Celebrities, over the years, looked forward to vacations taken by WNEW personalities, because it often meant a chance for them to sit in and spin a few records.  Buddy Hackett, for one,  once worked a week for William B. Williams. Other celebrity DJ’s included Dinah Shore, Milton Berle, Mitch Miller and Sarah Vaughn.  Listed below are  celebs who got up in the middle of the night for a couple of weeks in 1969 to work a shift for the vacationing Gene Klavan.  WNEW’s PD Dom Quinn, whose memo  announced the lineup of  replacements was, himself, replaced permanently just two months later.  (See Billboard item beneath list.)

  Thanks to Bill Diehl for digging out the Quinn memo.

April 12, 1969

 The big surprise of the industry was the shifting of Dom Quinn from his job as program director to be just-a-deejay on the talk side of WMCA: Jack Thayer is consulting WMCA and the indication is that he may swing the former all rock station all the way to talk.  Jack Spector and Ed Baer were the first deejays to go. Thayer, incidentally, knew Quinn from several frequencies ago.

 Dave Pounds, who’d been assistant program director of WNEW in New York, has been upped to program director, and singer Julius LaRosa has been hired as 1-4 p.m. air personality.  Dick Summers has resigned. . . No sooner than the strike is over at WNEW and WNEW-FM, than the Los Angeles Metromedia station gets its turn with executives flying in to handle the air personalities chores from all other stations, same as they did in New York.

Jack Thayer, who joined WNEW sales in 1959, and years later moved away, retuned in 1979 as GM.

Ray Rice — As a terrified newbie in July of 1967, I offered my first newscast at midnight. (Jingle) “Here’s the time…”    “It’s 12:05, time for Dick Shephard and the Milkman’s Matinee”. He welcomed me warmly on the air and afterwards  in the studio he was so gracious. I sweated through that first night and some others through the Newark riots and so many events now barely remembered. But, Dick was a wonderful guy, a great radio host and a memory that has resurfaced  time and again in looking to those fantastic years and people at the Big W.

Marty Wilson — Dick and I kind of worked together at WEVD in the 1970’s. He was working afternoons and I was doing “Jazz Through The Night” from a studio in my Upper East Side apartment. We spoke a couple of times and he encouraged me to take a shot at a job at WNEW. Much later, after I moved to Florida, I was invited to partake in “Radio Lunch.” Dick was one of the participants and he made a point of telling me how happy he was that I finally got the job. Lunch was great…lots of funny stories. Just last week I was thinking of him and when we’d have another get together. 

Peter Vann — Back in the 90′s when I was spinning the records at the original Jukebox Radio, Dick sat in for me while I was on jury duty. Later, he would come to visit me in my studio. He had many great stories and was a delight to speak with. I truly enjoyed his company.

Nick Mariolis — God rest Dick Shepard. We Also enjoy his music.

Russ Perrine — Bill . . I also knew Dick from our time together t WEVD-FM. He did the only standards format on FM (circa.1980) and we sold the show out. But Dick was so much more than a DJ….we flew in his plane, went to dinner at trade-out restaurants, talked endlessly about radio….he mentioned you often from WNEW days. He did an ad-lib commercial for Broadway Joe’s on 46th street that ran 4 minutes + which I have on a CD that I will treasure forever! I am proud to say that Dick Shepard was the only person that I loved in NY radio. I only wish ol’ Shep could read all these comments….he really was shy and embarrassed by having people hype him when he was alive.

Dick Shepard, who hosted shows on WNEW  for more than twenty years, from the 1950’s into the ’70’s, died October 15.  He had turned 90 on August 25th. 

Bill Diehl on Dick Shepard

I arrived at WNEW in early 1967 and worked the overnight, often with Shep on “The Milkman’s Matinee.”  We had lots of time to chat and I mentioned that my marriage was over and I was single again.  Dick didn’t miss a beat and had to tell our audience that I was now one of New York’s most eligible bachelors. WNEW’s signal was really big at night and a few days later I got a letter in the mail from a woman in Maine with a picture of her, her mother and two children. The letter said “Mr.Diehl, if you’ll pay my travel expenses, (and my mother’s) I’ll be happy to come to New York to meet you.”  I sent  note back saying thanks but that wasn’t going to happen.  Dick was the consummate professional.  It was a pleasure working with him at the  Big W.

