Brudnoy

[Donna Halper]

On 4/1/2020 11:07 AM, Ben Levy wrote:
> Brudnoy was breaking rules left and right. He used his claim of AIDS to take too many days off, taking direct sponsor money for hours on his show (such as the “It’s safe to go on Monster…” series), and calling out from the on-air line on in a way that WBZ isn’t allowed to do so now. 1999 was a rough year for all things WBZ.


Ben, I do not want to seem like I am minimizing what you went through. 
But David was my friend for 40 years, and this is not about whether he 
was a perfect human being. He could be cantankerous, he was often 
convinced only he was right, and he & I did not always agree. But the 
point of the original post was whether the folks we would put on a 
mythical monument were influential in Boston radio. And it cannot be 
denied that David made a very big impact as a talk show host in Boston-- 
in fact, thanks to WBZ's signal, he was nationally known. It broke my 
heart when he died, and I still miss him.  A lot of Boston radio 
personalities were flawed human beings, by the way. Some cheated on 
their spouses, or took payola, or couldn't stay sober, or had addiction 
issues. But most listeners didn't know that... and maybe it's just me, 
but I prefer to remember the happiness these personalities brought to 
our lives.

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