Re: this week in review....

[<umar@nerodia.wcrb.com>]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2001, Joseph Pappalardo wrote:

> I think Ron Robin went to WBZ in 1981 to do middays.....(remembering how WBZ
> management "suspended" him for not making it from P'town to Sldiers Field
> Road during a storm once.)

He did indeed. John Kosian took over as PD at WBOS until the end of the
year, when WBOS flipped to AOR.

> And I think "Maxanne"...or was it "Roxanne" had taken over WBOS in 1982 and
> made it into a rock station.  (It was the firt time I remember Hoffman
> spending any money on billboards/buscards/anything!)

No; Maxanne wasn't hired until the spring of '83. 

On January 4, 1982, the AOR format at WBOS was launched by Jack O'Brien,
who was hired from a station in Providence (WPRO-FM?). It was a close copy
of WCOZ's "kick-ass rock-and-roll" format, and lasted until July 14, 1982,
when Hebert Hoffman replaced Jack with Clark Smidt.

Clark Smidt created what may have been the first AAA format, about a
decade before its time. That format lasted until January 1983 when Clark
Smidt's contract expired. 

Mr. Hoffman then turned the station over to Jane Duncklee, who was
managing WUNR, and it ran without a program director for a few months.
Then he hired Barry Skidelsky, Esq. to manage WBOS and Maxanne Satori as
PD. Maxanne's format was alternative rock; it lasted only a few weeks. I
got the impression Mr. Hoffman was not favorably impressed by the people
Maxanne hired, most of whom sounded like college kids (but not "Rockin'
Bob" Slavin, who came from the rapidly imploding WCOZ to do middays, and
who was the last rock jock on WBOS when it went country on July 14, 1983).

> I think Ron was there for their disco format...and When Kiss came on
> gangbusters (remember that?)...WBOS segued to AC...and he was probably the
> most qualified person in the building to make a switch.  (I remember WBOS
> disco did pretty well....3 or 4 share...until Kiss 108 came on the air...)

The disco format was originally a leased time program, "Disco Notes",
hosted by Ron beginning in February, 1978. It was so popular that within a
few weeks the station went all-disco and Ron was hired as PD by then-GM
Alan ("what's yer function?") Temple.

Kiss came on in 1979, lured away Vinnie Peruzzi and J.J. Wright, and
quickly blew WBOS away. By the end of the year WBOS was down to about a
1.5 share. It flipped to AC in January 1980, I believe.

> I  recall a billboard on theHoffman Building that you could see on the X-way
> (near the Storrow exit) that said  "Wbos *IS* Boston....Stereo 93".    I
> remember that stayed up thru their Rock and Country incarnations...

It's still there, but now it promotes WUNR as "Radio International".

> Wasn't Jibguy there sometime around then...maybe he knows the time line
> better....and how long WBOS was AC before "Maxanne"     ...and what year
> Country arrived...with Dean James from WDLW...

Dean James arrived on July 14, 1983, although he had previously been on
part time as rock jock Dean Kelly. The country format lasted five years,
under three owners: Hoffman, Sconnix, and Ackerly. Granum bought the
station from Ackerly and flipped it to AAA. But that was long after my
time; I left in December 1983 to go to California (where I worked for KDON
AM/FM in Salinas for a couple of years before coming back and joining
WCRB).

> After WBZ....Ron Robin never showed up again on Boston radio....did he?

I understand that he and ex-GM Allan Johnson bought a restaurant in
Provincetown. I've not had any news of him since then.


Rob Landry
umar@nerodia.wcrb.com