Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Ho, ho and merry silliness to you all. Today, a fascinating interview with Nat Hentoff on jazz, country music and his book listen to the stories begins our Norm Nathan show from December 20, 795. Because of the time of year, I will title this the past is the present. Next guest, and I'll put guests in air quotes. There would be Rebecca Molly, I believe was the last name. She was a Middlesex news reporter who was doing an article on overnight radio, and her focus was on the people who call talk radio during the overnights, after Norm teases some guests and features coming up on the show for the week as he filled in for the vacationing Bob Raleigh. One was Jamie Bernard, author of Total Exposure, the movie Buff's guide to celebrity nude scenes Richard Allen Heen with the offensive driving handbook Anne Marie Bivens 101 secrets to winning beauty pageants and Bruce Lee, a former Wei broadcaster, and his wife, Narita join us later from Sapphire Village on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Here is our list of callers. The dreaded unknown caller starts us off. Then we hear from Fred from Medford. A familiar sounding caller is next, talking about all different stations. Then we hear from Ruth Klennet, Charlie from New York, a caller talking about books and reading. Another caller with more on reading Lyn from North Andover, the Amazing Mr. B from Boston, Joan and then John from Charlestown. Episode 169 the past is the present unwraps its way to your ears in three, two, and one, the stories.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Nat Hintoff on jazz and country music. Now, country music I have just become kind of interested in because I find a lot of the country music stuff kind of reminds me of jazz a little bit.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Well, I'll tell you, my interest in it started at WMEX when we had around 515, as I remember, a western show, country music show. And I approached it at first with great loathing, but then I heard Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and that was a jazz country group. I heard Patty, what's her name, Patty Klein and Jimmy Rogers, the singing Breakman. And all through the years, I began to understand what, and I'll tell you how I got the title for the book. Charlie Parker, who, as you know, was revered by all jazz musicians because he turned the music upside down the way Lewis Armstrong had done in the bird, as his other name, used to hang out at a tavern in midtown Manhattan where musicians, jazz musicians congregated and there was a jukebox and bird kept playing the country music records. And the guys were horrified. And it took them a long while to say anything because they didn't want to offend the great man. But finally one of them came up to him and said, bird, how can you play that music? And Bird said to him, very solemnly, listen to the stories. And, you know, the real country music, the stories are really quite extraordinary.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: No, that's interesting. The program you're talking about was called Roundup Time. Summerfield was sponsored by Summerfield Furniture Company. That's right. And it was called Roundup Time. And there was a guy named, remember Irving Hackmeyer was the announcer on that. They asked him to change his name, and he thought Irving Hackmeyer was pretty good radio name. Why change it? And he used to call himself Texas Irving Hackmeyer. And he played that a lot. Obviously, you did the show a lot. And now what do you think about country music today? When you talk country music, are you talking about that period? Mostly you're talking about today as it.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Became much more popular and much more commercially lucrative.
[00:04:08] Speaker D: It's split.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: And there are people know can come from New Jersey. I think Lee Greenwood came from New Jersey and they become stars. Or there's a girl that went to Smith and is now a big star, but they have very little to do with the roots of country music. But there are still people like Ricky Skaggs and this marvelous singer, Alison Krauss, who records for a Cambridge company, rounder, and whose last record, to her great astonishment, sold, I think, almost 2 million copies. That's an interesting story because when I first heard her, I heard her with a guy named Stanley. What's his first name? Anyway? His last name is Stanley is a very traditional, stubborn, classical country singer and banjo player. And she sang harmony with him. And I figured, gee, she must have come from the same territory in West Virginia or someplace. And her records, the purity of her sound and the way she gets inside the lyrics and the whole country feeling is just amazing. Then I find out that she grew up in Champaign, Illinois, which is hardly the hills of Virginia. And she admits she doesn't hide it. Her first recordings, the first music she heard was rock music at the Rolodo. So that takes care of my thesis that only people who grew up with a certain kind of music can play it.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: No, I know in listen to the stories, the book we're talking about, the newest one, you have quite a good section on Duke Ellington, who I think, and I know that you feel that way, too, has never really gotten credit for having been a great american.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: I think Ellington was the most creative, original composer in the history of american music. And I'd say Charles Ives comes second, but pretty distant second. Nobody wrote in as many forms as Ellington with as much remarkable ability. I mean, the presence in each piece. You could almost see what he was writing about, and very few people can do that.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: You also talk a little bit about the personal man of Duke Ellington, because a lot of people really are not acquainted with that. Mostly he's public, I love you madly and all that kind of stuff. We're familiar with that. But there was another side of Ellington.
I'm trying to think of the tv series that you produced that you were so proud of.
You don't mean the one with Duke.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: You mean the sound of jazz?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: The sound of jazz. I'm kind of jumping around a little bit.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: We did one Bob Harris, who also created the sound of jazz, and I did a program with Duke. We spent much of a whole night trying to convince him to do a long piece, and he was used to the Ed Sullivan kind of show, and he didn't think anybody would be interested. He finally agreed to do it, and it was for the old metro media network. And the piece that he did was Harlem, a tone parallel to Harlem. And it was the best performance of that piece I have ever heard. Unfortunately, Herridge forgot to pick it up the next week. When he came back the next year, it had been erased, for economy's sake.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Oh, Jesus.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: The sound of jazz.
Know, some reporter once asked me what my greatest achievement was, and I said it was the sound of jazz. Nothing I'd written, but just being part.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Of that program you referred to, that you referred to some other programs I had forgotten about, like camera three, which was a great show. I was thinking, our television has changed so much through the years.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: You know how much it's changed. There's a new book out called the Box, a big book, which is supposedly a compendium of all the vital things people should know about television, the programs, the creators, the producers, the directors. Robert Herridge, who was the Duke Ellington of television, isn't even mentioned.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Oh, that makes you want to cry. And you watch these talk shows in the morning, and they're so full of garbage. And I'm talking about the ones here on WBZ TV, too. I mean, garbagey. I can't understand why management will allow them to go on, know, we're talking in terms of ratings and all that kind of stuff.
Most of the articles in listen to the stories. A lot of them are they reprints from other publications.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: What happened was, let's see, maybe two thirds of them came from columns. I've been writing for the Wall Street Journal for the past, I guess, eight years or so on the leisure and arts page. And what I did was I updated some of them, I extended some of them, and then others were pieces that I thought nobody would ever see again. My favorite is a long interview I had with Haggard.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:09] Speaker C: I read one afternoon, and he turned out talking about jazz and country. Merle Haggard embarrassed me because he knew the names of some New Orleans players back then that I'd never even heard of.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: You're talking about jazz?
[00:09:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And his band at the time he was playing a club in New York was a jazz band that also played country music, a very good trumpet player who doubled on Aldo and an electric guitar who had listened to lots of Charlie Christian and Haggard told me he know, this is the kind of music I much prefer to play, but I usually can't play in the venues where they want to hear me.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Now that's interesting. You mentioned kind of skipping back to Duke Ellington, and you do a lot on Count Basie in the book also. But you mentioned some of the musicians who played then, Rex Stewart. See, if I remember this correctly, one of your theme songs on the jazz album show that you did. Wasn't that Rex Stewart's Mobile Bay blues?
[00:10:13] Speaker C: That's exactly right.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: You have a very good, when you're, when you're younger, you remember things that stick to your memory. I can't remember what happened last week, but I remember that, so I can hear that.
[00:10:27] Speaker C: Yeah, it's sort of a know, a call is repeated almost from the other shore, so to speak, and it says, come hear the music.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Kind of a, there's a chapter here on Winton Marcellus, and you say things that I have thought about a lot. I keep know Winton Marcellus, fine technician and all of that. Why do I not get goosebumps when I hear him play? And you talk about that? Yeah.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Winton Marcellus has done one very important thing, and that is especially in his earlier years when he traveled a lot around the country. He was like a Johnny Appleseed. He would find young, sometimes very young musicians and encourage them and in a sense, persuade them to listen to and understand the whole of the jazz heritage, which most young musicians never really get around to until maybe later, if at all, but went. And the performer, I mean, he's tremendously successful. He runs the Lincoln centered jazz operation in New York, and that's now been elevated just last week to an equal status to the opera and the ballet there. My problem with Wenton is and I'll tell you, it's a conversation I had with Dizzy Gillespie.
Dizzy never said anything mean about anybody in my knowledge, except for Stan Kent. We couldn't stand.
But when I asked him about Wynton, I could tell that he wasn't really coming across in terms of what he thought. So I said, tell me, dizzy, have you ever heard Wynton laugh? And Dizzy broke up. There's a kind of solemn almost. Well, I won't say almost because I've met the guy. There's a pretentiousness and a pomposity about the man that comes through in the music. Now, if you listen to the music, there's nothing wrong with it, as you say, the technique is there. He doesn't make any mistakes, but there is a lack of. Well, a lack of blue spirit.
You expect somebody his age, he's now in his thirty s, to have experienced enough to feel the blues. I mean, the deep blues, but I don't hear it.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: But you do hear it in somebody else you've written quite a good deal about. That's in the who. You know, he could play one note and you knew, hey, that's Johnny Hodges.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: In those days, and this may be my age, but in those days you could tell many jazz musicians by the first note of the first two notes. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. Benny Carter, who was another musician who has never said anything mean about anybody, Benny went down to North Texas State College, where I've been, too, and that's where they train jazz musicians. I don't know where they get work, but they train them. And it's a remarkable experience. They have three big bands and any number of combos, and those guys can play anything. The only problem is, as Benny later said, I hear these guys soloing and I can't fault them. The only problem is I can't tell.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: One from the it. I know it. That's true.
Certain people give you goosebumps. They make you feel it right down to the gut.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Like Ben Webster, for example, Lester Young.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: When Ben Webster is playing a ballad, I want to cry and I want to be with a woman and make love and all that kind of stuff. And others just play automatically and you don't really care. I mean, you say, isn't that nice?
