Talk shows through the ages

[Dan.Strassberg]

I'm pretty sure that two-way telephone talk had been tried
(successfully) before WMEX and Jerry Williams did it here. My guess is
in Philadelphia. Williams had worked there (not sure which
station--WIP, maybe) just before he came to Boston but I don't think
Jerry was doing two-way telephone talk in Philly at that time. I DO
think it's where he might have gotten the idea, though. Now, Mac and
Dickie had an AM/FM combo in the DC area (WPGC (AM) Morningside MD;
WRNC (FM) Oakland MD) at the time they bought WMEX out of banruptcy up
here, but I doubt whether they were doing telephone talk there back
then. WPGC was still a daytimer with, I think, a top-40 format. As a
daytimer, it had no night hours in which to do talk for an adult
audience and I don't think anyone was doing talk on FM yet.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
Cc: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>;
<boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>; "Keating Willcox"
<kwillcox@wnsh.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: Talk shows through the ages


> As far as phone talk is concerned many have credited Maxwell E
> Richmond with inventing the idea when he brought Jerry Williams in
> around 1957.
>
> I don't know if Mac was first ( certainly was in Boston ) but you
> got
> to admit the man was a mad genius when it came to radio. With that
> night signal they never should have been a major factor in
> Boston..but
>
> My mother listened to WHDH around the clock but when Jerry came on
> she
> would tune to 1510.
>
> On 8/28/07, Doug Drown <revdoug1@verizon.net> wrote:
>> I remember Louise Morgan very well.  She had a show on Channel 7
>> every
>> weekday afternoon.  I don't think it was at the same time as Big
>> Brother,
>> though, as 7 would have been running CBS' soap "Search for
>> Tomorrow" around
>> that time (12:30).  I think Louise was on at 1.  Gus Saunders was
>> on the
>> show with her.
>>
>> -Doug
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
>> To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
>> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>; "Keating
>> Willcox"
>> <kwillcox@wnsh.com>
>> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 3:22 PM
>> Subject: Re: Talk shows through the ages
>>
>>
>> > Donna may have more on her but I *think* the first woman show in
>> > Boston was done by Louise Morgan on WNAC.
>> >
>> > She was on Channel 7 as well I *think* at the same time as Big
>> > Brother on
>> Ch 4
>> >
>> > On 8/27/07, Dan.Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:
>> > > As I grew up in New York in the '40s, I remember Mary-Margaret
>> > > McBride
>> > > under her own name on WEAF and before that as the first (I
>> > > believe)
>> > > Martha Dean on WOR. (Mary-Margaret may even have gone on to
>> > > WABC (770,
>> > > not 880) after she left WEAF/WNBC.) Her programs certainly had
>> > > more
>> > > emphasis on cooking than shows not directed at a female
>> > > audience, and,
>> > > IIRC, her sponsors included a lot of foodstuffs and household
>> > > products
>> > > that didn't advertise much on other programs. But aside from
>> > > the chef
>> > > guests, I remember her talking with many authors of books not
>> > > strictly, or even primarily, aimed at a female audience.
>> > > Probably the
>> > > NPR talk shows On Point (Tom Ashbrook) and Fresh Air (Terri
>> > > Gross) are
>> > > the closest in content today to what Mary-Margaret covered back
>> > > then.
>> > > Although it was almost two decades before two-way telephone
>> > > talk
>> > > became technically feasible, there was A LOT of pretty decent
>> > > talk
>> > > programming in those days (at least in New York City). Tex
>> > > McCrary and
>> > > Jinx Falkenburg's AM drive show was one such program. Ed and
>> > > Pegeen
>> > > Fitzgerald's was another. Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband
>> > > (whose
>> > > name I can't recall) had a third. The last two shows I
>> > > mentioned were
>> > > on WOR. Also on WOR was the precursor of many of today's
>> > > infomercials
>> > > that tout miracle cures for everything under the sun--Carleton
>> > > Fredericks. My impression was that Fredericks bought the time
>> > > from the
>> > > station and sold the ads himself--just as in today's
>> > > brokered-time
>> > > shows. There doesn't seem to be much new under the sun--at
>> > > least in
>> > > radio.
>> > >
>> > > -----
>> > > Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
>> > > eFax 1-707-215-6367
>> > >
>> > > ----- Original Message -----
>> > > From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
>> > > To: "Bill O'Neill" <me@billoneill.us>; "Keating Willcox"
>> > > <kwillcox@wnsh.com>
>> > > Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
>> > > Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 2:40 PM
>> > > Subject: Re:
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > > Actually, these days there are a lot of things that both guys
>> > > > and
>> > > > ladies like to listen to-- it used to be that only guys liked
>> > > > sports,
>> > >
>> > >
>>
>>