the old days: Jess Cain

[Bob Nelson]

I was recently sent an aircheck of Jess Cain on WHDH from 1967 and it
was interesting to hear how things were back then. The show was very
laid back and
he played stuff like the Ed Sullivan Orchestra and Chorus (!) doing an Irish
song; he interviewed a "leprechaun" (sounded like he was doing both voices),
and he played "Penny Lane". But not the Beatles original--it was an "elevator
music" cover of the song by Paul "Love is Blue" Mariat. (Not bad, too) I guess
the Beatles version was too hard rock for him, eh?

No uptempo jingles all the time...no constant reminders of the call letters...
brief commercial breaks and then right back into a song...laid back
morning show.

Traffic with Kevin O'Keefe and he mentioned "the end of 93"--as I understand
it, I-93 suddenly stopped a couple miles north of Boston but
eventually they linked it to the Central artery...a connection was
built but held up for a long time but when it finally opened--early
70s?--along came all that wonderful
traffic...jams. In the news, Sen. McCarthy said he felt sure that Bobby Kennedy
would be running for president and RFK was asked same question; he replied
"I wouldn't be running if I didn't think I had a chance to win". (the
newscaster quoted RFK, it wasn't an actuality from RFK)

Who would have thought he would fall to an assasin's bullet a bit over
a year later. Now, I was
5 when this aircheck was recorded so I don't remember what life was
like too much.

Oh, and a commercial for L&M. Yup, ciggie ads still legal! Well, some
on this board may be able to remember those days very well but some
weren't even born
yet (and to some I'm an old-timer...at 43! Yes I remember life before ATMs,
cellphones, microwave ovens, CDs...)

Anyway, interesting to hear a soundcheck from the old days like that
(and it was very good quality--sounded like it could have been
recent!) I have some other
old-days tapes (not many though) like one from '48, Bob and Ray on WHDH.
And how many cookies did Andrew eat? Andrew ate 8,000. :) (Same broadcast
had an ad for a harness track or some such thing on the corner of Lake
and Forest Streets in Peabody. Long gone now)

(Article: Time to elect Cain to Radio HOF:
http://www.bostonirish.com/pubnotes.html