[00:14:14] Speaker C: Also, presence, again, is so vital. Mingus wouldn't even have to say anything or play the bass. He would just stand there and you know that a volcano was about to erupt. And in quite another way, Coltrane had that enormous presence there was such intensity, such total immersion in what he was trying to do, in his know.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: You're a delight. I would love very much to talk with you again. There's so many people I haven't even talked with you about. Some of the vocalists that you've liked through the years, female, male, all that kind of stuff. You have a chapter on Red Allen, who we used to watch at the Savoy so much. Yeah, I still remember Red Allen. And last call for alcohol. Yeah. JC Higginbottom was with that group, John Fields. I've kind of lost track. I don't know.
[00:15:05] Speaker C: John went off to Florida and he did some playing, but he also made a living driving a cab. And then about three years ago, I.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Think he mean, there were some very lovely days. And again, I want to thank you very much, not only for coming on the show with us, but even more important for introducing me to this whole area of things that has been goose pimply parts of my life for a lot of years. And I really appreciate. I don't know what. My life would have been a desert without you.
[00:15:35] Speaker C: I think you would have found it. I believe that if you have a predisposition for some kind of. And I use high art here with enormous emotion, it'll find you.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Hey, Ned Hentoff. What a kick talking to.
[00:15:51] Speaker C: Same here.
[00:15:52] Speaker D: Let's do it again.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: I want to do it again. I'm glad you said that and good luck. I'll be looking for your next book, but meantime I'll be rereading the. Listen to the stories. Ned Hentoff on jazz and country music on Collins. Well, well worth reading by anybody who cares about anything. That's really good.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: Thank you, sir.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Thank you very much. Ned. Good luck to you.
[00:16:13] Speaker C: You too.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Take care. Rebecca Molly. I'll kind of set the scene here. Rebecca Molly works for the Middlesex News. She is a reporter. And if you know me and my background, I happen to be desperately in love and fond of newspaper people, having been married to one for a long time and my youngest daughter being a newspaper person and all of that kind of stuff. So you won me over just by the fact that you're in the printed word, Rebecca, and I appreciate that. And I know you're doing an article on overnight radio.
[00:16:46] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: On talk radio kind of stuff. The problem is after you talk with people who do overnight radio, and there are very few of them to talk with in Boston because most of these programs here are syndicated during the night, so there aren't too many local ones, you would like to talk with people who call talk shows at night.
[00:17:07] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: And of course, that's kind of hard to track them down when you're listening, because they only give their first name in the city and that kind of stuff. So am I talking too much? Because you could be saying all that I'm saying.
[00:17:19] Speaker E: Oh, no, you're doing a great job.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: Okay, I'll continue that. The idea is, if you don't mind Rebecca talking with you for the article, you may make the column the story that she's doing. Or then again, you may not, but it'd be worthwhile. Why do you call talk radio on the overnight? And would you be willing to talk to Rebecca Molly?
We'll give you her phone number and all that kind of stuff off the air. And mostly we want your number, and then we'll fax it to her at the Middlesex news. But mostly we'd like people from, obviously, the Middlesex news circulation area, which would be the. Framingham. What? Framingham.
[00:18:02] Speaker E: Hopkinson, Framingham, Nudich, Marlborough, Hudson, Westboro, Southborough, Hopkinson, Holliston, Ashland, and surrounding.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Us. Give us a call and you'll talk off the air. We won't put you on the air for this, but you'll talk with Mike Epstein at two. 5410 30, area code six one seven. We'll see how many people call people, if you're starting to call now. And then we'll fax the numbers and stuff to you. And then you can decide who you want to talk to. And after you talk to them, whether you want to use their story or not. But the idea is, why do you call talk radio? Tell us what exactly you're looking for, Rebecca.
[00:18:47] Speaker E: Well, first of all, I'm interested in who's up that.
Guess why they enjoy calling in or move to call and give their opinions and why they listen.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah, because it's an area where I think, a lot of people don't realize how many people are up at night.
And those people who are up at know why they're calling talk radio. Mike Epstein, our producers. Son of a gun, has just walked into the store. I think he's desperately in love with you, Rebecca. I'm not terribly sure. Hi, Mike. Hi. How are you, Rebecca? I just had a thought. I know that the Middlesex news is kind of a localized region. And that you folks distribute in the Middlesex area, obviously. But would you want to hear from people just in that area? Because we have callers from all over the state, the country, et cetera.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: And some of them might want to talk with you?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Would that be possible?
[00:19:53] Speaker E: Also, I think we'd like to focus on this area. But it might be fun to include a few who are from way out of.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: Okay, well, we can get people who'd like to talk, and we'll just send you a whole list.
Is Ken Hart that's still working for your paper?
[00:20:11] Speaker E: No, he's not anymore.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Okay, I'm sorry I brought that up.
He worked for the Boston Herald, which is the paper my wife had worked for. And he was the editor for a while there, I believe, was he not? Do you know?
[00:20:25] Speaker F: Yes, he was.
[00:20:26] Speaker E: That was before I came to the paper.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Have you been a newspaper reporter very long?
[00:20:32] Speaker E: I've been working at a daily for three years.
[00:20:35] Speaker F: Since I've been out of graduate school.
[00:20:37] Speaker E: And then I worked for a couple.
[00:20:39] Speaker F: Of years before that.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: For a weekly, you mean? Or something like that?
[00:20:42] Speaker E: No, I've always worked for dailies.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Hey, you're lucky.
[00:20:47] Speaker E: At the middle six news. We do have a couple dailies that we work for at the same time.
[00:20:54] Speaker F: The Marlborough Enterprise and the Hudson sun.
[00:20:57] Speaker E: Are weeklies that we also write for.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Are those owned also by the same people who own the Middlesex news?
[00:21:04] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: I see. Okay, because when we talked Middlesex News, that's a pretty good sized newspaper you cover not only a good sized territory. But I have a feeling your circulation is among the tops. Among the dailies. Are you not of the suburban dailies?
[00:21:20] Speaker E: Definitely, yeah.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I think the Patriot Ledger is probably the biggest, am I right?
[00:21:29] Speaker E: I'd have to consult editor, publisher, I guess.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: It doesn't matter, but it's one of the major ones. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune is also one of the biggest circulations. Okay, so the callers out to anybody who would like to have you contact them. Why do you call talk shows? You're talking nighttime talk shows. Okay, why do you do that? And particularly if you live in the Middlesex news coverage area around Framingham. You might end up seeing your name in the paper.
[00:22:01] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: And what a great thrill that would be. It would open doors for you. It would be just Sadaran. Marvelous.
Okay, calls are already coming in. I'm going to turn you over to Mike Epstein, Rebecca. Great. Okay. And he'll get filled in with whatever else, other stuff that you need. But I appreciate the call.
[00:22:20] Speaker E: Well, it was nice talking to you.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Okay, we'll look for the column. Take care. Okay, now you call Mike Epstein. About that. If you in that area that we're talking about. Two 5410 30. Eric. Code six, one seven. Or if you just want to call. And you don't have to call right this minute. If you're busy, call anytime during the night.
I don't know. One of the lines was, ever shall our team be champions?
And it never came out. That never sounded that way to me. It was always like, ever shall our teams be champions? Or something.
One of the comic strips used to do a takeoff on that kind of stuff, where they'd print a quote, that is what people used to say or what they thought it sounded like, which was nothing like what it was intended to sound like. But some things we say over and over again so much that I think after a while we lose track of what they really mean.
And that's why I'm asking you to the prom and to the republic for which it stands. But let's see, Tuesday, Wednesday night, wait a minute. Hold on a minute.
I know. Later on this week, hold on a second. Don't go away. Hold on.
Some nights we're going to have Jamie Bernard, who's a critic for the New York Daily News and author of a book called total exposure, the movie Buff's guide to celebrity nude scenes.
Does that sound like an intellectual little uncovered? She uncovers some of Hollywood's most famous nude scenes and the actress behind them. There's even a list of people that she recommends keep their shirts on for the benefit of all. We'll talk with her. And then also sometime in the week, we'll have Richard Allen Heaney, H-E-E-N-E. Heane, comedian and author of the official offensive Driving Handbook.
Fed up with being a defensive driver, he is now on the offensive with tips and instructions on ways to offend other drivers. Whether it be drive by splashing, how to tailgate or the proper way to moon, you'll find it there. It's Boston drivers dream, God come true. Although I think that probably Boston drivers don't need too much instruction in any of that kind of stuff.
Then we have, I got to put these together to know what nights these people are going to be on. One night we're going to have the swell music quiz. I think that's Thursday night into Friday morning. Swell music quiz. Ed Mullen, Tony Nesbitt, Jack Hart, Norm Person, Mike Epstein, all kinds of swell people in which we'll ask you to call and you tell us.
You see if you can stump us in various categories. Rock and roll would be one the jazz, big bands, musical comedy, all that kind of stuff. Anne Marie Bivens will be with us sometime during this week. She's the author of a book called 101 secrets to winning beauty pageants. She's had about 15 years of research on pageant competition under her tiara, and she's compiled advice from judges, designers, trainers and winners to form a guidebook that can give contestants what may be that little edge to achieve their crowning glory. Thank you so much.
We'll probably have a few more people on the show, too. And I.
Hold on a minute. You can tell I'm stammering as I look, but that's the kind of week that we're going to have later on, too.
Later on this morning, we're going to talk with Bruce Lee. You know, Bruce Lee, not the karate guy.
Bruce Lee used to be a broadcaster on WEI when it was Wei, before it became WHDH, and then became Wei.
Anyway, he and his wife Norita, who has been in the advertising business for the past couple of three years or so, have been living in the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas, and I thought we'd call him sometime after four this morning. The average temperature year round on the Virgin Islands is something like 175 degrees, and everybody's probably crazed with dehydration or something there. Anyway, I thought it might be fun. And those of you who remember Bruce, who did an all night show here in Boston, worked at that radio station for quite some time. Why did they go to the Virgin Islands and what is it like there anyway? We'll find out all that that's a little bit later on, sort of oriented. I like the really tough ones.
