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What became of Jerry Williams?

ChrisNH

ChrisNH

He was an icon in issues-oriented talk radio in Boston. What became of him? Is he even still alive? he's gotta be getting up there in age.
 
Sadly, Jerry died in April of 2003 at the age of 78 or 79. He lived in Marshfield and is buried in Duxbury.
 
Jerry was inducted into the radio hall of fame in the mid 90s. After his show was usurped by Howie
Carr (1994 or so?) he was relegated to mornings, then weekends, then finally shown the door by WRKO.
A brief comeback on the brief talk format at "WMEX 1060". Then shortly before he passed on, WRKO let him do a farewell show (which I have; March of '03 I think?...I may also have a show hosted by Pat Whitley which
was a tribute to Jerry shortly after his passing, and the Howie Carr show in which he did the same.
Insert "Howie's a backstabber" comments here.

At the Citizens For Ltd Govt and Taxation site, there's a Howie column in which
Howie talks about Jerry finally "getting out of the business" and he thanks him for giving him his start.
The Boston Globe magazine also did an interview with Jerry not long before he died

Howie tribute to Jerry when Jerry left WRKO:
http://cltg.org/cltg/cltg98-2/cltg98-10-09.html

Howie talks about how Marty Meehan was angry that Howie revealed Meehan's salary on Jerry's show.
---------------------------------
So who cares, Marty?

"Who cares? Don't you understand? Everybody in Lowell listens to Jerry Williams!" Not just Lowell either. Remember Jerry doing nights on 'BZ during Vietnam and Watergate? The hardhat brigade of 1970? That clear-channel 50,000-watt signal went into 38 states, at a time when people still listened to AM radio at night. Back in the final days of the 1972 Watergate campaign, when you heard on the network news that George McGovern was playing tapes of a weeping Vietnam vet that he'd been given by "a Boston radio talk-show host," you didn't think Larry Glick or Guy Mainella.
-----------------------------------

Jerry Williams tribute site http://www.jerrywilliams.org
 
Casablanca said:
Sadly, Jerry died in April of 2003 at the age of 78 or 79. He lived in Marshfield and is buried in Duxbury.
Click to expand...

Thanks. He was an icon, to be sure. Yikes on the location: I was just at funeral/burial in Duxbury/Marshfield on Monday.
 
He was such a power on BZ in the 70's that CBS owned WBBM in Chicago hired him, partly to get him out of Boston where he was killing WEEI AM 590. Before he came back to Boston he also made stops in Hartford and Florida.

He wanted back in Boston so bad that when RKO switched to talk he made a deal to do 6 shows a week.


A few days after his AM 1060 show started he landed in the hospital and never returned to 1060. Shortly before passing he had a mid day show on WROL. It was kind of sad to listen to as he had few callers and had lost most of his spark.

His former RKO producer Alan Tolz who also worked at a station Jerry owned in Manchester NH has a book coming out about the Dean of Talk Radio.
 
Actually, Jerry left WBZ Radio [ he also had a morning TV show on WBZ TV 4 in the late 60's] because Jerry made Richard Nixon's "Enemies List" after he broadcast the Vietnam Veteran's tearful account of carpet bombing Vietnam " ...you couldn't tell the people from the bugs after the bombings...." he said. Later Jerry dubbed a tape for then presidential candidate George McGovern who played it on his next campaign stop. The idiots at WBZ ordered Jerry never to play that tape again on their station. Soon thereafter, although Jerry was number one in his time slot in the evening on WBZ the suits at Group Wonderful would not renew his contract. After that he ended up in Hartford and then Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami before returning to Boston in September of 1981. The day Jerry left the Miami station he was alone in the station and he was held up at gun point by two thugs. One said, "shoot him" but the other said, no " let's just get out of here..." They stole his watch, wallet and wedding ring but he lived to return to Boston only to be metaphorically assaulted and eventually robbed of his career by Howie Carr, a Frankenstein Jerry helped to create

And yes, Jerry did work 6 days a week...24 hours of LIVE talk radio/week. On Saturday we followed Dick Syatt's dating hotline...Dancing on the beach while bowling anyone...?

Try doing 24 hours a week of live talk radio today. It was and is an outstanding accomplishment.

theAguy said:
He was such a power on BZ in the 70's that CBS owned WBBM in Chicago hired him, partly to get him out of Boston where he was killing WEEI AM 590. Before he came back to Boston he also made stops in Hartford and Florida.

He wanted back in Boston so bad that when RKO switched to talk he made a deal to do 6 shows a week.


A few days after his AM 1060 show started he landed in the hospital and never returned to 1060. Shortly before passing he had a mid day show on WROL. It was kind of sad to listen to as he had few callers and had lost most of his spark.

His former RKO producer Alan Tolz who also worked at a station Jerry owned in Manchester NH has a book coming out about the Dean of Talk Radio.
Click to expand...
 
Howie Chizek on WNIR Kent/Akron Ohio does a 5 hour show every day and also one on Saturday
mornings..."The talk of Akron/W-N-I-R!"
 
Akron 'taint Boston....Much smaller market; different pressures. Big if you are into tires I guess.

raccoonradio said:
Howie Chizek on WNIR Kent/Akron Ohio does a 5 hour show every day and also one on Saturday
mornings..."The talk of Akron/W-N-I-R!"
Click to expand...
 
Casablanca said:
Akron 'taint Boston....Much smaller market; different pressures. Big if you are into tires I guess.

raccoonradio said:
Howie Chizek on WNIR Kent/Akron Ohio does a 5 hour show every day and also one on Saturday
mornings..."The talk of Akron/W-N-I-R!"
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yeah, 5 hours is a big deal when your hero did it, but anyone else anywhere else is smalltime. Hooray for hypocrisy!

What was Howie's quote about Williams? "I didn't kill Jerry's career, it was Father Time."
 
Well, you would know VB. You were there when Howie stuck the shive into Jerry and let him bleed to death. "Out, out, damn spot...."


Smoke said:
Casablanca said:
Akron 'taint Boston....Much smaller market; different pressures. Big if you are into tires I guess.

raccoonradio said:
Howie Chizek on WNIR Kent/Akron Ohio does a 5 hour show every day and also one on Saturday
mornings..."The talk of Akron/W-N-I-R!"
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yeah, 5 hours is a big deal when your hero did it, but anyone else anywhere else is smalltime. Hooray for hypocrisy!

What was Howie's quote about Williams? "I didn't kill Jerry's career, it was Father Time."
Click to expand...
 
btw it's in the middle of the night but Steve Leveille (and Jordan Rich, Fri night edition) does 5 hours.

Sarandis used to do 5 hours when he was on WEEI; Mike Adams took over those 5 hours but now he's
off at 11 pm in favor of "Red Sox review" (till 1 am) when there's a game, and I guess they do
"instant replay" that 11-midnight hour when there isn't.
 
I was speaking about the intensity of 24 hours a week of live issues oriented talk radio. Do not mean to demean the work of others such Steve Leveille or Jordan Rich. It is just different.
 
Moe Lausier did a nice tribute to Jerry today, Saturday, on his WRKO program.
 
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