Gary LaPierre Wraps Up 42 Years At WBZ

[Paul B Currier]

Ah yes, The Story Behind the Story!!

I'm constantly amazed with the insight and knowledge that is contributed by
shared by the participants of this list .

Paul Cape Cod
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Paul B Currier" <PaulBCurrier@comcast.net>
Cc: "Bill O'Neill" <me@billoneill.us>; "Boston Radio"
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: Gary LaPierre Wraps Up 42 Years At WBZ


> Paul B Currier wrote:
> > I also recall Gary filling in for Paul Harvey NEWS!  at noon some time
ago.
> > Pretty good recognition for a Mass. country boy.
>
> Therein lies a tale...
>
> Gary filled in for Harvey at least three times that I know of. The first
> couple of times, ABC paid for Gary to come down to New York and
> originate the broadcast from the ABC Radio Networks facility on West End
> Avenue, using Harvey's staff in Chicago to help him write it. I'm
> guessing Jay McQuaide would have filled in for Gary on BZ those
> mornings, but no longer recall for certain.
>
> But the third time, Gary didn't want to make the trip down to New York,
> and persuaded ABC to let him originate the broadcast from Studio E at
> 1170 Soldiers Field Road. ABC gave Gary money to hire a per diem writer
> to work with him in Boston on the broadcasts, and since I was Gary's
> writer at the time, I got to do the honors.
>
> This is one of my favorite memories from my time at BZ: standing in
> studio E with Gary and Bill Flaherty, who was engineering the ISDN
> connection to ABC in New York (brand-new technology for us at that
> point), watching the clock tick down to the start of the first feed.
> Bill was excited. I was excited. And here's the thing that still sticks
> out in my mind: Gary was excited. Here's a guy who's hung out with the
> Beatles, interviewed presidents, and had probably spent more time on the
> air by then than I'd spent alive at all - and HE's as excited as the
> rest of us at the chance to be Paul Harvey for a day.
>
> It was a good day for the boy from Shelburne Falls, and for the kid from
> Rochester, too, come to think of it.
>
> s
>