TIME-SENSITIVE POST: Tonight's "On Point"

[Laurence Glavin]

If you're reading this BEFORE 8:06 pm, Friday, October 17th, please be aware that the subject of tonight's "On Point" rebroadcast over WBUR-FM, Boston, its rebroadcasters, and wbur.org will be the early days of radio in America. Later, it will become available as a podcast on wbur.org.

 

[Mickey37]

I listened to part of it this morning, it's great stuff.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I listened to part of it this morning, it's great stuff.

I also listened to part of it and I agree, but I was surprised by the guest author's admitting that he had never heard of two people whose names were brought up by listeners who called in--Bernice Judis, the legendary GM of WNEW (AM) in its heyday and Alice Faye, a performer in her own right and the wife and co-star of a 40s-era network radio show with her orchestra-conductor husband, the even better known Phil Harris. Both Harris and Faye were also regulars on Jack Benny's network radio program and I believe Mr and Mrs Harris also had their own network TV show later on.

Judis was credited with being the originator of the incredibly successful and much imitated music-and-news format a good decade before Todd Storz invented Top 40. She hired many on-air legends including Martin Bloch, William B Williams, Jerry Marshall, Rayburn and Finch (later, Klavan and Finch--or was it French?), Art Ford, Al (Jazzbo) Collins, and others.

In fairness, I don't know whether Judis had started at WNEW until the late '30s or even the '40s and I don't know whether Phill Harris and Alice Faye became well known until about the same time period. I believe that the book the guest was promoting focused on radio from about 1928 until 1936.