Congrats Gil Santos

[Doug Drown]

I couldn't agree more with your post.  People like Carl deSuze, Art Amadon, 
Bob Emery --- the long-gone "late greats" among us --- deserve to be 
remembered, as well as Larry Glick, Jess Cain, Gary LaPierre, Gil Santos and 
(yes!) Sherm Feller.

As for CBS, the company does seem conflicted about its own, and 
Westinghouse's, history.  KCBS' "100th" (nee KQW) was appropriately observed 
recently, but as Dan said, WBZ-TV's 60th anniversary came and went.  I 
wonder whether WBZ's 90th will be observed in a couple of years.  It's 
interesting to note that, despite this schizoid attitude, CBS Radio, under 
the logo on its website, touts the fact that it was established in 1928.  Go 
figure.

-Doug




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>; "Dan.Strassberg" 
<dan.strassberg@att.net>
Cc: "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest" 
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: Congrats Gil Santos


> At 02:29 PM 7/12/2009, Kevin Vahey wrote:
>
>>I think the recent expressions of sadness over the death of Larry
>>Glick shows it does matter to listeners.  Boston.com had over a thousand 
>>comments on his death. Jess Cain as
>>well and he had no current station to relive his career
>
> But WBZ, like many stations, is very conflicted over remembering its 
> history.  The upper levels of CBS have this belief that "history" means 
> you are OLD and your station won't attract young people if you focus on 
> the past.  That is why many heritage stations, when they are bought by new 
> owners, give up those historical call letters-- 
> allegedly, one's history is meaningless because it won't get you any 
> ratings in the next Arbitron.  Further, sales people believe historical 
> events are not salable.  So when WBZ-TV's 50th anniversary came and went, 
> not much was done to celebrate it.  And when Gil Santos is made a member 
> of the new WBZ Radio Hall of Fame, the idea of spending money on an actual 
> event seems counterproductive or expensive.  I of course disagree with 
> these sorts of attitudes-- you don't wanna be a museum to the past or make 
> no modern improvements, but you also should not forget the great people 
> your audience may have grown up listening to.  There were generations who 
> listened to Glick, and Jess Cain, and Gary LaPierre.  It's nice to find a 
> way to let the listeners say thank-you.