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.
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]The Boston Globe finally has a feature article about the return of WBZ AM 1030’s previously laid off overnight man, Steve LeVeille.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/02/08/this_time_the_listeners_were_heard/
Another departure from WBZ, but a permanent one, is longtime sports announcer Gil Santos, who retired at the end of January. Last week LeVeille, basking in the well-deserved glory of his triumphant return to Boston’s airwaves, saluted Santos.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/LeVeille.mp3]Here’s the great news:
Friends:
Exciting news! I just got off the phone with Program Director Peter Casey–Steve will be back on the air in his old time slot starting Sunday!
See WBZ’s front page story: http://wbz.com/Steve-LeVeille-and-Lovell-Dyett-to-return-to-WBZ/3735627
Wanted to make sure you got the story ASAP! Thanks for all of your hard work!
I’ll “‘BZ-ing you!”
Ben Goodman
BringBackSteve.com
I’m ashamed to admit that Steve’s own comments about his departure took the wind out of my sails about the chances of his return to the Boston nighttime airwaves. Thanks go to Ben Goodman for hanging in there!
Having recently lamented the demise of the Steve LaVeille Broadcast on WBZ AM in Boston, driving home tonight I was further dismayed to flip between the Boston and Providence oldies FM stations and hear the same songs. They’re both carrying a syndicated show with Tom Kent.
There’s a brief interview with Boston radio personality Steve LeVeille in today’s Boston Herald:
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/?p=712
“This is the nature of the business,” said LeVeille, noting that there’s been a lot of layoffs at CBS over the last year-and-a-half. “It wasn’t any big surprise.”
As for his next gig, LeVeille told MediaBiz he’d like to host a morning show in Boston and he plans to hire an agent.
Another version is on this page, that can also be found on Steve’s website.
He doesn’t want his old job back? LeVeille wants a morning gig. I’ll take him at his word and assume he’s not just being a nice guy.
