http://www.worldsfaircommunity.org/topic/10385-wnew-news-at-the-fair/

When trade-in time came, WNEW stayed with the Chrysler New Yorker, but in quieter white.     

http://www.worldsfaircommunity.

John Crosby, was a  columnist for The New York Herald Tribune from 1935 to 1941 and, after WWII military service, from 1946 to 1965.  

He continued newspaper and novel writing into  the mid-seventies, but is remembered best  as the Tribune’s chief radio/TV critic during the 1950′s.  This line of his about CBS-TV cancelling Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now,” helps explain why Crosby was so well regarded: “See it Now… is by every criterion television’s most brilliant, most decorated, most imaginative, most courageous and most important program. The fact that CBS cannot afford it but can afford “Beat The Clock,”is shocking.”  Another worthy observation of his concerned WNEW’s new, (1958) full-time news department and its “brash young news staff” whose news coverage was “busting out all over.”  Read on.  

The image above is a recreation of a 1959 John Crosby column as published in the New York Herald Tribune.  Thanks to Bill Diehl for finding a copy of the original column. E.B.

The watercolor (above) by Tom Saunders is based on the  photo (below) published in Arnie Passman’s book, “The Deejays,”* But, the woman in the painting is not the woman in the photo.  Explanation, below.

 As WNEW’s first Station Manager, Bernice Judis often dropped in on shows at any time of the day or night. In the photo above, she is seen during an after-midnight visit to “The Milkman’s Matinee” when it was hosted by Art Ford. (1942-1954) In an e-mail to long-time friend, and ‘NEW alum, ABC’s Bill Diehl, Saunders explained: “I read that Bernice Judis was the manager who fired Art Ford for playing too much ‘jazz and international’ music, so I purposely eliminated her and put in a blond groupie instead.” Saunders identified correctly the cause of Ford’s firing, but not his executioner. Judis retired from WNEW in 1954 after 20 years with the station, and about four years before Ford got word while in Europe in April, 1958, that his services were no longer desired.

 Art Ford had hosted the “Make Believe Ballroom” for little more than a year, taking over from Jerry Marshall who left for WMGM in January, 1957.  Ford’s affection for jazz, European artists and non-mainstream music had not been to management’s liking when featured on his previous show, “Ford at Four,” (1954-1957) and even earlier on “The Milkman’s Matinee. (1942-1954.)  Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins, who followed Ford at the “Matinee” didn’t last long.  After playing the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman,” 55 times in a row one early morn, he was asked to leave. When Jazzbeaux returned to WNEW about ten years later, “Mr. Sandman” was the first record he played.  More on that episode, another day.

 Soon after being fired, Ford said,  “I am happiest when the garde is avant, and the garde at WNEW is no longer avant.” He found exactly the environment he was looking for at WNET radio and TV. (See “Art Ford’s Jazz Party.” Rudy Ruderman (WNEW 1953-1974).”) recalls that the General Manager at the time Ford was fired, was John Jaeger and the station president and part owner was the late Richard Buckley (see “Other Signals” this site) Before 1958 ended, WNEW had new owners.   

Here’s the decade’s buy/sell sequence. In 1949, WNEW’s original owners, Milton Biow and Arde Bulova sold to  Bernice Judis, her husband, Ira Herbert, and William S. Cherry, owner of WPRO, Providence, RI.  They sold WNEW in 1954 to The Buckley Group which merged two years later with DuMont Broadcasting, a newly formed company that grew out of the failed Dumont Television Network. Dumont had sold off to shareholders, most of its TV and radio properties, including WABD-TV, NYC.   In 1957, DuMont/Buckley changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting.  The following year, Paramount Pictures, a major shareholder in DuMont/Buckley, sold its shares to investor John Kluge who soon gained a controlling interest.  Within a year, WABD-TV was changed to WNEW-TV, and an FM license was acquired for WNEW-FM to simulcast the AM programming. John Kluge’s immediate acquisitions included WHK-AM/FM, Cleveland, and WIP-AM/FM, Philadelphia. Kluge’s company was renamed Metromedia, although Metropolitan Broadcasting remained in use for the Radio Division until 1967.

