The WCBS Shindig Gang

I came across this post card and have struggled ever since to identify the band. My first thought was that it must be Denny Hilton and his Country Shindig Gang. But that's much too late to be the same group. Hilton was only active with that group maybe as early as 1970. However, that whole kerfuffle is interesting so let's digress. More here.

Denny Hilton created the Country Shindig Opry in 1970. It was a modern take on the radio variety show. it was based in Lake Of The Ozarks, MO and broadcast from a 1200-seat venue. But he was using the very proprietary word "Opry" long used by WSM-AM on their then 45 year old program. So in 1982, Hilton was sued by the Grand Ole Opry for copyright infringement. Shockingly the court rules that that the word "Opry" was commonly used and therefore a "generic" phrase dating back to before the WSM program debuted. The decision was upheld on appeal to a Federal District Court in 1984.  (In a separate case, settled on appeal in 1992, WSM won on more or less the same issue again the The Carolina Opry.)

But back to the picture at the top. It's quite obviously pre-1970. Probably pore-1950. In old issues of Cue Magazine there was a "Bobby Sherwood Shindig" airing around 1952 but that's on WOR. Bobby Sherwood isn't nearly as interesting as Denny Hilton. Actually, even the usually stoic Billboard magazine saw fit to mock him in print back in December of 1951  

"A lot more music and a lot less talk would make this hour and a half deejay show better fitted for what the station calls 'an afternoon of music.'  Ex bandleader Bobby Sherwood is a good spieler, his musical taste is equally fine; but the talk far outweighs the music called for by the stations programming idea..."

For the record, Sherwood's Shindig has no connection to the 1960's NBC television program. But back to that post card. The post mark is 1934 so Bobby would have been 20 years old and certainly not in this old-time looking troupe.So I dug out the Encyclopedia of American Radio by Luther F. Sies. It lists a few Shindigs: the Renfro Valley Shindig, Saturday Night Shindig, and a Saturday Night Shindig at the Old General Store. The Renfro Valley Shindig I suspect is another name for the Renfro Valley Barn Dance (which is problematic) which aired on WLW and WHAS. But WFAA-TV and WHIS both had Saturday Night Shindigs. The WFAA program was also carried on KRLD which was renamed "The Big D Jamboree" to further confuse the matter. Even more confusingly, that very program was syndicated on CBS in the 1950s. But the program only debuted in 1944, a decade too late. A final answer on this remains elusive.

WTC Antenna

I was not aware of this exhibit until today. The Newseum continues to impress. Starting in the Summer of 2011, they began exhibiting the upper section of the 360-foot antenna mast from the World Trade Center North Tower.


The backstory is the story every American knows. Terrorists conducted suicide attacks using commandeered aircraft to target U.S. landmarks including the World Trade Towers in New York City. Aircraft collided with two WTC buildings, which collapsed and resulted in the deaths of 2,606 people at WTC including all 19 terrorists, 246 passengers, 72 law enforcement officers, 343 firefighters, and 55 military personnel.

The Radio and TV dial in New York city had a lot of dark spaces that day as many area stations broadcast from WTC. Nine TV and four FM radio stations were knocked off the air including WPIX-TV, WCBS-TV, WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, WNEW, WFAN and WPAT.  [SOURCE] On the new WTC structure, a mast was built that could support the whole of the NYC radio band. More here.

Vik Venus: death at the mic

Jack Spector was a new york DJ for 30 years. But he is best-remembered for doing the afternoon slot on WMCA in New York City for most of the 1960s. But he had a strange side too. At the peak of his career, he did a show that he taped in the mid-60's for the British north sea pirate radio station called Radio Caroline. In 1969 he cut a single on Buddah records under the name Vik Venus. It was a novelty song that was edited together from dozens of other recognizable tunes. But it peaked at #38 on Billboard. Today it's strictly fare for Dr. Demento.


Born in Brooklyn, he went to broadcasting school and took his first radio gig in 1955 on a local station in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He toured New England moving gig to gig in podunk towns. He came back to New York to attend Brooklyn College but dropped out. At WMCA his on-air name was Your Main Man Jake. After his single fell of the chart, his ratings slid. The station changed format to talk.

He moved over to 1050 WHN in 1972 but stayed there less than 2 years and defected to FM hosting "Saturday Night Sock Hop" on WCBS. FM worked out, he stuck it out at WCBS for 9 years. He also appeared on WKJI, WPIX, WKTU, and WNBC in there somewhere.

Starting in 1988 Jack took a gig at WHLI. The station had flipped to oldies and wooed him to come aboard. It worked out well for him. Then on March 8, of 1994, he had a heart-attack on air. The long period of silence tipped off staff but he was dead. He was 66.

The last song he played was Louis Prima's "I'm In The Mood For Love"

About Jack

It's been a couple weeks since WCBS realized the error of its' ways and I've had the time to digest it a bit. I think I can do this now without rubbing in the salt.

Jack for all the bad press it has received, has persisted. And in radio, a universe of ill-fated rube goldberg, long-shots -lasting four whole books is success. Free FM didn't last 3 and that too had Hollanders fingers all over it.

So that in mind, I think it's important to remember one thing about Jack. Over the last year only two stations dropped Adult Hits. WCBS will be the first Jack-branded station in the US to give up the ship. Only two Adult Hits stations of any kind have dropped the format. On January 8th WTDA dropped Ted-FM for talk, then the WCBS change. To my way of thinking, the format is here to stay.

The physical size of a radio wave

Radio waves are entirely real and physical things even though we cannot see them. It seems simple now that I write it but they are hard enough to imagine in the first place. An AM carrier wave varies in height because they are amplitude modulated. The height varies regardless of the frequency. But the wavelength is constant. For example 820 WNYC-AM has carrier wave with a wavelength of over 1,120 feet. 99.5 FM WBAI, also in New York, has a wavelength of about 10 feet. But because its Amplitude is not modulated, that too is constant. WBAI uses a microwave link between its studio and transmitter. This microwave link at 950 MHz has a wavelength of about 11 inches.

This physical size is behind the design for the "long wire antenna" Each type of long wire is suited to respond best to an even fraction of the full wave. A 1120 foot long wire antenna would be best to receive WNYC-AM. But also impractical inside a Manhattan apartment. At 560 feet it is tuned to the half-wave. At 280 feet the quarter wave. At 140 feet, an eighth and so-on. Great article on Long-wire antennas here.

This same concept applies to the broadcast of the signal. 880 WCBS broadcasts from a tower rigged to output almost a perfect half wave. More info here. There are no AM radio stations that I know of radiating a full half-wave. If you do, please fill me in.