Name: WMEX/Boston 1/1/66 New Years Morning w/Dan Donovan (Blaine Harvey) by TSJ56
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Description: A super short bit from 2 AM on New Year’s Day 1966, with Dan Donovan (Blaine Harvey) on the overnight WMEX special music celebration, with (maybe) Larry Justice adding background cheers (most likely pre-recorded earlier). This is extremely brief, but notable for wondering if the infamous owner (Mac Richmond) was awake.

In Breaking Walls episode 116, it’s June of 1955 and network radio is in uncharted territory. TV’s encroachment has the entire industry looking for new ideas. We’ll focus on the launch of one of the most successful—Monitor—which will air in some form or fashion until January of 1975. 

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Highlights:
• The Changing Network Radio Landscape
• Who Is Sylvester “Pat” Weaver?
• Monitor Origins
• Building the Team
• Radio Central
• The Soft Launch
• An Auto Tragedy at Le Mans
• Going to San Quentin Prison 
• Lots of Tunes in Remote
• A Potential United Automobile Workers Strike
• Dave Garroway Interviews Marilyn Monroe, live on Monitor
• Fibber McGee and Gildy Too
• Here’s Henry Morgan
• Monitor’s Last Hour
• Miss Monitor Finally Makes an Appearance
• The Full Launch
• Looking Ahead in Time and Space

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The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

——————————

The reading material used in today’s episode was:

On the Air - By John Dunning
Monitor: Take 2: By Dennis Hart 
Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg

Articles from:
Broadcasting-Telecasting Magazine
Monthly Labor Review
The New York Daily News
The New York Times
Newsweek
Printer’s Ink 
Variety

As well as the websites:
http://accordions.com/ for their interview with Art Van Damme
Dennis Hart’s http://monitorbeacon.net/
http://tipsontables.com/

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On the interview front:
• Pat Weaver was interviewed for Fred Allen’s May 29th, 1956 Biography In Sound.

• Ben Grauer was interviewed for NBC’s 50th Anniversary and Westinghouse’ 50th Anniversary.
 
• Dave Garroway and Willard Waterman spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Jim Jordan was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear this full interview at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:
• Shangri-La — By the New Spike Jones Band
• Maris’ Farewell — By George Winston
• Moon Moods — By Les Baxter & His Orchestra

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Special thanks to:

The Fireside Mystery Theatre
https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society
https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/

Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight
https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/


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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.

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A massive thank you to Gordon Skene and Dennis Hart for their contributions to this episode. Gordon maintains a tremendous sound collection. You can visit his site at PastDaily.com.

Dennis Hart is the preeminent Monitor researcher. If this subject interests you pick up Monitor: Take 2, or go to MonitorBeacon.net.

——————————

Thank you to:
Tony Adams
Steven Allmon
Orson Orsen Chandler
Phil Erickson
Briana Isaac
Thomas M. Joyce
Ryan Kramer
Gary Mollica
Barry Nadler
Christian Neuhaus
Aimee Pavy
Chris Pilkington

——————————

WallBreakers Links:
Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers
Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955)

In Breaking Walls episode 134 we spend our holidays with one of the most-beloved figures of the twentieth century: Jack Benny.

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Highlights:
• Picking Up with Benny Leaving NBC for CBS
• A World in Turmoil
• Benny Launches his Fall 1949 Season
• The Texas Benefit
• What About 1950?
• Jack Goes Christmas Shopping
• Christmas Week 1949 in World News
• Christmas Day with Jack and the Gang
• Bringing 1949 To a Close — Looking Ahead to January

——————————

The WallBreakers:

http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

——————————

The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• Sunday Nights at Seven — By Jack and Joan Benny
• On the Air — By John Dunning
• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg

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On the interview front:

• Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Mel Allen, Mel Blanc, and Vincent Price were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Jack Benny, George Burns, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson were also interviewed by Jack Carney.

• Dennis Day and Dick Joy spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver.

• Don Quinn was interviewed by Owen Cunningham in 1951

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Somewhere In My Memory — By John Williams
• What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve — By Nancy Wilson

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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.

For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.

——————————

Thank you to:
Tony Adams
Steven Allmon
Orson Orsen Chandler
Phil Erickson
Jessica Hanna
Perri Harper
Briana Isaac
Thomas M. Joyce
Ryan Kramer
Earl Millard
Gary Mollica
Barry Nadler
Christian Neuhaus
Aimee Pavy
Ray Shaw
Filipe A Silva
John Williams

——————————

WallBreakers Links:
Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers
Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

BW - EP134: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World (1949)

NEW: American Top 40 (AT40) (1970) - Moog Jingles & Show Theme - PAMS Productions

PEPPER TANNER 'NOW SOUND'

From a very long time ago! Perhaps one of the most recognisable Jingles of all time came from ‘PAMS’ is the ‘Contempo Sig Cut’ from Series 18. It was mainly used at the TOH. (Boom, plink as somebody recently described it).

