Don Imus says he's one of the five greatest "radio guys" in history.
Imus says he considers himself one of the top five radio broadcasters of all time. I don't agree with that. Maybe he means the top five of the rock & roll era, which I can buy into, but ... of all time? That's a pretty crowded pantheon. That means he considers himself more important to the medium than eight of the following.
Edward R Murrow
Franklin Roosevelt
Jack Benny
Orson Welles
Howard Stern
Arthur Godfrey
Fred Allen
Rush Limbaugh
Paul Harvey
Larry King
Art Linkletter
Wolfman Jack
(And others I forgot. See the comment section for notes from guys who know the subject better than I do.)
I ain't buyin' it. I have to feel that at least five of those guys have to be above Imus. Imus provided a lot of entertainment for a long time, and kudos to him for that, but I think he's delusional if he ranks himself in the top five among that group. Several of those people changed radio in some fundamental way. He's right about Stern, however. Howard definitely belongs on the list, perhaps on the top.
1.Alan Freed. He unfortunately destroyed himself with the "Payola" scandal but he was an (or 'the') important player in the start of rock 'n' roll music and I think there is no question his personality led to the 'invention' of the local popular disk jockey.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to include Orson Welles as a 'broadcaster' because he was a writer (and performer) of radio plays, I'd definitely add
1.William N Robson, the creator and producer of the most popular radio program Suspense which is probably most famous for the episode "Sorry, Wrong Number" which was later turned into a movie.
2.Arch Oboler, the creator, producer, director and frequently star of "Lights Out." In addition to writing some genuinely frightening radio plays along with many (unintentionally) corny ones, Oboler was the originator of the concept through "Lights Out" of using fantasy/science fiction to promote (liberal) themes that would have been censored otherwise that Rod Serling and, to some degree, Gene Roddenberry later employed. To, it seems, not everybody's joy, Aaron Sorkin later sort of employed this method before becoming overt about it with The West Wing.
Meant to add (though the comment was long enough already) Rod Serling was directly inspired by Arch Oboler's ideas and later hired Oboler to write for the Twilight Zone.
Deletehttp://www.sperdvac.com/radiogram/radiogram200903.pdf
http://www.pointlessart.com/education/loyalist/tv/wordsTV/TwilightZone.html
Obvious oversight: Art Bell!!!!!!
DeleteWhichever people originated the concepts of:
1.Sports talk radio
2.All news radio
should probably also be included. Just because I don't know who they are doesn't mean they're not famous.
Sort of the opposite of Sam (Malone) on Cheers "A lot of people don't know this, but I'm quite famous."
Oboler is a huge hero of mine. Brilliant.
Delete...Rodney Bingenheimer ("Rodney on the Rock")
ReplyDeletemaybe Murray the K
E.G. Marshall / Radio Mystery Theater...
To me, Imus wasn't so much entertainment as "entertainment" - I could tell when he was trying to be funny or provocative, but his punches rarely landed. Still, he deserves longevity points for all those years riding the mike.
I think you have to consider Casey Kasem somwhere as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever
ReplyDeleteNorman Corwin. He wrote, produced and directed. And if he had done nothing other than "On A Note Of Triumph," his VE Day program written and produced essentially overnight, he would deserve a spot among the greats. But he did A LOT more than that.
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ReplyDeleteI couldn't put Larry King anywhere but the bottom. A stunningly uninformed idiot. He thought it was a great idea to give Lennon's murderer an entire show of airtime; talked to him amiably like an old pal. ("So what were you thinking when you shot John?") Thought Seinfeld's show was cancelled by the network. (Jerry: "Do you even know who I am? Do you know who anyone is?") Asked Sharon Tate's sister how she felt about Roman Polanski killing Sharon. ("Do you still see Roman? How can you be civil at all to him, after what he did to your sister?") Called Ringo Starr "George". Stammered and staggered in confusion anytime he was challenged by anyone. Most annoying was during the OJ trial, when he had on phony assholes like Shapiro, Cochran, Dershowitz, Scheck, et al, asking them repeatedly "How's OJ? He doin' ok? Hanging in there?" As though poor ol' OJ must be kinda stressed out at the inconvenience of being tried for double murder. Uggh, King was clueless. Maybe in his younger radio days he was better, but I figure a moron is a moron by birth usually.