Mitche Lebe on Dick Shepard

Dick was a tremendous talent and a friend. He entertained millions for decades on WNEW. And oh what a salesman. I especially loved his commercials for Air France.

Andy Fisher on Dick Shepard

Dick was the DJ on whose show I did my first part-time WNEW newscast.  I was trying to move from writer/editor to newscaster, and Dick’s unfailing encouragement was a big part of that.  He was gone when I finally made the move in 1974, but he knew how much that encouragement meant to me.

His departure from WNEW was the central event in the greatest story of bad timing I have ever heard.  Al Wasser was the morning editor and, as a loyal WGA artist, was rarely seen on the premises after noon.  One afternoon he came in to pick up his paycheck, and saw Shep standing in the hallway. “Hey, Shepard,” he cracked in his usual brusque way.  “They haven’t fired you yet?” Dick smiled the faintest of smiles.  “They just did, Al,” he said quietly.  And they had!

Mike Eisgrau on Dick Shepard

 Sad news about Dick. Of course my story goes back to two days before I started at WNEW News in 1967. Saturday, June 25th.  I had just driven in from Chicago. Before I went to my apartment in Forest Hills, I went up to the second floor studios at 565 5th Avenue and 46th Street to see what my new surroundings would be like.  In a hallway outside the studio I met Shepard. He warmly welcomed me to my new job as reporter/editor and we had a nice chat.  As I left I said “Well, Gene, it has been a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to working with you and other folks in my new job.” His face turned sour and I was on his s… list for a long time. Frankly, I’d never heard of Dick Shepard—only Gene Shepard.  

Let them both rest in peace.

Gary Alexander on Dick Shepard

It is difficult to comprehend how long I actually knew Dick Shepard. But I can tell you I was on the air with him…I flew through the air with him…and I shot plenty of breeze with him.

Dick Shepard was a large teddy bear…with a generous heart. When I was a young, part-time news guy at WNEW for Shepard’s show, Dick actually took a crazy chance and generously invited me to take the mike and repeat one of my silly off-mike comments to him ON THE AIR! Of course I never forgot that (fortunately he probably did!) We flew in his plane together.

He really WAS a helluva pilot. (I thought better than he was a driver!) When we landed at various airports in New Jersey and the Poconos it turns out he seemed to know even more people in the aeronautics circuit than in the restaurant realm. (Every time I bumped into Dick and Judy having dinner it was in the company of no fewer than nearly a dozen people.) Dick invited me into three of his homes…and brought me into the N.Y. Friars Club.

He could tell more stories than anyone I ever knew…and knew more stories than I…(which made it very difficult for me to sneak in one of mine that he didn’t already know). Happily, one of those stories was HIS being at MY wedding!

The times we spent together at Hemlock Farms in PA., including a memorable celebration of his 80th birthday at the humble Boat House were delightful…as was Dick’s more costly Sapphire Bombay Gin which he insisted was the more preferable to the plain Bombay, although he couldn’t really say why.

To say Dick Shepard WILL be missed sounds awfully cliche but it is more than that…because it is less than the truth. When Dick isn’t at Hemlock at his Canoe Drive place to me to drop by…; when the Shepard’s aren’t at dinner and I’m not vying for the next story…; when old “Shepard, Richard A witcha” ain’t on the air, whether it be WNEW, WPAT, WABC or WNYC, there’s gonna be a void, a vacuum, an empty place.

Dick Shepard is ALREADY missed.

By Bob Gibson

Veteran New York broadcaster Dick Shepard is gone.

Better known to his legion of listeners on WNEW at different times in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as Shepard Richard A, Dick passed away Monday after being hospitalized in south Florida for a week.  His wife of nearly 65 years, Judy, told me he was taken to the hospital in Boynton Beach on Tuesday, October 9th after complaining of not feeling well.

