50th anniversary of talk radio in Boston

Dan.Strassberg dan.strassberg@att.net
Tue Apr 22 16:02:26 EDT 2008


There is a celebration at Barnes and Noble in Kenmore Sq on 4/29. But
the question is whether it is being held in the wrong year. I think
Jerry Williams started on WMEX in 1957--not 1958. Can anyone either
confirm this or definitively shoot me down? Also, of course, what is
being celebrated is NOT the beginning of talk radio in Boston but the
beginning of two-way telephone talk radio in Boston. Years before
Jerry arrived in town, Sherm Feller was doing talk radio in
Boston--although the listeners could not hear the caller's side of the
conversation; Sherm had to repeat what the caller had said. Others
were doing similar programs elsewhere--Jerry Gray and Jack Eigen in
New York--to name only a couple. And if you include talk shows in
which the person conversing with the program host was in the studio
rather than on the phone, I imagine you have to go all the way back to
the twentires.

Oh, well, if I'm right that Jerry started on WMEX in '57, this won't
be the first or the last radio-related anniversary celebration to take
place in the wrong year.

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



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