..Bob, thanks for the site ! It's the best walk down Memory Lane a native New Orleanian could have. I, like most who have posted here, have many memories of the "Golden Days of Radio" and the unique experiences of growing up in the Big Easy.
I'm from the Uptown/Garden District near Magazine & Jefferson Ave. Some of my earliest cherished memories are of the Saturday night monster fest at the Napoleon Show, riding bikes down Monkey Hill, the 2 story slide at the Audubon Park pool, and enjoying a Hansen's "snowblitz" on a hot summer day.
As a young boy I saw President Kennedy ride by me while standing at the corner of State & Laurel streets, where the "Sugar Bowl" confectionary used to be. I was an altar boy at St. Francis Of Assisi and remember hearing a band called "The Paper Steamboat" practicing in a house across the street from school. I was a Cub Scout, and for why I don't remember, but we did a skit on The Great McNutt's show where we dressed as Can-Can girls ! I watched Uncle Henry on Popeye & Pals, swam at the "Old Beach", rode the Zephyr & Wild Maus at Pontchartrain Beach, ate Royal Castle hamburgers near West End, and had a picture and autograph session with "The Cisco Kid" when he appeared at the local Winn Dixie.
Growing up I delivered groceries for the corner store, Broussard's, by bicycle throughout the neighborhood. My first 45, "Kind Of A Hush", was purchased from Dorian's Record Store on Magazine St. and my first album was "Are You Experienced" bought at the local Schwegmann's. I remember wrestling a greased watermelon in the pool at Camp Salmen, and riding the Swan boat past Duck Island in the Audubon Park lagoon. My friends and I used to catch turtles from that lagoon and sell them at Ott's Pet Shop. Together with the money we'd get from selling bottles, we'd make enough to buy our favorite new 45 or get a Po-Boy from Domilise's.
High School memories include the rivalries we had (De La Salle) with Jesuit at Tad Gormley Stadium, dances (and fights) on the President, playing air hockey at Dino's, and parking at the lakefront. It was at that age that I started playing in my first bands too. In the early 70's my band, Class Sass, played in the Superdome and recorded at Buzzy Beano's (Topcats) BB Studio on the Westbank. I was in The Dixie Tallboys when we recorded a CD at Hart Studios in Belle Chasse. One of our songs "Mighty Mississipp'" got lots of airplay on WWOZ.
Although the places are landmarks in my memory, New Orleans is most remembered by it's characters. Most of which were media celebrities who I still treasure and admire. Here are just a few:
Morgus The Magnificent (Sid Noel) - my uncle served in an Army Reserve unit with Mr. Noel ... John Pela - my aunt was a John Pela dancer ... Bob Walker - on the Mighty 690, listening on a small, AM only, transistor radio ... Hap Glaudi - not only a great sportscaster, but also a great person and a true New Orleanian ... Jim Metcalf - "Shades Of New Orleans" ... John Fred & the Playboys - they played at a DLS Junior-Senior Prom.
Thanks for taking me back and for hosting this great site. As you were then, you are still much appreciated.
BOB:
I too met the Cisco Kid at that Winn-Dixie in the Carrollton Shopping Center
(at the time) located at Carrollton and Washington Avenues. He was quite
sweaty and fidgety wearing his gaudy Cisco Kid costume along with his sombrero
in the New Orleans heat. Too bad we both missed Roy Rogers' appearance at
Roy Rogers Roast Beef on Veterans near Cleary (now Arby's) in the early
70's. And Basil Rathbone's appearance in the late 60's at a housing subdivision
promotion in Avondale (!). Or Jack Benny's appearance at Maison Blanche
in the mid-70's. What great late-life pinnacles for show business icons
whose stars have faded and they'll appear anywhere for a few bucks to pay
their bills. Did you know that Bud Abbott was so destitute in the last few
years before he died around 1975 that he asked his fans to each mail him
$1 to help him pay his bills? Or that Stan Laurel, in the same financial
condition when an old man, was financially "adopted" by Dick Van
Dyke?
BERNIE LUCAS, Washington DC:
Hey Bob - great site. I've visited several times and decided to write tonight. Although I left New Orleans in 1977, the Crescent City never left me. I do know what it means to miss New Orleans.
Some N.O. memories: "Jingle jangle jingle, here comes Mr. Bingle" ... Mayor Vic Sciro ... St. Dominic, Jesuit, UNO when it was LSUNO ... Bud's Broiler (do they still exist?) ... that '45 Bobby Reno put out in the late 60s ... Jax Beer ... Nash Roberts (the Weather Channel Storm Desk "experts" reporting on all the hurricanes hitting Florida this year have nothing on Mr. Roberts), streetcars on the neutral ground on Canal Street ... the Morgus movie (filmed in part at Christian Brothers school in CIty Park) ... Jim's Fried Chicken on Carrolton Ave. ... proms at the Rivergate.
