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WBZ AS A (MOSTLY) MUSIC STATION DURING THE 1960s

E

Early Byrd

Who has memories of the prominent music personalities that were on WBZ in the 1960s? Right away, these individuals come to mind:

Carl DeSuse
Dave Maynard
Bruce Bradley
Jay Dunn
Jefferson Kaye
Dick Summer
Ron Landry
Larry Justice
Dick Pace

and sports/talk shows hosts:

Bob Kennedy
Guy Mainella
Jerry Williams
Larry Glick

Some great memories come back of live broadcasts at Nantasket Beach, the weekly Top 30 countdown, cleverly produced station promotions, etc. How about your memories of WBZ as a (mostly) music station?
 
When Jefferson Kaye went to a news break, he'd always say "smoke if'n you got 'em, cause it's news time". If anyone did that today they'd be fired before the news was over.

I never missed Bruce Bradley's nightly top 15 countdown.
 
A few of those people were 70's guys. Bruce was both 60-70's with a few jobs in between I think. Never heard his countdown, did hear his 10-2 shift.
 
Does anyone remember what Dave Maynard's S.P.U.U. stood for? I'll give the answer later.
 
Anybody know what the late Bob Kennedy's radio background was before and after he arrived at WBZ? I don't even know what station he was at before coming to 'BZ.
 
A few little tidbits about some of the WBZ personalities mentioned:

Dick Pace, a weekender for many years, was an attorney in Rhode Island during the week. Does anybody know of another music personality on Boston radio who was also an attorney? (A few talk show hosts are, I know).

Jay Dunn, whose real name was Ray Norwood, and his wife were in the real estate business in southern New Hampshire after his WBZ days. You might have seen houses for sale up there that had a lawn sign that read "The Norwoods" Agency...that was Jay.

Jefferson Kaye went on to program WKBW in Buffalo after he left WBZ in 1966.

The late Ron Landry was part of the comedy team of Hudson & Landry (along with Emperor Bob Hudson, who also did a short stint on 1510 AM here in Boston at a later time).
 
Dick Pace, a weekender for many year
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s
Yes but he had a regular 10-2 shift for maybe two years. 'BZ used that four hours to move personnel. If you were in, it wasn't long before you were out. I think Bob Raleigh had it twice...Maynard, Pace, Janet, Bruce Stephens,Jefferds, Paul Perry...
 
I believe you can add Kevin O'keefe (Arthur McTigue[sp]), Dave Garcia (from WAAB in Worcester) and Phill Christie who also came from WAAB around 1960 or so. If memory serves me, Phil was one of the first if not the first to host "Program PM" before "The Other" Bob Kennedy arrived on the scene.

By the way, I believe Jefferson Kaye aka "JK the DJ"'s real name was Martin J. Krimsky. He followed Jay Dunn to 'BZ from WHIM in Providence.
 
There was something about the fall and winter of 1966 that kept me glued to my little transistor radio (I was 11 at the time). The 'BZ lineup then was DeSuze/Maynard/Dunn/Landry/Bradley/Summer. Not that I could stay up for Summer's show, of course. That winter I found WRKO-FM, and it was "so long, WBZ." And then March 1967 happened.
 
rib00 said:
"Put the coffee on Honey. I'm coming home."
Click to expand...

Was that Jefferson Kaye or Jay Dunn's line? I can't remember.

The SPUU was the Society for the Prevention of Unsightly Undershirts, if anyone's interested.

CTListener said:
That winter I found WRKO-FM, and it was "so long, WBZ." And then March 1967 happened.
Click to expand...
What happened in March 1967?
 
Early Byrd said:

What happened in March 1967?

I'm guessing the poster was referring to the beginning of WRKO-AM as a Top-40 station
Click to expand...

Correct, along with the softening of the WBZ playlist as it moved away from Top 40.
 
CTListener said:
Early Byrd said:

What happened in March 1967?

I'm guessing the poster was referring to the beginning of WRKO-AM as a Top-40 station
Click to expand...

Correct, along with the softening of the WBZ playlist as it moved away from Top 40.
Click to expand...

I don't remember any music changes on WBZ until early 1968, though there was a big airshift swap some time in the autumn of 1967 once the ratings came out & WRKO clobbered WBZ. ISTR the new shifts being Carl deSuze in mornings followed by Ron Landry, Dave Maynard then Bruce Bradley in PM drive. Dick Summer moved to Bruce's old shift with Jay Dunn out. Not sure about overnights. The Sunday night folk music show became "Subway", more of an album-rock show sometime in mid- '67. The last Sunday morning countdown was in early '68...Dave mentioned it being the last one (and he did it backwards...starting at #1 and ending up with #30), "Love Is Blue" was #1 as I recall.

One thing Dick Summer used to do that I enjoyed was having a record cued up to some lyric in mid-song that he used as the punch line for a story or joke.
 
Another attorney who also worked on the air was, I believe, Arnold Zenker, mainly in TV, mostly on Ch. 5. He was also the scab who substituted for Cronkite when AFTRA struck CBS in 1966 or '67.

Pace was weekends and fill then when Group W perceived Justice as being too big for his britches, and playing unauthorized records on the air Pace was given the PM drive shift (Lawrence K. was once ordered to take off "The Shrimp Board are A-Comin' by the PD on-air during his oldies segment with Mainella and it was no planned bit.) The lure of the law was too much and Pace was replaced by Len Thomas who was also the booth announcer for Ch. 4 after Lindy Miller bowed out.

Blowing out Justice was followed, coincidentally or not, by BZ's fall from No. 1 in 1978

Arthur Mctague [cq] was also a very early Dan Donovan at the Big X, then was Kevin at BZ, worked as Bob Allen at WCOP and then as O'Keefe again as the second WHDH "eagle eye on traffic" before deplaning to WEEI. He was replaced by two women at WHDH, one was Georgia Pappas I forget the name of the other woman.
 
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