WBZ History-End of Full Service/AC Format

[WLYNWAZNgm]

no Metric

In 1968 I was in the 6th grade, and we were told that everything would be going Metric within 10 years.
Sure...Yea, the system makes sense, but Americans, for the most part, have no frame of reference for it.
If somebody is 1.5 meters tall - is he a midget or an NBA-sized guy? Who really knows? ;D
Quick, get out the calculator and start doing conversions!

Locally, Sunoco gas stations sold gas by the liter for a while - the locals would pull in and see the dial spinning like crazy (approximately double speed) and freak out that they were spending more for gas, so the idea was abandoned.

 

[raccoonradio]

PSAs ran: "Take 10 (minutes) to learn the metric way." Lyrics explained things like
"a litre is a little more than a quart"
There are some highway signs with distances in km up near the Canadian border. And of course
when you cross you see a sign explaining that km/h is used (100 km/h= approx 60, etc.)

Soda is schizophrenic: 12 ounce cans (also says 355 mL) but...1 and 2 litre bottles.
We still mostly use "imperial". Very few bank thermometers will have the temp in Celsius
as well as Fahrenheit. And it's been a long time since US TV and radio stations would give
the temps in both

I think Weather Channel site gives you option to use Celsius if you want. I kind of memorized that
temps were like this: 0 C = 32 F and for every 9 F degrees, it was 5 Celsius degrees. So
10 C is 50 F, room temperature would be 20 C (68)...25C= 77F, etc.

 

[cyberdad]

W-(snap) B-Z
Radio (snap) one-oh-three

Definitely awake in the morning...swingin' all day...and alive at night! 

Not so sure about the bright exciting sound of tomorrow, however.

 

[martin1945]

I should start giving my age in Celsius.
Then I will become a teenager again ;D

 

[cdsull502]

How about this at the the top of the hour-- "Listen here! WBZ AM & FM, Boston, plus WBZA Springfield, your Group W stations, Westinghouse Broadcasting for New England!----Stand by for news, first, fast and factual from the award-winning WBZ News Center!"

Back to my Ensure.....

 

[WFNERBSHX]

When did Bob Raleigh make the move to overnights? The BZ website says 1980, but I thought Carl DeSuze did some overnight duty after he stepped down from the morning show? Wasn't that around 1980? When did DeSuze permanently retire from the 'BZ airwaves?

WBZ and WBZ-HD Boston. . .makes me long for the Spirit. . .

 

[ajf9]

Carl never did overnights. After he gave up the mornings they gave him a big title and some responsibility for some public affairs work. BZ was so cheep they wouldn't give him his own subscription to the Boston Globe. They told him to use one form the newsroom. By the time he got in at 10am the papers were all torn up and in pieces all over the newsroom.

Maynard moved to mornings after becoming very popular in the overnights.

Lou Marcel who moved from WCCM to BZ to take over David Finnegan was moved to overnights and replaced by Peter Meade in the early evening shift. Marcel fell out of favor for regualrly bashing the Catholic Church.
Marcel died a short time later of cancer. Raeligh was then moved to overnights.

Raleigh was given the overnights because they were trying to get him to quit. After doing the overnight show they used to make him drive to the John Hancock building and do traffic reports. I always thought he was a blow hard. He used to go on and do Jay Leno's monolog and pass it off as his own. Back when he was doing a mid day music show he was suspended for announcing that he was voting for Ronald Regan and everyone else should to. Steve L had him on last year and asked what he was doing with his free time. He said he and his wife loved to travel. Steve asked where he has been and he said he had visited New York City. That was the extent of his travel.

Kenny Myer didn't do a show on BOS that was Ken mayer also know as the night Mayor. Mayer also wrote a daily column in the old Herald American.

Dick Pace who practiced law in RI did a Sunday morning music show on BZ for most of the 70's and 80's.
BZ ran Dick Clarks countdown on Sundays at 10 when Clark stopped that show it was replaced by AT top 40.

