WCOP (was: Boston Radio Studios)

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 2 Jun 2010 at 12:04, markwa1ion@aol.com wrote:

> WCOP was very popular at the Brackett Elementary School where some
> kids would use "rocket radios" (that didn't need batteries) to receive
> its big signal by clipping onto metal classroom desks.  That was bad
> enough for the teachers then.  Today we have iPods and smartphones -
> no wonder teachers get frustrated!

I remember having one of those.  It was actually a modern-day crystal 
set.
 
> WMEX and WBZ were of course also well-known then (ca. 1961) but WCOP
> ruled the after-school hours with the Ed Mitchell show.  He'd
> progressively slow down and "kill" songs he didn't like such as the
> weepy tragedy hit "Jimmy Love" by Cathy Carroll, where the teen girl's
> boyfriend gets zapped by lightning right before they were going to get
> married.  Mitchell inserted comedic Stan Freberg and Spike Jones audio
> clips liberally in his shows, along with sound effects - dogs,
> gunshots, trains, wolf-whistles, bedspring noises and so on - that
> seemed the same as those on a Radio Shack sound effects / stereo demo
> record I had.  How he pulled off all this sound-bite tomfoolery before
> computers and MP3 files I'll never know.  I wish I had some airchecks
> of his shows.  Ginsburg gets all the acknowledgements - and he is
> certainly due them - but few seem to remember Ed Mitchell of that same
> era.  Most likely this is because WCOP "went square" (as kids said)
> sometime in '62 or early '63 

I remember "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie MITCHELL" on WCOP.  When WCOP "went 
square" (it was in the summer of 1962), that was when I first started 
listening to WMEX.  The signal was good in Bedford in the daytime, 
but problematical at night.  And what did I hear?  The same guy who 
was Ed Mitchell on WCOP turned up as Fenway on WMEX, doing the same 
shtick!

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         http://www.attorneyross.com