When I was five years old, my parents gave me what remains to this day my favorite gift: a transistor radio.
Back in the early 1960s, a transistor radio was a big deal because it was small and portable.
Prior to the invention of the transistor, radios had tubes and were at smallest a tabletop model, nothing you carry with you to the beach or ballpark.
I remember going to a discount store in Pennsauken and picking it out. It had genuine, fake leather, vinyl case and was powered by a nine-volt battery. That radio opened up a whole new world to me.
Living across the river from Philadelphia in South Jersey, I listened to all the Philly radio stations. My first discovery was WIBG, the Big 99, probably one of the best rock n’ roll stations in the nation at the time.
Jerry Stevens was the morning DJ. When I got home from school in the afternoon, I listened to Joe Niagara, “The Rockin’ Bird.” My favorite, however, was Hy Lit who did the 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift except when it was interrupted by Villanova basketball.
It was WIBG that introduced me to the Beach Boys, Bobby Rydell, Four Tops, Supremes, Credence Clearwater Revival and Rolling Stones.
Hy Lit introduced me to the music of the Beatles. When a new Beatles single or album was released, he seemed to have it first.
I also liked his weekly TV show on the old Channel 48. When Hy moved from AM to FM, I followed him to WDAS-FM which started playing more album-oriented rock such as early Led Zeppelin.
I have a vivid memory of listening to WIBG on the beach in Cape May Point hearing a new song called “Just Like Me,” from Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Later on, I occasionally listened to WFIL 56 but I considered that station inferior to WIBBAGE, as WIBG was called. I did like Long John Wade on WFIL.
Even though I was a kid, I liked talk radio on the old WCAU AM 1210. I remember an announcer named Bob Menefee hosting a morning talk show and Tom Brookshire reporting sports.
I remember Bill Webber or Wee Willy Webber as he was known on his cartoon show on Channel 17, on WIP Radio.
I remember Georgie Woods on WDAS, Ed Hurst on a station whose call letters I don’t remember and Jerry Blavat on a number of radio stations.
I remember Hurst more from his TV show on Channel 17 from Atlantic City’s Steel Pier and Blavat from his Jerry’s Place afternoon show on Channel 6.
I vividly remember singer Billy Harner on Jerry’s Place. Harner was my barber when I was kid before I discovered the Beatles and began a 42-year trek of longer hair.
I remember Harner showing me his drum set in the back room of a barbershop in the Meadowbrook section of Pennsauken. I also remember he had hay fever.
When I moved back to this area in 1998, after living 25 years in Florida, I was delighted to hear Niagara, Hy Lit and Jerry Blavat were still on the radio in Philly.
Since that time, Hy Lit and Niagara have passed away. I was pleased to see Bill Webber on Channel 12 last year.
Philadelphia has been acknowledged as one of the birthplaces of the Top 40 radio format, which combined rock, soul and ballad singers. On WIBG, you may have heard The Temptations, Nancy Sinatra, Herman’s Hermits and Petula Clark, all in one hour.
In interviews, Hall and Oates have noted how listening to radio in Philly influenced their music, especially the amount of soul music played.
I was given all sorts of gifts as child including a set of World Book Encyclopedia that I never read. In fact, when I sold them to a used bookstore years later, some of the books made a cracking noise when opened because apparently some of them I have never opened in 20 years.
The transistor radio changed my life. It led to me to a radio career and certainly to playing drums in rock n’ roll bands since the 70s. That radio took me to Motown, London, and Memphis and to the ballpark for Phillies games without ever leaving home.
What a great medium radio is! I must pass along a compliment to Rudy in the Morning on 94.3 FM for creating a morning show that does justice to all the great morning shows from Philly and New York from the 60s and 70s.
I bet someone gave him a radio when he was kid.