These are a few excertps of letters I've gotten about the WCAS History, both from the folks who worked there and from the general public. They are used with permission, and I have excluded all the mushy, gushy stuff and the stuff where they call me terrible names. I'm still waiting to get permission from a half-dozen others who responded including Donna Halper and Dan Murphy and Lisa Karlin and David Misch and others, and, of course, some of the folks I haven't been able to track down at all. Some people have asked that I not use their e-mail address, or even their full names, and I have complied.

I'm sure this is of interest only to the eight of us who worked there, but what the heck...

from a former listener

Greetings from a devoted fan of the late, great WCAS. I'm a former resident of "Musichusetts" but have been in Connecticut for the past 23 years, a newspaper copy editor by trade and a radio and music fan by avocation.

I checked out your site after seeing your posting in alt.radio.broadcasting. Great job! You covered just about everything I remember about WCAS except for one thing -- those wonderful signoff shticks! The take-off on Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song," the Jamaican-style "Duuuub-l-you-C-A-S on your radio, seven hundred and forty kilohertz," and my personal favorite: FCC Man, who, armed with licensite, robbed WCAS of its power(s) until sunrise the following day ("My power ... I feel it faaaaaadinnnnggg......") Who was responsible for those? Moe?

Thanks for mentioning the Pousette Dart Band. I'd never heard their work before 'CAS, and have never heard it since. Then there were the "deep tracks" from that great first Orleans album, like "Your Life, My Friend," and the haunting "Gypsy," by Hamid Hamilton Camp and the Skymonters. I stil have both of those LPs, although I listen to so much XM Satellite Radio these days (sorry) that I haven't played them in years, but I can still remember the tunes and lyrics to both those long-ago favorites.

You're aware, I'm sure, that Frank Dudgeon is still part of the Boston radio scene, at WUMB? I hear him occasionally when I'm up there (or listening online), as he reads announcements and does the occasional fill-in airshift, and that voice always puts me in mind of WCAS. I'd always wondered why Frank lost his midday shift at 'CAS -- now I know that you were the villain. But if Frank forgave you, then this listener can.

Another 'CAS memory is the way it formed an unusual musical bond between my father and myself when I was in college back in the '70s. Dad was (and is; he's still going at 83) a classical music fan first and foremost, with a side interest in various older styles of folk -- Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Kingston Trio. I couldn't get into classical music and basically tolerated the folk, but I really liked Dylan, the Byrds, Flying Burritos, etc., which my dad thought was "crap." Then WCAS came along and I was quickly hooked, discovering and enjoying all sorts of new artists and music. Orleans, Poussette Dart, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Mary McCaslin. Well, that summer, I got a job at dad's office, which meant we'd have to drive in to work together. I couldn't take WCRB, but I knew dad couldn't take WBCN or WCOZ either, so he suggested a compromise: WHDH. This was a true compromise in that it pleased neither of us. He found most of the music bland and unappealing; I found Jess Cain hopelessly corny. One morning, I got into the car first and nudged the tuning needle to the left.

Fortunately, you were playing Linda Ronstadt's "Love is a Rose," which was old-timey and folky enough to make dad take notice. A few more, less familiar, songs followed and ... amazingly ... dad didn't change the station, finally asking me what that station was and how long I'd been listening. From that moment, he was almost as big a fan of 'CAS as his college-age son was -- and he has the complete collection of Steeleye and Fairport albums to prove it!

Thanks for the memories. WCAS will never die!

Howard (now living in CT)

 

 

from a usenet reader

 

Thanks for the memories, Rick. I saw a bunch of names there that I haven't thought of in years! WCAS may have been short lived, but it was wonderful folk programming while it lasted, at a time when no one else was doing that sort of thing.

Tom

 

and another

 

A fine read about a different era. Can you believe that it's 2004?????

