The Legal ID

I listen to a lot of radio and I rarely hear a legal ID. It's such a minor obligation, but nobody does it anymore. But Really Mr. radioman, "what a legal ID? " I'll use WTOS as the example.

There are only four ways that station can give a legal ID!
1. "WTOS, Skowhegan." That's the calls followed immediately by the city of license.
2. "WTOS, 105.1 on your dial, Skowhegan." That's the frequency or channel said between the calls and the city of license.
3. "WTOS, owned by Clear Channel Communications, Skowhegan." That's calls, owner and city of license.
4. "WTOS, owned by Clear Channel Communications, 105.1 on your dial Skowhegan" That's the ownership and the frequency are inserted between the calls and the city of license.

Despite the very narrow set of correct possibilities, Stations everywhere do it differently. KABL once got into trouble for ringing a rather loud cable-car bell so no one could hear the word "Oakland" in their legal ID. At WFLA in Tampa runs a legit ID in a jingle every hour on the hour. In Providence Rhode Island, WHJJ-AM, used ot have a similar jingle for their legal ID then they tradded it out for an all-girl chorus singing the call letters followed by a low male voice dropping the city of license almost inaudibly

The Uncle Don story

He's not my uncle Don. I don't even have an uncle Don. I'm speaking of that old urban legend. The one so old, it's rarely told. It's the one you tell to the young DJs to teach them to keep their yap shut in the booth whether they think the mike is on or not.

A flub committed while filming a movie or TV program could be eliminated merely by doing a new take or in the editing room. If someone say's "fuck" you can bleep it. In radio, especially early radio, everything was live and often unscripted. If you say "fuck:, it was already too late. This is such a tale. but let me first say There is no evidence of at all that Don Carney was ever penalized for anything he said as an on-air radio personality. His show was never cancelled. Period. Like Fatty Arbuckle, the whole deal is a humbug.

Don Carney had an incredibly long-lived broadcasting career. he began as an announcer at WMCA in the 1920s. He moved onto WOR where he broadcast six days a week, beginning in 1928 and continuing through 1947. After that, instead of retiring he got a gig at WOR as a DJ with a program of children's music. After that he semi-retired to Miami beach in 1948 and hosted a weekly children's show on WKAT which he did until his death in 1954. Radio Guide called him "a saint, oracle, and pal to 300,000 children." But the legend says there was an incident that marred this kindly purveyor of children's programming. Witness accounts vary, but here is the basic version:

Uncle Don ended each show with Floyd Neal to signing him off, a station break and intrtoduction for the next program. But this week Uncle Don twittered his usual cheery wind-up, and then, not realizing that the mic was still on, thinking he was off the air, he blurted out: "There, I hope that'll hold the little bastards."

Some sources put it in 1939 others in the early fifties. But really the legend preceeds Dons program by several years and appears ealiers with the flub being attributed to "Uncle John" Daggett of KHJ in Los Angeles, John "Big Brother" Keough of KPO in San Francisco and even the lesser known Graham McNamee even Uncle Whip of WIP. According to Snopes the earliest reference might be the 23 April 1930 issue of Variety"

"A wisecracking radio announcer in a Philadelphia station lost his job about two weeks ago as a result of a stern reprimand of the station by the Federal Radio Commission. Announcer had concluded a bed-time story for children and thought the power was off. For the benefit of the control room he added: 'I hope that pleases the little bastards' This went out over the air. Within 10 minutes several telegrams of protest, among them the Federal Radio Commission, had arrived. Others came later in bundles."

But the variety article mentions no data, no DJ and no station. It's utterly apocrophyal. The lack of verifyable details it typical of legends such as these. ... and never has the FCC or the FRC had the ability to respond in writing to a complaint in 10 minutes.... 10 months would be more believable.

Radio Re-Elects mobster

Yeah. If you had to guess now where this would happen you'd probably say new Jersey right. Well wrong. It was Providence. The Station was WHJJ-AM, and the mobster was Buddy Cianci. Early on, Cianci was a prosecutor in the office of the Rhode Island Attorney General. He parlayed that mob-busting administrations good repuation into a well respected and successful run at becoming mayor of Providence. He was elected in 1974. He was active and charismatic leading to a common joke during his tenure as mayor that Cianci would attend the opening of an envelope. Cianci was revered by many residents of Providence and credited with the revitalizing of the city's economy . Then he had to resigned from office in 1984 after pleading no contest to assaulting a man with a lit cigarette, an ashtray and a fireplace log...

I would normaly assume a man was unelectable after that.

Cianci spent the next few years as a radio talk show host on Providence radio station 920 WHJJ-AM. By all reports this was a fantastic show and perhaps his true calling above politics. He was described as hyper-articulate even by his detractors and his encyclopedic inside knowledge of Rhode Island politics made him flat out dangerous to any inneffectual politico that he didn't like. Joseph R. Paolino Jr. served as mayor between Buddy's two terms and spent that durration being jabbed daily by Cianci. He predicted recently that Buddy will return to radio and when asked about how this will effect the current administation he said: “They’ll wish that Thomas Edison never invented the radio.”

The program kept Cianci in the public eye, and it kept him politically involved. It made his second run at Mayor possible, and his win inevitable.

Cianci was indicted in April 2001 on federal criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, witness tampering, and mail fraud. Several other Providence city officials were also indicted. Much of the trial was focused around a video tape showing top Cianci aide Frank A. Corrente involved in bribery. Cianci was acquitted of 11 of 12 charges, including bribery, extortion, and mail fraud. He was however, found guilty of a single charge of conspiracy and was sentenced to serve five years in federal prison. So he'll be back on air probably in late 2007.

Providence Journal reporter Mike Stanton wrote a biography of Cianci titled The Prince of Providence.