[00:27:32] Speaker D: I hate to disappoint. Well, anyways, how come if you keep saying that BZ doesn't have a music license, how come BZ can play all that Christmas music?
[00:27:41] Speaker B: No, I don't get. I wondered about that myself. And they may get a temporary license just for that one night for the Christmas stuff. Or maybe it can't be because it's all public domain, because they play a lot of stuff that I know is not public domain. It might be just a one night Christmas license just for that one day.
I don't know for sure, but I would guess that may be the case.
That's my guess. It may be wrong, Fred. And if so, I'd call one of those lawyers who advertises on television and take me to court and sue me for everything I've got.
[00:28:19] Speaker D: Maybe I could call Neil Jaya and.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: We could look at a right. That's right. He'll be on in a couple of weeks and you can check with him and a guy named Arthur Levine, who does the booking for me and who will be spinning the. Not spinning, but he'll be playing the Tapes and things of old radio shows that we do. Tony knows that. Tony comes on a lot of shows. Tony and I will be working in a place in Beachmont. As a matter of fact, this coming night, Wednesday night, Beachmont, East Boston. Beachmont is revere. Actually part of revere, but that's a private thing. But the one Sunday night, New Year's Eve in Beverly. And I'll be with Arthur Levine. Then he'll be doing the same kind of stuff. Anyway, we'll be there, and that's open to anybody who comes by.
I should tell you what church will be broadcasting, but I'm not aware of it. I forgot offhand, but we'd be doing two shows, one at seven and one at eight that evening. So as Rosala really can't do Neil Shyat, looking at the law.
[00:29:27] Speaker D: You mentioned Beachmont and Revere. Isn't that where Frankie Max used to be?
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Exactly, yes, it. Yes.
[00:29:34] Speaker D: You know very well I'm not old enough to remember that Freddie Ross played.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: That's right, you said. No, I remember Freddie Ross. I used to go see him all the time. Yeah. No, Freddie Ross. He was one of our favorites. I'm surprised he remember. You don't sound like you around that line.
[00:29:48] Speaker D: I know some people who are kind of like your age who talk about it. In fact, I think your best friend Robert from wherever he's from. Robert from Everett. Yeah, he mentioned it once or twice. Doing the army routine.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Yes, whatever that was. Yes, he did it. He did everybody during that period. Because we're talking the 40s was just after the war ended. So they were still doing army routines and stuff. So I was in the service and the gentleness, sergeant sitting there go on and on like that. I think that kind of stuff would be terribly unfunny now. I never thought it was all that funny then, but I thought a lot of what Freddie Ross did was kind of fun. Last time I heard about him, he was down in Florida, I guess, because retired now. But we'd go to Frankie, Max and Beastman. It's kind of interesting you mentioned that because I don't know how many other people would remember that, but that was the big deal. Let's go to Frankie Max and see Freddie Ross. He was the kind of the in guy at that time.
[00:30:47] Speaker D: Didn't Bob Hope do a really bad shtick about the. Know if you brush your teeth in private, then in general you won't have.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Any, you know, the thing would be, he'd say, this is Bob Pepsident Hope saying.
Bob army rank Hope saying, if you brush your teeth in private, you won't have to take out your teeth in general. Something like that.
His comedy routines on radio, that was one of the old radio things, were really terribly unfunny. They were really unfunny. I've never understood how he lasted as long as he did. Except for the movies he does, I think the road pictures with Bing Crosby, a lot of them are kind of funny. And he's done other things that are kind of funny.
But the radio shows and the tv shows he does now, I think are even worse than the radio shows.
Nice to hear from Philadelphia because KYW there, our sister. If we came to our sister station, I don't think of them as my sister station. I think of them as the enemy. Because they block us out from Philadelphia.
[00:31:59] Speaker G: No, they don't.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: But they're close to us on the dial there, are they not?
[00:32:05] Speaker G: Yeah, but you come in nice and.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Strong and you're right in the city of.
[00:32:10] Speaker G: Yes, yeah, I'm right in the. The station that's really actually the two stations that are the very closest. First is who.
Then right immediately after that is EVD from New York.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Oh, WEVD.
[00:32:31] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Do you know what EVD stands for?
Because that's an interesting station. It stands for Eugene v. Debs, who was an early labor leader and stuff. And Eugene v. Debs, that's who the station was named. Isn't that fascinating that I would know.
[00:32:49] Speaker G: That because I've heard to some extent, I guess originally, a lot of the call letters were named for different initials.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: That's right. Originally it was. And now on FM, especially call letters, abbreviations of the kind of music that's played. Like there's a station. Well, I don't even want to give them credit because these stations are kind of stupid.
But originally it was. They were named for people We. EI was named for. Son of a gun. I gave them a plug. Shame on me.
It's such a caucasian. But it stood for Edison electric illuminating.
So there were a lot of that WesX and Salem EsX was Essex county up that way. And a lot of them were named for the. Like, let me see, there used to be a Wlyn, which was named for Lynn, Massachusetts. I guess that still exists and that kind of stuff. And I'm sure that's true in Philadelphia you have WFIL, did you not? Is that still in business? Because that obviously would be.
[00:34:09] Speaker G: It used to be a music station, and now it's a christian station. In fact, when this christian company took over last year, they changed the call letters and then they changed them back.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: What did they change? WGOD or something like that?
[00:34:27] Speaker G: Probably something like that. You know what? I can't even remember now. I can't remember what they changed it to. I knew what it was, and now I can't even remember.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Obviously, people felt more strongly about the original call letters, which I guess is why they changed them back.
[00:34:42] Speaker G: I think they must have gotten some reaction from the people because they're saying something like, we're changing the call letters back because we want Philadelphia to know, not saying the exact words, that this is still the same station, WFIL, even though we have different programming, it's still the same.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Because WFIL is a very well known station up that way. And WBZ, I'm trying to figure out what that stands for. I think it stands for we buy zebras something. I think it was that. I think that was the original intent of George Westinghouse.
He had a wild animal farm just outside of Springfield in the hotel Kimball, and he decided, yeah, we have all kinds of animals, but it's hard to find zebras because we don't know whether it's black on white or white on black stripes. And so that's where WBZ came from. Do you believe that?
[00:35:43] Speaker G: No.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: You're a wise person. I love you, Norm.
[00:35:48] Speaker G: Anyway, speaking about radio stations now, see here in Philadelphia, now, EVD is the one that would probably kind of be snuffed out by Kyw.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:03] Speaker G: You'd have to look for it very carefully.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we're very close to KYw, but.
[00:36:10] Speaker G: You'Re okay where you are.
We have no problem getting Bz in. It comes in very clear.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: I'm glad. And that's why I say, ho, ho, Kyw. We get in anyway, even though you're trying to block us out. Khakpui on you, fella.
[00:36:29] Speaker G: It's who and EVD that don't come in as well. They're kind of hovering close to KYW. The other thing is, unfortunately, I wasn't able to call in a few weeks ago, but he had a guy that called and he was going to New York and he wanted to know if he could get busy there, like in the New York City. And I don't know if he's gone to New York.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: We get some calls from New York City, but that's a little tough, too, because there's W-I-N-S which is very close to us on the dial.
[00:37:05] Speaker G: Well, what I was going to tell, you know, my family is in Long island, and I was wondering if I was going to be able to get it, but I did, and it comes in right after the station called WHN.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: I'm sorry, what's that station called?
[00:37:24] Speaker G: Whn.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Oh, whn. Yeah, that's one of the biggies there. Sure, we get calls from Long island, as long as you get away from the downtown area of New York City, although we can be heard there in some radios. But generally, if you get away from there in upstate New York, there's usually no problem at all.
[00:37:44] Speaker G: That's true, because in the city, I don't ever really remember getting.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: As a matter of fact, there's a newspaper up in Rochester, New York, I forgot, not the station, but the name of the newspaper, but one of the writers, a woman named Ritter, had written a column. She writes a column, and she had one paragraph about us in it, which I thought was really great. And I must have gotten about at least two dozen clippings of that column from people in Rochester that thought you might like to see this. So apparently we have a lot of listeners up in the Rochester area, and I really appreciate. It's kind of nice to be in this little big studio, which is really a coat closet.
[00:38:31] Speaker G: Did she send you the article?
[00:38:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I got at least two dozen copies of the article.
In fact, we're broadcasting, like, from a clothes cloth. When I get back here, I run into the winter coats, so I have to stay closer. I got to get going.
[00:38:48] Speaker G: You like to call some of the other radio stations?
[00:38:52] Speaker B: That would be kind of nice, except.
[00:38:57] Speaker G: On KDKA. I know he's on the same hour as you are on. I don't know if you've heard of Bob Loke. He has a very light hearted show. Kind of like yours, in a way.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Why don't we call him? We'll call him after two.
[00:39:12] Speaker G: B-L-O-G-U-E. Yeah, and I think his producer's name is Amy.
And then the other thing I want to tell you is, when you rattle your papers.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Oh, okay, I'll rattle them. And then I got to get going. We'll call Bob log, maybe in the next hour, and maybe we can do a little simulcast.
[00:39:34] Speaker G: Each weekend night.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: He's beyond compare and so, Devonaire he shines so bright.
You're on BZ.
[00:39:56] Speaker D: 103.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Oh, please don't turn that dial he makes me cry, Lord Nathan show.
Nathan Show.
[00:40:23] Speaker H: Norm. Nathan show.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Hello. I am your date for this evening. I am Norm Nathan, and damn proud of it.
Pittsburgh called Bob Log I shouldn't be giving him publicity. But KDK is a Westinghouse station. And you know how we Westinghouse people stick together, honoring George Westinghouse and his orchestra? Anyway, his producer, Amy. I'm saying this mostly for the woman who suggested we come. She said he had a light show, kind of like this program, in a sense, out in the KDK, Pittsburgh through the night, and his producer, Amy, and all that stuff. Anyway, I guess he's very busy and doesn't want to talk to us.
