WTBS

[Aaron H Mintz <ahmintz@housing.umass.edu>]

I just joined this discussion group and am already enjoying reading it.

Tom Gamache got hired in late 60's-early 70's by a west coast WBCN type
station. He eventualy turned to comedy writing and last I heard he was
writing for a network sitcom in the 80's.

WTBS-FM was a very innovative college station in the 60's. About 
1965,they began a Friday nite show that was totally free form drawing 
very diverse requests and playing long sets of music that would begin 
with a Rubber SOul cut swing thru the Kweskin Jug Band,Hank WIlliams,Bessie
Smith,Sinatra and Cotrane in one swoop. I recall Tommy Hadges being the 
host about 1965-66 and later he went to WBCN. If you called with a 
request and it was in their library,it got played.

Little Walter(Devanne)began on WTBS about 1967 and I recall it was Uncle 
T who got him on. Uncle T would play lots of Dowop and recognized that 
Little Walter's collection was unsurpassed. He began on WTBS about 
midnite on Friday or Saturday nites.

Rock and Roll Memory Time by the mid 60's was a very innovative oldies 
show in that the rotating hosts would play sets of songs that had a 
unifying theme ie songs with the Bo Diddly beat. Peter Sheinfeld was one 
of the hosts and a fellow record collector. The name Rock and Roll Memory 
Time came from a DJ in Buffalo,Hound Dog Lorenz,who was one of the first 
DJ's to play oldies in late 50's and called his show "ROck and ROll Memory
Time".
I have an album he released in early 50's with oldies using that title.

To bring it all to present,I stole that title for an oldies show I have 
done in Western Massachusetts since 1982. Rock and ROll Memory TIme is 
heard on WHAI-FM,Greenfield,Mass., Sunday nites 6-10 and has always been in 
the spirit of the origianl WTBS show which I was weaned on.

I have lots of Boston airchecks from 50's and 60's and am always 
interested in swapping if anyone's interested. I have quite a bit of 
early network and syndicated Tv from same time period and some old Boston 
radio surveys for copying.

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