Most of my introductions came at 1050 WHN in New York where I was hired as an engineer in March of 1972. I graduated from college in June of 1971, and the following fall entered ATS's FCC Exam Prep course and started studying for my First Class Radio Telephone Operators License, which was in those days the entry into most of the New York market's Engineering Departments. Once I completed the course the next spring and passed the FCC tests, with license in hand, I started sending out resumes. One of the best interviews I had was at WHN, and soon after, the Chief Engineer, Pappy Dirkin offered me a job as a vacation relief engineer in their department.
On April 17, 1972 I reported for work, and within a relatively short time of starting my training that day, I was on the air working with a disc jockey! In 1972, WHN's format was a kind of MOR blend in which you might play a Frank Sinatra song, followed by a Herb Albert Tijuana Brass cut, followed by an instrumental. While they did use carts for commercials and some songs, much of the music they played was still via records. In those ancient days of radio, one of the skills you needed was being able to "slip cue" an album. This involved putting the tone arm on the correct cut, and as soon as you heard audio, actually grabbing the surface of the record with your fingers, stopping it, and then backing it up….all with the turntable still spinning underneath the record. Then when you were cued by the DJ you had to let the record go and turn up the audio pot and play the record. If you did it right, there was a seamless start of the record on the air. So I'm sitting on the board in the WHN control room at 400 Park Avenue, trying to grab these records with my nervous sweaty fingers, when this tall man walks into the control room with some papers in his hand. After I start the record, he extends his hand to me and says, "Hi, I'm Jack Spector. These are my music lists and since this is my first day I just wanted to make sure I'd done them correctly." To which I replied, "Beats the shit out of me…it's my first day too!"
Jack had a good laugh out of that, and that was my introduction to Jack Spector, the first of my Good Guys. Jack was a great guy and a lot of fun to work with. He had been everywhere, had done everything, and had great stories, so there was never a dull moment when you worked with Big Jake! A couple of months after we both got there, WHN changed format and became 1050 Country, and shortly after that, I became Jack's regular engineer.
With the change to country also came a new program director, and it was the lady who created the Good Guys, Ruth Meyer. To Ruth, the Good Guys were a Family, and so not only did she come to WHN, but so did a large number of the Good Guys – either in full time rolls, or as weekend guys, or fill in hosts. Over the next couple of years I got to work with Dan Daniel, Joe O'Brien, Dean Anthony, and Ed Baer. Some I got to know very well (Ed Baer was there for a long time and we really became friends out of the station), and others I just worked with for a couple of shifts, but they were all great guys with wonderful stories.
Following what Ruth had done at WMCA, these guys were not just sitting in the studio doing their shows, but they were out in public. We had country shows at area colleges, a big 1050 Country Fair, listener parties at places all over the area, and just about any other kind of promotion that you can think of that showcased the DJs and the station. It was a very interesting experience to be exposed to her and the way she saw a radio station and these guys who were classic radio DJs. The best was being anywhere with a group of them when they'd start to talk about the WMCA days and get into their stories. They were part of a fascinating time in New York Radio, and to hear the stories of these legends that were there was incredible for a young guy just starting in the business!
After 4 years at WHN, I left 1050 and moved down the block and down the dial to WABC (both WABC and WHN's studios were on 54th Street in Manhattan). It was here that I got to know the last piece of my Good Guy Puzzle, Harry Harrison. Having moved right into the WABC Morning Show after leaving WMCA in 1968, Harry was the Morning Mayor of New York. The first morning I was training at WABC, all I had to do was tell Harry that I'd been Jack Spector's Engineer at WHN and had worked for Ruth Meyer, and I was an accepted member of the team!
WMCA's Good Guys were the definition of personality radio. Each of them was different and brought different things to the table, but they were all clearly a part of the team. I was very glad to get to meet and work with so many of them, and get to see what that kind of radio was like. I doubt if it's something we'll ever see again, and in the fractured media world we live in today, that's very understandable, but still sad.
My first Good Guy, Jack Spector died March 8, 1994 while on the air at WHLI on Long Island. Jack had worked a lot of places during his radio career, and as sad as it was that Jack was dead at the young age of 65, I think it was very fitting that he died while on the air doing what he loved. In the words of Jack Spector, your Main Man Jake, "Look out street, here I come!"
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