I don't know whether it makes me laugh.
So he said she was suggesting we called her in today and arrange another time. Amy, when hell freezes over, we'll arrange another of. I've never run into that before. We've talked with a lot of guys who do all night shows out of Detroit and many other cities throughout the country. But that's a rebuff. I think that's a rebuff.
By God, I think that's what that was.
Okay. He probably has no sense of humor. He's probably a stupid idiot anyway, and so what the heck. Anyway, I think I'm being a little strong. I've never heard him, so I don't know what exactly it is he does, except evade me. Anyway, phone number? 61725 410 30. Area code six one seven. It is a quiet night here on the Bob Raleigh show. So if there's anything you'd like to say to me, I think you'd love to hear it. Maybe I wouldn't, but try me and see. Two. 5410 30. Area code six one seven.
[00:42:21] Speaker F: I have to tell you, I'm very busy doing something, and I can't tell you what it is until New Year's. And then I'll tell you why I haven't called.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: Is it something kind of illicit? Are you doing something illegal? I am. Does it has to do with naked men or anything like that?
[00:42:36] Speaker F: No, but that's why I'm up all night and listening to you. But that's the main reason I haven't called you. But next week, I'll call you and.
[00:42:44] Speaker E: Tell you the whole story.
[00:42:45] Speaker F: Okay, but why didn't you call Diana? I thought it would be nice if you called her if she was alone.
[00:42:52] Speaker B: I never thought of that. Now, hold on. Let me see. Where would she be now?
[00:42:56] Speaker F: I just read that she was supposedly packing to go to.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Yeah, she's in London. Yeah, that's right. No, she's in London now, but I don't.
Oh, it does say here. It says at least one of the papers says she spent Christmas Day watching television on her own in her apartment at London's Kensington palace. So I don't know. Can you get through a palace?
[00:43:20] Speaker F: I don't know.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: The time wouldn't be bad because they're 5 hours ahead of us. It'd be about be 20 after seven in the morning.
[00:43:28] Speaker F: Now I bet she talked to you faster than the other guy that wouldn't talk.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: It's kind of funny. She was supposed to talk to somebody. Identified her as her bulimia therapist.
I don't mean to laugh at that because I know bulimia is not a thing to laugh at.
But are there people who go around as kind of experts in things like bulimia?
[00:43:53] Speaker F: I guess so.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Bulimia is kind of like vomiting a lot, isn't it? So that you don't gain weight.
[00:43:59] Speaker F: Yeah right. Not eating.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: Purging your body, your stomach. I know it's a sickening topic, but that's what bulimia is.
[00:44:09] Speaker F: Anyway, what I really call was I saw your name in the paper tonight and you said some nice things about my old pal Dean Martin.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: Oh yeah?
[00:44:17] Speaker F: Yes, I read. It was funny because yesterday morning, being Christmas, my family's all in Florida. So I answered the phone and said good morning. And there was Fred B. Cole calling me to wish me a merry Christmas after all these years.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Oh really?
[00:44:32] Speaker F: And there you both were in the paper together.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
Sean Flyn, who wrote that story, co wrote that, I guess he said it was a tough day. It was hard to reach anybody to make local people to make comments on Dean Martin. So he called me and he was wondering who else he could call. And I thought it wouldn't make any sense to call Charles Clarkwader. I don't think he might. Probably doesn't even know who Dean Martin is or certainly would deny it. And kiss 108 is not exactly the haven for Dean Martin records. So I suggested Fred and I suggested Bob Clayton, as a matter of fact, also because he would have been playing those records at one point himself. So that's how it came out that way. And I thought we made a star again.
Fred McClain. We dragged him out of the shadows.
[00:45:26] Speaker F: He had his 80th birthday. He told me he's 80 and a half now.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Oh, he's 80, right.
[00:45:31] Speaker F: He was 86 months ago.
[00:45:32] Speaker B: He said, oh, son of a gun. I didn't realize that.
[00:45:35] Speaker F: Yeah, really.
Years back, many years back when I was in the record business, I was fortunate enough to be in Florida with a girlfriend of mine who was a dancer in Miami. And she was dancing on the bill with Tony Martin. And we walked into the font and blow hotel. And I was very young then, and he was sitting at a table playing cards with Dean Martin. And knowing me all these know, I'm never at a loss for words, but I was always a big. I just. There was something really sexy about him, you have to admit. So she introduced me to him and he stood up and shook my hand and I said hello. And that was it.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: No, that was one thing. As you know, I've never been a big fan of his singing, but I have been a big fan of his in many ways because I think he's a good looking guy. He dressed well and he was kind of really laid back. Being laid back is my kind of guy. Never got hysterical about anything. Was kind of cool. And there was something really nice. I thought he was kind of hip in that sense. I didn't really express that to the reporters like I should have. But anyway, that's the way I felt about Dean Martin. I would have liked to have been know. I really would have liked to have been know and he sang as though he was really singing, thought. And of course he had a revival when the moon hit your eye like a big pizza pie in Moonstruck, the movie.
But I would have liked. He was a good looking guy. Always had a tan, always dressed well. And as mad Helms, he was great detective and very sharp.
[00:47:17] Speaker F: I was really kind of surprised to have Frank Sinatra caught us some nice things since there was a lot of bad press during when Frank Sinatra's. Because I didn't get my birthday card from you, by the way, I got a nice note from you, but you missed my mean, I'm a rat. That's all right. But anyway, you probably sent my card to Frank because we're born on the same day. Yeah, well, I know you probably went to the party, but anyway, he said he wouldn't forgive Dean Martin for whatever it was, and he was the only one not invited to the 80th birthday party. And now all of a sudden he's quoting him, saying he's his brother and all this, that and the other thing. That's a bunch of baloney.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Well, there is a little phoniness. Perhaps you've noticed that in business.
[00:48:00] Speaker F: And Jerry Lewis, the same could hardly go on.
[00:48:03] Speaker B: And this. They were kind of reunited, weren't they?
[00:48:07] Speaker F: A little bit, I think it was Sinatra, I think, who got them back together or something a few years back, but they weren't know.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: But they went back. They didn't seem to be back for any length of time after.
[00:48:20] Speaker F: I mean, I guess he was alone. He was alone a lot. I used to read about him and all those trash.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: Well, I guess the sad thing is people say that those who seem to know say that he never quite recovered from the death of his son back in 87. That's really so sad.
[00:48:36] Speaker F: Correct. That was in 1987, and I think Alan King was in the pay. I didn't read all that. But something about he saw him a couple of weeks before, or something like that. He was celebrating his own birthday, and he saw him somewhere in the restaurant, and he said goodbye to him and he said, I think he has a death wish.
[00:48:56] Speaker B: Really?
[00:48:56] Speaker F: He was very emotional about the whole thing. But anyway. But he's 78 years old and that's it. So what else is going on, Normie?
[00:49:08] Speaker B: I now see you to ask. The answer is nothing.
No, I know. I spent a nice evening with my kids this past night. Oh, good. And beyond that, really nothing. I usually do the usual thing. As you know, I'm a state department troubleshooter and advisor to presidents, and I have terrible responsibilities, bringing peace to the world and all of that kind of thing.
[00:49:32] Speaker F: Did you have a lovely birthday?
[00:49:34] Speaker B: I had no time for that because I'm busy bringing goodness and loveliness to people I have no time to think of.
[00:49:42] Speaker F: Oh, I see. Well, that's good. I mean, whatever.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: You don't quite know how to respond to that.
I can tell by the way you're stammering. Anyway, hey, a very belated happy birthday. But, I mean, where in New York are you? Right by riverhead. It's about 35 miles from Montauk. It's right where the fork of the tail starts. Oh, it sounds so beautiful, Charlie. And it's a nice area in the summertime. It gets too busy, though. Oh, too busy in the summer. What about now? Is it pretty now with the tourists? True, true. Oh, that's good. I sometimes hear you talking, reminiscing about the. I used to do my homework in Jack Armstrong, the all american boy and all that programs. Oh, yeah, and I used to listen to WR in New York. I'm further out now, so I get your station better, and I enjoy everything that comes on your station. Well, that's very nice you to say that, Charlie. And I enjoy hearing all these people talking from different areas, so it's enlightening to me, too. Well, that's good, because we do get a lot of calls from other parts of the country, which is nice.
Did you used to listen to Gene Shepard when he was on. Yes. Right. Yeah. Because he was one of my idols. I thought he did a great job just sitting there telling stories and just kind of rambling on the whole night in a very fascinating way. I wish he were on radio. That's really his medium. Your lifestyle there. I think the greatest gift you can give anybody is that their interest in reading, because you're never alone. You're never alone. Even if you can't read or if you don't get interested in books, you spend some awfully long hours if there are no other people around. And with a book, just to curl up with a book and read, I think, is one of life's greatest pleasures.
[00:51:48] Speaker C: You're 100% right. Not only that, with a child, think of the head start you give a young, very young child. If you start them reading at an.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Early age, you teach them to love reading and to love education.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: You just start prodding that very imaginative and very curious mind. Children are curious.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: They certainly are. Guys like Teddy Roosevelt, for example. He said he was one of these avid readers.
He would constantly have a book in his hand, and even before he was to go on a platform, he'd be backstage waiting to be introduced to make one of his speeches. He'd be reading.
He couldn't stop reading. It was almost a fetish of his.
I think that is great again. I think it's one of the greatest gifts you can give anybody. Oh, absolutely.
[00:52:46] Speaker C: And by the way, everybody, I'd like.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: To be read, too, don't you?
Yes, I really would. By somebody who knows how to read and who has something that's of great interest.
