Mp3Musicradio WABC Bloopers and Parodies
These are RealAudio sound files of either bloopers or parodies from WABC. Some of these things happened over the air while others were recorded as jokes which never aired. They are fun to listen to and the more familiar you are with Musicradio WABC, the funnier they become.
Howard Cosell Loses It!
Howard was a staple at WABC long before he became a star for the ABC Network and he continued his WABC radio commentaries long after he became a TV star. As you can hear from this outtake, there were times when his schedule became very hectic. And on this particular recording, Howard had about enough...
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Our favorite WABC Engineer Bill Epperhart contributed the following about this recording:
Bill Mozer was recording the show in those days out of 8C, but on this particular occasion, called in sick and was replaced by Gil Saffien. "Gilly" didn't work out of there very often and was unaware that one of the mics (Howard's) was a Condenser Microphone with an a.c. power supply on the studio floor that had been turned off. It was a GOTCHA that could have happened to anyone who didn't work the room all the time.
Another engineer down the hall was punching through the channels when he came across Howard doing a slow burn and decided to roll tape. Dan excerpted part of this tape and included it in one of the bits that is posted in my section and phrases like "Is it workin' now Gilly?", "It's enough to make even the greatest professional break down" and "It's a simple radio show..." soon became part of the station's history. There was also a short gag promo that was made up from this tape.
I ran across this tape on another web site, don't remember which one, and they reported that Howard's producer did this on purpose just to get him going. No way. She would have been fired for something like that. Time is money. It was for real.
Musicradio WABC Bloopers
Can you imagine being fired by Musicradio WABC? Two disc jockeys were as a result of over the air comments. This aircheck starts with Bob Dayton's "Hiroshima" comment (from August 6, 1965) followed by Roby Yonge "speculating" about the "death" of Paul McCartney (from October, 21 1969):
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Even at WABC with its state of the art equipment, things sometimes break. Here is Dan Ingram with a broken "cart". Carts were used instead of records. They look like eight track tape cartridges except they work in special machines with fixed heads. They are tapes and they do sometimes break...
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Bill Epperhart "dissected" this aircheck for us (The engineer on the board was Jerry Zeller):
Dan's standard setup was "Record, W." Play the record followed by the W jingle.
His first response was to have Jerry give the cart a pull in case it wasn't seated properly. Sometimes that will clear it. In this case, that tape was in the process of wrapping itself around the capstan and the pinch roller. It was on it's way out fast.
While he was talking, Dan reached around and pulled another record from the tape rack and passed it over to Jerry. If you listen very closely you can hear Dan go off mike as he says "I don't think we really want to hear that." On cue, Dan directed everything, Jerry started the record. Again on cue, Jerry fired off the W jingle which dovetailed perfectly into the "music post" in the record intro. Dan has an incredible ear for music.
You just found the perfect real world example of what I was describing about working without glass and staying with Dan when he does a 180 degree shift. It also shows just how good Dan really is; 1.) He covered. 2.) He had an adlib for the Diana Ross record. 3.) He never lost his sense of timing.
Sometimes things don't start when they are supposed to. Not even carts. As usual, Dan Ingram handles it....
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What happens when you're Cousin Brucie and you can't quite say the word "precipitation". No problem for Bruce:
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Not Bloopers, but still funny:
So how do you think Howard Cosell felt when he debuted singing on WABC with 5 million ears listening? (courtesy Bill Epperhart):
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During the 1967 Strike that kept the WABC disc jockeys off the air, the following promo ran:
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Musicradio WABC Parodies
(things that NEVER aired)
The 1968 Presidential election year was in full swing in the Spring of that year. Dan Ingram did this bit in honor of those running in the primaries from both political parties:
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How about some WABC "Superhit Clergy"?
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In 1971 Assistant Program Director Julian Breen left WABC for San Francisco. As a "going away gift" Rick Sklar wrote "The Julian Breen Story". Note: this contains some profane language.
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Bill Epperhart supplied the "cast of characters" from this clip:
Don Curran - GM from 1968-1970
Herr Klaus Gruber (aka the Teutonic Titmouse ) - Studio 8C production engineer. One of the few engineers with a 9-5 Mon-Fri schedule. Used to wear a gray lab coat. A real craftsman when it came to audio production. Worked with Breen, and later Glen Morgan, doing station production.
Chuck DeBare - I always thought of him as "legal". Rick has him listed as President of the AM stations in his book, but I don't think he held that position in 1971.
105 Slogan Jingle (All Hit Super Holy Clergy) - this was a goof on the actual jingle that Dan did using the names of artists. The jingle changed with the playlist. Listen to this one carefully. It features Dan laying down one track, then jumping in on a second track to dovetail with himself. The goof jingle isn't the best example of this (they put more effort into the real thing) but it shows off Breen's production skill and Dan's timing.
John The Nazi - a security guard in the lobby who took his work so seriously they threw him out of television and put him at 1330. He didn't last too long. Something about challenging ABC Chairman Leonard Goldenson's wife.
Marty Ross - Sales
Diane, Naomi and Bernadette - WABC staffers. Diane Johnson went on to become Howard Cosell's producer.
Bob Deitch - staff engineer, promoted to assistant chief engineer under Win Loyd. Moved to Detroit a few years later.
George Berger - staff engineer, still with ABC Engineering in Television.
Ronnie Simms - staff engineer, left WABC in '71 or '72
Lamont Cranston - Dan used to refer to himself as "The Shadow's" alter ego. There may be something more to this than I know although Dan probably just identified with the idea of having "the power to cloud men's minds". Carl Caruso, a WABC staff announcer was one of the staff annoucers for "The Shadow." By the way, so was Sandy Becker. Remember him?
"This was a Blue Network Production" - NBC had the RED and BLUE NETWORKS. The Blue Network became ABC.
WABC Musicradio 77
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