Steve

 

 

 from Frank Dudgeon

Hi Rick:

I was stunned when I got back to KMUW this morning, after a couple of days off, and read your email. I was supposed to be getting ready for my first newscast, but I immediately went to your history and couldn't stop reading. What a terrific recap of the early years, along with preceding stuff I never knew (or probably forgot). I believe I came on board in 1973 and left in 1979.

You mention that WHRB at Harvard was non-commercial. Actually they had a commercial license and could run spots (I did one as a favor for Cambridge Western Wear and maybe one or two others for Hillbilly at Harvard in later years), but mostly it was normal college radio.

I think Moe was hired first, but I believe he was still fairly new (from Seattle, wasn't it?) when I came aboard. I remember being absolutely convinced that I wouldn't get the job after you had me come in and do a demo tape in that tiny production room. I remember I really sucked. I was amazed when you offered me the job. Also, kind of amazed at how little it paid. But I was working under a real jerk GM at WAAF in Worcester, and I remember you telling me the gig was only probably going to last 6 months or so until Kaiser-Globe sold WCAS. I thought it would be a 6 month gig and I could look for another one in the interim. Then you started expanding the format and I knew I'd ride it out as long as I could. I have a pretty good memeory of a staff meeting where you said Family Life would be buying the station and we had a limited time left, but we should "go out in a blaze of glory" and do the best radio we could. You were very effective at that meeting.

I agree, Moe Shore definitely did the most entertaining program on WCAS. I loved listening to him. Years later he visited me in Vermont when I worked at WNCS and he was then in film editing, I believe. What a great guy!

I really didn't mind working oddball shifts instead of a steady one. It was kind of cool coming in at weird times. I remember signing on one Saturday at 6 A.M., and after reading the sign on message I said something like "We've just been off the air for 12 hours. Is anyone listening?" I went to a record and immediately got a call from some guys who cleaned up a movie house in the early morning hours and automatically tuned to us. They loved checking in.

By the way, you were absolutely right in not giving me a "regular shift." I did push it as far as I could, and I'm still amazed at what I was able to do at a commercial station. I remember that while we were on Mass. Avenue (up the hall from the Dunkin' Donuts) I interviewed the Boys of the Lough, Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer, Tom Waits, Tom Rush, Steve Goodman, and so many others. Later on, when we moved around the corner to Green Street, I got to interview lots of other folks and got a more steady shift (middays). If I remember correctly, Moe became PD after you left. You were always great at making everyone feel like they were a valuable part of the team. I really loved working for you.

By the way, one perc of working weekends was Live at Passim. I was often the guy "back at the station" just riding levels and filling in. I had a great time listening to the acts. I remember the show when Asleep at the Wheel decided to stay overnight to do the show. So they opened so they could go to their next gig. The Boys of the Lough were featured Sunday night and closed the show. Some poor folkie was stuck in the middle. Or the time Ry Cooder appeared as a suprise. He had a concert the night before, so he stuck around to do the show, but it couldn't be announced ahead of time because of the concert gig. What a terrific set.

After you left, I believe the union was actually very beneficial. We got much more liveable wages and a pretty realistic idea of what the station was doing financially. I remember the union rep, Phil Mamber, telling us to keep our requests for salary, etc. reasonable for the station, since WCAS' long-term survival was most important, for the station and for us. I became Production Director and we instituted a production fee for spots. It worked, and gave us a chance to augment our income without the money coming from clients. The owners were quite dubious at first, but we made it work. A creative "pay raise" that wasn't available anyway else, but desperately needed.

By the way, one way I survived in the early days (especially in the winter when hours were cut back) was Mass. General. Fifteen bucks for a pint of blood, once every eight weeks. Saw a lot of the bloodshot eyes of the regulars during my visits. Also, I shared a 3 bedroom apartment and rent was pretty cheap, even in Cambridge at the time.

I always say that I never made less money than I made at WCAS, and never had more fun.

One name who went on to other pastures was Christy George. She started in news when Judith was News Director, later went on to WBUR and then WGBH-TV, and now lives in the Northwest.