We had a woman the other night. This kind of all sparked this. This was a woman who had a book, mostly Christmas stories that we were talking about Christmas at that time. And these were stories that she compiled that she thought were great to read to children and even to adults for the blind on tape, maybe record stuff also that could be used, because the libraries lend out a lot of those kind of things, too. On tape they do. And it's not only for people, blind people, but it's also sighted people who have cassette players in their cars.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: In some bookstores, they have whole departments, a whole section, the big ones, anyway, of books on tape, and they become.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Very popular, probably cutting the throat of broadcasters by saying that. But I think sometimes there says nothing on radio you want to listen to or you've heard it all. So you're throwing a cassette, and especially if you're on a long trip, I'll say outside the area where radio reception is not all that great.
I mean, that just has got to fill the hours.
I've read a lot of books on tape.
See? Hey, you're my kind of guy, Fred. Hey, thanks very much for the call, and happy new year to you.
[00:54:17] Speaker D: Happy New year to you.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Thanks a lot.
With what that was, he would have a one powered craft pulling a whole lot of.
What do they call, know that are not powered, what do they call gliders, sort of gliders, I guess that kind of stuff. He had the idea that you could travel cross country pulling these gliders. This would save time. You see, each glider would then be let off at a different airport along the way.
[00:54:49] Speaker D: One at Chicago, one at New York.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: That's right. As you went along, somebody was only going, say, from Boston to New York City, they'd be in the back glider. And as he got over, like Logan, not Logan, but LaGuardia airport or Kennedy, he released the last glider and that would float down, but the plane would not have to land and take off again. See, this way he wouldn't be jammed up. It wouldn't take a lot of time. You can make better time that way. Then he got over Cleveland. Whoever wanted to go to Cleveland would have been on the next plane, that kind of stuff. And he'd go cross country nonstop, just releasing the glide. There must be something wrong with that whole system, otherwise it probably would have been put into effect by now. But I thought, what a great idea. He also had an electronic something. They didn't call it electronic then.
Television detector, I think it was called. Even way back before there was television. And he could look through walls with that. And that sparked my imagination because I thought I'd take that and go to the theater district in Boston and go to the dressing outside the dressing rooms, look through the walls. I mean, that produced all kinds of erotic thoughts in my mind, but it was Tom Swift. Did you read many of his books?
[00:56:14] Speaker D: Oh, I read just about all of them.
The teacher down at our library told my mother that she thinks I read every book in that library.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: No kidding.
[00:56:25] Speaker D: Because I'd come home with about 1415 books on a weekend, and next weekend I'd go back and get more.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: Do you still read a lot?
[00:56:34] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: So that was a habit that started when you were young and you kept going at it.
[00:56:39] Speaker D: Well, I'm 80 years old now.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: But you still read a lot?
[00:56:44] Speaker D: Yeah. Then I listen a lot, too. I got this books on tape job, too.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah? That's great.
I think that's such a lovely way to spend many hours of your life.
[00:56:56] Speaker D: Did you ever hear books called the Clan of the cave bear?
[00:57:02] Speaker B: Yes, I have heard that.
[00:57:03] Speaker D: Well, there's four books of that. The clan of the Cave bear valley, the horses and mammoth hunt and a passage home. And I've read that whole thing five times.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: No kidding. Islands where the year round temperature is averages out to be 757 degrees. A lot of sweating going on. But anyway, the whole idea of climate and everything sounds very appealing to us as we begin our winter with snow covering and all that. And they're both fun, interesting people. We'll get to them in just 1 minute.
The place we're just talking about, Sapphire village, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, where they left a while ago, both from this area. Well, Bruce from Missouri originally and where they both lived in Charlestown until the point where they decided to leave this area and go to the american virgin islands. And Bruce did the all night show. And among other things, we're also a newscaster on WEi when WEi was at 590 on the dial. It's kind of hard to follow the way radio stations are going. WEi is now where WHDH used to be and there is no WHDH. And you don't care about any of that stuff, do you, Bruce?
[00:58:25] Speaker D: No.
[00:58:27] Speaker B: You're kind of removed from all of this junk. Do you have extension phones? There's no read on another line.
[00:58:32] Speaker E: I'm right here.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: Good morning to both of you. I really appreciate you coming on, although it's coming up to about 13 after four in the morning here, it isn't a whole lot later in the day that for you, you're only about an hour later. You're on atlantic time.
[00:58:48] Speaker D: We're an hour ahead of you.
[00:58:50] Speaker B: Well, you can look at it that way if you want to be snobby about it.
Okay.
What caused you guys to go? Because I remember getting cards and stuff from you. I didn't know in advance that you were deciding to go to the Virgin Islands. I had never known anybody to do anything quite as adventurous as what you've done. I really admire you for doing that. What brought that on?
[00:59:14] Speaker D: Well, Norm, let's see. When EeI went toes up, I lost my job along with everybody else at the radio station and I was, what, 55 at the time. So that put me right in that category of people who were too young to retire and too old to really do anything very useful.
And the business was in bad shape. The New England economy was really in a nosedive and we had purchased this little place in the Virgin Islands with a thought to retire here. So we just decided to come down here. And if we're going to struggle someplace, why we do it. Or we didn't have to buy oil.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: Is the average year round temperature there, is it about 80, is that right? Something like that.
[01:00:08] Speaker D: Daytime highs here are about 90. And at this time of year, the nighttime low is about 75.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: Okay. I was going to say that it's so tough to take.
[01:00:20] Speaker D: Yeah, I understand it's 24 degrees there.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Yes, that's exactly what it is. 24 degrees outside our BZ studios here on Soldiers Field Road.
[01:00:31] Speaker D: Comfortably cool.
[01:00:34] Speaker B: Actually, it's not. Well, you know, the New England weather. You've lived here a long time. Are you from Missouri originally? Was it St. Louis or Kansas City?
[01:00:42] Speaker D: Missouri?
[01:00:43] Speaker B: Kansas City, Missouri. Okay. So your temperatures out there where you grew up were probably even colder than here?
[01:00:50] Speaker D: They could be. Yeah, that's true.
[01:00:52] Speaker B: Okay, go ahead. No, no. I was going to ask Narita. Because Narita had a public relations firm here, her own business and all of that. And we did some work together. I still remember Narita.
Was it the circus thing we did with you?
[01:01:08] Speaker E: Oh, yes.
[01:01:09] Speaker B: Remember that was the telephone Pioneers club, right.
[01:01:15] Speaker E: The performance for blind children, wasn't it?
[01:01:18] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. That was kind of interesting. A partner and I were rigged up by you, who set the thing up. And you were on. As a matter of fact, you were on with us. We went to a Boston garden and we described the circus to a whole lot of blind people, kids mostly, and a lot from the Perkins Institute who had earphones on, who could hear what was going on and could smell the elephants and all the animals and all that kind of stuff. And we would describe what was happening, which was kind of tough because there were three rings going on. And I've never forgotten that day. I thought it was just absolutely fascinating. And I remember you doing very well. You kind of came in as the color person.
[01:02:02] Speaker E: Yes, I didn't have much choice.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: When Bruce decided everything was falling apart in radio. Because you gave up your own firm and then decided to go to the Virgin Islands. Was that a tough decision to make?
[01:02:18] Speaker E: Well, it wasn't very tough because at the time we decided on it, it was snowing out.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: Did you. Obviously went during the wintertime, then said.
[01:02:28] Speaker E: He was easy to come down here to warm up.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: Now, as a matter of fact, when we were talking on the phone several hours ago, and I was asking if you'd be kind enough to come on the air with me, you were talking about a lack of power as a result of hurricanes. You've had a couple of bad hurricanes, one of which knocked out the power for. Did you say 1112 weeks? Something like that.
[01:02:54] Speaker E: Weeks we were without power and water. We still don't have tv. We won't have that back until June or July.
But we had two hurricanes in one week, Hurricane Lewis and Hurricane Maryland. Maryland was the one that really devastated the island.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: Is that something that you're especially vulnerable to hurricanes when you're there on the Virgin Islands?
[01:03:22] Speaker D: There's no question about it.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: So you're right on the track? More so on the track than most places are.
[01:03:29] Speaker E: Right. But the last time we had a hurricane was back in 1989. That was when Hurricane Hugo came through. So it isn't something that happens every year, we hope.
[01:03:41] Speaker B: Well, that was only six years ago. And then you have this brutal attack this time.
Do you have much television? You mentioned television was out.
[01:03:55] Speaker D: We don't have any television.
[01:03:57] Speaker B: You don't have any? Right.
[01:03:58] Speaker D: That's a slight exaggeration. There's one PBS station down here on the island of St. Croix, but it doesn't operate very well. The transmitter breaks down all the time, and we can barely get it when it's at its peak, so we don't bother with that. We run a lot of movies, and as long as we have power, we can entertain ourselves.
Even radio is gone, Norm. All the towers blew down.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: So even if you have a portable radio, you mean there's no reception there either?
[01:04:30] Speaker D: Well, we have now, I guess. We have three ams back.
As you know, setting string in the copper for an FM isn't that complicated. So they've come back pretty good. But we don't have a CBS station here, for instance.
So you really don't get any network news?
I've been trying to get Denver to set the clocks, that sort of silly, simple stuff.
What time is it, Norm?
[01:05:03] Speaker B: I'll keep calling if you'd like.
[01:05:05] Speaker D: Would you, please?
[01:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah. We're coming up to 19 after four here, so you can set it an hour ahead, right? 10 seconds before 419.
[01:05:17] Speaker D: Oh, thank you, Norm.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: I'll call you again every hour for as long as you need to.
It's hard for, I think for us to imagine that power would be out for the number of weeks you're talking about. And yet you were mentioning Narita when I was talking to you before that it matters and all that, but at least you don't worry about the furnace going out and there being no heat or anything like that.
[01:05:43] Speaker E: That's true.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: Because of the weather. Does it take long to probably this is a really stupid question, but I major in stupid questions.
Is it tough to get used to 80 deg weather all the time? Do you miss falls with a nip in the air and all that?
