Joe Smith

[Donna Halper]

I don't recall that Joe Smith was ever on WMEX, although anything is 
possible.  I do recall him on WVDA in the mid 50s-- he worked a split shift 
in fact, mid-morning and then back in the afternoon. He also worked at WILD 
after his WVDA days ended (and WVDA ended too).  He got a bit of unwanted 
national notoriety in 1960, while he worked at WILD-- he was accused of 
taking payola (about $10,000 worth).  By the mid 1960s, he was at Warner 
Brothers in LA, where he rose from A&R to head of the label.  The first 
major band he signed to WB was the Grateful Dead in 1967.  Joe is a grad of 
Chelsea High (class of 1945) by the way.