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Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
A long time ago, Brian Skinner used to host the Battle of the New Sounds on CHUM, where he'd play two new "hits" and then have listeners vote by phone on which one was the winner.
Here's a version of the same concept I've never heard before. But it's quintessential 60s radio.
It took place on WIBC-AM, then the major Top 40 radio station in Indianapolis. Disc jockey Dick Summer would do a remote from a drive-in restaurant, play several new releases and then ask listeners which one they liked best. Teens in their cars would honk their horns and flash their headlights to rate the records, and whichever one got the biggest reaction saw that 45 played every single hour on the station for a full week.
The losers would have their 45s smashed and broken on the spot.
Even CHUM was never that audacious!
Worth noting that this wasn't just any ordinary remote. According to Radio Ink, which provides a pic of the set-up:
"The only way into the glass box was up a fire escape, onto the roof, and then into the tiny studio via a trap door."
Imagine any jock being asked to do that today!
Sad to report, Dick Summer, who was a major voice on WBZ and WNBC overnights, passed away this week. He was 89.
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
I used to listen to Dick Summer when he was on WNBC. Occasionally he would read the Kali Yuga World Cycles with Deodato's Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background.
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
Yes, his overnight show was called "The Lovin Touch" and featured some pretty hokey "touchy feely" stuff that turned me off. I still remember one bit that started off with him saying "Get a candle..." I loved that era of WNBC - my all time favourite station in those days. But that was a bit too much for me, especially at 2 in the morning.
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Thread Starter- Doug Thompson
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
I imagine Dick Summer at WIBC would physically break the record because it was a visual effect for the audience at the drive in. Having worked with Brian Skinner on CHUM for two years (1965-1966) as his board operator, I don't think Brian would have ever considered doing anything like that, even though he did do some crazy stunts.
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
Brian Skinner was one of my favourites at CHUM in those days, and of course the fact he did the evening shift, when all the teens were doing their homework with the radio on, only made it better. I won two records from voting on Battle of the New Sounds - Have I The Right by the Honeycombs and From A Window by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. Still have both 45s upstairs somewhere.
I know his son Kori ended up at CHUM years later, following in his dad's footsteps. The one thing I could never fathom is that after he left CHUM I don't think Brian Skinner did any more radio, despite getting offers. He also never did many - or maybe any - interviews. What turned him off the biz so badly that he refused to ever be part of it again?
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Thread Starter- Doug Thompson
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
While at CHUM, Brian and a guy named Melvin J. Gunton produced a series of Astrology albums for each sign of the zodiak titled "The Fortunes of....".
When the new programming regime came into CHUM and relegated Brian to the all night show, he was incredibly hurt and rightly so. So he left. That soured him a lot on radio.
I made Kori Skinner a tape of some of Brian's airchecks and production bits I did for the show and he gave them to Brian. Brian told Kori to tell me to call him and I spoke to him quite a few years ago. He was in Seattle and teaching.
Brian was a fascinating and complicated guy. He was not the zany DJ heard on the radio. He was an avid UFOlogist and a very serious thinker. We had fun together on CHUM during the two years I was his board operator.
Last edited by Doug Thompson (May 19, 2024 12:44 am)
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
Fascinating guy. Sorry that one bad experience soured him on radio. He was a huge talent. Thanks for the insight as always.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
Just found this story on why Battle Of The New Sounds supposedly ended. It's from May 1968.
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Thread Starter- Doug Thompson
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
While I agree with the reason for the cancellation of "Battle of the New Sounds", I disagree with Barb's analysis that we could have played 10 more discs per hour. We played the champion once, then played the challenger once. Then the voting happened and about a minute of the winning song was played again. So really only maybe 2 to 3 more songs max could have been added to the hour.
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Re: Remember Battle Of The New Sounds On CHUM? This Took It A Step Farther
Okay, so YEARS LATER CFTR had no problem with Smash or Trash, and later, the 7 o clock SHOWDOWN.
Maybe someone who used to work there can verify whether or not CFTR ran into the same problem of the same callers calling in all the time or not...the SHOWDOWN only ended because of the format change to ALL NEWS btw...
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.