that horrible BEEP

[Dan.Strassberg]

Hi, Scott: Thank you! Your answer is really cool--and totally
unexpected. How many disagreements are settled these days with both
parties turning out to be right? I believe (but am not sure) that,
after CapCities, the next owner of WROW (radio, not TV--and maybe only
AM) was WOR's John Gambling. What I don't know is whether it was John
A Gambling or John R. If I've got the initials right, John A was the
son of WOR's first morning man, John B, and father of John R, who took
over the AM-drive slot when John A retired. John R is currently a WABC
personality. I think it was John A who bought WROW. WROW (AM) has had
several New York City connections. Besides <whichever> Gambling
(owner) and Roger Bauer (Bower?) (first GM under what eventually
became CapCities), there was also former WINS DJ Geoff Davis, a
big-voiced guy who did AM drive there for several years in the '50s.

And I mustn't forget John B Gambling's Rochester connection; for many
years, John B had a very small studio orchestra, the Gamboleers, whose
conductor was Vincent Sori (not sure of spelling). As I understand it,
Sori was a Rochester native who may have taught at the Eastman school
before migrating to New York in the late teens or early 20s. I know
this because my mother was a Rochester native who migrated to New York
in the early 20s and I guess that the Rosenthals were at least
acquainted with--if not actually friends of--the Soris.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:23 PM
Subject: Re: that horrible BEEP


> A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>
>> Since I distinctly recall a later article indicating that channel
>> 19 would return to the air as part of Hudson Valley Broadcasting,
>> which I knew at the time to be WROW-WCDA-WCDB, the takeover by
>> Capital Cities could not have happened by this time.  Whether it
>> happened later, before we left the area in May 1957, I can't say
>> for sure.
>
> Oddly enough, I've just been reading an obscure little book called,
> "Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years 1954-1986: How the Minnow Came
> to Swallow the Whale."
>
> And from it we learn that Hudson Valley Broadcasting and Capital
> Cities were the same company, at least after 1954, when the existing
> (and failing!) shell of Hudson Valley Broadcasting was sold by WROW
> founder Harry Goldman to a consortium led by Frank Smith and Lowell
> Thomas. The "new" Hudson Valley Broadcasting became Cap Cities in
> December 1957, as it grew beyond Albany to acquire WTVD Durham NC
> and KTRK Houston - but it was essentially the same company from 1954
> through the eventual sales of WTEN and WROW-AM/FM and, ultimately,
> the 1986 acquisition of ABC (and the later sale to Disney.)
>
> s
>