Re: memories of 'RKO

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Wed, 14 May 1997, Donna Halper wrote:

> A point of trivia-- somebody asked about when WBMS became WILD.  It was
> their owners, Bartell, which did it.  The call letters, interestingly
> enough, belonged to Bartell's station in New Orleans, which they changed to
> WYDE... this was in 1957.

I remember being rather confused by this.  We moved back to the Boston
area from Albany in May 1957, and I started listening to the dial from one
end to the other and noting the stations.  Since I didn't know about
daytimers, I missed a few by listening after they had shut down.  But
eventually, I found WBMS.  Later, I tuned to it and it was WILD.  It was
awhile before I realized that the station had changed calls.
 
> And speaking of 1957-- were any of you in Boston that year during the
> newspaper strike???  Radio did all sorts of things to compensate for the
> lack of newspapers, including the Yankee Network putting up a huge billboard
> on the Boston Common and having somebody climb up there to post news
> headlines every couple of hours...     

I learned about the strike on Rex Trailer's Boomtown.  They paused a few
times during their three-hour show for a news update by Jack Chase, who
reported the news from a news desk set up outside, near where the show was
being done, at that time in the "Rodeo arena" across the street from the
station.  Both radio and TV added a lot of newscasts to try to make up for
the loss of the newspapers.

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  A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                          617/367-0468
  15 Court Square                                       lawyer@world.std.com
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