[01:06:01] Speaker E: No, I don't miss that one bit. When it gets down to about 70 here, I'm cold. That's cold enough for me.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: A friend of mine who lives down in Florida during the wintertime said that. And I thought he was wanting to rub my nose in it. I thought he had to be joking.
[01:06:20] Speaker E: No, it's true. Once you acclimate, really, you're subjected. You feel the ups and downs and the temperature, even though it's five degrees difference.
[01:06:30] Speaker B: There was a book out at one time called something about windmills. And it was about life on an island. That was sort of similar to the island you're on, St. Thomas and the Virgin islands. And the fact that there were some problems. Because local help wasn't as receptive to doing much of anything as much as back here in the States.
Am I exaggerating that, or do you run into that at all there?
[01:07:03] Speaker D: No, you're not know, I don't want to insult anybody, so I don't want to really get into it. But it's a problem.
[01:07:10] Speaker B: But they can't hear us anyway, because you guys have had no problem.
[01:07:13] Speaker D: Somebody will write back, right?
[01:07:15] Speaker E: Even though we don't have radio, they'll write back.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: But I remember that was the theme of who wrote that? I'm trying to think of who wrote.
[01:07:22] Speaker D: Well, there's a book called don't stop the carnival.
[01:07:24] Speaker B: That's the one.
[01:07:26] Speaker D: Very popular. And who wrote that?
[01:07:29] Speaker E: Herman woke wasn't woke.
[01:07:32] Speaker B: That's right.
[01:07:33] Speaker E: Yes, he wrote it here in.
[01:07:38] Speaker B: Oh, so he was describing Thomas.
[01:07:41] Speaker E: Oh, yes.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: With the fact that trying to get, like, repairs. If you have a problem with plumbing or whatever.
He made it sound like it's impossible to ever have anybody do anything about it.
[01:07:54] Speaker D: Well, what you do is you fix it yourself or throw it away and buy a new one.
[01:07:59] Speaker B: Can you buy a new one sometimes.
[01:08:02] Speaker D: And they can always have something flown in.
[01:08:05] Speaker B: Is it tough to make a living when you're living in these lovely conditions?
[01:08:12] Speaker D: Very tough. The cost of living is high, and the wage scale is low. I'm very fortunate in that I have a job where I manage an office for a company.
So I have a salary and so forth. But most people coming here, it takes about three years, really, to get yourself turned around by.
[01:08:34] Speaker B: Turned around. Now, what do you mean by that?
[01:08:36] Speaker D: To where you're supporting yourself? You're generating income and you have a place to live and so forth. It's sort of a three year wall that you have to get over, and we've done that and gone beyond it. So we're very fortunate and we love it here.
[01:08:54] Speaker B: And, you know, Rita, you've got things going for you there.
[01:08:58] Speaker E: I do. I have a few things going. Before the hurricane, I was a reporter for the Virgin Islands Business journal, but since the hurricane, we have no more business journal. So I'm now running the office here at our condo, the Sapphire Village Condo association office. She's very strict norm, and I'm doing a little bit of freelance writing for two other publications, one of which is distributed on 19 islands. So I get around.
[01:09:33] Speaker B: Okay. So when we talk, I probably am typical of the ignorance of people about your whole area. When you said, now the Virgin Islands and St. Thomas is one of them, what is that? Like you said, there are about 19 islands.
[01:09:50] Speaker E: No, the newspaper is distributed on 19 islands. They distribute it from the US Virgin Islands all the way down to Venezuela.
It's a newspaper for bodies.
[01:10:06] Speaker B: I'm sorry? It's a newspaper for what?
[01:10:08] Speaker E: For people who own yachts and bodies.
[01:10:12] Speaker B: Yes, I see. Okay.
But Virgin island is not like the hawaiian islands. And with a whole string of islands.
[01:10:20] Speaker E: Just that one, there are three US Virgin islands, and just 11 miles away from us are the British Virgin islands.
So it's easy enough to go over there, just hop a ferry, and there you are. And it's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous over there at the British Virgin islands.
[01:10:42] Speaker B: More so than the american side?
[01:10:44] Speaker E: No. Each one is distinct. Each one has its own particular point of beauty.
[01:10:54] Speaker D: If you really want to see some beauty in the US, Vi, go to St. John, which is mostly national park. It's just gorgeous.
[01:11:03] Speaker B: Okay, so we got St. Thomas in the Virgin Island, St. John. And there are other islands there, too.
[01:11:09] Speaker D: Well, sure.
[01:11:10] Speaker E: St. Croix is the third island.
[01:11:15] Speaker D: The three Virgins, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, and then the BVI. The British Virgin islands includes Tortola and Virgin Gorda, where we just spent a weekend. That's a beautiful little island.
There's always someplace to go.
[01:11:32] Speaker B: Okay, see, I know I'm asking questions that the answers, I'm sure are obvious to you, but that's a part of the world I really know absolutely nothing about. I don't need to explain. I know nothing about it. I've just explained that, I guess, by the questions. Now, Sapphire village is one of the little communities on St. Thomas. Are there many communities like that?
[01:11:55] Speaker D: Well, Sapphire village is a condominium complex, and it's out on the east end of the island. There's really only one city on the island, and that's Charlote Amali, the cruise ship port.
And that's the financial center for the US Virgin Islands. This is the busy part where all the business takes place.
Where we live is somewhat isolated from that, although the east end of the island is becoming more and more commercial. But it's a gorgeous complex set up on the side of a mountain. And we walk to the ocean and have a beautiful view. And thank God the people who built this place knew what they were doing. And it's withstood all the hurricanes and so forth with minimal damage.
[01:12:50] Speaker B: You mentioned the business newspaper. That's out of business right now. Right. How do you get your news, then? Radio is just coming back. You have no television or something?
[01:13:02] Speaker D: You got to call us now, once an hour.
[01:13:04] Speaker B: Okay. Call you listen to what's going on.
How do you get news?
[01:13:09] Speaker E: We do have a daily publication. It's a Gannett newspaper, and they keep us informed. But one of the radio stations that was destroyed was just bought by a Bostonian, the Knight family.
[01:13:27] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[01:13:28] Speaker E: Yes, they just bought it. We're very excited because they know it's going to be great. It'd be good source for news and information.
[01:13:36] Speaker D: They're not on the air yet.
[01:13:37] Speaker E: Normally they'll be on in February.
[01:13:40] Speaker B: Is that Norman night?
[01:13:42] Speaker E: Yes. And Randy, his son, who used to own the cable tv system down here, he just sold it before the hurricane.
[01:13:52] Speaker D: Yeah, Randy's got a big smile on his face.
He put the check in the bank about seven days before the hurricane, and.
[01:14:00] Speaker E: We'Re not going to have cable tv until June or July.
[01:14:05] Speaker B: Have you had cable in the past?
[01:14:06] Speaker D: Oh, sure, yeah.
[01:14:07] Speaker E: Randy built up the cable system, but we didn't subscribe to cable. We got our news through the satellite dishes. They were all destroyed, though, during the hurricane.
[01:14:20] Speaker D: So it sort of leaves you with nothing, a hole in your life where you're used to having instant access to news. What I do every day is when I get up in the morning, I usually turn on the computer and dial up CompuServe and pull down the hourly from AP.
So we have our own little newspaper here.
We print it out and that's it. That's where we find out about passing a Dean Martin and terrible airplane crashes and stuff. And I'm not sure I miss all that.
[01:14:53] Speaker B: No. Now, what about local news?
Do you have much crime or anything like that on the island?
[01:15:04] Speaker D: That's a lot made about that. No, we don't, Norm.
There is crime. I mean, any place you have humans, unfortunately, you're going to have the socially challenged.
But we have a place for those folks called Golden Grove over in St. Croix.
But no, crime isn't that bad here.
It's there. And unfortunately, newspapers and the news business tends to seize on that. If there's a murder or something, it's always big news in the States. And we hate to see that because then people get frightened and they don't come see you.
[01:15:45] Speaker B: Is it the kind of place where you would not lock your doors or your automobile? You wouldn't worry about that, St. Thomas.
[01:15:52] Speaker D: Because it's heavily populated. I think you have to use common sense in St. John. I know people don't lock their doors. And I know on Virgin Gorda, where we just spent the weekend, they are very open and they don't have any crime over there.
[01:16:11] Speaker B: I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to talk to you guys. I have one other question, too.
We have somebody on the line who would like to talk with you. By the way. Numbers two, 5410 30, area code six one seven. Fellow from New Hampshire said he had a friend who has moved to where you guys are. I'll bring him in in a minute. But I was wondering about Christmas and all that stuff. Does that seem strange to you when the weather is so warm and all?
[01:16:39] Speaker D: You know, that's a very individual thing. I'd have to let Narita speak for herself.
I've never really been a big Christmas fan, but that's just a personal thing with me.
Narita's from a big family and she may have a different attitude. How do you feel about that?
[01:16:56] Speaker E: Are we talking about the climate at Christmas?
[01:16:59] Speaker B: Yeah, the fact that you're celebrating Christmas at a time when it's so warm. And how do you get into the Christmas spirit with that kind of weather?
[01:17:07] Speaker E: Well, you just go for a swim.
[01:17:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:17:11] Speaker E: Which is what I did yesterday.
[01:17:14] Speaker B: So it still seems like Christmas to you?
[01:17:17] Speaker E: Yes, because people down here really go all out for Christmas. They buy Christmas trees, live trees, everything is decorated. A lot of people got their power back about ten days before Christmas. So up went the Christmas lights.
[01:17:37] Speaker B: Let me get to Jim in New Hampshire, see what kind of comment he cared to make. Jim, you're on WBC. How are you doing?
[01:17:44] Speaker D: Happy holidays, Norm.
[01:17:45] Speaker B: Happy holidays to you.
[01:17:47] Speaker D: I was wondering if you happen to run into a number of people down in St. Thomas who came from the north shore of Salem and Marblehead who are running charters out of that area.