Judith eventually became Program Director and changed WCAS to a jazz-fusion mix. Then she left to join the new WFNX and I believe we gave our notices on the same day.

I went on to several other progressive-type commercial stations, like WNCS in Montpelier, Vermont, WRSI in Greenfield, Mass. and WMVY on Martha's Vineyard, as well as a couple of country stations (when i couldn't get anything else) like WDLW in Waltham and WBOS in Boston.

I eventually turned to public radio at WUMB in Boston (Folk Radio). The station manager always made a big deal about my WCAS days during on-air fundraisers. Got a lot of feedback from old WCAS listeners there.

I've since been at WBAA at Purdue University, a AAA public station in North Dakota, WYSO in Ohio, and others, all public stations. The only commercial station in the 90's as at WADN in Concord. Dick Pleasants was PD and it sounded very "public radio." My resume is embarrassingly scattered.

After a three-year return to WUMB I'm back at KMUW in Wichita, Kansas. I host Morning Edition and I'm mostly doing news. Occasionally I interview a musician, but it's mostly hard news stuff. i moved here because my only family lives in nearby Oklahoma and I get to see my nephew and sister-in-law fairly regularly. (My brother passed away a couple of years ago).

Sorry about the extreme length of this missive, but you set off a ton of fond memories. <snip> WCAS was your creation, and the best radio gig I've ever had is thanks to you. I finally get a chance to say thank you.

Frank Dudgeon

 
from Jim Chevalier

RIck!

I believe it was just last week I was thinking of you. I presume you're in contact with Don Cohen (since you seem to know a little about my current news) and thus Pete Stassa. Joan Orr and I got back in contact after twenty years and she was just out here in June with her girlfriend of 13 years (after Patty Larkin, whom she lived with almost as long). We met up midday between San Francisco and LA, in Cambria, where the cheerful young woman working in a pastry shop there joined us in conversation and I told Joan, "Do you realize the last time we saw each other, she wasn't even BORN!"

She's still doing radio out on the Cape, while running an art gallery as well. And - hold on to whatever's covering your head these days - still buddies with Dan Murphy.

I've done quite a bit of Internet work by way of a survival job and was bemused to see the highly ambitious and much admired Judith was, for a while, doing PR for Iron Mountain, a data storage company. A few years back I saw that my old buddy Bev Myers was up North, haven't checked for a bit. Moe got quite a bit of play years back for a game CD he did, seems he's doing game development in Boston, I believe.

Have you noticed Mason Daring's music in all those John Sayles films? I had a flashback moment a few years back when I walked in at the END of "Opposite of Sex" (which I later saw, with Chrisitna Ricci and Lisa Kudrow) and the credits were listing music by.... Mason Daring, Jeannie Stahl, Billy Novick, Guy Van Duser, etc. (I've got an exquisite CD by Billy by the way from years back - "Swing So Softly'?)

If you don't know the New England Music Scrapbook:

http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/home.htm

You might like to subscribe. Amazing how many familiar names still pop up.

Somewhere in my bricabrac I still have a WCAS mike logo. When I find it, I'll have to scan it for you. And one of my guitar cases STILL has a WCAS sticker on it. Come to think of it, I have a whole WCAS folder somewhere as well.

If you ever have a chance to listen to Santa Cruz's KPIG:

http://www.kpig.com/

It has a real early CAS feel to it. Unfortunately, it looks like they're now charging to listen on-line, after an initial trial.

The hair was incremental - short, then shaved. I think I just felt I had a kind of dark look already, and it would actually be LESS creepy to remove the 'normal' hair that softened it. Most people who've seen both prefer it, though after having a musician at a club ask me Friday if I was doing security (!), I may have to reconsider.

More to say I'm sure, but that's enough for now. <snip>

Thanks.

