Joe Smith

[Shaun Hayes]

Joe "Jose" Smith worked afternoon and evening shifts at WVDA. He was there 
during
the change in call leters to WEZE ('57 or '58).

He then moved to WMEX doing evenings. Not sure about the start
time but the program ended at 10:00 and was followed by Jerry Williams.
Arnie Ginsburg was at WBOS (1600) at the time and replaced Smith
when he moved to WILD.

The WILD show ran Sunday thru Friday with the Sunday program
dedicated to oldies with the except for one hour given over
solely to R&B which was being almost totally ignored on Top 40 radio
in Boston.

I've always wondered if the response to that hour led
to Nelson Noble's hiring of Jimmy "Early" Byrd and Wild Man Steve Gallant
not long after Smith left and beginning a format that
may be the longest-running in Boston AM radio.

Apparently the station-hopping and slot-shifting in Boston
were done to accomodate his growing record industry
involvement in New York.  Any information on that period
would be welcome.

My memory is that Smith was first president of Elektra records then
VP at Warner.  During the 70's he seemed to be pretty much
the spokesman of the recording industry.

Smith's last DJ apppearance was probably the slot he filled during
WBZ's 50's weekend in '72 or '73.

Shaun Hayes





From: Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net>
To: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>, "Boston Radio Interest" 
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Subject: Joe Smith
Sent: Sunday, July 2, 2006 12:41 PM
Early this morning, I happened on Rollye James on WPHT (1210 Philadelphia)
doing an interview (apparently live) with long-ago Boston radio personaility
(and not quite so long ago record-company exec) Joe Smith. Among the things
I learned is that Smith is a Yale alum. I gather that Smith is about my age
and is the author of several books about the record business. He sounded
just fine. The two Boston stations that James mentioned as places where
Smith had worked were WMEX and WILD. I don't recall him on WMEX. What years
did he work there? Although I DO remember him on 1260, I don't recall
whether it was WVDA or WEZE at the time. I suspect, however, that Air Trails
bought 1260 (ex WNAC) from Vic Diehm--and changed the calls to WEZE--before
I arrived in Boston around June 1 1956.