Comments on: ‘No Suits. No Corporate Control.’ Remembering The Freeform Heyday Of WHFS 102.3

By: Rit

Rit — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 20:35:00 +0000

” …..Cats and Kittens….and some ‘a you young Jerks….You is listnin’ to WHFS. in Bethesda, Maryland, coming to you from high atop the
Triangle Towers @ 102.3 on yo’ FM dial. Ease on back, take your clothes off and have some
wiiiine…” anybody remember the rest of that? I still hear that when certain songs cue up the right memories. ” Bigger Than A Breadbox Radio…. Bozo Horns and all

Looking back, that Music and that mix left a major hole when it departed. My own album collection, after 40 plus years, shows every sign of my involvement in the WHFS spirit…just listening to a shot of the late Lowell George in the Studio in 1974, and marveling that such a place ever existed. The on-air folks were like personal friends…when Damien got hurt in the Crash in 74 or thereabouts, it was a disaster for the late night crowd. Dunno if he ever got the get-well soon card, but he HAD to be the most courageous Disc Jockey EVER, when he worked his way back to the air. Maybe it was therapy for him, but it WAS therapy for the listeners. I remember, deep in the dark hours, hearing an old Bonnie Raitt song segue into the complete ” Peter And The Wolf” soundtrack WITH Sterling Holloway’s voice as narrator…the Disney people wouldn’t even countenance the IDEA of that today…but the Station took the place of….ahhh…..Counter-culture Contraband?…. for me and that’s a perfect example. And who could forget ‘Ask The Professors’? Damien, Cerphe, Weasel, Ty, Judy, Neece…whereEVER y’all are, I hope The Goddess is smiling on you….Thanks.

By: peteraltschuler

peteraltschuler — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:34:00 +0000

Uh… no… Gus. It was a real woman, and that’s a verbatim quote which, at this point, is 39 years old.

Given Jackie’s on-screen/on-stage persona, there was nothing ever lewd about her (she wasn’t Joey Heatherton), the objectionable slang would have been inappropriate, and it was still considered odd in the mid-’70s to use the Latinate words for male and female genitalia… except in a medical context.

By: Gus Mueller

Gus Mueller — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:22:00 +0000

Smart move of you to put the word “cvnt” into a made-up woman’s mouth instead of your own!

By: Pennywhistler

Pennywhistler — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 20:50:00 +0000

“a silver lamé genital” AWESOME. And appropriate!

By: peteraltschuler

peteraltschuler — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:19:00 +0000

Yes, the woman who was described by a female friend of mine as a silver lamé genital, and she did, indeed, ooze sexuality… in an acceptably ’60s way. As wife number 5 (of 6), she was the one with the longest tenure, but she was also the manager of all Murray’s financial endeavors, which is why the rock ‘n’ roll shows at the Fox were so successful on the balance sheet.

By: Pennywhistler

Pennywhistler — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 02:45:00 +0000

1) He neither mentioned “in radio terms” nor “music performer terms”. He
merely said “a midlevel celebrity” – which sounds about right in American terms. Which is exactly what he meant.

2) He was the greatest host on WINS. By far. Mind-altering radio. And his rock ‘n’ roll shows in Brooklyn! Jeezus H. Keerist were they life-changing inter-racial affairs!

In ’67 I moved to Boston to be a nearer ear to Dick Summer’s “Subway” and the mysterious Uncle T. Due to the nature of AM radio reception I never followed what happened to my beloved Mr. Kaufman after WINS.

Fascinating story, his.

And who can forget Jackie the K?

By: peteraltschuler

peteraltschuler — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:53:00 +0000

Murray had a regular weekday show on the station after leaving WOR-FM where, as primetime evening DJ and program director, he essentially defined FM rock (on the weekends, he was a regular on NBC’s Monitor in New York). “In radio terms,” no one came close to him in terms of influence, innovation, and renown.

Wolf garnered a larger TV audience after he began hosting “The Midnight Special,” and Dick and Casey had their Top 40 shows in syndication (which reached a larger crowd), but Murray was at the top of the most influential music market in the world at the time, and his recognition factor was high enough to rub off on politicians (Henry Kissinger – Henry the K) and superheros (Clark the K in an edition of “Superman”). His rock ‘n’ roll shows introduced such “promising” acts as the Who and Cream (in their first US appearances), his TV specials can, arguably, be said to have been pilots for MTV, and he championed more great talent than anyone outside a record label, including Bobby Darin, Dionne Warwick, Tony Orlando, Little Anthony, The Rascals, and countless others.

Midlevel? Not in radio in the ’60s and ’70s.

By: Pennywhistler

Pennywhistler — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:24:00 +0000

He neither mentioned “in radio terms” nor “music performer terms”. He merely said “a midlevel celebrity” – which sounds about right.

What’s amazing is that Murray would schlep from NYC to visit the station at all. And apparently more than once.

By: peteraltschuler

peteraltschuler — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 16:50:00 +0000

In strictly radio (not music performer) terms, who was an unqualified celebrity if Murray the K was “midlevel”?