Vernon With a V

The Way It Was #9

2008-06-30T15:48:00.003-04:00

When you've asked me what I've been doing since my radio days, I've told you about my TV news career and my voice-over business but here is something else that has been going on in my life.
Over the years, I became a serious Christian. In fact for the past few years, I've actually been preaching at churches all over North Carolina.
Now pick your jaw up off the floor and if you want to hear a Vernon with a V sermon, click on http://blip.tv/file/439578
As Forrest Gump says, "life is like a box of chocolates."
Have a great week.

Vernon Classics #9

2008-06-30T15:32:00.002-04:00

As we prepare to celebrate the 4th of July, it reminds me of one of my favorite things at WNNNBC. The way we worked to make the week-ends special and fun.

That was something we brought with us from WGAR, in Cleveland. There, we would sit around brain-storming for special week-end ideas. One of my favorites was one I thought up - of course. A Millie Small Week-end - the idea was to play My Boy Lollipop every half hour. The other jocks shot that down in a hurry but it did develop into a One Hit Wonder Week-end where we played all of the one hit artists. We kept Music Director Chuck Collier busy!

I've put in a quick audio blurb to remind you of how much fun radio can be on the week-ends - something everyone in programing today seems to have forgotten.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

The Way It Was #8

2008-06-23T10:56:00.007-04:00

I've honestly tried to update vernonwithav.com twice a week but that has taken on the look of work! Twice a week is work. Once a week is fun. So you may have noticed I've settled into putting up new stuff every Monday. Since I'm already doing The Way It Was -and- Vernon Classics every week, I guess I've tricked myself into doing two updates a week after all! Dumb deejay.

Just for grins, my friends at http://www.muzicradio.com/ are going to let me do a 'guest show' next month. I'm not sure exactly when it will run - they're pretty brave since I haven't done a radio show since 1979, but hey, I'm doing it for free.

My friend, Dick Summer, is putting out a new album, Night Connections and you can hear it over on the Vernon Classics page. You can visit Dick for more information at: http://www.dicksummer.com/

I'm attaching a newspaper profile from my WNBC days. I can't remember what paper it came from and I've lost track of Stan Friedman, who wrote it - but I'm sure he has a couple of Pulitzers by now. Stan says all the things I'm too modest to say! Just click it and then you can magnify it to read. That worked on both of my computers - and if "I" can do it - you should be able to as well.
NOTE: Oops! Stan messed up in the story. It is Ziggy Koslowski who did the Polish Joke of the Day...not izzy. I got emails from Ziggy and Harry Gershen pointing that out. Meanwhile, I've been asked to translate Ziggy's Polish Joke. I don't speak Polish but as I under stand it...the guy says "My wife is an angel." and his friend says, "I didn't even know she was dead." Hey, I didn't write Ziggy's stuff. Maybe it is funnier in Polish.
Over on the Vernon Classics page, in addition to a sample from Dick's new album - I've put in a sound clip (and some notes) from my first day at WNBC.
Check it out.

Vernon Classics #8

2008-06-23T10:10:00.005-04:00

My friend, Dick Summer, and I worked together at WNBC and I've always admired his writing so at the top of the ol' music player, you'll find "The Quiet Man's Woman" from his new album, Night Connections. By the way, Imus and I always maintained that Dick got away with a lot more 'stuff' that we did because he did it under the cover of darkness!
This week I've got a short clip from the first hour of my first day on WNBC. That was November 4th, 1974, the day before an election and I want to thank Keith Teicher for sending me the air check.
There are a couple things I'd like to point out. Our Program Director, John Lund, arrived at WNBC a short time before me - Don Imus had already been there a couple of years - and I completed the WGAR imported trio from Cleveland. John hadn't had a chance to change all of the jingles so we were still playing some duds. The format wasn't quite 'set' yet. You may notice we even did some record segues!
The really, really big thing I remember about that day is that the NABET engineers couldn't play any of my pre-recorded stuff from Cleveland because it didn't carry NABET labels! So I was sitting there with boxes and boxes of taped bits that I couldn't use! Talk about watching your career go up in smoke! All because the tapes didn't have those little stickers on them. So that was my mental condition on my first day and you'll notice on the air check - there are absolutely no prerecorded elements. Eventually, I found an understanding engineer who put his job on the line by putting NABET labels on all my stuff - for a price.

The Way It Was #7

2008-06-16T16:18:00.003-04:00

In 1972, a 26 year old musician named Don McLean wrote an 8 and a half minute song that rocketed him from no-where to super-stardom. The song was American Pie.

As we liked to say back then: it was an elusive musical statement about politics, music and social responsibility. Hey, in the 70s, we were into that stuff.

Everyone wanted to know what did the lyrics REALLY mean. McLean told my old friend Norm N. Nite, "I don't think I could explain the song any better than I did in the song." I was all right with that but every other jock in the country wanted to dig 'behind' the words at their hidden meaning.

Our gang at WGAR was no different. So our Program Director, John Lund, sat down with Norm, Chuck Collier and Chick Watkins in a studio with a turntable and a yellow legal pad; they didn't come out of there until they had decided they have found the "key" to American Pie. This was many pizzas and beers later and boy did that studio smell.