Norm, if he's talking to us, you're going to have to relay it. We can't hear him.
[01:18:02] Speaker B: Okay. I guess they couldn't hear you. Could you get closer to the phone and speak up a little bit, Jim?
Yeah, a little bit. Just speak up a little bit. It's still kind of low.
[01:18:12] Speaker D: Okay. Well, I had a number of friends who I went to college with at Salem State, and during the middle to late 80s, they picked up their stakes and moved down to St. Thomas and have been running charters out of St. Thomas. So I was wondering if he had run into any basinian.
[01:18:32] Speaker B: Okay. Did you catch any of that? These are some people.
[01:18:36] Speaker D: Charter boat business is huge down here, as you can well imagine. It's the perfect place.
The fishing is.
Know, yachting is just a dream down here if you're into boats. I'm from Kansas City, so I don't know one end of a boat from another, but people who are into that sort of thing are just in heaven down here. Well, next time you have a chance to take a stroll along the harbor there, take a look for a couple of them. One of them is registered out of Marblehead, Massachusetts. And when you see that one, ask for Steve.
[01:19:12] Speaker B: Okay. Did you get that? What do you see?
[01:19:14] Speaker E: We have a whole fleet of sailboats from Marblehead down here at Compass Point.
[01:19:20] Speaker D: Oh, boy.
[01:19:21] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[01:19:22] Speaker D: There's a bunch of them that I grew up with and went to college with, and they all decided to take their money and run.
Next time you're in the area, just tell them that. Just check around and find out. But happy holidays to you all.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Thank you for the call. We have a woman from Wayland, Susan, who says, you say you have a family in the Virgin Islands?
[01:19:53] Speaker H: No, I have a son in the Virgin Islands.
[01:19:55] Speaker B: You have a son who's in the Virgin Islands?
[01:19:57] Speaker H: He's actually in the Caribbean.
He went down last April to go to medical school, and the school began on Montserrat, and he was there, and lo and behold, a volcano erupted, so he had to leave there. He came home and everything smelled like rotten eggs from the sulfur.
He then went back. They relocated the school to St. Martin, and he went back on a Thursday and the hurricane hit on a Monday.
[01:20:37] Speaker D: Yeah, St. Martin got hurt real bad with Louise.
[01:20:40] Speaker H: Oh, yeah. And he was on the dutch side, and I was living in a home and most of the rooms got blown away. So I don't know. They ended up living somewhere.
Before this, all the doors had blown out. They were still living in the house, and they were going to go to the beach, so they took all their valuables and they put it in the trunk of a car that they had when they got back from the beach.
Somebody had pride, opened the trunk of a car, and everything was stolen.
Anyway, he's down there, and I guess I'm going down there in March, but I guess that because it has the largest landing strip of all the islands, that they are making the most headway in clearing that island up for the tourists and basically, sort of like what you have. The only two things that they don't seem to have now is cable, and some parts still don't have telephone.
[01:21:54] Speaker D: Well, for people who don't know, St. Martin is an island that's divided between the Dutch and the French. French St. Martin and Dutch St. Martin.
Most of their infrastructure there is buried in the ground, unlike the USVI, where everything's up in the air. So things like power were restored very quickly, but there was a lot of physical damage on the island. The company I'm with does a lot of business there, so we miss them. And I certainly hope they are rebuilding quickly.
[01:22:25] Speaker H: Well, they have rebuilt quickly, and, in fact, I have reservations at a hotel that was almost totally demolished. I guess they were building 24 hours a day around the clock and clearing the roads. And like I said, the only thing now he said they don't have is cable. And he's on the dutch side. He does have telephone service, but most of the french side still doesn't.
[01:22:51] Speaker B: Okay. Hey, thank you very much, Susan. I appreciate the call. We have a couple other people, including Ken, who is in his car, and he says that his dad worked with you. Bruce? Ken, are you there?
[01:23:04] Speaker D: Hi. Yeah, my father didn't work with him, but we used to be on your show all the time. Bruce. Kenny Gloss.
[01:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:12] Speaker E: Hey, Kenny.
[01:23:12] Speaker D: How you doing, man? Good. I mean, this is. I'm driving to New York City to look at some books. I turn on the radio, and there you two are. Yeah. I miss you guys.
I don't have any place to go to buy books, Kenny. Well, what you should do now with the fax or email, send us up and we'll ship them down. You got it.
But with you down there, I obviously hear that you're doing pretty well and all that, but do you ever get back up into the States, or do you go back for supplies or is it all flown in? Well, no, everything's flown in. I've been too busy to go back to the States. I had to go back once very quickly. For a funeral. And I haven't been back, know, except for that one trip. Norita goes back once in a while to see her family because she has such a large family there in.
So it sounds like everything's going to. I couldn't resist calling, saying hi, wishing you a happy new year and write up. We'll send books down. Oh, bless your heart. Give our love to your mother. I will. Bye.
[01:24:24] Speaker B: Okay, bye bye, Ken. That's kind of nice. Yeah.
[01:24:27] Speaker D: How about that?
[01:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Here's Lynn, who says Lynn is from North Andover. You lived at St. Thomas at one time?
[01:24:37] Speaker F: Yes, I did. I was there in the early eighty s and I absolutely love it. I had made plans to go back this spring, and I'm wondering how bad the damage is because I hate the.
[01:24:51] Speaker D: Hotels for the most part, aren't open yet, but they're just right on the verge of opening.
Stouffers, which is a four star resort just for people who don't know, was just devastated by Maryland. And that's going to take them a while. It'll be June before they open. The two big hotels on St. John are also closed until June. But the reef is open.
[01:25:17] Speaker E: Sapphire Beach Hotel is open.
[01:25:20] Speaker D: Right. And we're open. I mean, most of the places are coming back now.
[01:25:25] Speaker F: We're kind of worried about seeing all the damage. I was going to go back with my friend that lived there, too. With me.
[01:25:31] Speaker D: Well, you know, the roofs that blew off have all been replaced by tarps, really. And the tarpolands are provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. And they're all the same color. They're blue. So when you fly around the island, it's a blue. Know, traditionally the roofs here are red, but now they're all FEMA blue.
[01:25:53] Speaker F: Is it as beautiful as I remember?
[01:25:54] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. And the foliage is coming back. That was always very sad to see.
[01:25:59] Speaker F: I live down in Lurkenland, down Hull Bay.
[01:26:03] Speaker E: Yes.
[01:26:04] Speaker F: How did they fare?
[01:26:06] Speaker E: Bay? Well, they had a big party there over the weekend, so they're back in business.
[01:26:13] Speaker D: Do come see us. The island is ready. We're ready for you. As a matter of fact, we had seven cruise ships yesterday.
[01:26:20] Speaker F: You did?
[01:26:21] Speaker D: Yep.
[01:26:21] Speaker E: All right, give us a call when you get here.
[01:26:25] Speaker F: I worked in Drake's alley, right up above in the offices up there.
[01:26:31] Speaker E: Corporate place.
[01:26:32] Speaker F: Is that. Yeah, there was a lot of offices. I worked for an accountant.
[01:26:37] Speaker E: Right.
[01:26:37] Speaker F: And it was right above, I forget the restaurant, but I saw a picture of it and it looked horrible.
[01:26:46] Speaker E: Oh, that's where the boats washed up.
[01:26:50] Speaker F: Right.
[01:26:50] Speaker E: But it's all right. They're back in business. Drake's passage is open.
[01:26:55] Speaker F: Oh, I'm glad to hear that. What about Moffali? I had some friends that own Moffali.
[01:27:00] Speaker D: Well, they got hurt real bad.
[01:27:02] Speaker E: Yeah, they got hurt pretty bad. Friends of ours lost part of their home, but they're rebuilding.
[01:27:08] Speaker F: Oh, that's great.
[01:27:09] Speaker E: The strength of the people down here is amazing. They just bounce back.
[01:27:14] Speaker F: Well, I would love to move back there. It's the most amazing place in the world.
[01:27:18] Speaker D: Well, come ahead.
[01:27:20] Speaker F: I'm glad to hear that it's coming back.
[01:27:22] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[01:27:23] Speaker B: Good.
[01:27:24] Speaker E: Give us a call when you get right.
[01:27:27] Speaker B: Thanks.
[01:27:29] Speaker D: Steve Sprazia and his wife Susan stopped to see.
[01:27:32] Speaker B: Oh, yes, I know that. They mentioned that.
That's great.
[01:27:37] Speaker D: That was a great treat for us.
[01:27:39] Speaker B: They're good people and they have a new know.
[01:27:41] Speaker D: I know, I saw. Oh, yeah, they sent us a picture.
[01:27:44] Speaker B: Let's take a break.
I'm amazed at the number of people who want to talk to you. Anyway, we have Bruce and Areta Lee on the line from Sapphire Village, St. Thomas and the Virgin Islands. And everybody in the world back here wants to talk with you, including Mr. B from Boston. You say you work with Bruce Lee or with Norita Lee?
[01:28:09] Speaker I: I'm a psychic called the Amazing Mr. B of ESP. I did shows with Bruce Lee from twelve to five in the morning on his station, and it's been a long time, Bruce.
[01:28:23] Speaker D: Hey, Barry. How are you doing, man?
[01:28:25] Speaker I: Excellent. I'm really glad to hear you on a radio. I wondered what happened to you all these years.
[01:28:34] Speaker D: You want to walk through my refrigerator?
[01:28:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:28:37] Speaker I: When I called you, Norm and told you that I see through telephones and I'm a professional psychic, may not have wanted to believe me, but Bruce can tell you I did five hour shows with him with the most amazing accuracy. As a matter of fact, Bruce Lee made the national enquirer with me on page one and page two.
[01:28:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Boy, there's an achievement.
[01:28:57] Speaker I: Well, I would say doing. I sing in clubs, Bruce.
