Some time in 1969 my friend Howard Lapides heard about a job opening at WSAR in Fall River, MA. For $2.50 per hour I became the weekend/fill-in disk jockey at WSAR 1480, Fall River MA. My prior experience: zero.
The station stood at the end of a residential street. The address we used was “The foot of Home Street, Somerset, MA” Behind us was a huge marsh with a gigantic power station at the other end.
Back then disk jockeys operated the control console, aka ‘the board,’ playing records and cartridges. Our board, intended for limited use, only had a few volume controls which had to be shared between the sources. It was a recipe for disaster, especially when left in my quivering hands.
People talk about the big time. This was the little time. Our request number was 4-9911. Really, 4-9911.
There was one piece of WSAR that didn’t belong. Our poor downtrodden station had amazing jingles produced in Dallas by PAMS. That was big money at a penny pinching operation.
Today PAMS and its archives belongs to our friends the Wolferts who visited a few days ago. While here, Jon found this cut. It is surely the first thing I ever played at WSAR.
This afternoon I called Bob Lacey in Charlotte, the guy who sat with me my first on-air day, to play him this short song.
Isn’t a person a “disc Jockey”.
Yes. I suspect in missing something here.
Classic! Love it. Miss those days
Please don’t make WSAR sound like a cheap outfit – frugal yes but not cheap.
Norm Knight made a fortune with signals outside of Boston.
WGIR Manchester was top notch, as were WEIM Fitchburg, WSAR Fall River and what would become his goldmine WSRS-FM in Worcester.
WSAR owned the Southcoast from Fall River to the Bourne Bridge but could not make any inroads against WPRO even though WSAR had a strong signal in RI.
But Norm Knight after cashing out to Clear Channel gave everything back to the community.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/15/hospital_honors_norman_knight_for_lifetime_of_philanthropy/
Hey WSAR at least had cart machines – Remember the Saturday morning we visited WNRI in Woonsocket and my buddy Waxy who wished he had carts instead of this.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates-st-101.jpg
Now when you say Waxy, I believe your talking about my father Richard Iwaskiewicz aka Waxy. If so, I’d love any pictures or story’s you’d like to share. Unfortunately He passed away in 1995, but my mother Dale is still with us.