WOR-AM HAS PASSED AWAY

[alocispepraluger102]

http://aloc102.blogspot.com/2012/08/wor-am-has-passed-away.html

one of the staples of am radio, WOR-AM, 710 on the dial in nyc, has passed away.

to a radio station, being purchased by the conglomerate clear channel is a fate worse than death.

john gambling in the morning for near 85 years on the radio is certainly notable.

WOR_(AM) history

in the late 50s and early 60s, and generations before, radio was once a big factor in our lives. portable radios became popular, and with the advent of the tiny transistor and earphones, they would fit under any pillow.

my 2 favorite radio programs were, and still are, monologist humorist jean shepherd's nightly half hour shows in the late 50s -early 60s, on WOR, followed by the midnight to 6am talk show, long john nebel.

i have heard 6 hour shows with not 1 commercial interruption.

john went down the dial to wnbc, and they cut him up and quartered him. it wasn't the same.

they began a tradition with me. to this day, there is always an am radio playing somewhere in the house whenever i go to sleep, but there will never be another jean shepherd, long john nebel, nor wor-am playing.

the jean shepherd wor theme. shep was an accomplished kazoo player.

Edited August 14, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[Pete C]

I was one of those kids with Jean Shepherd under the pillow. I suspect he's one of the reasons I became a writer. I read In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash as an 11-year-old.

http://jeanshepherdpodcast.blogspot.com/

Edited August 14, 2012 by Pete C

[jazztrain]

Flick lives! But WOR doesn't.

  On 8/14/2012 at 8:36 PM, Pete C said:

I was one of those kids with Jean Shepherd under the pillow. I suspect he's one of the reasons I became a writer. I read In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash as an 11-year-old.

http://jeanshepherdpodcast.blogspot.com/

[alocispepraluger102]

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THX. FOR THE AMAZING LINK.

JERRY

when in san fran in 1966, i heard a radio station carry his nightly's. to some degree, shep was on a network.

Edited August 14, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[mjzee]

Sigh. WOR-AM came into my life in the early-90's. I was really sick of FM rock radio, felt I had long outgrown it, but needed a radio station to wake up to. I couldn't listen to jazz because the stations generally played instrumentals and the DJ's were too laid back, so it wouldn't wake me up. I discovered the morning show on WOR-AM, a team called Fitzsimmons and Rosenberg. Fitzsimmons was the garrulous, genial Irishman, and Rosenberg was the humorous Jew (sound like a different thread here?). They played Sinatra, Dino, and Tony, and were great to wake up to. RIP, WOR.

PS: I think WOR was one of the first, if not the first, radio station in the country. And, of course, it wasn't the same John Gambling on all those 85 years, rather him, then his son, then grandson.

[JSngry]

KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first (1920) "offical" radio station in America. I used to be an "old time radio" geek (when I was 14...talk about a misspent youth...) , so this was one of The Things You Had To Know. That & Herbert "Oh The Humanity" Morrison.

WOR hit in 1922.

We started getting Jean Shepherd in Dallas when we got a public/NPR (don't think it was called that then, though) radio station. 1974 (yeah, it took that long...). The captivation for me was immediate.

The guy actually made some "comedy records" back in the day, at least one of which made CD reissue. Worth looking for, for real.

[alocispepraluger102]

in the 60s, shep did a serious show (all of his shows were serious) about how presidents were becoming tv movie personalities and that presidential elections would be based on who was the best/better tv actor.

this was well before ronnie reagan.

Edited August 15, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[Pete C]

  On 8/15/2012 at 3:18 AM, JSngry said:

The guy actually made some "comedy records" back in the day, at least one of which made CD reissue. Worth looking for, for real.

& lest anyone forget, he's the narrator on Mingus's The Clown.

[alocispepraluger102]

  On 8/14/2012 at 8:36 PM, Pete C said:

I was one of those kids with Jean Shepherd under the pillow. I suspect he's one of the reasons I became a writer. I read In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash as an 11-year-old.

http://jeanshepherdpodcast.blogspot.com/

christmas came early this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

those are downloadable!!!!!!

shep and i are going to log many miles and hours on the treadmill and trails with our cameras!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thx.

Edited August 15, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[Pete C]

By the way, the weeknight studio shows were good, but it was the 2-hour Saturday night live gigs at the Limelight club in the village that really did it for me.

[medjuck]

  On 8/14/2012 at 7:15 PM, alocispepraluger102 said:

[

john gambling in the morning for near 85 years on the radio is certainly notable.

How old was he when he started? And ended?

