ANdrew 8-8000

[Bill Smith]

The occasional TTT host  on the CAP to whom I refer was indeed John Tucker;
Shimko did sports before CAP went automated with live-assist in the morning.
 John, known as the Voice of Mercier Bros.,  was the only non-news talent in
the building when PD Bob Dumais wasn't in to handle TTT, so he drew the
dreaded duty.

Mark Watson has a better recollection than I about the banned TTT items!

As for WBZ's call-in number, Glick had an entirely different number on the
overnight for his first several years. It was 254-5689, which he would sing
(he did try singing 254-5678, but it just didn't work). This was during the
midnight to six era (except Friday night/Saturday morning when 5:30 to 6 was
turned over to BZ Countryside, an expanded version of the daily "swell farm
 report" produced by the UMass extension service in which the local version
of Hank Kimball would interview someone from the back 40 about the latest
trends in rutabaga growing. )  Absent in many of the Glick recollections
seen lately are mentions of how he worked that shift completely solo -- no
news announcer, no producer, no screener.  He'd play a song going into the
news so he could go rip the wire, a song coming out of news , and a song
when he had to "get a drink of water."  He also made his own outgoing calls
("Let me know if you have a swell call. Westinghouse and I split the
long-distance 50/50").  He used a rotary dial phone live on-air, which meant
the entire call was live, including the initial pick-up at the other end.
This led to such things as the legendary call to Alf Landon, who was not too
pleased about being awakened and wasn't shy about expressing his views of
Glick's impertinence. The only spot during the overnight was for D-Con.
("Hey Larry, how come you only have one commercial all night and it's about
killing rats")

The show lost something when it was moved a couple of hours earlier and
became more "produced." Before that, there was a genuine one-to-one feeling
between host and listener being together in the dark of night