As I have said here many times, WABeatleC was the sound of my childhood in Connecticut. Listening to WABC was my inspiration for wanting to work in radio when I grew up.
After my family moved to Massachusetts, I listened to WRKO in Boston on my bedside GE AM radio. Here are some RKO airchecks from my peak years of listening to the station, before buying my first stereo and tuning the Pioneer SX-440 receiver to WBCN FM. At one point, a bit of a commercial with WABC’s Dan Ingram can be heard.
That’s what I was listening to then, so lemme see… what about the comic books was I reading? Oh, this one was a very big deal for me. Spectacular Spider-Man #1, a new magazine format comic, on sale April 9. Costing as much as three regular comics (minus a penny), with Spidey in black & white? Sure, why not!
The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, 1968
Marvel was finally free of its oppressive 10-year distribution deal with competitor DC, setting the stage for the big DC implosion that year. Editor Stan Lee was expanding the Marvel lineup like crazy with new titles, while publisher Martin Goodman was working a deal to sell the company, and screwing people in the process.
Fabulous Flo Steinberg didn’t get a well-deserved raise, so she quit. Jack Kirby didn’t get a promised contract and Stan gave the new Silver Surfer book to John Buscema, putting the wheels in motion for Jack’s departure two years later.
Twenty years ago, while stopped at a red light in my little ’89 Honda Civic, behind a couple of other cars, this happened. I was a little late for work that day.
An elderly Russian guy came flying down the Mass Pike exit ramp behind me. I saw him in the rearview mirror, heading towards me fast. I knew he was going to crash and braced for impact. The collision pushed the Civic into the car ahead of me with so much force that it, in turn, hit the car in front of it.
The old guy was taken to a hospital where, as I was told later, he accused me of causing the accident. The Massachusetts State Police didn’t agree. I escaped with a mild concussion, and a badly sprained right ankle.
So began my Posterior Tibial Tendon troubles. I had forced the brake pedal down with so much strength the brake lines blew out upon impact. But a couple of other things also blew out. A blood vessel in my calf split open, and I didn’t know until later that some of the fibers in my PTT had been torn. The damage progressed once I returned to my running schedule.
I was almost home from a 25-mile training run for the Lowell Marathon when suddenly, mid-stride, my right foot literally just stopped working! I could feel something sticking out that shouldn’t have been. My PTT had slipped out of position. After popping it back into place I was able to hobble home the last half-mile.
That white area in the MRI seen along the PTT is tendinosis. There’s a bulge there to this day. With a lot careful attention to that area, along with motion control running shoes and orthotics, the tendon has held all these years. I dread the day if and (probably) when it finally breaks. The PTT in my left ankle is perfectly fine.
What does any of this have to do with WABC? As I have said many times, I was very fortunate to have grown up listening to WABC during its Musicradio ascendency. Its influence on me was so great that it led to my relatively brief but memorable stint working in AM radio. (Technology paid much better, believe me.) The man who transformed 77 WABC into the Musicradio powerhouse was program director Rick Sklar.
Rick was a marathon runner in his spare time and in June of 1992 he entered the hospital for minor foot surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left ankle. He never returned home. An unfortunate anesthesia complication took his life on June 22, 1992. He was 62 years old.
Whether the torn tendon was Sklar’s PTT, or his Achilles, that was a terribly lousy thing to happen to him. I continue to be careful with my PTT, in the hope that I can keep running without needing foot surgery.
In 1972 we stopped putting men on the Moon, but our Earthbound future was just beginning. That year, Stewart Brand explained it in his article “Spacewar” for Rolling Stone.
The world of tomorrow, that we have today, was also described in 1972, in perfect detail, in a couple of films. The promise of interactive television, as narrated by DJ Casey Kasem…
… didn’t happen with analog cable systems, but it was of course eventually realized by digital networking.
“Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing” was produced in 1972 at WGBH-TV in Boston. That same year, WGBH also produced a much more entertaining movie, the cult favorite Between Time and Timbuktu. It opens with none other than my childhood idol DJ from WABC in New York, Cousin Brucie.
As I have mentioned more than a few times, I consider myself very fortunate to have followed Musicradio 77 WABC-AM in New York, and then WBCN-FM in Boston, at their respective best — 1963-68 in Connecticut, then after my family moved to Massachusetts, 1968-73. After I left for college in Western Massachusetts my ‘BCN listening was limited to home visits. I was influenced equally by both stations, despite their radically different formats, with ‘BCN being outright radical. I am finally watching WBCN And The American Revolution and, at the halfway point through the documentary, it has my unreserved recommendation.
Speaking of WABC, the big news is that COUSIN BRUCIE IS RETURNING TO WABC on September 5! He has left SiriusXM, where he was heard for 15 years, compared to his original 11-year run on WABC.
Back on August 16 I posted a shout-out from the King of Jingles, Jon Wolfert. Cousin Brucie will be joining Jon TOMORROW, 8/30, starting at 3 PM ET on Rewound Radio. The link is over on the left, as always, and you can be sure I’ll be tuning in!