[Pete C]

According to a search, it was 3 generations of John Gamblings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Gambling

Edited August 15, 2012 by Pete C

[alocispepraluger102]

  On 8/15/2012 at 9:45 PM, Pete C said:

According to a search, it was 3 generations of John Gamblings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Gambling

there were at least 3 wor john gamblings, dating from 1926. wor, for decades, had the oldest demographics in the business.

[jeffcrom]

I predicted that WOR would fail when they fired Bob & Ray in 1976. And look - 36 years later, I'm proved right.

[alocispepraluger102]

  On 8/15/2012 at 11:59 PM, jeffcrom said:

I predicted that WOR would fail when they fired Bob & Ray in 1976. And look - 36 years later, I'm proved right.

did wor carry bob and ray???? they were an nbc(wnbc) entity, as i recall.

[jeffcrom]

  On 8/16/2012 at 1:03 AM, alocispepraluger102 said:

  On 8/15/2012 at 11:59 PM, jeffcrom said:

I predicted that WOR would fail when they fired Bob & Ray in 1976. And look - 36 years later, I'm proved right.

did wor carry bob and ray???? they were an nbc(wnbc) entity, as i recall.

B & R did the afternoon drive time show at WOR from 1973 to 1976. I didn't know this from listening at the time - I've never lived in NYC. But I've got lots of recordings (legitimately licensed and otherwise) from their WOR days. I love the daily episodes of "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife." At the end of each episode, Bob would say, "Tune in tomorrow, when you'll hear [one of Ray's characters] say: ____" Ray would come up with something off the wall, and the next day's episode would be based on that.

Edited August 16, 2012 by jeffcrom

[alocispepraluger102]

  On 8/16/2012 at 1:18 AM, jeffcrom said:

  On 8/16/2012 at 1:03 AM, alocispepraluger102 said:

  On 8/15/2012 at 11:59 PM, jeffcrom said:

I predicted that WOR would fail when they fired Bob & Ray in 1976. And look - 36 years later, I'm proved right.

did wor carry bob and ray???? they were an nbc(wnbc) entity, as i recall.

B & R did the afternoon drive time show at WOR from 1973 to 1976. I didn't know this from listening at the time - I've never lived in NYC. But I've got lots of recordings (legitimately licensed and otherwise) from their WOR days. I love the daily episodes of "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife." At the end of each episode, Bob would say, "Tune in tomorrow, when you'll hear [one of Ray's characters] say: ____" Ray would come up with something off the wall, and the next day's episode would be based on that.

that opens an unknown, to me, chapter. with their huge library of skits from nbc, i would expect at least some of the wor material to be rewrites. very very few folks are THAT creative.

[Pete C]

Lots of Bob & Ray available on archive.org. Some Stan Freberg too.

[jazztrain]

I worked in New York City one summer during that period and would occasionally get a ride home with my dad during which we'd listen to Bob & Ray. Many of my lunch hours were spent pursuing the stacks at Sam Goody and King Karol.

  On 8/16/2012 at 1:18 AM, jeffcrom said:

  On 8/16/2012 at 1:03 AM, alocispepraluger102 said:

  On 8/15/2012 at 11:59 PM, jeffcrom said:

I predicted that WOR would fail when they fired Bob & Ray in 1976. And look - 36 years later, I'm proved right.

did wor carry bob and ray???? they were an nbc(wnbc) entity, as i recall.

B & R did the afternoon drive time show at WOR from 1973 to 1976. I didn't know this from listening at the time - I've never lived in NYC. But I've got lots of recordings (legitimately licensed and otherwise) from their WOR days. I love the daily episodes of "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife." At the end of each episode, Bob would say, "Tune in tomorrow, when you'll hear [one of Ray's characters] say: ____" Ray would come up with something off the wall, and the next day's episode would be based on that.

[Pete C]

What, no Korvette's?

[jazztrain]

E.J. Korvette! Haven't thought about them in years. I don't remember shopping there for records at that time.

  On 8/18/2012 at 4:56 PM, Pete C said:

What, no Korvette's?

[Pete C]

Urban legend had it that E.J. Korvette's stood for eight Jewish Korean War veterans.

[Brownian Motion]

  On 8/19/2012 at 3:17 PM, Pete C said:

Urban legend had it that E.J. Korvette's stood for eight Jewish Korean War veterans.

[Eugene Ferkauf] also made no secret of how he came up with the name E. J. Korvette. The “E” comes from the first letter of his first name, the “J” from that of Joe Swillenberg, an old Tilden friend who became a top company executive. Korvette is a deliberate misspelling of corvette, a reference to a class of naval ship, not the car.

The name does not, as urban (or perhaps suburban) legend has it, refer to “eight Jewish Korean War veterans.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/business/eugene-ferkauf-founder-of-e-j-korvette-chain-dies-at-91.html