[BC] Getting the Commercials on

[Broadcast List USER]

When I was a child, my parents listened to "Harden and Weaver" on  
WMAL, 630 kHz in DC as we ate breakfast.

These guys were EARLY contemporaries of "The Joy Boys" Willard Scott  
and Ed Walker, the Today show weather guy and the blind announcer on  
WAMU.

  Frank Harden and Jackson Weaver were the morning to the afternoon  
Joy Boys "who chased electrons to and fro," on WMAL.  I LOVED it.

One day, as a child, gaining an interest and understanding of  
commercial radio, mentioned to my father that they never played  
commercials.

His retort was, "you have got to be kidding, you nee to listen closer."

I did.

I then noticed that one of them would comment, "Hey, I was out at.  
"Roy's Place in Rockville last night and I had the best sandwich I  
have had in YEARS!  It was the crab salad on french bread, and the  
french fries were to die for.  You have got to get out to Roy's Place  
soon."

They never broke for commercials.  They did live, off the notes,  
reads.  By the time I was reaching two digits, I got it.  They were  
having lunch at five places every day, and dinner at three, breakfast  
may have been 15.  They also bought a lot of cars, and had a lot of  
cars serviced.  OK, my dysfunctional father notice the problems, but  
man, those guys related with both the audience and the clients.  My  
father would have made a great lying GM, or lying Sales Manager.  Then  
again, he could sell water to a drowning man.

I don't think Paul Harvey or Jr. are NEARLY as good, they always say,  
"Page 'X'" before diving into the commercial.  There is always that  
warning.  Still, Paul is STILL the king of the live read.

Paul Harvey and his son don't really weave, they kind of segue.

--chip

On Nov 20, 2010, at 2:54 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 16
> From: Dave Gardiner <DG19075 at aol.com>
>
> As for weaving  commercials into program content, the undisputed  
> master of that was the late Paul Harvey. Wonder if Paul Jr. took  
> over for his dad?
>
> Dave Gardiner