The importance of local talk radio

[Kevin Vahey]

I remember Jack Peterson at WLLH circa 1965 when I got a GE AM-FM for Christmas.

I was told years ago by Dick Booth (Donna is he still on planet?)that
WLLH-FM and the success of WORL going Top 40 made RKO General take the
plunge with WRKO-FM which then paved the way for WNAC to flip to WRKO.

WLLH-FM (simulcast) sounded to this 15 year old as good as WMEX.
Summer of 65 WORL also sounded good and broke new music quicker than
WMEX or WBZ. I don't know if Ken Carter owned WORL yet but as soon as
WRK0 came along they became WRYT.

One WORL jock I remember was Ron Rayburn who was quite good but I
never heard him again.

On 11/23/08, Doug Drown <revdoug1@verizon.net> wrote:
> We of course couldn't get WLLH over in Ashburnham when I was growing up, but
> I used to listen to it on FM (now WCRB, I believe).  It was indeed a great
> little station, with as good a sound as some major market Top 40
> tations.  -Doug
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Watson" <markwats@comcast.net>
> To: "Don A" <donald_astelle@yahoo.com>; "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>;
> "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>; "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
> Cc: "Boston Radio Group" <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2008 7:22 PM
> Subject: Re: The importance of local talk radio
>
>
>> Don A wrote:
>>
>>> In the Merrimack Valley, people couldn't get WMEX after dark, but they
>>> had WLLH as a secondary Top 40 station.
>>
>>  WRKO's signal blankets the Merrimack Valley day & night, yet I'm sure
>> many Lowell & Lawrence area folks listened to WLLH for their top 40 fix
>> back in the day. WLLH was a great sounding top 40 for a smaller market,
>> with lots of great talent who went on to bigger places, a few names I
>> recall from the 70's: Kevin Carter, who used the air name Kevin Ryan went
>> from WLLH to Fresno, and eventually to Radio & Records where today he is
>> the CHR/Top 40 column editor. Michael Burns, who used the air name Michael
>>
>> B. today is the overnight host at Magic 106.7 (a spot he's held for about
>> 20 years now) and is also the host of "Sunday Morning Country Oldies" on
>> WKLB. Al Freeman, who was one of their news reporters (back when both WLLH
>>
>> & WCAP had fully staffed newsrooms) went on to the old Mutual Radio
>> Network, not sure where he want after that. And Eric Marenghi, who used
>> the air name Ben Franklin, went on to WSB in Atlanta and I believe a
>> station in Chicago as well. He also was on the staff of the short lived
>> WACQ 1150.
>>
>>  These folks worked at WLLH in the 70's, when there were many smaller
>> stations where talent such as the ones I've named could hone their skills
>> and make the move to the bigger markets. Today most smaller market
>> stations are either bird-fed or automated, and even major market
>> opportunities aren't as plentiful as in the past as they too are relying
>> more on voicetracking and/or longer shifts with existing staff. Just a
>> sign of the times I suppose....
>>
>> Mark Watson
>
>