1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline 
A Shocking Revelation About The Old MusicRadio WABC
In hindsight, this shouldn't really shock me. But it still does. As Black History Month comes to an end, a story in New York's Newsday about pioneering soul station WWRL contains a revelation about market leader WABC I find stunning.
It says that many advertisers on 77 used to deliberately visit the powerhouse radio station's studios to check on whether the jocks who delivered their commercials were white.
It actually mattered enough to them in the 60s that they wanted to know.
"Advertisers periodically visited the WABC studios to make certain the disc jockeys were white — a practice that ended after [Chuck] Leonard joined in '65...
"[Reporter Jane Tillman] Irving says WABC's [Dan] Ingram (who died in 2018) had told her and others about those surreptitious studio visits by advertisers who "wanted to make sure all those jocks the kids were listening to were white."
It's hard to believe that happened. But sadly, it's also NOT hard to believe it, either.
I love radio history but I have to say I'd never heard that shameful story before.
Remembering when 'Super Soul 16' WWRL ruled the radio world
- Dial Twister
- Member
Offline
Re: A Shocking Revelation About The Old MusicRadio WABC
I'm not shocked.
- Marsden
- Member
Offline
Re: A Shocking Revelation About The Old MusicRadio WABC
I spent a lot of time at WABC in the sixties. I believe this story to be false. If he were still with us - I'd call Chuck Leonard and ask him.
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: A Shocking Revelation About The Old MusicRadio WABC
I hope you're right. It's hard to believe a station with a staff as hip as WABC was would allow this, even then. Still, it was a very different time and management might have wanted to protect its cash cow. I guess the last one who might really know would be 85-year-old Cousin Brucie, although on the night shift, he might not have been there.
- •
Thread Starter- AM&A's
- Unregistered
Re: A Shocking Revelation About The Old MusicRadio WABC
Back in the eighties, I used to enjoy a British television series, filmed in London, called "Minder". It is still available on ITV.com. I recently read on a TV forum discussing "Minder" where someone had referred to the series as racist as there were no Indians or Pakistanis as shopkeepers or pedestrians; the landscape was completely white.
Someone had to point out to this poster that in those days, London was completely white. Indians et al weren't excluded, they didn't exist in the city to be a part of the landscape.
I graduated from a large Toronto (North York) high school in 1969. There was one non-white person in our student population, a Jamaican. It's only in the past thirty-ish years where immigration from non-traditional countries has been prominent.
Today, you can't sell a product or service of any sort without diversity, at very least, if not mix and match couples in the commercials.
Judging days-gone-by through today's prism might be deemed a tad pious.