Re: William Pierce of WCRB

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

William Pierce was 77 years old when he died of complications from
diabetes on September 21, 1997.  Even though you may have heard him on
WCRB a lot, I don't believe that he was ever actually a WCRB announcer,
strictly speaking.  For several decades he was a WGBH announcer, both on
radio and TV, but he turned up on 102.5 MHz regularly as announcer for
the live broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the
Pops.  I remember back in the 1970s WGBH and WCRB cooperated to provide
a quadraphonic broadcast of the Saturday night concerts.  Listeners were
encouraged to have one stereo tuner on 89.7 and another on 102.5 (with
appropriate amps and speakers, of course) for the full effect.  I can
still hear Mr. Pierce saying, near the beginning of the broadcast,
"THIS...is the LEFT...FRONT channel...and THIS...is the RIGHT...FRONT
channel..."  A detail I don't remember is whether one station got to
have the front channels every week and, if so, which station got stuck
with the rear.