Category: Radio

And that’s the way he was…

The Old Guard has now truly come to an end. As Bismo said tonight, it’s perhaps fitting that Walter Cronkite passed away during the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s flight to the Moon. This video clip is from a 2007 CBS special celebrating Cronkite’s 90th birthday. The program was produced by Nancy Kramer, who Carol and I helped last year with some background material for an installment of 48 Hours|Mystery.

I also agreed with Bismo when he said that he never warmed up to Huntley and Brinkley as TV news anchormen. Many adults apparently preferred the team, but they were much too severe to appeal to kids. Cronkite was The Man. He narrated the audio book of his autobiography, “A Reporter’s Life”, and I listened to it twice, all the way through. It was abridged from his book, but I trusted Walter to leave in all the good stuff.

Cronkite is indelibly associated with not only NASA in the 60’s, but his live coverage of the assasination of JFK, and his landmark editorial asserting that the Vietnam War, in his opinion, could not be won. Cronkite’s credibility and judgment were held in such high esteem that LBJ realized his Presidency was doomed and he declined to seek re-election.

Another noteworthy accomplishment of Cronkite’s was that he helped introduce The Beatles to America. Here is a video clip from Nancy Kramer’s TV special that I first posted over a year ago.

© 2007 CBS Worldwide Inc.
[flv:/Video/2008/FEB/CronkiteBeatles.flv 440 330]

Lastly, I would like to point out that Walter Cronkite was a big fan of the comic strip Peanuts, and he wrote the introduction to volume 2 of The Complete Peanuts. Walter cried on air when John Kennedy died, he cried on camera again when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, he denounced the Vietnam War, he has a Beatles connection, and he loved Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I loved the man and everything he stood for.

Cronkite on Schulz

Cronkite on Schulz

Cronkite on Schulz

Monty Python’s Boston Radio Connection

Another Monty Python Record

On January 1, 1967, an FCC ruling went into effect that required major market radio stations — those with an FM frequency that was simulcasting their AM signal — to broadcast alternative programming at least half the time on FM. What resulted was a sweeping change in the radio business. From the late 60’s into the early 70’s, there was a shift from singles played on AM, to albums on FM.

In a way, it was timely that my family moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts only a few weeks after Herb Oscar Anderson quit 77 WABC in September, 1968, because the times had indeed a’changed. (Note: HOA’s site auto-plays audio.) Anderson was still #1 in New York, but songs such as this one drove HOA away.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/Fire.mp3]

“Fire”, a top 10 hit on AM radio in Sept. ’68, was the first song I heard on WBCN-FM in Boston, which had switched formats from Classical to Underground music six months prior to my arrival in Massachusetts. Four years later, in 1972, I heard a record on WBCN that had a huge effect on me. This is exactly the point where I picked it up…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/MontyPython.mp3]

… and after that bit I heard “The Argument Clinic” and I was hooked. Eric Idle’s Money song pre-dates the Euro, but it correctly predicted that “everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker,” because that’s the world we had until last September.

That was the first time I encountered Monty Python, and I felt as though a bullet had hit me between my ears. I LOVED those guys. And I mean I LOVED them, like they were the Beatles. But I was lucky to have heard them, because ‘BCN was just about the only place where Python had a home in America at the time. There’s an excellent little documentary called “Monty Python Conquers America” that tells of WBCN’s role in paving the way for Python. I’ve stitched together the pertinent bits.

[MEDIA=46]

I didn’t look all that different from that young DJ in the stock footage, and I know that Gates control console well from my own radio days, but it couldn’t have been BCN’s, because it’s monaural.

Something that isn’t pointed out is that before Monty Python, WBCN had played Firesign Theatre records, and I think those guys deserve credit for creating a new generation of comedy record fans. Not only that, Firesign Theatre albums were intricate and fully produced, as were the Python records, making them eminently re-listenable, like a Rock record.

The Den and Doug Show — 1976

From November 10, 1976, here I am on college radio, passing the mic over to Dennis Rogers.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/APR/DenDoug.mp3]

As good as a Jon Stewart toss to Stephen Colbert? Uh, no. Not with my awful attempt at ad-libbing. It was at that time I began my internship at the radio station in town. When I graduated it turned into a paying job, but it sure didn’t pay very much!

Glicknicks Mourn

Today there is the sad news for longtime Bostonians that Larry Glick has died. For many years Glick was WBZ 1030’s overnight radio man.

Glick was the inspiration for ‘BZ’s recently fired-and-rehired overnight personality, Steve LeVeille. Steve would have Glick on his show every so often by telephone, and I expect LeVeille will devote a lot of time next week to talking about his idol.

Segue the beguine

One of the things that came about with the rise of FM alternative album rock radio in the late 60’s was the search for perfect segues between songs. Finding that just-right combination — sometimes a tight cut, other times a fade-out going to a fade-in — was a thing of joy to a disk jockey.

Today, with streaming services like Music Choice on cable TV and TheRadio.com on the Web, if a transition between songs strikes my fancy I have no idea if it was done intentionally by a person, or by accident by a computer. The use of narrowly focused genres is, for me, really limiting. I wish every service offered a totally wide open, free-form channel. In the 60’s you’d hear Donovan followed by Frank Sinatra. Steppenwolf and Dionne Warwick, back to back. The thing that drove the all-time greatest morning man in radio, WABC’s Herb Oscar Anderson, crazy was the very thing I loved — variety, from hard to soft.

Tonight on the drive home I heard Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexico Radio” (which has always sounded to me like it was inspired by Adam Ant), and the old DJ brainwaves got going, and in my head I heard the perfect follow-up track. So I’ve put them together on the audio player.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/WallofK3.mp3]