Dick. who also worked at WABC Radio in the late 50s and  during part of 1960. also appeared as a commercial, on-camera announcer on some ABC Television game shows in the 50s, and was a busy voice-over talent  during parts of five decades in New York.

Sadly Dick and I just got together to celebrate his 90th birthday early last month and Ed Brown was in the process of posting a picture and a story about that when he was alerted to Dick’s passing.

A photo arrived the other day from Glenn Crespo, at one time a WNEW News desk assistant.  His caption:

“I found a picture of Bruce Charles, myself, another Desk Assistant Mary Ellen Kowalski and, if you look close on the left side, fill -in reporter Randy Place.  This was taken after we moved to 3rd Avenue and must have been in the early 1980’s.”

In response, we asked Glenn to send a few lines about his time at WNEW and where it led, which turned out to be an impressive string of call letters including the new, all news WNEW in Washington, D.C. 

“I was  (at WNEW, New York) from  January 1977 through September of 1991, starting as a desk assistant, hired by Jim Gordon.  From 1978 through 1980, I was a weekend anchor at WFAS in White Plains.  I continued as a desk assistant at WNEW and then, under Mike Prelee, began doing sports reports in 1986 and weekend anchor shifts in addition to anchoring news on the NY Giants football network. I free-lanced for AM and FM until AM went off the air. . . My time at WNEW was a great learning experience, working with Bob Hagen, Bruce Charles, Charles Scott King, Andy Fisher, Mike Eisgrau and Peggy Stockton. There were many major news stories covered during my time there, “Son of Sam,” The Northeast Blackout, the helicopter crash on the Pan Am Building, hijackings, presidential elections, the First Gulf War, the Battle for the Falkland Islands, the blizzard of 1977, transit strikes, the murder of John Lennon, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and the Challenger disaster, to name a few.

 After the news department was “downsized” in 1991, I worked two years for WXPS in Hawthorne New York as the morning anchor, co-host and News Director.I also free-lanced for WHUD, WFAS, WBLS, WFAN during this time. Went to WJUX in Dumont New Jersey in 1993, where I worked as the afternoon anchor and moved to WVNJ in Teaneck as the News Director and anchor in 1995.  In 1997 I joined Shadow Traffic and remained there for 10-years doing traffic on WINS and news on WQCD.

 In 1997 I began freelancing for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network and continued to do so off and on there until I was hired full-time in 2012 doing overnight reports for Dow Jones Radio on the Wall Street Journal Network, WCBS and WNEW (in Washington D.C.).

 The WNEW (New York) News Department was a very interesting, volatile, action-packed place to work.  A lot of different personalities thrown together.  But at the end of the day, getting the news on the air was what mattered and getting it right was what mattered.  The business has changed so much since then with sensationalism, character assassinations and speculations now being the norm. I will always treasure my years working in the WNEW News Department.”

 “Martin Block, host of WNEW’s ‘Make Believe Ballroom’ demonstrates his secret remedy for all-night partying.”  That’s the caption that accompanied this photo in the book “Airwaves of New York,” from McFarland Books in 1998. 

The Airwaves of New York        
Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area, 1921-1996.  Bill Jaker , Frank Sulek and Peter Kanze  Foreword by Joe Franklin
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3872-3.  68 photos, bibliography, index 215pp. softcover (8.5 x 11) 2008 [1998]

http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3872-3

WNEW1130.com has no affiliation with McFarland Books.

We noted here, about a month ago, the passing of R. Peter Straus who, as president of  WMCA 570 AM, New York,  “combined Top 40 music with socially conscious journalism and ground-breaking public service to animate broadcasting’s most successful and influential big-city mom and pop radio station.”

