Jay Dunn...Put the coffee on

[Dan.Strassberg]

I think the approach began at WNEW (AM) in New York back in the '40s.
The PD at that time was Bernice (Tudy) Judis, who was widely regarded
as a genious. She is credited with developing the music and news
format (later called MOR). WNEW's competition (who? WMCA? WHN? WINS? I
can't say) did news on the hour. She formed an alliance with the New
York Daily News (at the time, America's largest-circulation daily) to
run news supplied by the Daily News every hour on the half hour, and
used the starting time to subtly plug WMEW's frequency (1130); I
remember one newscast each day in particular ("1130 on your dial,
11:30 on your clock; time for News Around the Clock from America's
largest newspaper, the New York Daily News). Later, I guess people at
the station became concerned about confusion between 1130 kc (Hz
hadn't yet been invented) and 11:30AM (or PM), and the frequency was
thereafter always given as eleven-three-oh (on your dial).

WNEW had the highest-rated DJ in New York, Martin Bloch, whose
Make-Believe Ballroom ran for 3-1/2 hours a day in a split shift. As I
recall it, the mid-morning sement ran from 10:00AM to noon and the
PM-drive segment ran from 5:35 to 7:00PM. However, I'm not sure of the
times because I vaguely recall a different program starting at
11:35AM. It's possible that Bloch's mid-morning segment ran from 9:35
to 11:30AM. If so, it would have been preceded by the AM-drive show
with Gene Rayburn and Dee (Dee was short for Durwood, I believe) Finch
from 6:00 to 9:30AM.

If I'm not mistaken, in Boston during WNEW's heyday, WHDH tried very
hard to be a WNEW clone. The music policies were the same and WHDH had
a split-shift program also, although it ran later in the day than
WNEW's MBB. WHDH had Jess Cain in AM Drive, followed by (IIRC) Bob
Clayton with Boston Ballroom, then Fred B Cole in early afternoons,
and Roy Leonard (later of WGN) with the Two and Eight Date, which ran
from 2:00 to 4:00PM and 8:00 to 10:00PM. In those days, I think WHDH
ran its hourly news on the half hour, just like WNEW (although I could
be wrong--wouldn't be the first time;>(, but few, if any, of the music
programs began at :35.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@myfairpoint.net>
To: "=?utf-8?b??=" <boston-radio-interest@tsornin.BostonRadio.org>;
"Glenn and Judy Spatola" <gjspatola@q.com>
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: Jay Dunn...Put the coffee on


> You are indeed correct. BTW:  Does anyone know why 'BZ, during the
> Sixties, began and ended its daytime programs on the half-hour
> rather than the hour?  I always thought that was peculiar.   -Doug
>
>
>
> Quoting Glenn and Judy Spatola <gjspatola@q.com>:
>>
>> I know I'm a couple of weeks late on this (I've been on vacation),
>> but I am
>> absolutely certain that it was Jay Dunn who closed his show on WBZ
>> by
>> saying: "Put the coffee on, honey.  I'm comin' home."
>>
>>
>> Glenn
>>
>
>
>