The Dave Saviet Collection
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Dave Saviet began his career in broadcasting at WRKL, a 1KW daytimer in Mt. Ivy, New York, in the mid '70's.
Since 1978, Dave's been busy as a technician for the CBS Network in New York City. He says he's been fortunate to have worked with the best in the business, like Charles Osgood, Charles Kuralt, Doug Edwards, Dan Rather and many others. He engineered Walter Cronkite's 20th Century for a number of years and worked with Dan Ingram and Cousin Bruce Morrow, to name a few.
In addition to the impressive collection of airchecks that Dave is sharing with Repository visitors, he also collects classic 45's and QSL's. Dave says that in his years with CBS he's had so many wonderful assignments that it would take a book to list them all. He also says that he has been very fortunate to not to have moved all over the country, like many broadcasters. We are very fortunate to have Dave's collection available in the Repository. Thank you, Dave! |
[Descriptions by Uncle Ricky]
In the opening hours of 1960, just a few months before a May 1960 grand jury indictment on charges of accepting payola, Peter Tripp hosted “The Fabulous Forty of 1959” on WMGM, New York City.The smooth-talking Tripp, who later worked at KYA and WHN, passed away January 31, 2000.
I was surprised at the consistent formatics in this rare aircheck. Note the WMGM “time chime” jingle – which followed every record! Years later, that formatic was to appear again at WABC.
Steve O’ Brien was filling in for Ted “Bear” Richards on this Solid Gold Weekend in 1974.
Much has been written about “The Big 8” (mostly at Jack Decker’s Classic CKLW Page) and every complimentary word is true. Masterfully engineered, always powerful and perfectly polished – this monster station was some of the best American Top 40 ever imported from Canada!
The Big 8 and O’Brien sounded great together.
WHTZ (Z-100) and The Morning Zoo inspired many (mostly inferior) imitators in the 80’s, but none came close to the professionalism and creative genius of the original. This composite was a 1985 Billboard Magazine Award winner.
Some were under the impression that all you needed for a “Morning Zoo” was a crowd of people in the control room every morning, but Scott Shannon, Ross Brittain and the other (often celebrity) participants in the Z-100 Zoo set new (sometimes shocking) standards for mass-appeal music morning shows.
This somewhat verbose (but enjoyable) presentation was obviously created to showcase the success of Buzz Bennett and KCBQ, San Diego. It could rightfully be considered a “mini-history of popular music radio” as it attempts to define the “secrets” and formatics of “Drake” and “Progressive” Radio.In 1971, it was easy to disparage the original production elements of Top 40, and the narrators bash many of them, and then proceed to provide a short-form bio of Bill Drake, and his “well-oiled machine”.
Beginning with a decade of Los Angeles radio including KFWB, Bill Ballance, KRLA, Dave Hull, KHJ, Robert W. Morgan, Frank Terry, and Mike Turner on “underground” KMET, it concludes with Rich Brother Robbin and Shotgun Tom Kelly on KCBQ, San Diego.
The authors of this exhibit were identified within minutes of the opening! Ken Levine and Billy Pearl are responsible, and the initial report of authorship is available via COMMENT. (Thanks, Ken!)
It was also common for Freed to identify the label of each record he played. A few years later, Freed and others were branded as criminals because they took “pay for play”. What seemed like a terrible transgression against the “public interest” then pales in comparison to today’s mega-monopoly ownership of the airwaves.
This fast-paced montage of various New York City radio stations and personalities was originally assembled by Peter Mokover of Spectrum Research. Peter wrote (see COMMENT) that he put it together as the audio portion of a multimedia presentation about radio that he did with Pete Fornatale (d. April 26, 2012) of WNEW-FM.
Included: Alan Freed Intro, Pre-Drake WOR-FM Jingle, Rosko, Jim Lonsbury, “Drake’s Big Town Sound”, Brother John, WABC-FM “Love” Format, Bruce Brown, American Contemporary News, Charles Edwards, WINS, Jim Donnely, WNEW, Dan Thompson WOR-FM 20/20 News, American FM Radio News, WMCA, WABC, WCBS-FM, WOR-FM, Charlie Greer (Dennison), Herb Oscar Anderson, Bruce Morrow on WINS (Coney Island Remote), WINS Jingle, Johnny Holliday, Jack Lacey, Napoleon XIV, Scott Muni & Cousin Brucie on Park Avenue (Dan Ingram Show/Beatles), PAMS Beatles Jingle, Dan Ingram, Arthur Van Horn (ABC News), Bob Lewis on WMGM, WABC, WABC-FM, WCBS-FM, WNEW-FM, WCBS-FM Jingle, Murray the K on WINS, Dave Herman, John Zacherle, WABC-FM, WPLJ-FM, Rick Sklar WABC News, WABC Super-Pickets Promo (AFTRA Strike), WMCA “Good Guys” Song, B. Mitchel Reed, WABC Principal of the Year, Cousin Bruce WABC Jingle, Bob Dayton’s ill-considered “Hiroshima” comment (his last day on WABC, forever), Roby Yonge WABC, Les Marchak WABC, Murray the K introduces Mad Daddy on WINS, WINS News intro, and Pete Fornatale on WFUV.
Of particular interest: Rick Sklar pressed into newscasting duties and the WABC Super Pickets Promo, during the 1966 AFTRA strike. (Portions of this composite were previously featured in the WCBS 1989 DJ Reunion.)