ReplyDeleteHerb Jepko and the people at Mutual Radio were the originators of the national syndicated radio talk show format which basically saved A.M radio, but Larry King replaced Jepko (and a couple others who were briefly the hosts) less than 2 years later and built up the program and the concept of a national radio talk show into a major format.
DeleteAs to whether he is/was a moron, you can take anybody's most embarrassing moments and make them out to seem like a complete idiot. (His frequent divorces and frequent bankruptcies - at a young age - are equally embarrassing.)
However, countering that are his radio winning a Peabody and, to some degree, the longevity of his radio show and the size of his audience. Unlike Rush Limbaugh, who owes a great debt to Larry King, King took un-screened calls for an entire hour five nights a week, and contrary to what you wrote here, he was a very knowledgeable and capable debater.
Obviously should say 'his radio show winning a peabody.'
DeleteI think the reason for most of the Larry King's gaffes that you pointed out is his fairly unique interviewing style.
DeleteI remember most of what he said "The preparation I do for the show is that I read five newspapers a day. I never read the book of the guest in advance. I get bored asking questions that I already know the answer to."
I'm sure his programs did pre-interviews to determine the suitability of the guest for the radio or television format, but as far as I know, nobody prepared a list of questions for him. I believe the only information of a guest he was given was a one page sheet of bullet points which he quickly glanced over.
An additional name for major radio personalities of all time: most people hate him, but Walter Winchell was certainly a major figure for a long time.
Any of you guys remember Bruce Williams? He was an overnight mainstay. Also, Tom Bodett. Don’t forget the women... Remember Sally Jesse Raphael started out in radio.
ReplyDeleteTom Bodett. I remember his commercials for Motel Six: "We'll leave the light on for you."
DeleteI think the reason nobody until you mentioned any women is that Imus referred to himself as 'one of the five greatest radio guys.'
DeleteI think the most obvious pioneering woman in radio, but she's British not American, is Delia Derbyshire:
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire
On the negative side, as with Walter Winchell, I suppose you could consider Tokyo Rose.
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ReplyDeleteYeah that's true, one can easily point out someone's egregious fuck-ups to make them look like a total fuck-up to humorously make one's point. And I used to watch King's show "Live" a lot back in the day; he had the hottest names in the news on. It's more in retrospect that I have no use for the guy. Having psychos like Chapman & John Mark Karr on and treating them so respectfully, allowing them to vomit out their freak spew so freely; completely fucking up a smokin' hot interview like the Ramseys vs. Jon-Benet's lead detective; being so ignorant or gruff that guests occasionally walked out (to Lady Gaga: "So I read somewhere you've got Lupus, or something?"); frequently being sycophantic & fawning toward certain guests; on & on. Choices like that, plus that he stayed on way too long & became somewhat doddering, takes him out of the running as far as any major lists, I think. But since you mentioned some of his attributes, it makes me recall that I did enjoy him superficially sometimes back in his heyday. But I do recall thinking even then, "If I was in the news big time & wanted to do my one big interview, he's the LAST guy I'd do it with. Peering at you foggily through those thick lenses; wondering if he really has much of a clue who you are or what's going on with you; interrupting you to ask stupid ignorant q's (I can just imagine trying to make a point, and he interrupts with "OJ, guilty or innocent?"); name-dropping celebs, etc. It's admirable that he liked to wing it, to be sure, but I think detrimental, since he often came across as clueless. I suspect he was probably better before he became a huge celeb. I vaguely remember him from the 70's; he seemed a voice you could reasonably rely on back then.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Chicago, I want to add Steve Dahl. He started out in Detroit, doing the first controversial talk/music radio show. Then moved to Chicago where it became more talk that music - definitely pushing the envelope. Howard Stern admitted to listening to Dahl tapes and that they influenced him in taking the risk to be more controversial. Dahl never made it to national status, although Disco Demolition caught the nations attention.
ReplyDeleteDahl is a Midwest legend.
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