CHAPTER FOUR: 1962 – June 1964
The Radio DJ;
Girls; A Break in TV; Girls;
and finally - Graduation;
These two and a half years were an absolute turning point in my life. I was working in the radio newsroom as basically an intern making at the time minimum wage ($1.25 an hour) in case you've forgotten. Some days, I simply couldn't get enough of the research, the finer points, getting an education in reality and real life from Jack, but even on so many of those days, wanting so much to be "on the air" as a DJ with anything as a guest host to my own show, it didn't matter. I was balancing school, studies, oh these sisters were great in giving out homework assignments and projects, all the football games on Saturday's, a few after football parties, other activities, a few more parties and even studying on my own occasionally about what I perceived was where life was taking me. I think they called that daydreaming, and I was ready to go for the ride.
In those last two years especially, I really came to see and focus on the ladies I believed were destined to become girlfriends, certainly and perhaps even more down the road.
I'm sure we have all been there and some a lot earlier than their junior year. Well, I had a fair amount of favorites, a couple of Diane's, a Janet, a Roberta, a Lorraine, and others, just not as serious considerations for more than a few days or a week or two at the time. It was a fairly impressive list I thought and there were a few away from school as well.
Judy topped the list at the time. She worked for a record store in New Bedford, I spent a large amount of my free time there, not buying much of anything. We had a complicated sort of relationship that you'll hear about later. I think I must admit that on the road of life, it was largely a one-way street and somehow I was always going the wrong way.
I don't know if it was ordained or not but in January, in fact January 1st, 1963, a new television station was to open and it happened to be right next door to the radio station at the time. Channel 6, WTEV, were the call letters then, New Bedford – Providence. Today it's WLNE as there is another station now called WTEV I think in the mid - west. In those days, position in a market was everything to any station for advertising revenues certainly and position on the hot or largest 100 areas in the USA. So by listing Providence along with New Bedford where the station was actually located, they could say they were in the double digit markets. Had it just been New Bedford, they would have been lost and essentially ignored in the triple digit markets.
But the studios were in New Bedford and all the programming, live and otherwise was done from there.
I believe it was February or March when they got the TV news department organized. Jack our News Director got the nod to be the director of TV News just next door.
So now I am wondering, is now the time to push and get into "on air" radio? It didn't take long to decide so I made the rounds when it seemed like the right time and place. There were quite a cast of characters then at WNBH Radio a lot of comings and goings among the managers and the DJ's. Dan was one manager in my relatively short time there, a very nice person, not pretentious and I think he also while not saying so was looking out for me overall.
Perhaps you remember President Kennedy's project in this period called the 50-mile hike. Well, one of our full time newsmen, Cliff decided that it would be great if the radio news department challenged the TV news department to do just that. Not a whole lot goes on in essentially small town news departments sometimes otgher than the usual board meetings, elections and the like and even they are infrequent at best. So it became a perfect fit.
Hey, If there is no sensational or breaking news to cover naturally, you make some, and that's exactly what happened. The TV station had about 40 people employed and we had about 12 in the entire station. But Cliff was determined and so it was. He and I from radio news, challenging anyone in TV next door to beat us on this "hike"
They rounded up five people, we had the two of us and the entire project took on a life of its own. It was covered on radio and TV and in the local newspaper, the Standard Times, also owned at the time by the same group. Cliff decided we needed to be properly "trained" for our "mission" and had us on a special diet for a week prior to the event. The morning arrived and at 8:00 AM, there we were, all seven of us. Ready to begin from the city hall in Marion, Massachusetts and make the walk to the steps of city hall in Providence, Rhode Island. It was just a shade over 50 miles in total but I remember thinking it felt like it was in a galaxy, far, far away, just before we got underway. But, get underway we did occasionally with a local police escort and a few cars giving horn encouragement as they passed headed for the city. Right about noon we reached New Bedford and the station. There we were, Cliff and I consuming only "energy tablets" as we walked now being "interviewed on the Noon News by our only other newsman, Bob as we lay on the floor with our feet elevated, as Cliff explained to help our overall circulation.
Neither team made the 50 miles, but the two radio guys won but decided to call it a day after we reached Somerset, Massachusetts about 30 miles as darkness approached and with the traffic headed for the Rhode Island capital, became a little dangerous. The TV crew made it to about 17 miles. We won that was all that really mattered.
About a week later, Dan, the radio station manager got promoted to a good position at the newspaper in town, the Standard Times and we got a new manager about a week later named CAL. Cal believed he was a full confederate colonel in the southern confederacy and had the uniform to prove it.
Oh yes, radio and TV occasionally can have quite a cast of characters, no matter how big or small the station. Without going into detail, you can imagine how this was perceived and went over with the staff from the sales department to the news department as well as the "on-air" staff.
