The late Jim Westover was still on the air at 3 AM and with no power at the Pru. I am assuming Westover was stuck as nobody could get in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbLu2nZL35s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbLu2nZL35s
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WEEI during the Blizzard of 1978
- Thread starter Fenway1912
- Start date
I was not aware that Jim Westover had passed away, I was sorry to hear it. He ran an intelligent talk program, and when shifted to overnights after a couple of years of all-news did some good interviews. He had one of the earliest trivia contests, usually based on something ironic, called the daily Nightline Twister after the 11 p.m. news.
I believe WEEI brought him in from a 50-clear, I think it was KDKA, where he did morning drive, along with someone else who was a short-term WEEI news director before going on to greater glory elsewhere.
It was a decent line-up, albeit non-controversial by today's standards in the talk-all-day, Lazare-all-night days. A solid AM news block, Len Lawrence, Les Woodruff, Paul Benzaquin, Westover, The PM Report,Tom Reardon and Howard Nelson.
And then there was Lulu, the first woman talk host who lasted about a month paired with Woodruff, leaving Ellen Kimball to be the real groundbreaker.
I believe WEEI brought him in from a 50-clear, I think it was KDKA, where he did morning drive, along with someone else who was a short-term WEEI news director before going on to greater glory elsewhere.
It was a decent line-up, albeit non-controversial by today's standards in the talk-all-day, Lazare-all-night days. A solid AM news block, Len Lawrence, Les Woodruff, Paul Benzaquin, Westover, The PM Report,Tom Reardon and Howard Nelson.
And then there was Lulu, the first woman talk host who lasted about a month paired with Woodruff, leaving Ellen Kimball to be the real groundbreaker.
I remembered. The PD was Dominic Quinn who had long runs in Philly and Chicago
My dad had the 4pm to 6pm slot. I remember my dad talking about Lulu and he didn't like her for some reason. Never said why. He left WEEI December 1979 to work at WCBS in DC.
WCBS is in NY. The DC news station is WTOP. One or the other.
I've been to 2020 M street at least 50 times with my dad... I know where he worked and he worked for WCBS bureau. https://www.bizjournals.com/washing...ls-d-c-bureau-to-the-developer-that-will.html
His main broadcast was on WCBS AM which might have been in New York. But he also did morning spots for a time on WEEI in Boston, the place where he came from. I would occasionally hear my dad do spots also in the afternoons on WSB AM Radio here in Atlanta. Covering the democratic convention in Atlanta in 1988, that year he reported to WSB AM to record the evening broadcasts to the bureau. The Democrat convention was held at the World Congress Center in Atlanta and I happened to work across the street at the Federal Reserve bank at the time. I developed the actual protocol that all ATM machines would use to communicate to clearing banks. Well, me and 3 other guys(but that is a different story). I had asked my dad to meet for lunch the night before to see the convention floor. I brought a camera with me to take pictures of the convention floor. Surprisingly with the amount of security at the convention center, my dad nor I was sure I would be able to get in. I walked up to security said I was here to see my dad and gave his name. Without checking any ID, they handed me a press pass and pointed to the press booth. As I walked into the press booth my dad was giving a briefing to Walter Cronkite of what stories for him to air at noon as it was about 11:45am when I walked in. I took this picture moments after I walked in... http://www.nathanwoodruff.com/pops_and_walt.bmp
Hi Nathan - I worked with your dad in Boston in the 70s; I wrote for him when he co-anchored afternoons with Jim Pansullo. I remember him fondly; he was not just a great reporter, but a lot of fun and always up for the on-air "inside" pranks I dared him (and Jim) to pull off with me, like rhyming the 5:30 headlines every afternoon while mimicking the delivery of an anchor across the street. (I remember going to his wedding back then, too; it was at a small church on the South Shore (maybe Hingham?), if I remember correctly.)
When he left WEEI, he went to the old CBS Radio Stations News Service, officially known as RSNS but inside the newsrooms as PLNX - the private line news exchange. He covered Washington for WCBS, which was the engine that pulled the train, as well as the other CBS O&Os.
