Talk Radio Pioneer Jerry Williams has died

Associated Press ^ | 4/29/03 | Associated Press

[raccoonradio]

BOSTON

[raccoonradio]

Horrible news--we no longer have the man who helped formulate talk radio; the man who kept us company at home, work, and on the road; the man who affected politics with his on-air advocacy and "muckraking". Who knows, we may have had a President Dukakis if not for Jerry.

How can you sum up the man? I only heard him from about 1986 on, so I'm sure many of you have memories of him in the days before that. But here was a man who put his energy into making an interesting ("I'm not boring"), entertaining, and informative show, in the days before the medium degenerated into "Who Do You Want To See Naked On TV".

How many people out there in the biz can say that Jerry was their inspiration (for becoming a talk host), and how many listeners out there can relate their fond memories of him.

I'm sure there will be many tributes to him, on the air, in the papers, and so on. Everyone who grew up in the Boston area (and a few select other areas) has a Jerry story to tell. It might be about that Vietnam soldier who told his tale of the horrors of war. Or the many who assembled for rallies against the seat belt law or the New Braintree prison. Or, yes, even the woman who got a kick out of doing you-know-what on top of her washing machine.

Farewell to the Dean of Talk Radio :(

[raccoonradio]

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

I first heard him when I was a kid while making deliveries with my father. Over the years he's been on at almost every concievable hour, across the dial. When I'd come across him on the radio it was like running into an old friend. He always gave good advice too.

Jerry was a great guy.

[rhombus]

We will miss him greatly in New England. He paved the way for Howie Carr and Jay Severin (on another station).

[ken in texas]

He started during my last year in high school --- I used to sneak a little transistor radio into my room at night so I could listen to the show. My sister and I fought over that radio... she wanted to listen to music and I wanted to hear Jerry.

I haven't heard him since leaving Mass. in 1969 but there sure are a lot of good memories.

[billorites]

I heard Jerry's last show on March 1, 2003 on WRKO.

He did two hours on a Saturday afternoon, seemed like old times. Apparently WRKO, under previous ownership, fired him unceremoniously back around 1997 or so.

The current corporate owners were trying to make good. He sounded somewhat frail, but otherwise the same. It was his swan song.

Larry Glick lives, though. I fell asleep as a teen listening to him and Jean Shepard on the AM radio.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

He paved the way for Howie Carr and Jay Severin

I know what you mean but Jay Severin is a steamroller in his own right.

[raccoonradio]

They're paying tribute to him right now (Tue. afternoon)
on the Howie Carr show. Hear it online (if you can find a "slot") at http://www.howiecarr.org

[raccoonradio]

Right now WRKO's Howie Carr is paying tribute to the
late Jerry Williams. He played a montage of great
Jerry moments, assembled by his producer Nancy "Sandy"
Shack (who had done the same job for the Dean); he
says he'll run more of Jerry's on-air
encounter with Ted Kennedy and they hope to talk to
Gene Burns later this afternoon.

Howie, who got his start via Jerry, praised him as the
greatest talk show host, a man who "was at the top of
his game in 1990, at the age of 67. That's
like someone winning the AL batting title at 45".
Howie said that thanks to Jerry, he's gone from
"Somerville to Wellesley", and it all started when
Jerry "started reading my columns on the radio".

[raccoonradio]

Howie Carr paid tribute to Jerry in a 1998 Boston Herald column (when Jerry "retired"):

The Boston Herald
Friday, October 9, 1998
Radio legend steps down from young man's game
by Howie Carr


In his day, Jerry Williams wasn't just Boston radio.

He was talk radio, period. Larry King used to call him for career advice. When Howard Stern was an undergrad at BU, he listened to Jerry on 'BZ. The late Paul Tsongas, who first heard him on WMEX in the '50s, used to speak of the former Gerald Jacoby with awe in his voice. Even Jerry's arch-nemesis, Pee Wee Dukakis, was a listener going all the way back to his college days at Swarthmore. That was "back in 1953," the Duke once told the Dean, mostly, I suspect, to give Jerry the needle about something that's been bothering him for quite some time now. His age.

So now, at 75 -- are you grimacing, Jerry? -- the dean is wrapping it up at WRKO and attention must be paid, as Arthur Miller would say. Jerry and I have had our ups and downs over the years, mostly downs lately. As a matter of fact, I don't think he's speaking to me now, but I could be mistaken.

But he did give me my start in the biz, back at the Democratic convention in Atlanta in '88. Peachtree Street was crawling with payroll patriots from Boston, many more than could be listed in a week's worth of columns. So every afternoon, Jerry would have me on the show for a while, reciting names and salaries of the Hotlanta Hackerama. And I thought nothing more of it until I got back to Boston and was approached by a young Dukakoid delegate and Mike Connolly coatholder named Marty Meehan - yes, that Marty Meehan.

"Thanks a lot," he said, "for mentioning me and my salary."

Marty, I said, you got left on the cutting-room floor. You didn't even make the column. "The column?" he said. "I'm talking about the radio."

So who cares, Marty?