Cal had no real favorites, well, besides himself (in my opinion (and I am sure eleven others.) As it turned out, his tenure as radio station manager was relatively short. He did however manage to fire the one DJ I was working with.
That as it turned out opened the door to opportunity and being me I walked right through.
In those days in the media business, maybe many businesses if you saw an opening and took more than a minute to think about it to be honest, more often than not that door closed.
It was and my guess, still is, a VERY competitive job even in the small local stations. The pay, certainly back then was lousy, but you could be a celebrity and to many, that was just as good.
So be it, an interim "Triple T" host was put in the job with the understanding he wanted to be an engineer not a DJ, so once again I got to play second fiddle in the band. We became good friends and in short order he asked and recommended to our new manager and program director he thought I was ready to give it a go alone. That was real music to my ears. I was going to be the next evening radio show host come hell or high water. I learned from him, I practiced, I was ready and on October 19th, 1962, the job was mine.
Now in the control room, the main studio where the show originated were the broadcast transmitters. We had to take power readings quite often in a logbook which was all a part of the DJ's Job. In those days.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) inspectors, could show up at your station without any notice and check the readings, the logbooks, do their own measurements, whatever, and pity you if they were incorrect or worse not up to date. You could lose certification or even your operator's license if the infractions were numerous or there were too many and they were the ones that decided. Excuses carried very little weight.
There was also an outlet for a light bulb, truly, the biggest one I had ever seen (200 watt) on the top of the transmitter closest to the announcer area so it was clearly visible to the "on air" DJ.
I thought it might be a special light that would illuminate the control room in the event of a power failure. That made the most sense. So, I asked about it because it was my full intention to learn it all, know it all and eventually replace the temporary person who had the job I knew I was destined for.
He told me that it was a network alert light and had no function other than to do just that. If the network we used for news, ABC at the time, ever needed to alert us to anything, wanted us to interrupt our programming for a mandatory announcement that MUST be broadcast, it was for that one purpose.
But he also told me not to worry about it because it had never gone off to his knowledge and other than that one purpose was not anything to worry about.
Don't get ahead of me now. So, finally the break I wanted. I was offered a try as the main host of the three - hour show and of course eagerly accepted.
I had arrived. I mean I had celebrated my 18th birthday just a month before and was in the last year, a senior in high school, my entire life plan was quite possibly before me. What could possibly be better than this I asked myself.
The first two nights went pretty well, I mean a very few minor miss-steps, hardly even noticeable mainly with cueing of records, singles or LP's and albums to the song you wanted to play with just seconds to spare. Dead air as they called it was an absolute "no-no." That as it turns out happens to many DJ's much more often than they would ever admit. But when your new in the game, it is un-nerving at best and a pure source of panic at worst. But you get used to it.
8:00 PM on night three and now I really have the hang of it when suddenly, the alert light I told you about above, the one that never went off; DID!
Two hundred watts of sudden light is both surprising when you have no warning, control or immediate understanding of what on earth was or is happening.
It was so bright, but make no mistake, it got your immediate attention.
But, in just a couple of seconds, I did as was instructed, put the network pot control in the cue position to listen off air to what the network wanted. Trust me, I will never forget the words and this is word for word exactly what I heard, while the people listening to the on air program were just hearing the song actually playing. This was the verbatim announcement.
"ALL stations, all stations, this is ABC News in New York. The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, will address the nation in 30 seconds. Repeat, the President of the United States will address the nation in 30 seconds. ALL STATIONS WILL CARRY….repeat….ALL STATIONS will carry.
Needless to say, this was an oh my God moment.
Looking closely at the second hand on the clock at ten seconds prior I slowly brought down the music and said that a news bulletin from ABC News was next.
It was an announcement that Russian ships were approaching the blockade set up by the Navy in international waters near Cuba: President Kennedy clearly and distinctly said he was ordering the Navy to intercept the ships, board and inspect them for carrying missiles or weapons of any kind if they tried to breach the blockade. I remember thinking, Good Lord, my third night on the job and we are about to begin World War three. Definitely a "why me" moment.
I called Jack the news director and he said. Yeah, I heard it, it was on TV too and I'm on my way in. A grand sigh of relief to say the least. Well, the ships as you know actually stopped and no boarding happened. But there were a few tense hours that passed as the two countries were playing a dangerous game of chicken so to speak.
Things got back to normal fairly quickly after that scare and the rest of the year passed without incident.
It is now 1963, the senior prom, graduation, and all those normal things are just around the corner. In March, I get a call from Jack who wants me to come see him at the TV station next door. So over I went, and he tells me that he wants to offer me an internship at the TV Station in news. Bingo. my break into TV. It wasn't an on the air position unless there was a story he might want me to cover.
Well, it didn't take long to decide. Radio was great, I had over six months "on the air" at that time, but TV suddenly became the ultimate goal.
