Re: Top 40 on WBZ (was First With Rock)

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

I'm not sure WBZ ever did what we might call "top-40"-- i.e., screaming
d.j.'s and tight rotations.  They gradually did begin playing more 'pop'
music-- from about 1957 when the so-called "Live Five" were hired through
the personality-deejay days of the early 60s with Bruce Bradley and Jeff
Kaye and Dick Summer, they never really rocked hard.  I have seen surveys
from that period of time, and even in the late 50s, the music walked the
fine line between pop and AC.  They did some dayparting of course-- Bruce
Bradley's night-time shows (especially the remotes from Nantasket) had more
freedom than the other shifts, but even on those, he was just as likely to
play Teresa Brewer or Kitty Kallen as he was to play something that what a
big top-40 hit.  There was a period of time in the mid 60s when WBZ seemed
the closest to a top-40, but they still had an hourly news-block, Bob
Kennedy doing "Contact", and a heavy public service commitment even then...
If anything, today we would call them 'chicken rock' or Hot AC... 

------------------------------