The Midnight Jamboree WEVD (Part 1)

The Midnight Jamboree sounds like another barn dance type of program. It's not. Host Gene King worked from 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM. That shift included "The Midnight Jamboree" and whatever else they threw at him. More here.

The  Jamboree aired six days a week, and was sponsored by Alka-seltzer back in the golden era of late-night request programs. Starting in 1936, he hosted the program at least into 1941 running against the "Milkman's Matinee" on WNEW-AM. Some issues of Downbeat Magazine note the program still airing in 1958, though clearly with a new host. *Interesting note: the Midnight Jamboree and the call letters WEVD appear multiple times in the personal letters of Ayn Rand.  Even while she recognized them as "pink" (a reference to communism) she remained an avid listener .

The Midnight Jamboree debuted in 1936, back when 1330 WEVD-AM still shared time with WBBR-AM and WHAZ.  WBBR was owned by the Jesuits Watchtower Society, and ran all religious teaching. The share-time continued until 1957 when the station was sold, under some duress to Tele-Broadcasters, who only held the license for 2 years before selling 1959.That buyer, John Camp retained the license and bought WHAZ in 1973. Salem bought WEVD in 1979 then WPOW in 1984 finally unifying the license. They were the last remaining AM dayshare agreement operating in New York City.

Gene graduated from the Ohio State University in 1934, and made a bee-line for radioland. He learned his chops on WEVD. In that time it was owned by the Jewish Daily Forward,a newspaper that still exists but now owns zero radio stations. That was by no means the entirely of his career. He also did man-on-the-street" interviews for them in 1939. Still on WEVD in 1940, Gene King also announced for the "It Happened To Me" a daytime drama.

Then he went on to WOR-AM in 1940 under the Mutual Network where he came in as a DJ and left as the manager of program operations until 1947.  He left that gig to move to Boston to be the Program Director at WCOP-AM in Boston. In 1951 he left that post to become the director of radio in Europe for the Economic Co-operation Administration (ECA). The ECA was a United States government agency set up in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan. It was based in Paris. Prior to that he'd had some nebulous involvement with the French Broadcasting System (FBS) which operated on shortwave internationally. He became the program manager of Voice Of America, out of New York in 1954.

His trail peters out after that. From about 1965 to 1963 it seems he was the WCBS Radio program director, then was elected to the advisory council of the VOA English-teaching radio programs. Then  he pops up again in 1971 joining the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) as program director,  working out of Washington D.C. He held that post into 1974, then after that there's just nothing. A 1983 copy of the Broadcasting Cable Yearbook had him still there as the VP of broadcasting. He had to be in his late 60s by then.

***You can read Part 2 HERE***

Rise and Shine with Salty Brine

Salty Brine aka Walter L. Brine died back in 2004. Outside of Rhode Island he is a total unknown, but in that small state, he was a celebrity. He was a veteran broadcaster, and a host of a popular children's television program: Salty Brine's Shack. He's best known for that time spent on TV with his collie Jeff, but he was in radio both before and after his tour on the tube. More here.

He was born in 1918 in Boston, and  in 1941 he graduated from the Staley College for Radio in Brookline, MA. After spending time at a few Boston are stations, notably WNAC-AM, WESX-AM and WCOP-AM he became an announcer on 630 WPRO-AM in 1942.  Some sources say as early as 1938. This is erroneous. Over time, his program just became a part of Rhode Island culture. A 1976 issue of Billboard quoted station manager Jay Clark about Mr. Brine:

"...Salty Brine, a 35-year veteran of WPRO is a much a part of Rhode Island life as fishing and johnny cakes. Brine may play as few as 2 records an hour, but he provides news [traffic,] sports, ski reports, and is totally service oriented."

His morning show ran from 5:30 AM to 9:00 AM Monday through Friday. he maintained the show through many format changes. He began the children's program on WPRO-TV Channel 12 in 1955 and it continued into 1968. When the TV program ended and Salty stuck with WPRO-AM. He retired in 1993 but  remained on air part tie here and there at least into 1999. His legacy was immortalized in an unusual way in 1990. The state legislature named a stretch of beach in Narragansett as Salty Brine State Beach.. There is a nice obit here. He is survived by his son Walter Brine Jr. who goes by the name Wally Brine. Wally went into radio as well, spending time on both WVBF and WROR.