Dan Donovan and House Names

[Donna Halper]

On 6/16/2019 6:41 PM, Mark Watson wrote:
> Johnny Dark seems to have also been a house name at several stations back in the day. There was a Johnny Dark on WRKO back in the 1970's, wonder if it was the same guy who was Johnny Dark at WMEX?

Funny story there. Johnny Dark was his real name-- after he changed it.  
Johnny was really Al Bennett Jr., and he got his start on WHIL as Al 
Bennett in 1953.  He came back to Boston in 1960 and had been using 
"Johnny Dark" already-- in fact, in Baltimore, he became so well known 
with that name that he legally changed it and till the day he died, he 
was known as Johnny Dark. But Mac Richmond wanted him to be Dan Donovan, 
and so he briefly did use that name.  And yes, there were at least 4 
other Dan Donovans. The one at the WROR Rock and Roll reunion that Joe 
Ross mentioned was a later Dan Donovan-- I believe his real name was Jim 
Tyrell, and he was Dan in the early 70s.


-- 
Donna L. Halper, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
Lesley University, Cambridge MA