Through these and many of my other childhood memories growing up in N.O. there is a radio playing, especially in the 60s and 70s. The airwaves were full of entertaining DJs like You, Robert Mitchell, Skinny Tom Cheney and other Krewe of TIX DJs; CC Courtney, Lou Kirby, Gary Burbank, Marty Baloo and Max Beauzeaux on WNOE; Captain Humble on WRNO; Nut & Jeff, Keith Rush, Ken Addison, Bob Middleton on WSMB.
Listening to this eclectic collection of radio personalities and the music and events of that era led me to chase my own dream of a radio career. I began in the early morning hours at WRNO, and now 30 years and 5 cities later, I'm still working in radio, mostly behind the scenes at the Country music station in Washington DC. I doubt I'm in the league of those I mentioned, but I'm forever grateful for their (and your) influence.
And I've been fortunate to meet or be in touch with some of my DJ heroes, including CC Courtney, Tom Cheney, Max Beauzeaux (Gary Guthrie, now into computers), Marty Balou (Marty Bass, who does morning TV in Baltimore) and even you once (email a few years ago). Any idea whatever became of Ken Addison, Bob Middleton or Lou Kirby?
Thanks again for the great web site!
BOB:
Nice to connect again with another prominent name from the Golden Era of
New Orleans Radio (the days before the corporate a-holts and their slimebag
consultants). Yes, Bud's Broiler does still exist and their BBQ burgers
and sauce taste as delicious as you remember them. Ken Addison passed away
in the late 70's. Bob Middleton is still around New Orleans but retired
from the microphone. Lou Kirby owns a construction company in Cancun, and
he and CC Courtney still communicate and stay friends between Cancun and
New York.
STEVE CALLENDER, Gulfport, MS:
Bob, well, I didn't think it was possible. I've been out of the radio business
for nearly 15 years. Then I stumble across your website, start reading the
emails, and all the memories come flooding back like an overflowing commode
at Pat O's. I remember beginning in 1980 at a place where a lot of New Orleans
broadcasters got their start: WLDC 640 AM at Loyola, the "carrier current"
radio station. We only broadcast to three places: the boys dorm, the girls
dorm, and the Wolf Pub campus watering hole. Of course, we were usually
only on at the Pub if your roommate was the student manager that night,
and managed to put up with bad "slip-cues" and "dead rolls",
caused in part by the turntable arms weighted down with pennies. By dumb
luck that year, I got my commercial start at WBYU FM 95.7, "Easy Listening",
under the watchful eye of Al Braud. More than a few of us owed our start
to Al, who not only hired us, but honestly critiqued us, encouraged us,
and nurtured that "bug" we developed to get on the air. We also
found that great was the wrath of the 70 year old church ladies who would
call the station on Sunday morning if the St. Jude Novena broadcast was
more than 30 seconds late.
Remember "The Great Experiment" in the early 1980s, WRNO Worldwide? It was, I think, one of only three commercial shortwave radio stations in the United States, and broadcast all around the globe. Somehow, I failed to understand how owner Joe Costello could make money by running 15 minute programs to in Lithuanian at 2:00am. Then, getting a chance to work alongside the FM station, where you got to talk to people like Brother Dave, Weerd Wayne, and Warren (I can't remember his last name) the "Album Hour" DJ at 12:00 midnight, provided more than a few great memories.
Hey: Here's a station no more than seven people remember, WQUE-13 AM Stereo. It used to be WGSO 1280, but was remade into Top 40 AM with the added bonus of "stereo sound", if you had the right equipment to hear it that way. It was great working there in 1985-86, although the only one I remember being there with me was Bob Delgiorno, Jr, AKA "Beaver Stevens". In addition, I got a chance to hang with the guys at WQUE FM, to include "Skinny" Tommy Chaney, "Blair on the Air", and Walton & Johnson (before they moved to Houston). It was great working at that place..right up to the time that I was literally fired while on the air. Being the radio man you are, you've know the story: new owners, corporate decision from New York, everybody gets canned. I have the rather sordid distinction of being the last on-air employee at that station. To make it even worse, I got yanked during the 7:05 epic "We Are The World", and was replaced by taped "Motown Memories". Oh Death, where is thy sting?