Best -

Jim Chevallier

North Hollywood, CA

http://www.chezjim.com

And now, the CD: "One Old Tale"

 another from Jim Chevalier

I admit I flinched a bit to see "Live At Passim's" mentioned without my name immediately following. I had so come to think of it as my show. But then I recalled that you had indeed created it. Very good history overall, by the way, complete and accurate as far as I can tell.

Don Cohen wrote me about a year ago, after Pete Stassa alerted him to my page. Don's a shrink in NYC now. Sent me a Joni Mitchell bootleg where she mentions her upcoming 'first record' on Reprise. - By the way, a long while back, I was sitting on the terrace of a Starbucks out here and was being irritated by a small yappy dog tied up outside a restaurant next door. Then his owner came out to quiet him: Joni Mitchell.

I figured for all the pleasure her songs had given me, I could put up with her dog.

I found the same bit about Frank. The Wichita station still lists his e-mail, but a news item from 1999 said he had gone from there to Antioch's station, which has had its problems since. I often think I'm hearing him do station ID's for NPR. I also think of him quite a bit out here, since he was the first person to tell me about the Magic Castle.

I found Hester Fuller, who was working at Harvard, I believe, last year. <snip>

Realized I didn't give my own post-WCAS cursus last time. Very briefly, spent several years in France running the Paris office of a New England coin company, and travelling all over France, then got laid off, studied software analysis, worked for Wang France, went back to NYC, worked for Chase for almost five years, got laid off, rethought everything and took up technical writing, which freed me to return to various creative endeavors while making a Yuppy income. Came out here in 1996, have alternated between attempting acting, writing and doing technical writing and analysis ever since. The latter put me in the middle of the Internet boom, which at times was like being back at WCAS in the early days (except that other people's money was pouring all around us - imagine a bunch of drunk Dan Murphy's, one an Arab billionaire.) I'm just ending my second project at Warner Brothers, whose lot is a charming mini-world where one walks through Chicago ('ER') into small town America ('Gilmore Girls') and into Wall Street (generic). Stars walk by chatting (I remember watching the cast of 'Friends' have lunch and thinking 'Each of those people just made a million dollars today'. Sigh.)

Meanwhile, I'm working on a novel about 18th century France and have become quite an expert on the period. (Not that anyone cares... :) - though if Sofia Coppola's new film on Marie-Antoinette works out, I may be quite in demand.) And my self-published monologue book isn't supporting me yet, but it does sell, bit by bit.

And so to work. Hope your health smooths out.

[Note from Rick: One note: I don't know who "created" Live At Passim's, I only know that I took somebody's good idea, made a horrid presentation (sweat dripping off my brow) to Bob Donlin and he went for it. I also remember how bad our sound engineering was until we realized that what it sounded like in the room wasn't necessarily the same thing as it sounded on the radio. That took a couple weeks, as I recall.]
one from Don Cohen

Rick,

Holy Mudhead, Mackeral! Jim just sent me your link, so I got to take a very pleasant stroll down Memory Lane. Thanks for putting "pen to HTML" and making things right on the 'net.

I've often thought of you and wondered where you were. The last I knew, it was at KDKA in Pittsburgh, so it was very interesting to see what followed. You're in Knoxville? And you and your wife worked for HGTV.

Pete Stassa, Frank and I almost had a mini-reunion last year in Boston at this time, but it all fell apart at the last minute. Pete found me on the internet through a CAS Google search as I had written a few pieces about it on a music list serve I participate in. This led me to emailing Frank and Jim. Frank, I think, ended up moving to Montana (emulating another Frank from a long time ago). Jim and I have been in touch irregularly over the last year, swapping CDs. I once ran into Lisa on the West Side of Manhattan; she had one kidlet in tow. The internet is a wonderful thing.

Life is good here in the apple...can't write too much more right now as I'm at work. The Hunter College address is 'cause I work part-time here as a counselor for students with disabilities. I married a woman 6 years ago, Rochelle, who sold for the Real Paper when we were at CAS...but we never knew each other in Boston, though we're sure we must have sat at adjoining lunch tables at the PLough (with Gene at the bar, no doubt. What ever did happen to Gene? I've often wondered if his is the voice for bumpers on WINS news here in the city.)