Ran into him a couple of times after that, once at a Correspondents' Dinner, and another time at that Atlanta DNC you remember; I was there as ND of a different Boston station, 6 months before I went back to WEEI as News Director.
Les was a great guy. We lost him way too soon.
When he left WEEI, he went to the old CBS Radio Stations News Service, officially known as RSNS but inside the newsrooms as PLNX - the private line news exchange. He covered Washington for WCBS, which was the engine that pulled the train, as well as the other CBS O&Os.
Ran into him a couple of times after that, once at a Correspondents' Dinner, and another time at that Atlanta DNC you remember; I was there as ND of a different Boston station, 6 months before I went back to WEEI as News Director.
Les was a great guy. We lost him way too soon.
So do you remember the prank when the airship blimp went down I believe in the Boston commons? The one that used to fly over Fenway park? After Jim read the story about it, my dad then said that he would like to see 20,000 people gather at the commons to help blow it back up. Within seconds, the phone lines lit up. I don't remember the engineers name but he was recording these phone calls to carts and that is all my dad and Jim played back for the next hour. I was in the studio with my dad when he said that. I had to laugh at it too and leave the studio. I think I was 10 years old then. So this had to be 1975 or early 1976.
Sadly enough I was not at my dad's first wedding or second wedding. I was not at the first as I wasn't born yet. I didn't make it to the second as my mother refused to let us go to it as she had moved us to Atlanta after the divorce.
And yes, losing my dad was painstaking. I got a call a little after 1am the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving 1994 being told by my younger brother that he had a heart attack and that he didn't make it to the hospital. I asked why didn't he make it to the hospital? He said, "No, he didn't make it." It then hit me and I dropped the phone. I picked back up the phone and called Delta Air and was on his door step in Gaithersburg MD in 5 hours.
You do know that Meredith Vieira owes her career to my dad. I have a cassette tape of her as a demo tape that she turned into my dad for the course she was taking. I've tried contacting her several times to ask her if she would like to hear the tape. No luck. She has not responded. She was also at my dad funeral.
My dad also lived across the street from Archie Kao of the "Power Rangers" when he first moved to DC and the Alexandria Virginia area. I took this picture of my younger brother with Archie in 1982 probably with the same camera I took the picture of my dad and Walter, on Archie's Wikipedia page... Archie Kao - Wikipedia It is in the "Early Years". So, my younger brother and I got to meet and hang out with lots of famous people. My younger brother was friends with him through most of high school.
I vaguely remember the blimp, think it might have been '76 and think the engineer was Steve Ferguson. There were so many crazy things that happened (hard to believe, at an all-news station) that they've all sort of melded together.
The one I remember best didn't involve your dad, though; Norma Nathan was working for the state at the time, and had arranged for Norm (and yes, he and your dad got on quite well) and John Lynker to interview the state archivist. The only problem was that he stuttered, and couldn't say the word "arch---ch---ch---ivist" (it sounded like Jimmy would say it on South Park). Even so, Lynker kept asking leading questions just to get him to say "archive" and "archivist" over and over again, and Norm was laughing so hard he couldn't even get out of his chair to leave the studio.
I didn't know about your dad and Meridith; I did know that she went to Tufts, though, so that makes sense. (Since I went to Brandeis, and Tufts was our big rival in sports, I was initially suspicious of her lol.) I remember when she started as an intern during morning drive - sadly, I worked afternoons so I didn't get to know her very well. Seemed nice, though - and obviously talented. A lot of extremely talented people came through 'EEI during the early all-news days; Peggy Noonan, who was a writer there during those days, is probably the other "best-known" one.
Cool story about Archie Kao and friends - sounds like a good time.
Glad you shared on the board - Les is one of the people I remember fondly from those days.
The one I remember best didn't involve your dad, though; Norma Nathan was working for the state at the time, and had arranged for Norm (and yes, he and your dad got on quite well) and John Lynker to interview the state archivist. The only problem was that he stuttered, and couldn't say the word "arch---ch---ch---ivist" (it sounded like Jimmy would say it on South Park). Even so, Lynker kept asking leading questions just to get him to say "archive" and "archivist" over and over again, and Norm was laughing so hard he couldn't even get out of his chair to leave the studio.
