Bird Notes from WHRO

I get up early sometimes for travel and I happened to catch a little 5-minute program on a Sunday morning called Bird Notes. It's a mellow short-form program with a tempo that reminds me of Bob Ross (in a good way). Long segments of the program are comprised of example bird sounds, so it has a very natural spot in the early morning. But for his avian-appreciating ways, he was listed by Elkhart country parks [HERE] as a suggested podcast.

When not in the radio studio, Dwight Davis likes to go afield with his binoculars and watch birds. "Birdnotes" is a result of his long-time interest in birds, a short feature that can be about almost any aspect of bird life, from migration to coloration to birds in art to song. In many ways he is a birder turned DJ, not a DJ who took up birding. His biography on whro.org is pretty short:

Dwight Davis has been working in classical music radio since 1973. A graduate of Norview High School and Elon College, he served in the Army, then taught science, until an opening appeared at WGH-FM. With no radio experience, he was, by his own admission, not a particularly good announcer. But his love and knowledge of music held him in good stead. He came to WHRO-FM in 1983, and is the Host of Morning Classics.Though by nature not a morning person, Dwight has been a morning host for most of his radio career. In addition to his "Morning Classics" and the Sunday afternoon "From the Parlor" programs, his "Bird Notes" feature on Sunday mornings has an enthusiastic following.

Despite his educational background Dwight managed to get into a email spat with Karen Davis (no relation) of the website United Poultry Concerns. This is exactly as funny as it sounds and yes you should read about it [here]. Dwight off-handedly disparaged the intelligence of turkeys and Karen, being a completely different kind of birder, took umbrage and felt the need to defend her feathered friends.

Davis is a Program Director at 90.3 WHRO where he also hosts Morning Classics, a mix of bright classical music with breaks for news traffic and weather. IT starts at the staggeringly early 5:00 AM slot running util 9:00 AM. He also hosts From The Parlor, which airs every Sunday at 3 PM with a smooth and slow blend of Pre-WWI popular music, opera, and the odd polka. It's possibly the only program mellower than birdnotes. That's also well-described on the WHRO site:

Dwight Davis takes us back to a more genteel time, when music was made in the home. Enjoy songs that were sung around the piano after dinner, works played on the old upright in the parlor, and great singers from the past. Pour a cup of tea, settle into the horsehair sofa and enjoy an hour of music from times gone by

DJ Jacob Tarshish

I have often wondered aloud why almost all religious radio in the U.S. is of a Christian eschatology. There is precious little else.It used to be so more varied. To that end I've decided to write a bit about some of these all too obscure characters from radio history. His program "The Lamplighter" appears in the indispensable reference book On The Air: The Encyclopedia Of Old-Time Radio  by John Dunning. The entry is very brief.

"Jan. 3, 1936—April 14, 1941, Mutual. 15m, various times, with some gaps in continuity. Host: Jacob Tarshish. Continued into 1942 on the West Coast with Ted Yerxa."

Ted E. Yerxa is almost as enigmatic, a music columnist for the Daily News with a small record label. Both the record label and the column were also named Lamplighter. He put out a number of notable jazz sides in the mid 1940s. I was fortunate to find that the  University of Iowa scanned a brochure for Tarnish which contained more information on his early resume. You can see it here. Jacob Tarshish was a Rabbi, and a radio personality in the 1930's. (He was even a member of the central Conference of American Rabbis.) He broadcast on a number of stations such as WCAH, WAIU, WOR-AM, WLW-AM and WGN-AM. His nickname was "The Lamplighter" and he was said to have had two million radio listeners.

OTRpedia claims he was born in Lithuania in1892. In 1932, after18 years of the rabbinical life, he quit to be a radio personality. He started out on WAIU-AM in Ohio where he had a program for about 5 years. Then became a news commentator at WCAH-AM. He got into WLW in Cincinnati in 1933 doing Sunday afternoon religious broadcasts. But this wasn't pulpit material, he was increasingly sociopolitical and high brow. In November of 1936, he spent one of those Sunday time slots reading aloud from Charles M. Sheldon's article Poverty Doesn't Frighten Me, from an issue of the Rotarian Magazine.

Rabbi Nathan Zelizer described him as "a very polished person" and "an oratory."  But he also noted that Tarnish might not have quit his temple, he might have been kicked out for his commercialism.  More here. 
Over the years his sponsors included Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets, Kreml Hair Tonic, and Kreml Shampoo, Zemo, and Zemo Ointment, Musterole, Bost Tooth Paste. Some of these products were cosmetics, others were more like patent medicines. He was now making a living speaking to groups just as an orator. That same promotional brochure listed off a litany of civic groups that he was hired to speak to.

"United Commercial Travelers Ohio Bakers Association Ohio Restaurant Association Mead Paper and Pulp Company The Food Growers of United States National Association of Sheet Metal Manufacturers Indiana Council of International Relations International Association of Motion Picture Operators and Stage Hands Ohio Canners Association Southwestern Ohio Teachers Convention Ohio Farm Bureau Ohio Parent-Teachers Association Columbus Junior League District Nurses Convention Rabbi Tarshish addresses annually over 300 audiences, composed of Service Clubs of all types, Fraternal Organizations, Women's Clubs, Churches and Church Organizations, Chambers of Commerce, Schools and Colleges and Graduation Classes."

I wish I had more information about his time in the 1950s. I can't imagine that his writings such as Judaism and Socialism (1929) went over well during the red scare. He died two days before Christmas in 1960. He was only 68 years old.

Driving from RDU to ATL

I've driven over 1000 miles down the east coast this week and seen many cities from the rooftops where I end up working. No fruit is in season now, and that leaves me investigating greasy spoons instead. (Magic mushroom pizza in Atlanta, and the pork Carnitas at Azteca in Charlotte, NC.) My girlfriend has good-restaurant homing powers, and if she did not travel with me, I would probably be less adventurous.


Many radio discoveries so far. I found that 89.5 WHRV has lost Rollie Bristol from its ranks since I last heard them. Rollie had a friendly and deep old-school radio voice. He had comparisons to Paul Harvey but he had none of the schmaltz. Rollie won Best DJ in the local papers of Norfolk several times. He had been the voice of NPR's All Things Considered, and host of Rollie Radio. When WHRV and WHRO split in 1990, Rollie Went with WHRV to lead it as a pioneer of eclectic music for all of Norfolk. In his hands it became a respectable Triple A behemoth respected by all. His career stretched over 30 years including a stint as a jazz program on WGH-AM 1310 for years.

I heard Bob Rogers Blues Show Friday Night on WSHA which is truly a gem in their crown. "The Blues is the Blues." I wish I knew more about the show. But there website has no info.
In Gastonia I caught 660 WLFJ-AM around noon in Greenville, SC. There was a bonafide cooking show on that radio. They're supposed to be a christian talker, but there wasn't any of that while I was in town. There are cooking podcasts out there but I thought the cooking radio show was extinct. Nice to catch this on exhibit. Cooking Podcast here:
I Atlanta I found that the old war of indie music ideology has raged on. I am speaking of WRAS Vs. WREK. Ultimately the difference is that 91.1 WREK (like WFMU) is trying so hard to be eclectic that they are trying to make you change the channel. I deeply respect the idea that some outlet needs to do this. I just never like this when I hear it. 88.5 WRAS on the other hand is trying to treat college rock like a radio format. As much as any station does (Ex. KCMP) they do. Stations like WRAS sell records and break new bands. Purists try to argue to me that this isn't what college radio is for. Bah! Hell yes it is. Mister DJ play the records you love, try to sell those records, and break those bands.