Each year, my favorite part of the Oscar and Emmy Awards telecasts is that wistful montage of greats-who-have-passed-away-since-last-year’s-show. Like the movies and television, radio is a medium peopled by characters whose passion outlives them. What-we-do-for-a-living is all-the-richer because of folks such as the following, whom we lost in 2007:
Like many who reached their pinnacle on TV, Tom Snyder started in radio. Producer Peter Lassally, who also worked with Johnny Carson and David Letterman, observed that “He made the camera disappear and talked directly to the viewer, and it was just ‘conversation.’” Broadcasting & Cable magazine called Snyder “made for TV, a talk-show host who filled the screen from coast to coast but somehow talked only to you.”
This is the OPPOSITE of El Rushbo saying "YOU PEOPLE." Or hosts who seem to feel important talking to their producer on-air.
If the-show-after-Johnny was after-your-bedtime in the 70s, poke-around YouTube for clips from a rich archive. Snyder’s Howard Stern interview was electric. He got John Lennon to open-up like few other interviewers. And Charles Manson! Imagine how big The Tomorrow Show would be in the TiVo era. With NO available timeshifting in the pre-VCR era, it still managed to air at 1AM ET and be topic du jour the next day. It was appointment TV.
The Ron Burgundy-style haircut, the smoldering cigarette, the unguarded staccato "HA-HA-HA-HA" laugh. Snyder would open the show inviting you to "fire up a colortini and watch the pictures fly through the air." At the end, he'd not-always-smile, look you right in the eye, and say good night "from all of us on the late, late shift here in New York."
I met Snyder at a convention when he was doing a late-night show on ABC Radio in the 80s; and told him "I must've seen every one of those Tomorrow Shows." He did That Laugh, then deadpanned, "you really should get out more."
Impresario Merv Griffin began as a $100-a-week singer at KFRC/San Francisco, ended up owning radio stations, and parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. You can buy a DVD set of memorable moments from “The Merv Griffin Show” that aired for 20+ years, and was a parade of Who-was-Who. When you watch, you will observe the secret-of-his-success. Often asked, Griffin offered some advice more radio hosts should heed: “listen.”
Griffin made another bundle in real estate, often buying in down markets like the one we’re in now, and feuding with rival Donald Trump over Atlantic City casino turf.
Senator Edward Kennedy remembered Lady Bird Johnson as “one of the kindest and most caring and compassionate people I’ve ever met in politics.” The former First Lady was also one canny businesswoman, at a time when not many women ran businesses. She used a $17,500 inheritance from her mother to purchase faltering KTBC/Austin TX in 1942. “She was very hands on. She literally mopped the floor, and she sold radio time,” daughter Luci Baines Johnson said of her mother's salad days. By the time she sold what-became KLBJ radio and television to Emmis, she netted nine figures.
Being the-Dem-I-am, I got a kick out of doing a consulting project for KLBJ when Mrs. Johnson owned it, although I never got to meet her. Just as well. I probably would’ve choked. Images of her standing-aside a blood-spattered Jackie Kennedy and her husband, as he was administered The Oath of Office aboard Air Force One that sad day, are forever seared in our memory.
She did, however, leave me one regret. Her mid-60s campaign to “Beautify America” by tearing down billboards cost us a valuable cume promotion option when I programmed WTOP. To this day, Outdoor is largely unavailable in some key Washington-area Arbitron Zip Codes. Being the-handiest-darn-radio-station-to-busy-in-car-listeners, we regretted that. Being a Washingtonian lo those many years, I, personally, did not.
The USA’s most consistently successful radio station lost a listener fave when KGO’s Pete Wilson, 62, suffered a heart attack during hip replacement surgery. Wilson also anchored on KGO-TV, and won a Peabody Award and 5 Emmys. Taking over the microphone 2-4PM? KGO’s gain is other ABC affiliates’ loss, uber-talented former ABC News Radio anchor Gil Gross.
Pioneering Latino radio/TV reporter David Garcia succumbed to liver failure at 63. He’s best remembered for his years as ABC News' White House correspondent during the Nixon/Ford/Carter administrations.
Melanoma claimed WBZ/Boston evening talker Paul Sullivan, 50 years old. “Sully” succeeded iconic David Brudnoy, who also succumbed to cancer in 2004.
Viewers saw sustained applause in a packed newsroom when another WBZ voiced bowed-out. After 40 years there, Gary LaPierre retired at 64. He WAS morning news in Boston, and he could identify with his busy listeners as he darted between WBZ-TV and AM each morning. “I'm going to miss the frantic part of this business,'' he said. “It keeps you pumped up.”
Generations in The Emerald City woke-up hearing KOMO/Seattle “Breakfast Table” host Larry Nelson, who fell to lung cancer at age 70. Nelson retired from radio 10 years ago, then ran a local ad agency.