William B.Williams, early 1940′s

Although Bernice Judis was not involved in Ford’s firing, she had swung the ax on a young William B. Williams in 1947, and unsuccessfully at Ruderman in 1954.  William B. had been with WNEW only a few years, coming over from WOV, when Judis spotted him during one of his shows, feet propped up on the console, shoes off, red socks brightly revealed.  He was fired, the story goes, for having, “vulgar taste.” One newspaper account suggested the real reason for the firing was one the station dared not admit; that management was unhappy with Williams’ union activism. William B. returned to WNEW in 1954, at about the time Bernice Judis retired to manage stations with her husband, Ira Herbert, in Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.   It was Herbert who saved Rudy Ruderman from Judis’ wrath. As Rudy tells it: 

Rudy Ruderman-1972

“…I was bumped up (1954) from continuity writer and traffic reporter to producer which was an AFTRA job at the time, because we had to spin the records when the DJs were on tape; a unique dispensation from the engineers’ union to let the talent handle the discs in the studio. At other stations, IBEW people played the records from the control room. I was paid $85, a sum Bernice Judis gave up grudgingly. Upon my promotion I asked if I could first take the week’s vacation I had earned as a continuity writer. “Tudie” (which I think we called her) really blew her top, saying ‘You can take a really long vacation, kid, how dare you ask, you’re fired!’  Her husband, sales manager Ira Herbert, got her to relent saying, you can’t get blood from a stone, or something and I got the week off, as well as the job…”

As the Kluge years began, Ruderman was sent to Cleveland as PD of WHK, but he was back in New York a few months later, and in  the WNEW newsroom, to cover a big story.  New York’s newspapers were shut down by a strike by delivery drivers and pressmen (Dec. 11-28)   He never returned to Cleveland.

 Getting back to Tom Saunder’s e-mail to Bill Diehl:

 “…Even in my early 20’s while still working back in Syracuse and Buffalo, I used to listen to WNEW attentively to steal lines from the jocks (although I was stuck doing Top 40 at the time.) My favorite then was the ill-fated Pete Myers, and I liked him best doing MOR, not the “Mad Daddy,” for which is best-remembered.  Never got to hear Jim Lowe and many of the others but, of course, Al Collins was out here in San Francisco for many years in the Purple Grotto at KSFO, another once classy MOR that has been relegated to the syndicated Hate Talk format.  Jack Lazare was doing the “Milkman’s Matinee” at that point on ‘NEW and the class of the station just knocked me out.  Alas, we’re far from that today…”

 A long-time friend of Bill Diehl since they attended Ithaca College and were part-time D.J’s, Saunders followed a long trail of call letters in an on-air career of 48 years, including WKBW, (now WWKB) Buffalo, KSFX/KGO, and KSFO, San Francisco.

 In closing this chapter, it should be noted that Bernice Judas knew nothing about radio broadcasting when she went to work at WNEW in 1934, but her ambition, instincts and daring earned her a place among broadcasting’s most important programmers, because she often took WNEW places before there were any road maps available on how to get there.  More about that, another day.

E.B.

* Read selections from Arnie Passman’s book, “The Deejays,” http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brewster-dj.html

Dick Carr, a WNEW Program Director in the late 1960′s is writing about that experience on his blog, Big Bands, Ballads and Blues, publishing a new chapter each day.  You can read the first few chapters, and those to follow at www.BigBandsBalladsandBlues.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpf8Iu1serQ

Gene Rayburn hosted a live afternoon New York version of “The Match Game” (NBC)from 1962 to 1969 and the CBS day-time revival from 1973 to 1978. He also hosted the CBS nighttime version from 1975-to 1978.

A note from Bob Gibson

Yes, it’s been 19 years (Dec. 11, 1992) since the legendary WNEW 11-3-0 in New York went dark. For those who were with the station then or alums, such as myself, it’s difficult to forget that day particularly since the New York City area was being raked  by a Nor’easter and the color outside pretty much reflected the mood of most ’NEW listeners.  Here was a station with outstanding jingles, funny and insightful air personalities, and a first-rate news team.  It had existed for fifty-eight years, but the decision had been made to sell the operation.  Less than a month later, Bloomberg Radio was on the air at a dial position that for so very long played what could best be described as the classic American songbook of music!

(Editor’s note) WNEW was purchased by Bloomberg L.P. for $13.5. After the final broadcast on December 11, 1992, WNEW simulcast with WQEW until January 4, 1993, when the new Bloomberg business news programing began with the call letters WBBR.

See related items under main menu heading: History, and Bob Gibson bio under News/G/

“During my stint as a producer, the large music studio was used by organist Kay Reed, by Allyn Edwards’ 9:30 a.m. weekday show and primarily by Bill Harrington who sang with the Roy Ross orchestra weekdays at noon.  Another show I produced in this studio was ‘Piano Tops,’ featuring Erroll Garner.”  Rudy Ruderman

The photo below, taken in 1978, shows the same studio after it became the WNEW newsroom in the 1950′s.  A wall was added at right to create the news director’s office and (not shown) the newswire room.  Pictured are Peggy Stockton, Bob Hagen and News Director, Jim Gordon.

 Another view (below) of the large music studio before it was transformed into the newsroom.

Large  studio control room as it looked in 1946.  After conversion for use by  the news department, the control room was used primarily for recording and editing.

 The photo above shows the 46th St. entrance to the WNEW studios, which opened into the main reception area and stairway (photos below) leading to second floor offices and broadcast facilities. 

Second floor reception area is shown above.  The photo below is listed as  the Station Manager’s office.