Ron Robin also did a music and talk show on BZ as did Norm nathan before he replaced Kenny on Saturdays.
BZ also used to run a best of Glick on Sunday overnights.

 

[media buyer]

Historians and anyone that was paying attention would take issue with several of your points there, ajf9.

Maynard moved to mornings after becoming very popular in the overnights.

Huh? I'd say he'd gained popularity from his prior 25 years on the air in middays (and as host of Community Auditions)

After he gave up the mornings they gave him a big title and some responsibility for some public affairs work

Not exactly -

Carl was heard in midday after his years on AM drive.

Dick Pace who practiced law in RI did a Sunday morning music show on BZ for most of the 70's and 80's

Dick was also heard for years in PM drive on BZ.

The only thing I won't contend is Bob Raleigh being a blowhard.

 

[ajf9]

Dear Mr. Media Buyer.

If David H. Maynard was so popular doing the afternoons, why was placed on the graveyard shift? At the time BZ didn't even sell sopts during that time slot and it was less than a disirable shift and not an indication that station management thought at lot of you. And belive me Bill Hartman the GM at the time, could care less that BZ reached 38 states at night. He olny cared about the bottom line and overnights contributed zero to it. Anyone who was there (and I was) never expected Maynard to rise from the dead and go from overnights to morning drive. He told me himself that it was the overnight shift that allowed him to make a comeback. e During the overnight shift he was able to show off his personality more so then he could during the 25 years he playing music.

Carl Desuze may have done the mid day shift for a short time after he left morning drive but when he went off the air he was given the title of New England Regional Public Affairs director and was charged with workking with businesses on station related PR projects.

I realize and knew that Dick Pace was on the air weekdays before he did the weekends but I didn't think we were going back into ancient histrory. I thought we were talking about the recent years before BZ went to talk and then all news. I am surprised you didn't bring up Streeter Stuart.

So I guess with the exception of leaving out Carl DeSuze brief mid day tenure everyting else I posted is 100% accurate.

 

[WFNERBSHX]

I've seen accounts of Westinghouse's notorious cheapness. I remember one Globe story from the 80s that estimated the salaries of the city's leading morning hosts. At the time, Dave Maynard was thought to make nothing more than 150K while Jess Cain was making three times that much at WHDH with lower ratings.

Assuming salaries were adjusted according to timeslot, I have a greater understanding of why Bob Raleigh could be such an irascible cuss.

 

[Oldbones]

If David H. Maynard was so popular doing the afternoons, why was placed on the graveyard shift? At the time BZ didn't even sell sopts during that time slot and it was less than a disirable shift and not an indication that station management thought at lot of you. And belive me Bill Hartman the GM at the time, could care less that BZ reached 38 states at night. He olny cared about the bottom line and overnights contributed zero to it. Anyone who was there (and I was) never expected Maynard to rise from the dead and go from overnights to morning drive. He told me himself that it was the overnight shift that allowed him to make a comeback. e During the overnight shift he was able to show off his personality more so then he could during the 25 years he playing music.

I always wondered why Dave was exiled to overnights. I always figured he really got on somebody's bad side. Clearly, someone was trying to make him quit. Guess he got the last laugh.
I remember him doing mid-days forever, when did he move to afternoons? Was he as difficult to work with as legend has it?

 

[ajf9]

I didn't find him hard to work with at all but I only filled in on the morning show and word had it that he was much tougher on his regular producer, But, he had no trouble keeping a producer so he couldn't have been that bad.

Raliegh was a pain and Larry Glick was very lazy and expected everyting to be done for him. When he was on from 10p to 2a he would expect the producer who was doing a 6p to 2a shift to make time to open his mail and have it laid out for him as he walked in 10 minutes before air time. His show was the hardest to do becasue he never had anything prepared and you never knew what he was going to do next. But he was the best at what he did on the air.

