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RADIO LIVES
Well, WBZ Radio was in commercials up to 30 seconds before the new year,
but just in time, they got in there and wished everybody a happy new
year... live. It was so cool to hear real live announcers-- no offence to
Bob Raleigh or Steve Leveille or Jordan Rich who have done a great job in
that shift-- but I mean, there was an actual NEWS team on the air in the
overnight. It has been a long time since radio paid so much attention to
overnights... but for this one night, radio was important, as important as
TV, with the "big guns", the big names, the stars who report the news all
the time. I am sure Anthony Silva (and Jack too) would rather have been
out enjoying the party, but as a radio person, I must say it was wonderful
to hear them both. It's always great to hear Jack Williams (who sounds
like he was born to do radio... that friendly, natural style so reminiscent
of Larry Glick or Norm Nathan... and it was great to hear an overnight
shift with actualities, with up to the minute coverage of the non-event of
Y2K... it was like going back in time to a world where radio really was the
centre of it all and people couldn't wait to listen in. I used to work
every overnight of every major holiday-- Xmas, New Year, Easter, you name
it-- and hearing these friendly voices made me proud that some Program
Directors still understand how vital radio can be. If only we could hang
on to this-- if only we wouldn't go back to a world of satellite and voice
tracking and the impersonal way of doing things that has hurt our industry
during this decade. Tonight, everything was local, and it
worked. Tonight, we heard radio the way it can be. No, I don't expect a
Jack Williams or an Anthony Silva every night, but at one time not that
many years ago, the big names WERE on the air even during the overnights,
and local stations competed for news and for whatever big events might
occur. I hear even WBZ's PD Peter Casey was there, holding down the fort
with everybody else, in a who's who seldom seen late nights at a radio
station... and somewhere, the late great John Shepard the 3rd is smiling,
because perhaps in some small way, the concept of radio as your best friend
has been re-asserted... Happy 2000 and good health to all on the list.