The short story is I left radio in 1984 for cable television and ended up in sales and marketing for Warner and Showtime, among others. Satellite TV and then the internet followed. Circling around to becoming a therapist was always on the back burner (high school dream) and I finally hung out my shingle in 2001. As Jerry once sang, "what a long strange trip it's been."

It's been a great one for me and I hope for you, too, Rick.

To be continued....

Don

 

 and a follow-up from Don

I googled Moe and found his photo on a company site called Kinoton, but I hear he's not there anymore. Is he still in MA?

I almost feel a reunion group email coming up in the future...or maybe, if you're feeling ambitious, you could set up a chat room on your site. That would be good for 3 or 4 postings a year...:>)

Here are some other updates:

Alan is Alan Mandel...I have no idea what happened to him. Maybe Pete knows.Rich is Rich Brody. I email chatted with him last year, too and could forward his address if you're interested.

I don't know if you want to list other djs post your tenure in your station history, but I have some other significant names for you if you do...Corilee Christou did mornings for a couple of years as did a woman named Deble Khan. Lynne Carleu. Charley Perkins did a Sunday afternoon jazz brunch, alternating with Judith.

As for yours truly, CAS was the high point of my checkered radio career...I did move on to WEEI-FM when it was soft rock, "Stevie Without the Thunder," Joni Without the Baloney," etc. etc. but Clark Smidt and me were not a match made in heaven. I had a cup of coffee at WCOZ-FM when it was "kick ass rock 'n roll," but when a stoner from Saugus called to swear at me for not playing enough rock 'n roll (this was during a set of Zep and Thin Lizzy), I figured I was getting too old for that shit. I ended up back with Judith at WFNX, Phoenix radio, which evolved into a new wave format circa 1982. In 1984, I moved to New York to work for Showtime. So, CAS has left me with the fondest memories of all. I often wonder where people have landed and what their lives are like now.

I have you to thank for hiring me...I believe it was on Lisa's recommendation. I still remember sitting on a park bench with you at the Cambridge Common in the "interview" chatting about radio and life. <snip>

After you left CAS (1976-7?), as you know, Moe became PD and he asked me to be MD (my mom always wanted those letters after my name). When Moe left, Judith became PD and when she left, I became PD (1979). But that lasted only about a month because Clark hired me to do part-time on air and be MD. Those 4 1/2 years at CAS were the best in Act 1...the people, the music, the idealism, the setting, all in all, a wonderful moment in time.

Fast forward to Act III. I met Rochelle at a Rosh Hashanah dinner 8 years ago through a mutual friend. We were amazed to find that we worked 1/2 mile from each other, knew the same people, hung at the same hangouts and yet never met. She was sales, I was a hippie DJ, so that explains it, in all likelihood. We probably wouldn't have worked back then, but now we have those Cambridge years as common background.

Life is sweet together...Rochelle was worth the wait (I didn't marry until I was 49!). She sells advertising (book, fashion, jewelry sectors) for the Wall Street Journal; I'm building my practice (BTW, I'm a psychotherapist not a psychiatrist, as that moniker is for MDs) and also working in academia. No plans to retire as I just got here and see myself pontificating, or whatever it is therapists do, for as long as the grey matter holds out.

We have a house up in New Paltz, NY, about 80 miles N of the city, which I wish I could write off as a mental health deduction. New York City living has its stressors these days. Lottsa gardening there, growing our 14 tomatoes and 6 lettuces. Hmmm, let's see...that's a $600 salad you're eating. No kids (child-free, I cIarify), no pets....yet. A pooch may be on the horizon. I did OK in the market, too, though in the tech internet whirl, having worked for 4 years for an internet B2B high flyer, so we're comfortable.

