Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 1/1: Standards Die, Standards Live,

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 07:22 PM 1/4/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Also...he has no commercials on his saturday p.m. show on AM-82 (WNYC) 
>
Yes, it always struck me as incongruous that Stiles, the consummate
(sleaze-bag) radio pitchman, would have a program on a non-commercial
station. I envision Stiles working the phones for underwriters and then
filling his WNYC program with "underwriting" announcements that stop a
hair's breadth short of the limits on such announcements. I figure that the
pitchman instinct runs so deep in him that he just can't stop (unless, of
course, he IS dead). But then, through the magic of radio and tape, he could
continue making those pitches for, literally, aeons.

Interesting that the late Bill Marlowe apparently learned and took on
Stiles' pitchman style. And now, it seems, the very proper (classical music
mornings on WGBH-FM) Ron Della Chiesa is under the wing of Paul
Neumann-Schlossberg, Marlowe's old "executive producer". I think this means
that Neumann-Schlossberg buys and resells the time for Della Chiesa's shows,
just as Stiles did for his WEVD show and must be doing on WVNJ. Della
Chiesa's new Saturday (evening--before MusicAmerica) and Sunday (morning)
Sinatra shows on WPLM are just filled with sleazy pitches in the worst
Stiles/Marlowe tradition. If the price of hearing my favorite music is to
have to listen to that sort of insulting advertising, I may decide (as I
mostly did with Marlowe's brokered-time shows on WRCA), that I can live
without the music.

I just read Larry Weil's post about his conversation about MusicAmerica with
the GM or PD of WBOQ. I think WBOQ must have the same ideas about Della
Chiesa's new buddy as I have. BTW, MusicAmerica, which used to run from 7:00
PM to midnight Saturdays on WPLM-FM (and WBOQ), now runs from 8:00 PM to
midnight. The Saturday Sinatra show, which used to run from 5:00 PM to 7:00
PM now runs until 8:00 PM and the new Sunday Sinatra show runs from 8:00 AM
to 11:00 AM. I don't know whether the Sunday show is simply a rerun of the
Saturday show or not.

BTW, did you know that Stiles (along with others, I believe) at one time
owned black-programmed WNJR Newark and was in all sorts of hot water with
the FCC over infractions of Commission rules. 

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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