Dick Summer reveals the REAL father of classic rock radio in Boston

[SteveOrdinetz]

At 10:46 PM 7/28/2006, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>On 28 Jul 2006 at 0:03, Glenn and Judy Spatola wrote:
>
> > If you're old enough to remember WBZ in the 60s, you're in for a rare
> > treat.  Chapter 3 of Dick Summer's Connection is a history of WBZ in
> > the 1960s--a nostalgic look at radio before mega-mergers, radio with
> > REAL air personalities--an inside story not to be missed!  Dick
> > Stadlen (AKA Rick Marshall), Ops Manager of KDAT Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
> > sent me this link Thursday afternoon.  Dick is a fellow UMass and WMUA
> > alum, and is mentioned in Chapter 2. http://dicksummer.net/my-journal/

Interesting story, though his recollection of WBZ's timeline differs 
somewhat from mine.  First of all, WBZ did not go all-news in 1968 when 
they dropped Top 40...they were various flavors of AC for many years, 
though they did add some talk at night.  He conveniently left off one of 
the contributing factors of the demise of Top 40 on 1030, and that was the 
fact that WRKO absolutely cleaned WBZ's clock in their very first book 
(spring '67)...by that autumn it was clear that WBZ's days as a rocker were 
numbered...and this was before "Alice's Restaurant" was released.

I also don't recall WBZ being especially free-form...maybe they weren't as 
tightly structured as WABC,  I really doubt that the jocks brought in their 
own records from home and played what they felt like...even back then you 
couldn't get away with that and have a 25 share.  Even in 1965/66 I 
remember one of the O'Hara's making a comment on the air about the music 
being pre-selected.  Perhaps Dick had more freedom in overnights & on 
"Subway", but I bet the rest of the jocks had a format to follow.

That having been said, WBZ was without a doubt my favorite station while 
growing up in the 60s, and "they don't make 'em like that anymore".