I survived, knock on all solid objects, early stage colon cancer 3 1/2 years ago. That experience definitely altered the course of my life in many ways for the better and deepened my appreciation for the important things in life...a clean windshield, a good shoeshine and a full tank of gas included. I'm not Rev. Flash but I did become an interfaith minister, so how does Reverend Cohen sound to you? It gives my parents more heartburn than a pastrami sandwich.

I'm more of a music freak than ever. In fact, collecting has become quite an interesting obsession. Ebay and me, unfortunately, have become intimately acquainted. Do I really need that Dutch first pressing of a rare Dylan LP......yes! Need to talk to MY shrink about this.

<<I almost can't think of how it could have been better. I'm so happy it hurts.> >

This is fabulous to hear! In my business, it's not a regular piece of news. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. You found a wonderful partner, had a fulfilling media career, did well financially, traveled, all the good stuff. So, what are you thinking about for Act II? Somehow, I can't see you on the golf course 5 times a week.

<<We do live in the middle of the Bible Belt, and it's not unusual to see "JESUS SAVES" painted on the side of a truck, or "Jesus Is My Savior" signs hanging under a mailbox. So it's heavily Righteous Republican territory, but what can you do?>>

Yikes! I don't know how you do it. I'm just as left winging as I ever was (they lied about becoming more conservative as you get older!), so I'd get strung up in no time. Anybody got any string? Seriously, I'm glad you're feeling at home and well-rooted in Knoxville.

Are you still listening to music? What grabs your attention these days?Anyway, I should get back to doing a little work work today. Let's stay in touch.

Don

Oh yeah, one more significant name...Matt Shaeffer (sp?), the Culture Vulture.

 
Hey! A great one from Pete Stassa

 

Hey Rick!

Stumbled across the WCAS website and thus onto your history this evening...and it brought me way back to those days in which, as Rich Brody describes it, "we had lightning in a bottle."

(Which is not that different in sentiment from the thought behind the headline on the WBZ 60th Anniversary poster you gave me years ago, which carries the headline: "The World in a Box".)

I've often wondered what happened to you after Pittsburgh and Chicago. Congratulations on surviving and thriving in the post-corporate world!

You'll be hearing more from me soon...for I am now inspired to venture to my basement and into a number of boxes that hold an assortment of goodies from Central Square. Bumper stickers and posters, one or two of the WCAS/Underground Camera Frisbees, commercial copy, my notes from the original union negotiations and more. And, most prized of all: a number of recordings from the glory days. Most of Gene's classic sign - offs, a number of our old commercial master reels, a few Passim concerts and studio interviews, an hour or so of some of our round-the-clock Blizzard Broadcast from 1978...and even an aircheck from a Saturday sign-on shift that YOU let me do in the summer of 1975! Now all I have to do is get the old reel to reel up and running...shouldn't be too hard to find spare parts....(right!)

(By the way, feel free to post this along with the other letters you've from the "alumni association".)

As soon as I have gone through the tapes I plan to get them to Dan Murphy so that he can post them on the website. (I do have the sign-offs on cassette, though, so I will gladly make you a dub if you like.)

It was thirty years ago this past June when I answered an ad that was posted on a bulletin board at Emerson (where I was enrolled in a Master's program in Mass Communications): "Summer sales opportunity. WCAS Radio. 620 Mass Ave., Cambridge. Down the hall from Dunkin Donuts".

I jumped at the chance, because WCAS was my favorite station and the most amazing thing I had ever heard coming out of an AM radio. A bunch of kids tried their luck that summer, and in September, I was invited to stay on and share the spacious sales office with Rick Page. I did, and within six months, my real-world experiences on the streets of Cambridge made it clear that I would learn more at 740AM than in Emerson's broadcast sales classes. It was a wild ride, invigorating and frustrating at the same time, When Dan Murphy and Mel Stone (and Fred Miller) bought the station, I joined the fledgling union shop, and was on the union side of the table for the first set of negotiations. A year later, Rick Page had left to run for State Senate, and I was made Sales Manager. (Rick lost the race, but returned to the station in sales after a while to worked his way back up to Sales Manager for the second time.).