I do four nights a week of club work. I just came off the Jerry Springer show a few months ago. Of course, I did Jerry show last year. And going on my 20 eigth year of being a professional psychic, as you well know, even you and I go back so long ago, it's unbelievable.
[01:29:25] Speaker D: Well, I'm delighted to know you're doing well, Barry, and it's good to hear your voice.
[01:29:30] Speaker I: And I remember your wife. I remember the time that I believed that we went up your house or whatever it was. It goes back a long, long time. And it's just great to hear your voice because like I said before, bruce Lee, no doubt about it, when you won't mention station names, W-E-I.
[01:29:50] Speaker B: I'll mention.
[01:29:53] Speaker I: That Bruce Lee was one of the best. And I told him that to his face and I said it before. And I miss hearing you, Bruce. And have a happy new year with your wife and norm. You keep up the good work and it's been great talking to you.
[01:30:08] Speaker B: Nice talking to you, Mr. B. Thanks a lot.
[01:30:10] Speaker I: Okay, bye bye.
[01:30:12] Speaker B: What amazes me is we just worked on this interview last night. I was talking with you. I said I'd love to have you on, but we didn't make a big promotional thing about it yet. Everybody in the world obviously there. Oh, I hope I haven't lost them.
Oh, I knocked him off instead of Mr. B. Can we call them back again? Yeah, let's.
Are you on a portable phone or anything?
[01:30:49] Speaker E: No, I just have a wicked cold.
[01:30:53] Speaker B: No, it wasn't so much that. We're getting a lot of storm.
[01:30:56] Speaker D: I think static is on this end. It's a legacy of the hurricane. You may have to. Let's hang up and try it again, okay?
[01:31:04] Speaker B: Okay. You want to do that or. Let's just talk with Joan first because we're going to be going off there in a few minutes anyway. Let's see if we can't.
[01:31:10] Speaker D: All right.
[01:31:11] Speaker B: We can't work this anyway.
You're talking. Joan, do you went to school with Norita? Yes, I did. We missed you at the reunion this year.
[01:31:21] Speaker E: Narita. Hi, Joan. I can barely hear you.
[01:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. The static is terrible. Yes.
[01:31:27] Speaker E: Joan Rogers.
[01:31:28] Speaker F: Yeah. How are you, Joan?
[01:31:30] Speaker H: Oh, doing okay.
[01:31:32] Speaker E: Good.
[01:31:32] Speaker H: Yeah.
[01:31:33] Speaker B: How you been?
[01:31:34] Speaker E: We're doing fine. We're getting back to normal.
[01:31:37] Speaker H: Yeah.
[01:31:38] Speaker B: What school was this?
Which one? Girls eye of Boston. Okay.
[01:31:44] Speaker H: It's obsolete now.
[01:31:46] Speaker E: Yeah. Joan had called me right after Hurricane Lewis to be sure we were okay.
[01:31:52] Speaker B: Oh, sure.
[01:31:53] Speaker E: And I assured her we were fine. And then along came Maryland.
[01:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's good hearing you on the radio. Okay. When Maryland came, that was the hurricane responsible for the eleven weeks of outage.
[01:32:08] Speaker D: That's right.
[01:32:09] Speaker E: Actually, the power went out with Lewis and it came back on two days before Maryland hit. So that would have been twelve weeks without power.
[01:32:18] Speaker H: So, noriti, we didn't go back.
[01:32:20] Speaker E: No.
It's warm here.
[01:32:24] Speaker H: Yeah.
[01:32:25] Speaker B: Well, it's good hearing you.
[01:32:27] Speaker E: Yes. Good to talk to you, Joan.
[01:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:32:29] Speaker F: Merry Christmas and happy New year.
[01:32:32] Speaker B: Happy New year to you, Jonah. Thank you very much for the call. Okay, thank you. Take care. Bye bye.
Got to watch out what I'm clipping off here. Could you clip her off for me instead? Because I'm talking to. My cap is not a producer. I don't want to even go near that thing.
Okay, our phone number is two. 5410 30. We take maybe one or two more calls, and the line seems to have cleared a little bit. You're a little bit better than the way it is. It's going to be a long day for you because you guys got up okay. Anyway, it's going to be a long day for you guys, having gotten up this early.
[01:33:11] Speaker D: That's all right, Norm.
We'll probably take a nap by the pool.
[01:33:15] Speaker E: Take us to you.
[01:33:17] Speaker B: I love when you. I like hearing that kind of talk. We'll tip. We'll probably take a nap by the pool. Oh, excuse me, sir.
I'm just very jealous about all of that kind of stuff.
[01:33:29] Speaker D: You're rubbing it in, Norm.
[01:33:30] Speaker B: I'm sorry. You really are, and I find that very nasty. And unlike you. Anyway, I want to thank you very much. We're going to have to be going off here in a couple of minutes, but I really appreciate talking to both of you. This is great. I don't know why I never thought to do this earlier, because you've been down there how long now?
[01:33:47] Speaker D: Well, four years now.
[01:33:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
Because we've written to each other and I see your Christmas cards and all that, but I guess I haven't talked to you for a while. But I'm glad to, and I wish you both the very best. You're both very good people, and I hope life is sweet. And 1996 is great on almost any.
[01:34:06] Speaker D: Cruise ship, and it will stop here. Then give us a call or fly in however you want to do it, but come see us.
Extend that invitation to everybody and happy New Year.
[01:34:17] Speaker B: Okay. I guess there's one more person who would like to talk to you also. Is that okay with you?
[01:34:23] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:34:23] Speaker B: Okay. Let's see. What is this, line one?
Oh, this is John, rather. John? From Charlestown? Yeah. Were you neighbors of the. Oh, I knew their mother and father, their sisters.
[01:34:38] Speaker E: You did?
[01:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah, my wife went to school with them and everything else.
[01:34:42] Speaker E: John who?
[01:34:44] Speaker B: John Taglitella.
[01:34:45] Speaker E: Oh, John. How are you?
[01:34:47] Speaker B: How are you doing?
[01:34:49] Speaker E: The Parker street gang.
[01:34:51] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I'm listening to the radio and I'm hearing you and Bruce.
Did it come as kind of a big shock to you?
[01:35:00] Speaker D: Pardon?
[01:35:01] Speaker B: Was it a big shock to you to hear suddenly because I drove truck and I used to have coffee with them early in the morning. McGrath highway.
[01:35:09] Speaker I: In a little restroom there, right?
[01:35:12] Speaker B: Yeah. When Bruce come down with the.
[01:35:17] Speaker G: Well.
[01:35:18] Speaker E: Please give Jain our best and the whole family, in fact.
[01:35:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
Okay. Thank you very much for calling, John. All right, Narita.
[01:35:27] Speaker E: Yes.
[01:35:27] Speaker B: Merry Christmas, you and your husband.
[01:35:29] Speaker E: Thanks, John.
[01:35:30] Speaker B: I'll call Jane that she's sleeping.
[01:35:31] Speaker D: Happy New Year to you. All right.
[01:35:33] Speaker B: Bye bye. Okay, bye bye.
[01:35:37] Speaker D: Anyway, as I was saying, come see us. And that invitation goes out to all the busy listeners. And don't be afraid to come here. This is a great spot.
[01:35:47] Speaker B: Okay, I appreciate that, Ramis. It's been a delight to talk with you both.
Okay? And thank you very much. And we'll be in touch in the future more often, okay?
[01:35:56] Speaker D: I certainly hope so, Norm.
[01:35:58] Speaker B: Take care. You, too. Bye bye. Bye bye, Narita. And bye bye, Bruce Lee again. Bruce was with Wei and we worked together way back in the mid 70s. It was primarily mid to late 70s, although Bruce had been there for a lot of years.
He did an all night show for some time, as you heard the psychic mention. And then when EI went all news in 1974, that's what he did then. So I just wondered how many of you remembered Bruce, but apparently a whole lot of people, because that amazes me, the amount of people who called to say hello to the leaves again, because we didn't advertise the fact that they'd be on or anything. So you just happen to be listening and you knew the voices, so that's good. Anyway, seven before five, we'll get into news with Gary LaPierre and the whole WBC News team. And of course, the latest weather and sports and all kinds of stuff coming up at 05:00 which is not too many minutes from now. And if you'd like to talk to me, I would be just gorellic and myself, the almost good looking Norm Nathan person. I hope you have a chance to join us tonight. We'll be back overnight again, sitting in for Bob on the Bob Raleigh show. And if you can join us right throughout the week, I certainly would appreciate that very much.
[01:37:26] Speaker A: I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families and friends. My plan is to try to get one more episode out before the end of the year. If I do not, then let me be the first to say, see you next year. Closing the vault and leaving this world a little sillier than we found it for Nat Hentoff, Bob Wills and his Texas playboys. Jimmy Rogers, the singing breakman. Roundup time with Texas Irving Hankmeyer. Summerfields, the genius of Duke Ellington, the sound of jazz, Merle Haggard, Rick Stewart's mobile Bay Blues, Johnny Hodges, Harper Collins, Rebecca Molly, the Middlesex News, overnight talk radio. Jamie Bernard, Richard Allen Heen, Anne Marie Bivens, Bruce and Narita Lee. Tv lawyers Arthur Levine, Neil Chayette, Frankie, Max Beechmont, brushing your teeth in private, Hawk pooey stations that would interrupt our signal throughout the country. Broadcasting from the coat closet, Bob Logue and his producer, Amy of KDKA in Pittsburgh, who were too busy to talk to us. Hey, when the phone don't ring, you'll know it's us calling. Rattling papers, trying to call Princess Diana at Kensington Palace. Fred B. Cole, Bob Clayton, Jack Armstrong, the all american boy reading books. Tom Swift, that fantastic color. FEMA Blue. Sapphire Village, St. Thomas and the US Virgin Islands. The Parker street gang. Marilyn Gorelnik, Mike Epstein. And that Dean Martin wannabe State Department troubleshooter and advisor to presidents Norm Nathan. I'm Tony Nesbitt.