Ed Davis marched home from WWII and began announcing shows on the famous Steel Pier for Atlantic City’s WFPG (“World’s Favorite Playground”). Shows he hosted included live performances by Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and were heard across the USA. Even after he “semi-retired” in 1987, Ed popped up from time to time on local TV. He was 87.
Former WOWO/Fort Wayne morning host Bob Sievers passed away at 90. For decades, he hosted “The Little Red Barn Morning Show,” and was on-air for 70+ years.
We lost “The Scooter,” Phil Rizzuto, at 89, the oldest living member of baseball’s Hall of Fame. During his second act, the 40s/50s Yankee shortstop-turned-broadcaster cracked-up listeners with his trademark “HOLY COW!” when one of the Bombers homered.
Like many players back then, his career was interrupted by World War II. During his 13 seasons in pinstripes, Rizzuto played alongside Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and kept fans glued-to-the-radio with perfect bunts and diving catches. And how’s THIS for suspenseful radio programming? The Scooter went 58 games without an error, 288 straight plays.
And picture this: When they Yanks honored him with Phil Rizzuto Day in 1985, they brought a live cow, wearing a halo, onto the field…and the cow knocked-over diminutive Rizzuto! When he regained his footing, he had the crowd howling when he grabbed the mic and hollered…you guessed it, “HOLY COW!”
Pete Rose and other stars from The Big Red Machine joined today’s Cincinnati Reds and an estimated 6000+ fans, at an open casket wake for another player-turned-broadcaster, “The Old Left-Hander,” Joe Nuxhall, He made major league history when he pitched his first game at age 15, then played pro ball for more than six decades. Nuxhall was 79.
For the first time since John Kennedy was president, Minnesotans didn’t hear a familiar voice calling Twins games. Herb Carneal passed away, 83, congestive heart failure. In 1996, Carneal received the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for a baseball broadcaster, and that put him in Cooperstown. The title of his autobiography was his familiar greeting, “Hi Everybody.”
Here in Red Sox Nation, it’s caps-off for Robert Goulet, who sang the anthem at Fenway Park before this year’s home opener. He also sang, twice, on many of what are today’s News/Talk AMs; once when those stations were formatted “MOR,” and later when many played “Adult Standards.” His career took off after the big baritone’s 1960 Broadway debut in “Camelot." Even as he suffered a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, Goulet was in good spirits awaiting a lung transplant, quipping to doctors before they inserted a breathing tube, “Just watch my vocal cords.” He was 73.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett might be radio’s most-enduring one-hit wonder. His “Monster Mash” caught-on in-a-flash in 1962; and was a graveyard smash again in 1970 and 1973 re-releases. Bob Dylan played it on his XM show, in tribute to Pickett’s passing. His dead-on Boris Karloff impression is still must-play on Halloween morning. In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett said he never grew tired of his sole hit: “When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing.” His final performance was in 2006. Leukemia got him at 69. But, for you, the living, this mash was meant too. And Pickett will still be heard in market #1…
BACK-FROM-THE-DEAD: WCBS-FM/NEW YORK
As the Shea Stadium Kiss-Cam zoomed-in-on couples in the crowd, fans sang along with Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on the PA. Young and old, they all knew the words. So it struck me as just-plain-daffy that, there, in the #1 radio market, you had to go to a baseball game to hear this timeless fave. Or to hear Frankie Valli, immortalized in Broadway’s biggest hit “Jersey Boys,” and guest-starring in “The Sopranos.” You could trudge the streets of New York in August, and not hear “Summer in the City.”
Apparently, billing $35 million, and throwing $26 million to the bottom line, wasn’t quite enough back in 2005. So bonehead management figured they’d be better-off going commercial-free for a while, and ratings-free for a couple years. They scrapped the greatest-hits-of-all-time playlist that you could hear in any pizza joint in any borough at any time of the day or night…and abruptly fired beloved, iconic DJs…to adopt the flavor-of-the-month “Jack” format.
Ending that nightmare must have been the very first meeting Dan Mason convened when he took over CBS Radio.
“We’re back!” the station crowed, and callers’ thick accents cheered. Spring-to-Summer, ‘CBS-FM’s P12+ AQH Share leaped from #20 to #6; adding 600,000+ cume. Witty midday jock Bob Shannon zoomed to #3 12+ and 25-54.
Shannon told the New York Times: “We’re still finding things, even my old headphones. One guy in the production department was one of the board operators during Jack. He took my headphones home two years ago, with the hope that I would return. When I walked in the other day, he said, ‘Here are your headphones.’”
So, once again, New Yorkers are hearing 101.1 play “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” a song people are singing right now in every nation on Earth.
Except one.
