Re: Globe on John Garabedian

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

Don: Thanks, but if I am to believe a guy that I worked with in the 1973-1975 
time frame, you missed WESO, which I presume should appear either immediately 
before or immediately after (or even concurrently with) WMRC. This fellow had 
worked briefly in radio--I gather at WESO--and he said that he worked with John 
there. Or maybe I have the story wrong. The fellow I worked with lived in 
MetroWest (probably Framingham) and maybe while HE was working at WESO, he 
heard John on WORC.

BTW, WGTR 1060 was not the first WGTR in Massachusetts. There was one either 
just before or just after WWII. It was owned by General Tire and Rubber (or its 
subsidiary General TeleRadio) and was an FM licensed to Paxton. I gather that 
the transmitter was on Asnebumskit Mountain.

--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367

> Ok - here's the actual story on John Garabedian.  He started at WMRC (1490) in 
> Milford in 1958.  Moved on to WORC as Johnny Gardner in the early 60's. By 1964 
> he was at WMEX as Johnny Gardner, doing 1-5AM.  He followed Jerry Williams and 
> switched off with Fenway (Jack Gale, I believe, was Fenway at that time).   
> 
> In 1965 he left to go to WPTR in Albany.  By 1969 he was back at WMEX doing 
> afternoon drive as John H. Garabedian.  Dick Summer, I believe, was PD at the 
> time.  WMEX called itself "The Human Thing."
> 
> By 1971 John had become PD at WMEX.  The ID featured "Also Sprach Zarathustra" 
> from the "2001: A Sapce Odyssey" soundtrack with John's VO "Changes...and you 
> have found the new....music!"  WMEX either beat or put a big dent in WRKO that 
> year.
> 
> Mac Richmond died, and Bob Howard came up from WPGC to run WMEX.  It was Bob who 
> fired John in late 1971.
> 
> In early 1972 John became National PD (there's a title you never hear anymore!) 
> for Knight Quality Stations.  He was simultaneously working on the launch of his 
> own station, WGTR (1060) in Natick.  
> 
> WGTR went on in November, 1972.  The call letters were inspired by a combination 
> of WPTR (he always liked those calls) and a billboard on Route 9 in Southboro 
> for a tire made by General Tire & Rubber called the GTR Grabber.
> 
> John ran WGTR from 1972 until 1982, when he sold it to Pat Whitley. He had also 
> put on an FM station on Nantucket, and got a CP for a UHF TV station in 
> Marlboro.
> 
> He did some part-time on-air work at Kiss 108 and WBCN.  During that period he 
> sold the Nantucket station for a big profit and went to work on launching V66. 
> 
> When Pat Paxton came along looking for a local outlet for Home Shopping Network 
> he paid big bucks for V66.  John used that money to launch City FM and 
> SuperRadio.  I go could on for another five pages.          
> 
> One of these days I'll share the story of how John Gareabedian had a national 
> copyright on the phrase "on-line" back in 1973.