Of course, with my new title came a seat next to Dan when the union contract came up for renegotiation, and that was a very fine line to walk. I had always felt like one of the core group, but felt pressure to keep the ownership's concessions at a minimum. This led to some ironic and even hilarious exchanges with Phil Mamber and some of the salespeople. During one session, I recall listening as Alan Mandel tried to explain to me what the language in the sales section of the union contract actually meant; as he tried to make his point, I then had to remind him that since I had personally WRITTEN that section the year before, as a member of the union, I didn't have to settle for someone else's interpretation of my own words!

You weren't around when we built the unusual and unique studio complex at 380 Green Street (next door to the Police Station), so you never got to hear the drunks shouting from their jail cells on those sultry summer evenings...(the A/C was largely confined to the studio sections). But you would have been proud of the way in which we managed to keep the flame burning during those years after you left. We were a diverse group of alternative-radio die hards - we often clashed over such issues as the spot limit and the often obnoxious commercial copy that some clients and the occasional agency forced on us, but deep down, we all shared a more or less common reverence for the soul and spirit of our little daytimer. (OK, MOST of us shared that reverence...)

To say the odds were 'agin us was the ultimate understatement, but each of us hung in there as long as our mental and emotional health allowed. It was a Quixotic fight, but worth every moment.

My five year stint at WCAS ended in the fall of 1979, but which time I had become General Manager (at least in terms of responsibility, that is...as to whether I had the traditional authority or resources of a typical GM, well, now, that's a different animal...)

It had finally gotten to the point at which I seemed to be spending my mornings pounding the pavement (and the sales staff) for more revenue and my afternoons stalling for time with the people to whom the station owed money (and there were lots of them...). After several months of agonizing indecision, I accepted a sales offer from WVBF, which at that time was the absolute opposite of WCAS. But it was a high-energy, personality-driven Top 40 operation with the resources to be successful, and it was (almost always) fun. By the spring of 1992, though, changes in management philosophy took the fun out of it for me, and I left to start my video production company, which I still run today. (You can read about it at www.davideocompany.com) No weddings, but lots of corporate pieces, commercials, and quite a few reduced rate projects for a variety of regional non-profits. I like it. I live in Framingham with Rosemarie, my bride of twenty years, and our nine-year-old daughter, Caitlin.

We are happy, healthy, and grateful for the friends we have met along the way.

Let's stay in touch, Rick (and everyone!). I'll let you know what gems I find in my archives, and will try to get them posted on the WCAS site. Meanwhile, you might want to check out Bill Goldsmith's excellent Internet station - RadioParadise.com. In many ways, it's like listening to AM 740...although I have yet to hear a single spot for The Sandal Shop or TT the Bear's.

Stay well, and stay tuned.

Pete Stassa
************************************ Here are a couple from Duke, who as he said in the headline, was "Former High School Janitor at WCAS 1973-74", who I certainly overlooked!

The GM was Paul [redacted]. Remember we also did tape delay of Arlington High School football games and minor league football (New England Colonials.)Talk about desparation.

I remember seeing Jesse Colin Young amoung others at the station.

Based on what you have written, I was probably one of the highest paid employees of the station, working for you fellows through a Somerville Youth Program.

Duke Lewis

* * * * * * * * *

Feel free to use my letter on your page.

By the way hopefully someone found some original Rolling Stone 45's that I left there and gave them a good home.

Also I remember that Donna had a Chevy Vega stolen from her and she was always asking the loyal listeners to be on the lookout. The GM, not you gave her a lot of static about this, but she was really more concerned about the loss of a large portion of her album collection that was in the car.

I also remeber someone refering to the station as "more powerful than an electric toaster".

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