 

[argytunes]

I think Kenny Meyer once told me that Bob Raleigh used to identify himself on the air as: (drum roll please)....BUB RALEIGH ;D

argytunes

 

[81-92bingradioalum]

Anyone remember Robin Young?

I was still in high school in the early '70s and she used to be on overnights Sat. night/Sun. morning.

She was an Ithaca College grad. I'd come home from dates in Cooperstown, listen, and dreamt of doing this job someday.

I got to do the same job in the early '80s in New York's Southern Tier. Same shift. It was fun to get "skip" calls from listeners in New Hampshire and Maine.

Thanks, Robin! You were an inspiration. The "dream" ended for me in '92 when the biz got too corporate! It was fun whle it lasted.

 

[scooty430]

There are some airchecks of Robin Young floating around of her doing her overnight shift. She is really loose and relaxed on the air - nobody would ever be allowed to sound like that these days, even at 2am! I think she ended up on Evening Magazine. Or am I thinking of someone else?

My only really strong memory of WBZ was listening for the announcements of school snow closures read over the air alphabetically. My town started with "W" so it was a long wait! WBZ was the station my parents listened to for news and Dave Maynard. We kids listened to WRKO, then F105, and then onto COZ and BCN as we got older and into rock.

One exception: WBZ ran a very lengthy syndicated Beatles program in the early 80s every Saturday and Sunday where they analyzed every track in chronological order, and detailed the band's history. I remember really loving it. Except when the show ran into the top of the hour, they'd just chop it off to get to the news!

 

[chrish]

Like CDSULL I too remember the WBZ WBZA and WBZ-FM IDs and clearly remember
a jingle with the words sung:

WBZ Boston......WBZA Springfield.....Look no further you have found the station most up to date around....with music and news the best in town WBZ Boston 1030...1030....1030 trailing off

Also remember a show called the Farmers Market on weekdays preceeding
Carl Desuze at 5:30 AM, can't think of the market reporters name but do remember details such as Parsnips in the film bag selling for 12 cents a pound

Does anyone else remember the days of "THE BOSS SOUND OF BOSS TOWN"
WBZ BOSTON GROUP W WESTINGHOUSE BROADCSASTING FOR NEW ENGLAND followed by the time at the tone.

My 85 year old Aunt Carrie who I'm sure was listening when the station signed on in 1922 from Springfield loved WBZ and got a big kick out of the ID
She always thought they were saying DA BOS TOWN DA BOSS TOWN
She lived with another 88 year old.... Aunt Melda who loved WORL...can you
just see the raging battles that always went on.... who would get to control the radio dial
If only video cameras were around at the time.... needless to say it was priceless

 

[Eli Polonsky]

There are some airchecks of Robin Young floating around of her doing her overnight shift... I think she ended up on Evening Magazine. Or am I thinking of someone else?

Robin was one of the founding co-hosts of Evening Magazine. She currently hosts and presents the nationally syndicated Public Radio mid-day news magazine program Here & Now, based at WBUR.

 

[NO DAG]

Doesn't WBZ still do a time tone at the top of very hour ? Somehow I wound up with a bunch of Bob Raleigh / WBZ pens, with his name mispelled no less.. Robin Young was a good looker in "Evening Magazine Days".. Hubba hubba..

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Doesn't WBZ still do a time tone at the top of very hour ?

Yes, but I haven't checked it against standard time to see whether they forward-time it to compensate for their approximately eight second IBOC delay...

 

[cdsull502]

During the early 60's, the person that did the pricing report from the Farmer's market was Guy Paris....funny how I remember that and not where I left my car keys. I don't think anybody really cared what the price of vegetables was on a daily basis but it allowed WBZ to show the 5AM-6AM period as "agricultural" programming on their log which was useful at license renewal time. They called that hour "RFD-WBZ" --- Carl De Suze did the extra hour on Monday mornings (usually on tape) -- they signed off at midnight Sunday nights---whoever did the overnights did the RFD Show during the rest of the week---