An e-mail arrived recently from Chris Albertson who was WNEW’s Continuity Director in the early 1960’s. He was also producing  jazz recordings   and working nights as a volunteer at leftist, avant garde WBAI-FM. He left WNEW in 1964 to work at WBAI full time, eventually becoming General Manager. (See Posts: “Civil Rights Jazz,” and “Civil Rights Jazz P.S.”)  Chris’s most recent e-mail tells how his activist ire, provoked by a WMCA contest,  found an ally in R. Peter Straus.

“I am sorry to hear of R. Peter Strauss’ passing. I met him in April of 1965 when he handed me a check for $1,000 for WBAI. I was doing the morning show and I used to take a cab to work each morning. One day the cab driver had his radio tuned in to WMCA and I heard them pitch an unusual contest. To enter, one had to send in a photo that showed the WMCA call letters on one’s body, by way of a sun tan, and the clearest call letters won a car.”

” The first thing that occurred to me was that this gave white or very light complexioned people a distinct advantage, which made the contest unfair. That morning, I urged my listeners to give WMCA a call and protest this inequity. The station was apparently flooded with calls, because I received a call from WMCA’s publicity dept. asking me to stop. Later that day, a call came to me from R. Peter Strauss, who was very embarrassed, thanked me for pointing this out, told me that he had killed the contest and that he wanted to donate a thousand dollars to WBAI. He did more than that, actually, because he placed a couple of ads in the NY Times urging people to subscribe to WBAI (we were a listener-sponsored station).The following day, Mr. Strauss told me to come and get it! I did, and here is the moment as captured by WMCA’s PR people.”

 Thought you might find that interesting.

            Chris

Typical of the legendary musical talent heard regularly and live on WNEW beginning in the 1930’s , was the “Bunny Berigan All Star Broadcasts.”  The All Stars included Benny Goodman, Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Count Basie, Red Allen, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa and other jazz greats.  The photo below is the cover of a 1999 CD collection of broadcast sessions between 1936 and 1940, which includes recordings from “Jam Session,” a WNEW, broadcast of July 6, 1938 and a “WNEW Make Believe Ballroom” session on June 14, 1940. The collection also includes Berigan broadcasts on the “CBS Saturday Night Swing Club.”

All Star Broadcasts music CDs

Photographers: Edward Burke, Ken Whitten.  All Star Broadcast songs.

Bunny Berigan’s trumpet solos during a 1935 tour with the Benny Goodman band, helped propel Goodman to “King of Swing” fame. By the summer of 1940, Berigan was bankrupt and had to dispand his own band. In failing health, due mostly to alcoholism, Berigan played for a  time with the Tommy Dorsey band and toured with a small group of his own.  Stricken by a  hemorrhage on June 2^nd, 1942, he was dead at the age of 33.   E.B.

Photo: http://www.theorchard.com

Sources

In the summer of 1961, WNEW’s GM, Jack Sullivan, appointed me Director of Special Projects when Bill Persky and Sam Denoff left the station to write for Steve Allen’s new weekly TV Variety show.  A few years into my “drektorship;” —that would be the summers of 1965 and ’66—I fielded a WNEW softball team  to compete with other NY stations. 

 On the roster were:

• Ed Dennehy–WNEW’s business manager.
• Sales reps–Bob Goldsholl, Marty Ross, Bob Faselt and Bob Mounty.  Faselt and Mounty became sales managers and Mounty became WNEW’S GM.  Ross became my sales manager when I was sent to L.A. to run KMET. 
• Chip Cipolla–originally an overnight newscaster and subsequently the sports reporter/color broadcaster on Giants broadcasts.
• Bill O’Shaughnessy–a Sullivan assistant without portfolio.
• Jerry Graham–WNEW News Director.
• Steve Nelson–engineer.
• Allan Richman–systems analyst hired by Gerry Carrus, Metromedia’s comptroller.  Carrus subsequently owned Trinity Broadcasting.  Richman eventually owned stations run by Mel Karmizan, who was GM for both WNEW-AM and WNEW-FM before becoming top exec at Infinity, CBS Radio, Viacom (#2 there) and Sirius.
• Me.

Some station-wide memos of results are all that remain of those epic contests on the diamonds of Central Park.