They came up with a professionally laid out brochure that explained EVERY LINE of that 8 and a half minute song!

Like: "Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry." Translation: searching for truth but not finding it. Can you believe it? Really deep stuff! The station had thousand and thousands of requests for that silly beer and pizza generated brochure!

It was all so silly that I decided to write my own brochure, interpreting that Michael Jackson classic with the deep deep lyrics - Rockin Robin! Actually, I made most of it up.

I didn't have WGAR's big bucks for my brochure so it was done on a budget.

See Buddy Holly with the suitcase and about to get on the plane? That was me. I thought sure God would strike me dead for that but He didn't - He just made me stay in Cleveland another two years.

You'll find my Rockin Robin Interpretation on the Vernon Classics page #7. It'll give you goosebumps for sure.

Vernon Classics #7

2008-06-16T16:04:00.004-04:00

I went a step further with my Rockin Robin Interpretation then the rest of the guys did with American Pie. I recorded my interpretation - and played it on the air. Often!

My ol' buddy, Imus in the Morning, was already at WNBC by this time and reviewed my Rockin Robin work for Billboard Magazine's Claude Hall and his Vox Jox June 21st, 1972 column. Don called my work "a bunch of crap." However, I still stand by the words of response I gave to Claude, "My brochure says things that must be said!"

Listen and I'm sure you'll agree.

The Way It Was #6

2008-06-09T18:52:00.006-04:00

A reader wanted to know how much effect board op engineers had on the shows we did in the 60s and 70s radio in New York radio. A lot!

When I first arrived at WNBC, I had at least two or three different engineers each week. Sometimes two or three different ones each day!

At WGAR, in Cleveland, we had a custom built control board and I operated it myself so I never had to tell anyone what I wanted to do - I just did it. It took me a while to get the hang of working with engineers operating the controls.

Every engineer had his or her own style, based -in part - on which jock they were used to working with on a regular basis. I found it easier adjusting to their style than training them to do it my way. After all, some weeks I worked with half a dozen different engineers - maybe I was just lazy but I enjoyed the variety of personalities across the board from me.

For instance, the Lovely Maria was always on the phone and seemed to get ticked off if I asked her to do something so I made that a part of the show on the days she worked. Others would get involved in the show but maybe didn't have a great sense of timing. Some seemed to think every show should be like Rambling with Gambling.

Finally, Program Director John Lund and I sat down to decide what we were going to do to get some consistency. The answer was obvious, have one engineer do the show Monday through Friday. Talent worked six days a week - engineers worked 5 days a week. They had a better union.

Bill Epperhart had recently come over to WNBC from WABC and I had worked with him a few times and I loved his speed and timing so we decided to see how it would work for us to be together every day.

Bill and I got to the point where we didn't even need to talk about the next set - we instinctively knew what the other was thinking. We started off running full speed from the show's first set after Cousin Brucie and never slowed down until we turned the studio over to Oogie Pringle.

The NBC suits never figured out how we could do what we did without talking about it ahead of time.

Several years ago, Bill wrote a piece about how engineers adjusted to working with other jocks; WABC jocks in particular. Here's a link to it where you will also find a tribute page to Bill:
http://www.musicradio77.com/bill.html

During my WNBC years, I was having a difficult time in my personal life. Both my parents died within 10 months of each other, then my grandfather, two uncles and a cousin also died. No wonder I was fearless on the air. But I needed to catch a breather and when a station in Denver asked me to join them, I thought it would be a chance to have a low-keyed year to get my head together. Was I ever wrong about that station. But that's another column.

Bill and his wife came to Denver to visit. This is Bill and me checking a map in Rocky Mountain National Park; thousands of acres of mountains,valleys, waterfalls and streams. One of the most beautiful places in the United States. After a day of hiking among the deer and buffalo and picnicking next to a roaring waterfall, Bill, always the New York City boy, turned to me and deadpanned, "Well Bob, we've seen it. Now what?"

Bill and I remained close friends through the years. I went to New York to visit him in the hospital a few days before he died of cancer in 2000. He was in tremendous pain and extremely weak but we still were able to communicate with a minimum of words - just as we had at WNBC.

You can hear some of Bill's work on the Vernon Classics page.

Vernon Classics #6

2008-06-09T16:52:00.004-04:00

This clip is from Bill and I working together on a day where our timing was awesome. Notice that there are frequently three elements happening at the same time - blending and working. Our goal was to get 65 minutes squeezed into every hour. We never made that goal but this was probably part of a 63 minute hour.

Also on this day, I was totally in the groove and put aside all the prepared stuff. You'll notice I suggested listeners call Dan Ingram, Ted Brown and some of the other 'legends' so they could listen and take notes. I frequently did that on days when we were hotter than a two dollar pistol, as they say. Well, I think they say that. SOMEWHERE they must say that.

You may get the idea that I didn't like the CB contest - and you would be right.

If you don't remember, Andrea True was a porn movie star in the 70's and, this is the truth, she was dating an NBC VP. Somewhere I have a tape of porn star Marlyn Chambers saying "Vernon gives good radio" - that we liked to throw in every once in a while. Good taste is timeless.