In Panama, they sing “I’m dreaming of a wide isthmus.”
And to all a good night,
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
http://members.aol.com/cookeh/xbeatles1.wav
Like many who reached their pinnacle on TV, Tom Snyder started in radio. Producer Peter Lassally, who also worked with Johnny Carson and David Letterman, observed that “He made the camera disappear and talked directly to the viewer, and it was just ‘conversation.’” Broadcasting & Cable magazine called Snyder “made for TV, a talk-show host who filled the screen from coast to coast but somehow talked only to you.”
This is the OPPOSITE of El Rushbo saying "YOU PEOPLE." Or hosts who seem to feel important talking to their producer on-air.
If the-show-after-Johnny was after-your-bedtime in the 70s, poke-around YouTube for clips from a rich archive. Snyder’s Howard Stern interview was electric. He got John Lennon to open-up like few other interviewers. And Charles Manson! Imagine how big The Tomorrow Show would be in the TiVo era. With NO available timeshifting in the pre-VCR era, it still managed to air at 1AM ET and be topic du jour the next day. It was appointment TV.
The Ron Burgundy-style haircut, the smoldering cigarette, the unguarded staccato "HA-HA-HA-HA" laugh. Snyder would open the show inviting you to "fire up a colortini and watch the pictures fly through the air." At the end, he'd not-always-smile, look you right in the eye, and say good night "from all of us on the late, late shift here in New York."
I met Snyder at a convention when he was doing a late-night show on ABC Radio in the 80s; and told him "I must've seen every one of those Tomorrow Shows." He did That Laugh, then deadpanned, "you really should get out more."
Impresario Merv Griffin began as a $100-a-week singer at KFRC/San Francisco, ended up owning radio stations, and parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. You can buy a DVD set of memorable moments from “The Merv Griffin Show” that aired for 20+ years, and was a parade of Who-was-Who. When you watch, you will observe the secret-of-his-success. Often asked, Griffin offered some advice more radio hosts should heed: “listen.”
Griffin made another bundle in real estate, often buying in down markets like the one we’re in now, and feuding with rival Donald Trump over Atlantic City casino turf.
Senator Edward Kennedy remembered Lady Bird Johnson as “one of the kindest and most caring and compassionate people I’ve ever met in politics.” The former First Lady was also one canny businesswoman, at a time when not many women ran businesses. She used a $17,500 inheritance from her mother to purchase faltering KTBC/Austin TX in 1942. “She was very hands on. She literally mopped the floor, and she sold radio time,” daughter Luci Baines Johnson said of her mother's salad days. By the time she sold what-became KLBJ radio and television to Emmis, she netted nine figures.
Being the-Dem-I-am, I got a kick out of doing a consulting project for KLBJ when Mrs. Johnson owned it, although I never got to meet her. Just as well. I probably would’ve choked. Images of her standing-aside a blood-spattered Jackie Kennedy and her husband, as he was administered The Oath of Office aboard Air Force One that sad day, are forever seared in our memory.
She did, however, leave me one regret. Her mid-60s campaign to “Beautify America” by tearing down billboards cost us a valuable cume promotion option when I programmed WTOP. To this day, Outdoor is largely unavailable in some key Washington-area Arbitron Zip Codes. Being the-handiest-darn-radio-station-to-busy-in-car-listeners, we regretted that. Being a Washingtonian lo those many years, I, personally, did not.
The USA’s most consistently successful radio station lost a listener fave when KGO’s Pete Wilson, 62, suffered a heart attack during hip replacement surgery. Wilson also anchored on KGO-TV, and won a Peabody Award and 5 Emmys. Taking over the microphone 2-4PM? KGO’s gain is other ABC affiliates’ loss, uber-talented former ABC News Radio anchor Gil Gross.
Pioneering Latino radio/TV reporter David Garcia succumbed to liver failure at 63. He’s best remembered for his years as ABC News' White House correspondent during the Nixon/Ford/Carter administrations.
Melanoma claimed WBZ/Boston evening talker Paul Sullivan, 50 years old. “Sully” succeeded iconic David Brudnoy, who also succumbed to cancer in 2004.
Viewers saw sustained applause in a packed newsroom when another WBZ voiced bowed-out. After 40 years there, Gary LaPierre retired at 64. He WAS morning news in Boston, and he could identify with his busy listeners as he darted between WBZ-TV and AM each morning. “I'm going to miss the frantic part of this business,'' he said. “It keeps you pumped up.”
Generations in The Emerald City woke-up hearing KOMO/Seattle “Breakfast Table” host Larry Nelson, who fell to lung cancer at age 70. Nelson retired from radio 10 years ago, then ran a local ad agency.
