The Mount Rushmore of Boston Radio

[Andy Leckart]

Gerry Williams, Gary LaPierre, Laquidara, Arnie Ginsburg?
It's just too hard.....like trying to do the Rushmore of Boston sports.
There's always someone left out, but that's the fun of it.

*Andy Leckart*



On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 11:30 AM Alan Tolz <atolz@comcast.net> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I haven’t replied to any messages for a while but I’d like to chime in on
> this Mount Rushmore of Boston Radio premise.
>
> 1) Arnie Ginsberg - As an influencer and night-time DJ in an era when
> there were limited entertainment options, he was king among the “transistor
> radio under the pillow” demo.
>
> 2) Jerry Williams - I have a personal bias here (I co-authored his bio
> with Steve Elman) but even if I didn’t, I’d step back and see that he
> created the telephone - talk format in the early ‘50s, brought it to Boston
> in 1957 and immediately had 50+ shares of audience when there was NO
> late-night TV.
> He was an activist, using radio to generate political change in varying
> degrees for 40+ years off and on in Massachusetts from Boston radio
> stations.
>
> 3) Mac Richmond - He’s how and why the “top two” got their start in Boston
> radio as co-owner of WMEX.
>
> 4) Charles Laquidara - as a creative genius and DJ during the early and
> salad years of WBCN, the Boston radio station that defined a generation.
> All things BCN flowed from Charles on down, including Oedipus, who was
> originally an intern on Charles’ “Big Mattress”.
>
> There are others worthy of the “4” spot...Gary LaPierre, Matt Seigel, Dan
> Griffin, Clark Smidt, Alan Dary, Larry Glick...but it seems that when radio
> in a post-TV world was king, these four either defined it, created its
> content, and/or owned and operated it better than anyone else in Boston.
>
>
>
>
> Sent from an I-thing
>
> > On Mar 31, 2020, at 9:42 AM, Ben Levy <LostCluster@lostcluster.me>
> wrote:
> >
> > Uh, Brudnoy doesn’t deserve any honors. Remember how that show shut down.
> >
> > Sent from Mail for Windows 10
> >
> > From: Doug Drown
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 2:47 AM
> > To: Boston Radio Group
> > Subject: The Mount Rushmore of Boston Radio
> >
> > A coronavirus diversion with which to have a little reflective fun:
> >       One of the regular respondents to the New York Radio Message Board
> > challenged his fellow respondents this past weekend to each come up with
> > four nominees for a Mount Rushmore of New York Radio Personalities.  He
> > laid down two requirements:  the nominees have to have been part of New
> > York radio between 1960 and the present; each of the four has to
> represent
> > a specific genre (DJ, newscaster, sportscaster, meteorologist, talk host,
> > et al.), with no overlapping --- one can't be nominated to represent two
> > categories.
> >       His main criterion is that persons nominated be *influential ---
> *not
> > necessarily in terms of popularity or longevity of service (though those
> > can be factors), but overall excellence such that they were, or are,
> > "cutting edge" --- ground breakers whose presence on the air in some way
> > significantly influenced the broadcasting industry and/or the wider
> culture
> > of the city or region: people whose singular gifts will long be
> remembered.
> >       Let's give this a try with Boston radio personalities.
> Participants
> > may name a nominee and a runner-up in each category.
> >       I haven't lived in eastern Massachusetts in many years, but here's
> > my list:
> >       DJ:  Arnie Ginsburg, Jess Cain
> >       News:  Gary LaPierre
> >       Sports:  Bob Lobel, Gil Santos
> >       Weather:  Don Kent
> >       Talk:  Jerry Williams, David Brudnoy
> >
> >        Your turn.
> >
> >        Doug Drown
> >
>
>
>