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

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 29 Jul 2006 at 12:28, Donna Halper wrote:

> That is true to a certain extent-- daytime it was a straight-ahead
> top-40, but the overnight show always had more freedom, so Dick could
> use drop-ins (or "hacks" as they used to be called) and occasionally
> play songs nobody else on the station played, especially weird novelty
> records like "Grandpa's Grave."  ('They're removing grandpa's grave to
> build a sewer..'-- ah they don't write lyrics like that anymore.) But
> the daytime jocks also had their share of weird novelty songs too-- I
> recall Bruce Bradley using segments of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a
> Spell On You" as his favourite drop-in... Still, it's obvious the
> station used heavy dayparting and Summer probably had the most freedom
> to experiment.

I remember Bruce Bradley playing excerpts from "Grandpa's Grave" 
regularly as part of his schtick in the early 60s.  Along with his 
campaign to get people to send in their used teabags as pillows for 
underprivileged sparrows.  And profiles of the Nutley Nutritional 
High School Faculty.  When he did Dynaflow Needleman, the Drivers Ed 
teacher, I identified him with my own Driver's Ed teacher.  Dynaflow 
Needleman, however, had the distinction of having knitted his own car 
from steel wool and having been the first to drive from Boston to 
Honolulu nonstop and make all the lights.
 
> When Dick briefly programmed over at WMEX, he tried to create an AM
> version of free-form progressive in 1969, if my memory serves. It was
> called "The Human Thing", and It failed miserably.  But it was an
> interesting experiment. 
 
I remember that, and I liked it.  Too bad not enough other people 
did.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com