VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 7:24 pm Post subject: OT: What the power of radio was

During The Beatles' second 1964 visit to New York City (August), they stayed at what was then the Hotel Delmonico on Park Avenue and East 59th Street. WABC radio had rented the suite directly above The Beatles' suite and used it as a remote studio. As you'll hear, DJ Scott Muni (who later brought WNEW-FM to legendary status as a pioneering Progressive Rock station) was looking out the window at the thousands of screaming Beatles fans packing Park Avenue below. Dan Ingram, on the air back at the studio (West 66th Street), had the idea to ask the fans - almost all of whom had their transistor radios with them - to sing along with a few of the station's jingles. During the first attempt, the engineer (board-o Hobo Happy

had to find the right balance between the feed from the hotel and the jingle. He got it right for the second jingle. I don't think anything like this had ever happened before and certainly has not since. A radio station having a huge following was one thing. Listeners who knew the lyrics to the jingles was something else entirely. (This recording is taken from an aircheck of Dan in the late 1970s while remembering earlier days.)

http://mike-harrison.com/vobb/WABC-BeatleFansSingJingles.mp3
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:29 am Post subject:

I'm so glad I worked in radio when radio was fun -- and equally glad I got out of radio when it stopped being so much fun.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
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Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Frank F · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:07 am Post subject:

I entered radio with this promise to myself as I was giving up a chance be an Olympian. The promise: get in and have fun, when it (radio) became work -- get out.

I had a lot of fun in radio.

F2
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Bruce · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 7:59 am Post subject:

Agreed gentlemen. Radio was a blast when I was in it. I also got to work with some of the legendary jocks of the 50's and 60's.... Perry Allen, K.O. Bailey, Chuck Browning, Rich "Brother" Robbins. The story telling and the lore was just as exciting as being on the air.

Today? meh.

B
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I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

chrisvoco · Club 300 Joined: 14 Mar 2014 Posts: 380 Location: Local

Coming from radio as well, however on the very tail end of its funness, and being the spawn of parents who met physically inside of a radio station where they worked*, this kind of thing always makes me sad.

Last evening was a good illustration. I and another parent took our cub scout den to the radio station where I used to work for a tour. Even ten years ago, I remember giving tours to cub scouts and other kids and they'd have some degree of awe about standing where their local celebrities stood, seeing the equipment, and feeling the general romance of "wow, we hear these people on the *radio*!"

Our scouts last evening - all nine years old - thought the place was cool, because of all the computers. They couldn't have cared less that the guy giving our tour was one of the morning hosts. When the poor guy asked what station they listen to in the car, the only scout to answer said, "My mom listens to Sirius XM."

* = that's "met," not "conceived".... ahem.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:06 am Post subject:

With all these comments about how much fun radio was, I couldn't resist. WABC's Program Director during their heyday was the late Rick Sklar, who had broken all rules of programming by going mass-appeal. He wanted urbanites and suburbanites, the wealthy and the not so wealthy, the mature and the adolescent. And he got them.

As ratings climbed during the 1960s, several ad agencies stopped supplying fully-scripted spots and instead provided simple fact-sheets, urging the DJs to do with them what they would. With those facts in mind, from 1969, here's WABC's PM drive master Dan Ingram, who knew exactly who he was speaking to, in a series of live spots and a quick tag.

http://mike-harrison.com/vobb/Ingram-Spots.mp3
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:28 am Post subject:

I occasionally "recycled" Ingram's material.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Lee Gordon · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 10:49 am Post subject:

Working in radio may no longer be as much fun as it used to be, but the idea of radio still has some coolness to it. On Saturday night, October 29, 2015, they commemorated the 50th anniversary of the installation of a master FM antenna on the Empire State Building by syncing the building's lights to Steely Dan's "FM (No Static at All)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfyPB1XnWLQ
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Mike Harrison · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:41 pm Post subject:

Bravo! Well programmed and photographed.

Thanks, Lee.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.