I was working with a staff news photographer named Ira, and we were out basically covering the more mundane stories of the day. in those days, everything was on 16mm film which had to go back to the station, be developed, edited and ready for the 6 PM news. So our days on the beat so to speak ended by 4 PM. I did not get to do what they called a voiceover, (announcements over film) as I recall, Stories that had video film ran and the newscaster read the scripts over that.
Well you may remember the loss of a Texas Tower in that year in one of these severe "nor'easters" all 19 men were lost. Here it is June, 1963 and one more "nor'easter" is barreling up the coast from the Carolina's. Ira was the photographer that volunteered to go and I got the nod if I wanted the story from Jack Another break, a real story. It took me about a micro second to decide. Of course the guy from Murphy's Law wasn't very far behind.
it was also PROM NIGHT at Bishop Stang High. Yes, the night of the Senior Prom. I had planned to go but solo but I didn't have a date anyway so I reasoned it really didn't matter.
I had asked I think two or three young ladies and they either were already spoken for and one just said no thanks. When I looked at my senior class photo, many years later, I understood. I would have gone with me either.
We were briefed on the way to the New Bedford airport as to what was about to happen. As it turned out, we were going to be joined by a helicopter from somewhere in New York who would land on the tower and take the men off.
Problem was, the aircraft we were going to fly in had the only radio on the frequency to communicate with the platform just off the Massachusetts coast. I called my mother and immediately got an earful. She asked if I was trying to get killed in the job or something. Oh yes it was a clear rendition of the riot act, no doubt about it tempered with, well good luck and be careful. Ira and I boarded the Piper Apache, twin engine aircraft about an hour later and off we went. Headed out to sea to the location of the tower. The further away from the coast we flew, the worse the weather became. It started
almost from the minute we left the ground. When we actually got to the vicinity of the tower, the visibility was so bad we could not see it, the ocean below or the sky above.
All we could do was fly over it a time or two. Same for the helicopter.
There was no visibility for the helicopter to approach or land on any platform that small in what was becoming a fairly high wind and a lot of rain. The whole project had to be abandoned after about 40 minutes and about 11:30 PM we were back at the station.
When driving back from somewhere on another story, we listened to the police radio in the station car to see if there was anything worth covering on or near where we were traveling. Ninety-five percent of the time there was not much going on so we did the assigned job and back to the station we went. But we did get one that I clearly recall and at the time we were less than a mile from where it was unfolding.
I'll never forget this one of a robbery that had happened a few moments earlier. A fellow, identified as the perpertrator of a store holdup was being chased by a couple of police, as it turned out back to his mother's house. We were almost the first there actually, now several police cars came along, the neighbors gathered as well of course and we did as well being just a minute from the location when the call came over the scanner. As we were standing on the property about ten feet from the street in a rather large open back yard, the man ran out his parent's back door and made a dash behind a permanent, rather large stone grill in the yard.
From behind the grill, we heard "they'll never take me alive, I'm not going back to prison."
We had found out that while the robbery was a felony, it was really not that serious. Had surrendered as police on a bullhorn insisted several times, he might have gotten a maximum of two years. He didn't.
A policeman on the scene, fired a warning shot in the air. To this day I don't know or understand why. Then, we heard another shot. It was over.
Graduation from Bishop Stang High School was next and that went off without a hitch. I had my diploma, I would like to say I was near the top of the class but that would be a stretch beyond belief. As the poem goes, it was no more teachers, no more books, no more sisters scolding looks. But that was not destined to last long. Somehow, with two boys, just two years apart, the Air Force recruiter was essentially camped on my father's doorstep. They had apparently become good friends.
Technical Sergeant Conboy nearly daily refrain was saying time and again, he'd better sign up or the Army will send him a letter any day now, draft him and then it's too late, I can't help him after that.
In one particular office interview, I was told about the excellent Air Force food, comfortable beds, great schooling and the almost civilian like atmosphere after the first year or 18 months compared to any of the other services.
Well, the last one as it turned out to be closest to the truth. The first ones were total fiction, obviously in some alternative universe he had created.
As it turned out about a month later I was given a chance to be on a live afternoon TV show for a segment that was to be done with the USAF Thunderbirds who were at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod for a weekend performance. We were to be in in part two of the program for a 15- minute segment.
The first segment was with a person who had won first place in a major baking and cooking show. There was a cooking kitchen set where she would demonstrate the winning recipe and of course one was already ready to show as time was short.
That day as it turned out, the station was having a new silent fire alarm system installed. Should a fire break out anywhere in the station the fire department would get an automatic notice and dispatch the fire crews to the station.