I didn't know about your dad and Meridith; I did know that she went to Tufts, though, so that makes sense. (Since I went to Brandeis, and Tufts was our big rival in sports, I was initially suspicious of her lol.) I remember when she started as an intern during morning drive - sadly, I worked afternoons so I didn't get to know her very well. Seemed nice, though - and obviously talented. A lot of extremely talented people came through 'EEI during the early all-news days; Peggy Noonan, who was a writer there during those days, is probably the other "best-known" one.
Cool story about Archie Kao and friends - sounds like a good time.
Glad you shared on the board - Les is one of the people I remember fondly from those days.
From Meredith's own words... B&C Hall of Fame Moment: Meredith Vieira
I have one of those cassette tapes of her recorded work. She would probably get a good kick out of listening to it now. My dad had given me a portable cassette recorder so I could go around and interview people like my dad did. So he would give me new (to me) cassettes every now and then. I got a bunch of them when my dad was teaching at Tuffs.
I've met Norm Nathan many times. I used to joke to my dad that I wanted Norm to adopt me so I could be Nathan Nathan.
I was also going to share that in the early to mid 1980's there was a 2400 baud computer modem that all reporters could dial into at the bureau that would allow you to connect to a Bulletin Board Service or BBS to type in news stories. It was an 800 number to dial. I was working for the state of Georgia at the time in 1984 and 1985 and they just got IBM PC's and didn't know what to do with them. I was a Mainframe programmer at the time writing TSO for them. But when they got the PC's I would use the PC with the modem to dial into the Mainframe instead of using the green screen terminal. At lunch time I would disconnect and dial the bureau 800 number and sign into "RS OPENER". I think that had something to now what I know is the callsign letters of the bureau. I would then use the user ID of LAWOOD for Les Woodruff and my dads password was "static". I would then type up a news story to my dad as a kind of pre-email and then post it to himself so he would get notification that there was a new news story. The headline to the news story was always my name. I would look for new news stories posted that had my dad's name as the headline meaning that he had left an email for me, before there was actually email. I have 100 or so of these pre-email news stories that I have sent back and forth between my dad and myself that I wanted to post one or two here, that I have archived somewhere. I went looking for them last night on all my computers and backup drives, but I have yet to find them.
Quite of few of these emails talked about our daily life at our jobs and I think several of them would be relevant to post here. I'll continue to look.
I have one of those cassette tapes of her recorded work. She would probably get a good kick out of listening to it now. My dad had given me a portable cassette recorder so I could go around and interview people like my dad did. So he would give me new (to me) cassettes every now and then. I got a bunch of them when my dad was teaching at Tuffs.
I've met Norm Nathan many times. I used to joke to my dad that I wanted Norm to adopt me so I could be Nathan Nathan.
I was also going to share that in the early to mid 1980's there was a 2400 baud computer modem that all reporters could dial into at the bureau that would allow you to connect to a Bulletin Board Service or BBS to type in news stories. It was an 800 number to dial. I was working for the state of Georgia at the time in 1984 and 1985 and they just got IBM PC's and didn't know what to do with them. I was a Mainframe programmer at the time writing TSO for them. But when they got the PC's I would use the PC with the modem to dial into the Mainframe instead of using the green screen terminal. At lunch time I would disconnect and dial the bureau 800 number and sign into "RS OPENER". I think that had something to now what I know is the callsign letters of the bureau. I would then use the user ID of LAWOOD for Les Woodruff and my dads password was "static". I would then type up a news story to my dad as a kind of pre-email and then post it to himself so he would get notification that there was a new news story. The headline to the news story was always my name. I would look for new news stories posted that had my dad's name as the headline meaning that he had left an email for me, before there was actually email. I have 100 or so of these pre-email news stories that I have sent back and forth between my dad and myself that I wanted to post one or two here, that I have archived somewhere. I went looking for them last night on all my computers and backup drives, but I have yet to find them.
Quite of few of these emails talked about our daily life at our jobs and I think several of them would be relevant to post here. I'll continue to look.
I am enjoying these stories so much!
