In this week’s issue… Public radio loses a friend, and some towers – Breeze blows at Jersey shore – Yankees stay put – Go west, young Silverman – No new FMs in two Ontario cities
By SCOTT FYBUSH
*Pacifica Radio and its New York outlet, WBAI (99.5), have attracted a lot of characters over six-plus decades, but even in that crowd, Larry Josephson was a truly unique individual.
As a cubicle-bound IBM engineer in the early 1960s, the lifelong radio fan volunteered at WBAI in search of some excitement, and did he ever get it. Morning drive might have been a prestige job at other stations, but at WBAI it was the shift none of the night owls wanted, which is how he ended up hosting “In the Beginning” starting in 1966. There was no morning happy talk on WBAI; instead, Josephson ran a curmudgeonly show in which he took bagel deliveries on the air, played whatever music struck his fancy and shared his gripes and rants about life in New York, especially about the hassles of working an early morning shift.
Josephson navigated the turmoil of WBAI’s early 1970s, moved west for a few years to work at sister station KPFA in Berkeley, then returned as the station’s general manager from 1974 until 1976, a period of (relative) calm in the station’s history. While he remained involved with WBAI as a weekend host into the 1980s, he branched out into independent radio production, perhaps most notably shepherding the return of Bob and Ray to a regular radio show syndicated to public radio stations through much of the 1980s.
His programming output came from a spare bedroom in his Manhattan apartment, a homebrew studio that became a surprisingly popular production spot not only for Josephson’s own series but also as a rental space where Ed Bradley recorded his Lincoln Center jazz show, Garrison Keillor did “Writer’s Almanac” and even the Rolling Stones stopped in for an interview.
In recent years, Josephson had suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which took his life on Wednesday night. He was 83 when he died, with a radio by his bedside that family members said was putting out static when they found his body.
Do you have your Tower Site Calendar yet?
Now is the time to get it — and we have reduced the price. It’s now 20 percent off!
This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.
Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).
We have quite a few calendar left and are still shipping throughout the week.
The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025 ready to ship, too. Why not order both?)
Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the next calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too!
In this week’s issue… Townsquare moves studios, cuts staff - Wake up with Mistress Carrie - No flip for WADO - Remembering Maine's Colby, Binghamton's Sommers - Suburban Toronto FM could go silent
In this week’s issue… The FCC's dangerous new path - ABC's big NYC move - VT lawmaker buys stations - King's remaining stations saved - Remembering Boston's Bell, Toronto's Donabie
In this week’s issue… New FCC raises questions, few answers - Johnson out in Philly - Mendte in at WOR - Spadea steps aside - Canada's Green retires - Remembering WJIB's Mellgren
In this week’s issue… TJ Pops Back Down - Giovanni's Surprise Return - Townsquare Turns Off Two - Remembering MA's Bob Nelson, PA's Diamond