Now don't get ahead of me again, but sure enough, I was on one set with four of the USAF Thunderbird pilots as we watch the live performance on the set just adjacent. Suddenly the main huge studio door just burst open and two fully dressed firefighters walked in and was caught on camera while we were just stunned in disbelief. He saw he was on the live monitor so he waved and said, OK, "where's the fire." Murphy's Law could not have planned it any better. Everyone in the station had been alerted to the installation. The fire department in New Bedford had not. The installer had forgotten to do that. Live television can be fun.
I am not sure to be honest how we got through the next segment of the show with a straight face. The delay had ended the first segment and cut about three minutes from ours but we did as if nothing had happened.
Some internship so far don't you think? Well it was here I wanted to be the local weatherman on TV, even just weekends would be OK because they had hired a weekday, part-time meteorologist, a civilian forecaster named Al, from Otis Air Force base on the Cape.
In October, now nearly four months out of high school, and promising the Air Force I would join in June of 64, I was giving another chance to excel.
You see, doing these things I was doing certainly doing them, especially, at my age, maybe especially at my age, were very uncommon certainly in the TV business. Back then, the belief was, who was going to trust or believe the credibility a young person as a reliable source that was so young.
I never really thought about that to be honest as in any moment, on any job, event or story, we simply gave no thought giving no thought to the historical significance of what it is, was or may become. We were simply doing a job, assigned by a superior who thought all through that being in charge of the department. Again, I was simply just doing my assigned job and that is what was paramount to all of us.
August 27th, 1963. Jack calls Ira and me into his office and says, I want to send the two of you on an overnight assignment to Washington, D.C. We'll be taking you to Providence tonight to board a bus and ride to Washington, overnight with the people on the bus. Interview some folks on the bus as you go, do your report the next day then get to the airport and fly back because we want the film for the 6 o'clock news that night. Once again, shock, surprise, but trust by the man that knew what he was doing.
This was the event that happened in Washington on August 28th, 1963.
Dr. Martin Luther King was the featured speaker at this event, expected to be attended by over 100,000 people. This I knew as just another assignment and a great break for my career. What I didn't know at the time was that this event was about to become world celebrated, world famous for decades to come. This was Dr. King's "I have a dream speech."
I was there, an 18 year- old kid with a dream myself, not even realizing the incredible significance of that event at the time.
Yes, there were about one-hundred thousand plus people on the mall in Washington as well, but as you well know today, it was a why me moment that made history. I was intimately involved in the entire thing. I was four rows from the stageI did a number of interviews with the passengers on the bus as we rode through the night. When we arrived, Ira and I were maybe 50 yards from the stage where Dr. King made history.
We did the story, no sleep on the bus, certainly at the event or on the plane ride back to Providence and the station, just work. Although I certainly didn't recognize the total significance of this event at the time, I certainly do today.
I saw it then as only covering a potential major story "live" on film. As it turned out, it simply just could not have gotten any better.
Here I was, not even 19 yet and a TV professional. Stories like these "might" come along once or twice in a career for any TV reporter. Back then, they were rare enough. But while they meant little at the time, these are the things that earn your wings so to speak as a TV professional.
The rest of the summer was quiet so to speak until that day in November, none of us will ever forget. That was November 23rd, 1963.
I was on the swing shift at the TV station and I never really listened to the radio or watched TV when I was going to be a part of it for 8 hours or more later in the day. I called a taxi about 1:30 in the afternoon to go in a little early. When the driver arrived, he was in tears. President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas and had just been pronounced dead at Parkland hospital.
It was a moment I will never forget as we listened to Walter Cronkite on the car radio. When I got to work, all I heard was thank God you're a bit early all hell's broken loose. The police were out in force in Dallas, the rifle supposedly used in the assasination was in police custody and Dallas and the suburbs were being scoured for the shooter. No need to repeat or to re-live that terrible day here only mention that it happened.
My assignment was to put together a tribute from our film stocks of his visits to his family compound in Hyannisport Massachusetts, maybe thirty miles from the station and where Ira and I had spent a fair amount of time waiting mostly for a possible story.
President Kennedy's death pretty much affected everyone and everything for some time to come. Some normality did return to the media and life in general as the new year, 1964 began in earnest.
The next four to six months were pretty standard. There were several local stories to cover but nothing like what had been the case for the previous two years of my life.
I finished up with the TV station getting ready to enter the US Air Force for the next four years.
Judy, the woman I knew I was destined to spend the rest of my life at the time, with was as I mentioned, one of a kind.
I had no idea if there would ever be an if or a when, only what I had told myself was meant to be. As June third, 1964 approached, not knowing what the future would be like in life or the military, I wanted to ask this young woman to wait for me as they said back then. I knew I needed to ask, but for whatever reason I didn't.
I realized I had no idea when that would be so I didn't ask either question. I would come to wish I had.
We had that one last dinner date on June 2nd, we talked, we cried together, we corresponded occasionally but I never saw her again. The next morning it was off to Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio Texas and six weeks of basic training.