After kicking around for a few years in New Iberia at KDEA-FM and KNIR-AM as News Director (a separate story in itself), I was rehired as a radio reporter in New Orleans in 1988. That was the good news. The bad news: it was at the all-new WSMB, "Info Radio". This was not the fabled WSMB of Nutt & Jeff and Larry Regan fame. No, no: this was working for the sharks that fired Nutt & Jeff and Larry Regan, and everybody else there. Some of my good friends, to include Al Cazanave and Andre Laborde, got the axe just before I came there.
In truth, the new folks hired with me (Cathy Jacob, Terry Westerfield, Peter Brown, Ron Small, Doug Rye, etc) worked themselves to death to put a good product on the air. Some of Ron Small's morning show skits were, to this day, the funniest I've ever heard on radio. And in listening to Peter Brown, you knew he was going to go places. (And he did: he's now a nationally syndicated sports talk show host). We also had a solid news crew that put on "The Information Hour" each day from 12:00 p-1:00 p, as well as news from 5:00 am to 6:00 pm daily. I covered every story it was possible to cover while riding in a 1988 Ford Tempo. (By the way, if ever there was a car that attracted the ladies the Ford Tempo wasn't it.) In any event, it was all for naught, as the cancer that was upper management eroded at us daily until we either left of our own accord, or were suddenly axed out of existence.
Although I've left that life behind for awhile, part of me to this day gets "the itch" on occasion to grab a microphone and start talking again. Thanks for letting me ramble, and for putting this website together.
BOB:
Yet another testimonial by a good radio man about the well-known idiocy,
greed and incompetance of the Radio Corporation eunuchs. These people are
indeed gutter vermin. When you get "the itch," get some Cruex
and forget about it. Then dive into the New Orleans Radio Shrine again to
enjoy how personal, good and fun radio used to be. WTIX DJ Ted Green used
to say: "If a band is good you don't have to tell people about them."
Yet today's radio stations keep telling everyone over and over and over
how much "fun" it is to listen to them. Get an IPod or listen
to internet radio. Kill Corporate Radio by not listening and not reporting
to the ratings services!
BOB BENGSTON:
I was 23 years old in February of 1966. I was News Director of The Star
Stations, a group of AM rock stations owned by Don W. Burden, out of Omaha,
Nebraska. Don wanted to show that his stations had more international clout
than his buddy Gordon McClendon. Don had sent me, representing KOIL, Omaha,
and the News Directors of his other stations, WIFE, Indianapolis and KISN,
Portland, Oregon to Viet Nam in 1965. I told him I wanted to go back to
Viet Nam to keep reporting on the war. If he didn't want me to go, I would
go for Mutual News, which then covered the war with reports from Joe Fried,
a reporter for the New York Daily News. Don countered by making me his National
News Director (whatever that meant). As 1966 started, the biggest and most
interesting story outside of Viet Nam developed in New Orleans, as District
Attorney Jim Garrison claimed to have uncovered a plot that led to the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy three years earlier. Burden agreed that I should
head to New Orleans and cover the story for as long as it took.
I remember renting a car at the airport-- the first time I had ever done so-- and heading for the French Quarter. I had previously shared information and audio with WNOE, so I found their studios. On Bienville, I think. And I met the man I had only known as a voice in the past, F. Michael Franklin. Great radio name. Very nice man. He offered me desk space and use of a phone, and I went to work. I'm afraid that my reporting was a little sketchy, but my writing and volume seemed to make up for it. I had the most wonderful time digging out little tidbits of the story and blowing them into major scoops. I found that the Kennedy family had engaged a local attorney and had send a family friend from Boston to track the story and report back. This wonderful, previously unknown material was unearthed by happending to sit next to the Boston attorney at a bar one night. Great scoop.
F. Michael Franklin invited me to his home and we bought a bushel of oysters and a couple of oyster prawls, along with a case of Dixie Beer. We spent an evening learnig to open oysters and drink beer, and awoke to find a lot of little cuts on our hands and a couple of bad heads.
I ate most evenings at the Pearl Restaurant just accross Canal from Bourbon. They always had a giant joint of ham or beef ready to slice onto gigantic sandwiches. If I left the station earlier in the evening, I might dine at Felix's or one of the spaghetti joints in the quarter. Why didn't I do dinner at Gallatoire's or Antoine's? At 23 years of age, I didn't feel quite ready to join the real adults.
Many years later, I talked again with F. Michael Franklin. He was working at the all-news station, and told me that he had gone through some very rough times, including a car accident in which he nearly died. Every time I return to New Orleans, I think about him. Can anyone tell me where he might be now?
BOB:
FMF was indeed a great guy. I lost track of him years ago, but I did sit
a few seats down from him and his lady friend in the free media tickets
section of Tulane Stadium on many fall afternoons as we watched the Saints
play. I'll let you know what I hear.