Series 18 was originally released in 1961 when I was 7!

Here is a montage (150) of the station ‘Contempo’ sig cuts produced mainly produced by ‘PAMS’  between 1961-1978. There will still be many packages of this that I don’t have, KBGO for example. There some later re-sings included from CPMG/BEN FREEDMAN/KENR and maybe a couple from JAM! Some of the later ones I am not entirely sure of their origin. Like XM.

One of my favourites is from ‘WGAR’, I love the American twang in it. I am very partial to ‘WQXI’ as well. I have also included five of ‘KQV’s six cuts. The three from ‘WAYS’. The two from ‘WMEX’ and ‘WQAM’

Hope you can stand it.

'PAMS' SERIES 18 CONTEMPO SIG 'MEGAMIX'

‘PAMS GUILTY PLEASURES’ – PART ONE

This is what keeps me happy for days. I have been working on this project for the past 3 years, inspired by ’PAMS’ 70th anniversary! Here is a montage of some of my favourite ‘PAMS’ Jingles, the whole thing goes on for a ridiculous 3 hours (I love listening to them loud on a long car journey). Don’t worry I have cut it down into 3 parts. Part 2 and 3 still need a lot more work.  Thankfully you no longer have to do this on a reel-to-reel machine.

Many have gone before me doing ‘PAMS’ montages. I was inspired to do this hearing from others including Ken R Deutsch, Jon Wolfert, Tracy Carmen on (REEL RADIO), the late Michael Neff whose collection I would love to have had a copy of, Norman Barrington who has an amazing collection, and has been very helpful. Norman has kindly done a 10 minute ‘curated edit’ for those who cannot stand the 50 mins worth.   

Please anybody know who ‘Storm King’ is or was? Sam Ward? Thanks to everyone else not mentioned who has helped me with this project.

A very special thanks has to go to KEN R who saved so many of theses PAMS tapes from being dumped. 

What I love so much about PAMS, pre series 40 was that you can sing along to them, they are so catchy! 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have had putting it together.


Henry

'PAMS' GUILTY PLEASURES - PART-1 (FULL LENGTH VERSION)

So Sorry to hear that Terry Lea who sung most of the PAMS ‘HOMETOWN’ songs has passed. What a great age! ( I was 6 when she was singing these).

Please note, I don’t believe she sung the Providence cut.  This has been a work in progress and not yet completed.  It seems appropriate to share it unfinished today.

Hometown songs (parts of) are included for BIRMINGHAM AL (WSGN), WASHINGTON DC (WWDC), RADIO LONDON (NORTH SEA UNITED KINGDOM), AUSTIN TX (KNOW), BOSTON MA (WCOP), PROVIDENCE RI (WICE), ST JOSEPH MO (KKJO), ELMIRA NY (WELM),
TIDE WATER VA (WNOR), FORT WORTH TX (KXOL), WACO TX (WACO), SHERMAN DENISON TX (KDSX),
DALLAS TX (KLIF).

PAMS 16 HOMETOWN (TERRY LEA JENKINS)

A super short bit from 2 AM on New Year’s Day 1966, with Dan Donovan (Blaine Harvey) on the overnight WMEX special music celebration, with (maybe) Larry Justice adding background cheers (most likely pre-recorded earlier). This is extremely brief, but notable for wondering if the infamous owner (Mac Richmond) was awake.

WMEX/Boston 1/1/66 New Years Morning w/Dan Donovan (Blaine Harvey)

TM: ‘THE ‘YOU’ CAMPAIGN’ ‘YOU I’, ‘YOU II’

TM’S ‘YOU’ Campaign is now ‘50’ years old.

‘You I’ is one of my favourite TM jingle packages. I only discovered it 23 years after its original release, on returning to jingle collecting in 1998! ‘You I’ in my opinion is production heaven. It still sounds great today with lots of ‘OOMF’. My guess is - that they were using Moog bass? it works very well with all the strings, brass etc. Everything I like, The TOH cut is amazing and sound like it was made on a synth.

‘PAMS’ and ‘PEPPER TANNER’, the other market leaders at the time must have died when this package launched. More than 200 versions of this were made.

Not so keen on ‘You II’ although brilliantly arranged and written, just does not have the bass magic or overall sparkle. I am sure some of you might dis-agree!

