemporary cognoscence to attempt to do anything mass appeal either because they wouldn’t or couldn’t. It would be too establishment like to be liked, and dare I say do anything even remotely profitable, except split a pound of pot into 16 lightly measure ounces. In fact after reading this article, and Steve’s recollections of certain events, I can’t help but think the magnifications of the Lysergic effects of these delicate years on the growing mind, linger on. After he finally left WDAS FM and went to WMMR that station was an abysmal failure until new management in the mid 70’s came in and gutted the poisoned unprofitable obscure broadcast culture permeating that facility as well. But I’m sure he felt like he did at WDAS FM, that MetroMedia broadcasting, the owners of WMMR at the time, had enough money to support infantile radical broadcast nonsense, and deserved no more than the self effacing contemporary mind set of the moment.
I realize somewhere along the way, Steve, by default, if nothing else, matured, if only marginally, in to a relatively seasoned successful AM talk show pontificator at WIP. And I give him measured credit for that. Because after all even the mind of a child should grow up someday, no matter how long one wants to hang on to and bang ones rattle. But what has been left behind, in terms of brain damage from those early chemically induced underground radio years, is the failure to recognize the ruinous tides even if inadvertantly, he dumped on Hy Lit, the only man who was kind enough to give him his start. Even more important, regarding the editoral conclusions of the article, broadcasting, and the science of, doesn’t end with old style, terrestrial signal receiving devices.
Yes, I remember it well.