Ed Davis marched home from WWII and began announcing shows on the famous Steel Pier for Atlantic City’s WFPG (“World’s Favorite Playground”). Shows he hosted included live performances by Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and were heard across the USA. Even after he “semi-retired” in 1987, Ed popped up from time to time on local TV. He was 87.
Former WOWO/Fort Wayne morning host Bob Sievers passed away at 90. For decades, he hosted “The Little Red Barn Morning Show,” and was on-air for 70+ years.
We lost “The Scooter,” Phil Rizzuto, at 89, the oldest living member of baseball’s Hall of Fame. During his second act, the 40s/50s Yankee shortstop-turned-broadcaster cracked-up listeners with his trademark “HOLY COW!” when one of the Bombers homered.
Like many players back then, his career was interrupted by World War II. During his 13 seasons in pinstripes, Rizzuto played alongside Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and kept fans glued-to-the-radio with perfect bunts and diving catches. And how’s THIS for suspenseful radio programming? The Scooter went 58 games without an error, 288 straight plays.
And picture this: When they Yanks honored him with Phil Rizzuto Day in 1985, they brought a live cow, wearing a halo, onto the field…and the cow knocked-over diminutive Rizzuto! When he regained his footing, he had the crowd howling when he grabbed the mic and hollered…you guessed it, “HOLY COW!”
Pete Rose and other stars from The Big Red Machine joined today’s Cincinnati Reds and an estimated 6000+ fans, at an open casket wake for another player-turned-broadcaster, “The Old Left-Hander,” Joe Nuxhall, He made major league history when he pitched his first game at age 15, then played pro ball for more than six decades. Nuxhall was 79.
For the first time since John Kennedy was president, Minnesotans didn’t hear a familiar voice calling Twins games. Herb Carneal passed away, 83, congestive heart failure. In 1996, Carneal received the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for a baseball broadcaster, and that put him in Cooperstown. The title of his autobiography was his familiar greeting, “Hi Everybody.”
Here in Red Sox Nation, it’s caps-off for Robert Goulet, who sang the anthem at Fenway Park before this year’s home opener. He also sang, twice, on many of what are today’s News/Talk AMs; once when those stations were formatted “MOR,” and later when many played “Adult Standards.” His career took off after the big baritone’s 1960 Broadway debut in “Camelot." Even as he suffered a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, Goulet was in good spirits awaiting a lung transplant, quipping to doctors before they inserted a breathing tube, “Just watch my vocal cords.” He was 73.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett might be radio’s most-enduring one-hit wonder. His “Monster Mash” caught-on in-a-flash in 1962; and was a graveyard smash again in 1970 and 1973 re-releases. Bob Dylan played it on his XM show, in tribute to Pickett’s passing. His dead-on Boris Karloff impression is still must-play on Halloween morning. In a 1996 interview with People magazine, Pickett said he never grew tired of his sole hit: “When I hear it, I hear a cash register ringing.” His final performance was in 2006. Leukemia got him at 69. But, for you, the living, this mash was meant too. And Pickett will still be heard in market #1…
BACK-FROM-THE-DEAD: WCBS-FM/NEW YORK
As the Shea Stadium Kiss-Cam zoomed-in-on couples in the crowd, fans sang along with Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on the PA. Young and old, they all knew the words. So it struck me as just-plain-daffy that, there, in the #1 radio market, you had to go to a baseball game to hear this timeless fave. Or to hear Frankie Valli, immortalized in Broadway’s biggest hit “Jersey Boys,” and guest-starring in “The Sopranos.” You could trudge the streets of New York in August, and not hear “Summer in the City.”
Apparently, billing $35 million, and throwing $26 million to the bottom line, wasn’t quite enough back in 2005. So bonehead management figured they’d be better-off going commercial-free for a while, and ratings-free for a couple years. They scrapped the greatest-hits-of-all-time playlist that you could hear in any pizza joint in any borough at any time of the day or night…and abruptly fired beloved, iconic DJs…to adopt the flavor-of-the-month “Jack” format.
Ending that nightmare must have been the very first meeting Dan Mason convened when he took over CBS Radio.
“We’re back!” the station crowed, and callers’ thick accents cheered. Spring-to-Summer, ‘CBS-FM’s P12+ AQH Share leaped from #20 to #6; adding 600,000+ cume. Witty midday jock Bob Shannon zoomed to #3 12+ and 25-54.
Shannon told the New York Times: “We’re still finding things, even my old headphones. One guy in the production department was one of the board operators during Jack. He took my headphones home two years ago, with the hope that I would return. When I walked in the other day, he said, ‘Here are your headphones.’”
So, once again, New Yorkers are hearing 101.1 play “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” a song people are singing right now in every nation on Earth.
Except one.
In Panama, they sing “I’m dreaming of a wide isthmus.”
And to all a good night,
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
http://members.aol.com/cookeh/xbeatles1.wav