‘The ‘TM’ ‘YOU CAMPAIGN’ has now been on the ‘Montage’ deck for about 2 years. It started off just as a ‘YOU’ medley. But since has developed! I have now chopped up the three of the demo’s, into one very much shorter version just featuring ‘Charlie Van Dyke’, (sorry Jim Long). I have also put the original backing track behind most of the narrative. The original DEMO’s are now painful to listen to and far too long for today. (Say’s he who makes hour long jingle medleys)!

The original demo’s, both stellar consisted of:

DEMO 1: ‘YOU I’  KXYZ (‘HOUSTON’ TX)/WFIL (‘PHILADELPHIA’ PA (DALLAS VOCALS).

DEMO 2: ‘YOU I’  KHJ (‘LOS ANGELES’CA)/KCMO (‘KANSAS CITY’ MI), DICK HAMILTON, LA VOCALS.


DEMO 3: ‘YOU II’ KFRC (‘SAN FRANCISCO’ CA), DICK HAMILTON LA VOCALS.


In the newly created demo there are cuts from: KHJ, WRKO, WBEN, WHBQ, KLIF, WFIL, WTAE, KXYZ, WXYZ, KGRC, WNBC, KKOA, WQXI, WVLK, KAYC,
KGW, KCMO, KING, KFRC, (INCLUDING STAR VERSIONS SUNG ‘THE CARPENTERS’, (I AM GUESSING THE OTHER STAR VERSION INCLUDED IS FROM THE DISCO-TEX and SEX-O-LETTES?) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD6Pq


(I apologise for my spelling and grammar, it is getting worse as I get older)


TM - THE 'YOU' CAMPAIGN - MONTAGE ( PT 1)

PAMS Series 18: “Sonosational” – 2025 Sampler Complete!

After two years of work—and a full redesign about 10 months ago—I’m excited to finally share my completed 2025 sampler for PAMS Series 18: “Sonosational.”

With the help of AI, I’ve introduced all 37 cuts with standout examples that bring each one to life. This project reflects not only a lot of time and passion, but also the benefit of having access to more original PAMS Series 18 material than any other jingle package in my collection.

I hope you enjoy this tribute to one of the most iconic series ever created.

'PAMS' SERIES 18 SAMPLER

In Breaking Walls episode 82 we focus on the state of the radio broadcasting industry in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as Broadcasting booms while the world goes to War. 


Highlights:
• Early days at NBC’s Radio City in New York
• How Press Associations caused NBC and CBS to launch a news service
• The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System and their Struggles
• NBC Red and NBC Blue
• The FCC and US Justice Department Get Involved with Radio
• The Murrow Boys and Encroaching War in Europe
• The War Comes Home
• NBC sells The Blue Network
• Norman Corwin and His World War II Work
• Bing Crosby, Philco Radios, and Network Transcription
• The Talent Raids of 1949
 
The WallBreakers:
http://thewallbreakers.com
Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:
http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

Special thanks to our Sponsors: 
• Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight
https://twelvechimesradio.blogspot.com

• The Fireside Mystery Theatre
https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com


The reading material used in today’s episode was: 
• The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby
• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning
• Beating The Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC - by Leonard H. Goldenson with Marvin J. Wolf
• Empire: William S. Paley & The Making of CBS - by Lewis J. Paper
• The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio - by Christopher H. Sterling

As well as four articles from the archives of TIME Magazine:

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY MBS - September 15, 1941
• Old Law v. New Thing - January 12, 1942
• Black & Blue - January 11, 1943
• Network Without Ulcers - April 21, 1947


Norman Corwin was with Chuck Schaden on August 8th, 1976. You can stream this interview and many others for free on Chuck’s site, Speakingofradio.com 



Selected Music featured in today’s Episode was:

• Rudy Vallee - Brother Can You Spare A Dime
• Jaqueline Schwab - The Minstrel Boy & The Battle Cry for Freedom
• Bing Crosby - Blues in the Night & Don’t Fence Me in with The Andrews Sisters


I’d like to especially thank Larry and John Gassman as well as Walden Hughes for continued help and support. They host a program on the Yesterday USA Radio Network, which you can visit at http://www.yesterdayusa.com. The three gentleman are also members of SPERDVAC - The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy. 

They’re having their next convention this coming November 1st through 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 3131 Bristol St. in Costa Mesa, CA for more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com


A Special Thank you to:
Ron Baron
Ryan Kramer
Christian Neuhaus
Aimee Pavy
Rebecca Shield


WallBreakers Links:
Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers
Social Media - @TheWallBreakers
URL - thewallbreakers.com
Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

BW - EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)

Broadcaster and programmer of 50 years. Broadcast, Music, Commercial and Pop Culture archivist.

WMEX/Boston 1/1/66 New Years Morning w/Dan Donovan (Blaine Harvey)

TSJ56

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