Mark Evanier is helping legendary voice actor June Foray write her autobiography. She turns 90 this year! Evanier recently said he “will soon be announcing some sort of publication date, I hope.” June herself has a slightly different take on the situation. She was on WBZ radio in Boston late Sunday night, and this is what she said.
Category: Radio
Boston Talk Show Host Paul Sullivan Quits
Six months ago, longtime WBZ-Boston morning drive-time radio announcer Gary Lapierre retired. At that time it was known that WBZ evening talk show host Paul Sullivan wouldn’t be holding court forever, having had three surgeries for brain cancer that was diagnosed in December 2004.
Sullivan recently underwent a fourth operation, and today he announced that he’s quitting his show, in the time slot that was vacated by the death of David Brudnoy, also in December 2004. Previously, he had followed Brudnoy. In a letter released today, Sullivan said, “The toll my surgeries and treatments have taken on me makes it unlikely that I will ever have the energy to return to a four-hour daily talk radio program.”
Here’s ten minutes of audio from a Paul Sullivan show last February to give you an idea of his style. The topic was Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, which I’ve covered here previously.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUN07/PaulSullivanOnGore.mp3]Sullivan’s guest was from a political action committee that claimed Al Gore uses 20 times the amount of energy at his house as the average American home. [Link] The actual percentage is somewhat less than that [Link], but Sullivan ran with the number that was given to him by his guest.
At one time I’d have given Sullivan the benefit of the doubt and said he didn’t want to quibble with the details, because he wanted to focus on Gore’s apparent hypocrisy. But I’ve heard Sullivan over the years often enough to know that sometimes he doesn’t have enough facts at his fingertips.
Tonight, Sullivan was a caller to his own show, and I think that’s both funny and sad. Here’s a 10-minute clip. Note: The audio stream cuts out for a few moments in the middle.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUN07/PaulSullivanWBZ.mp3]In the radio biz, Paul is a former minor league guy who made it to the major leagues and held his own. He’s a writer for The Lowell Sun, a small city newspaper, and while he’s not as well-read as Brudnoy the college professor was, Sullivan is smart and quick, with plenty of fight, and a good sense of humor to boot. It’s a real shame that Sullivan fell ill right when he was hitting his stride.
God Bless You, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. has died. He wasn’t young, and he was way older than he had a right to be, considering he never quit smoking, but it still sucks that he’s gone. Vonnegut wrote The Sirens of Titan, a book that l enjoyed reading very much, and he wrote the wonderful TV movie called Between Time and Timbuktu. It was produced by WGBH in Boston for PBS, back when it was called National Educational Television. The movie opened with Cousin Brucie, so I had to love it. It’s not available on video, sorry to say. The show also featured the comedy team of Bob and Ray, who got their start on Boston radio. Ray Goulding was absolutely hilarious in Between Time and Timbuktu as Walter Gesundheit, a parody of the legendary TV newsman Walter Cronkite.
Low Fidelity, High Quality
Back in December I mentioned the WGBH radio program The Jazz Decades, hosted by Ray Smith. This Sunday’s show featured some noteworthy restored 1920’s recordings that are of particular interest to Smith — King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, with Louis Armstrong.
Smith rhapsodizes at length during the twenty five minutes of the program that are on the audio player, recorded off of my computer’s FM tuner. I fiddled with the dipole antenna for a few moments at the beginning, as will be obvious if you listen.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/JazzDecadesApr1-07.mp3]Not being a musician myself, I appreciate these acoustic (non-electrical) recordings more for their historical and technical significance, but Smith’s infectious enthusiasm for the virtuosity of the performances is fun to hear. Note: At one point Smith refers to 1933 when he meant to say 1923.
More with Pet and Cousin Brucie on PBS
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/PetBruce.flv 400 242]
Here’s another slice and splice with Petula Clark and legendary NY DJ Cousin Bruce Morrow from the PBS special My Music: The British Beat. I don’t actually agree with Pet’s comment that the Beatles were her big break in America. Her success was her own, of course, but if anybody deserves some credit for paving the way for Petula it was Julie Andrews, who had been in America for nearly ten years by that point. And before the Beatles the James Bond movies were hugely influential in opening up the U.S. to all things British.
Pet and Cousin Brucie Pitch for PBS
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/BritBeatBrucie.flv 400 242]
I’ve spliced together segments from My Music: The British Beat with Petula Clark and Cousin Brucie giving sales pitches for PBS. I wonder just how well known Bruce Morrow is nationally, or even in Boston where I am now?