Joe Smith

[Donna Halper]

And one final note on our Joe Smith conversations.  According to a long 
article in the Christian Science Monitor, 3 May 1960 p. 2, after the payola 
hearings ended, Joe Smith resigned his job at WILD, as did one other name 
from our past who was also interviewed by the committee-- Stan 
Richards.  The Monitor said WILD management insisted Smith was not fired-- 
they claimed they were tightening up their format and doing away with the 
personality d.j.'s and top 40 music.  And they said Smith had left the 
station on his own in April of 1960.

Again, I am not saying Joe never worked at WMEX, under an assumed name or 
temporarily or whatever.  I am saying he didn't start there, wasn't there 
very long, and at the time of the payola hearings, he was still at WILD by 
every account.  And his first top 40 job certainly seems to have been at 
WVDA.  After all the payola hearings and fallout from that, he left Boston 
and was working on the west coast by sometime in 1961.  So there you have 
it.