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Looking back at yesterday’s media, both local and not so local

By DON CANNEY - Telegraph Columnist | Jun 19, 2021

Don Canney

When we think of media today, we might think of media used to process data on a desktop computer or laptop. While listening to the radio recently, my thoughts turned not to that genre of media (although my wife and I did briefly have a flashback about floppy discs, those flexible plastic disks loaded into desktop computers for portable storage).

The media to which I fondly refer today is radio and television, both local and not so local.

I can picture my mom in the kitchen listening to her table radio, which would be affixed to WSMN throughout the day. Since its start in 1958, radio personalities Ed Lecius, “Uncle” Al Rock, Frank Teas and the rest of the gang hosted “Weather, Sports, Music and News” with shows ranging from Bargain Box, which was essentially the Craig’s List of the day, where listeners would call in selling whatever they no longer needed, to Squawk Box, where listeners would call to opine on events of the day.

Another major Nashua radio presence was WOTW, Nashua’s first radio station launched back in 1947. The reining voice of WOTW at the time was Maury Parent, the “Voice of the Merrimack Valley.” Maury also did stints at WMUR and WSMN.

Not so locally, the great Larry Glick owned Boston nighttime radio from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, primarily on WBZ. Callers would engage him with, “Hi Larry, how ya doin’?” His response would be, “I don’t know – let me check.” Then we’d hear a brief high-low whistle, as if checking himself from top to bottom, followed by, “Pretty good!” If you were willing to do whatever stunt Larry might have for the night, you could earn yourself a Glick University T-Shirt donned with the logo, “E-Glickus-Universitatis.”

A sports fan staple then was WBZ’s Sports Huddle with Eddie (Andelman), Mark (Witkin) and Jim (McCarthy). The three would be both comedic and acerbic when discussing local sports franchises, often anonymously referring to the two local UHF stations as channel 40 minus 2 and channel 60 minus 4.

The adolescent music crowd opted for something a little more “far out,” choosing WBCN in Boston, with none other than Charles Laquidara, or simply “Chuckkkkk” in the morning. WBCN was one of the first progressive rock stations in the country, and typically played the “long” or album versions of rock tunes. For instance, Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’s short or “Top 40” version lasted about two minutes, with the long version clocking in at exactly seventeen minutes and five seconds.

The AM crowd opted for WRKO and Dale Dorman, their off-the-wall morning DJ. Uncle Dale later connected with younger kids on a morning TV cartoon show on Channel 56.

Speaking of television, anyone out there remember Uncle Gus? Gus Bernier was WMUR’s premier personality, appearing on air as kids show favorite Uncle Gus. A man of many talents, he was also Gus the Atlantic Weatherman during newscasts and Santa Claus during the holidays.

The phrase IBBY was visible on a plaque that sat on the desk of the iconic Major Mudd, played by the beloved Ed McDonnell on what was then WNAC Channel 7 in Boston. The show featured cartoons and Three Stooges shorts, later cutting out the cartoons and adding a live audience of local kids. It eventually landed McDonnell a role in the Stooges’ movie, “The Outlaws Is Coming.” McDonnell also played puppet horror movie host Feep on Fantasmic Features. Oh, and IBBY was an acronym for, “I’ll Be Blasting You,” the Major’s sign-off catchphrase.

Remember Frank Avruch as Bozo the Clown on WHDH Channel 5? Were you ever Butch for the Day?

As for national news media, I can remember newscasts of the Vietnam War days as being very depressing, with no light at the end of the tunnel. Daily body counts were reported, like someone was actually winning. But I still long for the days of Walter Cronkite or Huntley and Brinkley when the news of the day would be presented with little opinion or slant.

Mary Hopkins’ #1 hit of 1968 said it all: “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end.”

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.

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