In the section on Uncle Don's famous radio
goof, the "Bloopers" record set from producer Kermit Schafer
that I also owned....was a collection of a few actual broadcast
flubs, plus recreations of others such as announcer Harry VonZell's
mispronunciation of president Herbert Hoover's name AND Uncle Don's
"little bastards" remark.
In regards to broadcast history in Newark. While a radio and tv
major at Seton Hall in the 50's I worked as a stagehand ($1.50 per
hour!) at Channel 13...WATV then....WNET (PBS) now. The studios
were in the Mosque Theatre Buiding on lower Broad Street, a former
ballroom was the main studio. The station was an "independent"
with a variety of old films, e.g. Charlie Chan, live kid shows in
the afternoon. The 4pm hour was Uncle Fred's (Sayles) "JUNIOR
FROLICS", followed by Jolly Jack's SUPER SERIALS.
Paul Brenner, the top dj on sister station WAAT(radio), hosted
a Saturday afternoon pop music dance party show similar to American
Bandstand. We had many national stars of the period guest on the
station e.g. Ethel Waters, Al Martino, Lionel Hampton and Tito Puente
and his band. Foreign language programs dominated the weekend evening
schedule...Polish, Lithuanian, Italian and Spanish. The station
provided the training ground for many who went on to long successful
carreers such as Ed Cooperstein, a director who went on to station
management/ownership, Gary Nadino, a fellow classmate at Seton Hall
who due to his large size was the studio "cop" when we
had in-studio audiences. Gary rose to head the tv department at
Paramount Studios. A few of his programs were Robin William's "Mork
& Mindy' and John Travolta in "Welcome Back, Kotter."
In my case, I spent 45 years in radio and tv in both the US and
Great Britain (www.memory-lane.org).
|
