RIP Fred Cusick

[Kevin Vahey]

I had a long conversation with Fred about those WMUR tapes.

He had used his connections with the CBC to have them patch in his
audio and also edit the tapes in Montreal and Toronto as WMUR could
not edit tapes having only one VTR.

He would leave Toronto or Montreal after midnight and drive to
Manchester to air the tape on Sunday mornings.

Toronto was actually an easier but longer drive because I 89 in
Vermont wasn't finished yet.

He finally convinced WHDH-TV to air a road game from New York on a
Saturday afternoon in February of 1966 and it achieved an enormous
rating.

The following season Fred got the games on WKBG-56 but after one
season Kaiser-Globe decided to focus on Celtics only and the Bruins
went to WSBK. Fred then was out as announcer as he was working full
time at 56 and 38 hired Don Earle.

Fred would get back the following year on WBZ and then moved to TV in 1972.

It is tragic he could not live for his induction tomorrow.