I was in Boston radio a decade or so later on, at WBZ, where I too wanted Norm Nathan to adopt me. I used to enjoy shooting the breeze with him early in the morning when he'd be getting off the air and I'd be coming in to write for the morning news. I miss Norm immensely!
And when Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995, WBZ became the CBS affiliate (and O&O), which meant we got hooked up with RSNS/PLNX. Pam Coulter was the primary talent for the service at that point, and I had the chance to visit her and see the DC bureau at 2020 M Street NW in 1995 or 96. Somewhere I still have a RSNS mug she gave me.
I think PLNX went away not long afterward - I left WBZ in 1997 so lost direct daily contact with the bureau.
I was in Boston radio a decade or so later on, at WBZ, where I too wanted Norm Nathan to adopt me. I used to enjoy shooting the breeze with him early in the morning when he'd be getting off the air and I'd be coming in to write for the morning news. I miss Norm immensely!
And when Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995, WBZ became the CBS affiliate (and O&O), which meant we got hooked up with RSNS/PLNX. Pam Coulter was the primary talent for the service at that point, and I had the chance to visit her and see the DC bureau at 2020 M Street NW in 1995 or 96. Somewhere I still have a RSNS mug she gave me.
I think PLNX went away not long afterward - I left WBZ in 1997 so lost direct daily contact with the bureau.
Thanks for sharing that link. She certainly wasn't the only one who viewed Mike Ludlum and Mike Wheeler as mentors. I did too, particularly Wheeler.
I'm sure she'd enjoy the tape - I have a whole shelf of a closet filled with my old tapes, even though I cringe whenever I listen to one of them lol. My favorite was the "going away tape" the staff made for me when I left EEI - Charlie Osgood opened it with the CBS top-of-hour sounder, leading his "newscast" with the story of my departure from CBS.
I think everyone felt the same way about Norm. He was one of a kind, and one of the favorite people I've met over the years.
That's a cool story about the RSNS BBS; I remember using those BBS systems way back when, and often shake my head thinking about the contrast with what we have available now.
I would have loved Norm to adopt me, too lol - I can't imagine many people who didn't have that thought at one time or another.
Pam was after my time, although I think I crossed paths with her at some point. I believe they dropped RSNS shortly after Westinghouse bought the group (no surprise there lol), but not sure what year that was. I never got an RSNS mug, but I did "rescue" an old CBS NetAlert box when we reconfigured the newsroom; it's still on the shelf in my office.
I'll bet WEEI used the CBS Labs Audimax compressor and Volumax peak limiter. The Audimax was an engineering marvel of fine art for its era.
It was different enough that the Volumax and Audimax had part of the circuitry sealed in some kind of dialectric material so we could not try to figure it out on our own.
About all we could do was insert the "zero ohm resistor" to give the Audimax much faster attack times.
No clue - it was the tightest union shop I've ever seen. We were only allowed into the back for 10-15 seconds at a time, to drop off tapes or pick them up. When we did a phone interview, it was recorded on constantly-running reels. We could go back to ask for a specific tape, and take it back with us to the newsroom where we flagged the cuts we wanted and filled out a cut sheet with ins, outs and times. We could go back to engineering to drop off the flagged tape, and when it had been cut, we could return and pick up the carts. Same process for field interviews; we'd drop off our cassette, it would be dubbed onto tape, and then we'd go from there.
I couldn't even tell you where the transmitter remote controls were, let alone the audio processors. And the IBEW folks liked it just fine that way.
Maybe so, but in 1964, when I was 15, my parents drove my friend and me up from RI to the Custom House so we could take the exam for the FCC "Third Class Radiotelephone License". After that, we wondered over to Tremont St, walked into the WEEI-AM/FM reception area, and asked if we could see the studios. We were graciously given about a 20-minute tour. Three years later, I and another small group traveled to NYC to tour the new CBS Broadcast Center. (I had pre-arranged this by letter with Mr James Leonard, a Director of Engineering for CBS). We walked into Black Rock at 51 W. 52nd St., were put in a corporate limousine (!), and brought to the studios at West 57th. The folks who gave us - a bunch of high-school kids interested in radio - that grand tour were very polite and cordial, and did not talk down to us ever. Unforgettable.
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