"Who cares? Don't you understand? Everybody in Lowell listens to Jerry Williams!" Not just Lowell either. Remember Jerry doing nights on 'BZ during Vietnam and Watergate? The hardhat brigade of 1970? That clear-channel 50,000-watt signal went into 38 states, at a time when people still listened to AM radio at night. Back in the final days of the 1972 Watergate campaign, when you heard on the network news that George McGovern was playing tapes of a weeping Vietnam vet that he'd been given by "a Boston radio talk-show host," you didn't think Larry Glick or Guy Mainella. A decade ago, when Jerry was grinding Dukakis into the dust (with a little help from Barbara Anderson and me), he was so big that the Globe even ran a series -- not a story, but a series -- about him. It was a very objective look at the talk-radio phenomenon, as you could tell from its title.

Poisoned Politics.

In the next few days, some sanctimonious gasbag will blame Jerry's decline and fall on the sex survey he did every June at the end of the spring ratings book. But hey, it's all about entertainment. That's the nature of the medium.

And the reality is, it's a young man's game. Jerry used to say a four-hour talk shift was a physical chore, and he's right. It's like being a starting pitcher in baseball. Some days you have stuff and some days you don't, and most of the time you don't know until you step onto the mound.

Jerry was the radio equivalent of Cy Young. On 'MEX, he used to get calls from James Michael Curley. He had Malcolm X on all the time. Not bad for a guy who started out just after World War II in Bristol, Va., playing Kitty Wells' new 45 -- "Dust on the Bible."

Yeah, the act wore thin the last few years. It's hard to be Vox Populi when you're trying to call in markers from Bob Crane and Joe Malone. And how many times can you hear Ralph Nader, Famous Amos and Grace, Queen of the Cockamamies? It's been a long goodbye, from PM drive to middays to weekends. You have to hope he doesn't now descend into a Bill Marlowe-like twilight, moving to ever weaker signals in ever more obscure time slots.

What else can I say, Jerry, except that you were a great teacher, and as for all the tricks you showed me, well, I'm sure as hell not passing them on to the next generation, certainly not to some ambitious young kid, lest they come back to be thrown back in my face someday, if you get my drift.

He's getting out of the business.

Jerry Williams, not a bad guy.

---

[rhombus]

He paved the way for Howie Carr and Jay Severin

I know what you mean but Jay Severin is a steamroller in his own right.

Agreed. Jay's the man AND Johnny Winter is the BEST blues guitarist.

[raccoonradio]

For those in the Boston area who want to pay tribute to the Dean: visiting hours are Thu May 1, 2-4 pm and 6-9 pm at Carroll-Thomas Funeral Home, 22 Oak St., Hyde Park, MA

[robby]

Gene Burns 10 am to 2 pm

Jerry Williams 2 pm to 6 pm

Great radio.

Great Memories.

Thanks Jerry

[billorites]

Howie writes a helluva piece.

[PJ-Comix]

I thought that Alan Courtney in Miami was the first of the Radio Talk show hosts.

[PJ-Comix]

I used to sneak a little transistor radio into my room at night so I could listen to the show.

I used to be that way about the Alan Courtney show in Miami. I used to sneak a transistor radio under my sheet at night. I don't know how my father knew but the moment the sound was barely audible in my ear, I usually heard him scream: "TURN THAT DAMN RADIO OFF!!!"

It amazed me that he could hear it from across the hall through two closed doors even though it was almost impossible for me to hear.

[jackbill]

I thought that Alan Courtney in Miami was the first of the Radio Talk show hosts.

Who is Alan Courtney?

I remember listening to the likes of Jerry Willaims, Barry Farber, WTOP in D.C. before they went all news, etc., back in the 60's. But I've never heard of Alan Courtney. Ever.

[ken in texas]

Yep... we sure were pretty adventerous back then. How did we survive??? I got caught a few times too, usually because my sister would tell on me.

[SamAdams76]

I remember my mother listening to Jerry Williams at night on WBZ as he railed against Vietnam and Watergate back in the early to mid 1970s. I was just a kid then so I didn't pay much attention. But I can still remember many childhood nights with Jerry in the background.

I began listening to Jerry Williams in my own right in 1986. I was about a year out of the Marine Corps and I got a job as a field technician that required me to be in my car about half the day as I did service calls in the Boston metropolitan area. It soon got old listening to the same Van Halen and Def Leppard songs on the radio, so one day - I'd say around March of 1986, I switched over to AM and found Gene Burns and Jerry Williams on WRKO. Gene Burns would do the 10-2 shift and Jerry would do 2-6. It was probably the best 1-2 punch talk radio ever had. I was immediately hooked.

I have very fond memories of those years listening to Gene and Jerry. They got me really fired up about the issues of the day. I remember meeting Jerry at a shopping mall where he was getting signatures on petitions to get the seat belt law repealed. Though he was certainly cantankerous, he seemed very kind-hearted. My sister met him too at a restaurant in Boston. When she saw him, she said "They're out there!" and he had a good laugh. (This was one of Jerry's pet phrases to describe the wackos who would often call into his show.)

It was talk radio that gave me a passion for the issues of the day. Without that passion, I would probably not be here today discussing the issues day in and day out. I'd probably be watching some dumb sitcom right now.

Jerry Williams was an old-style liberal who became very disenfranchised with the Democrats in the 1980s, especially the way the "do-gooders" in the party would attempt to control our personal lives. Not only did he hate mandatory seat belt laws but he detested no-smoking laws and speed traps too. We once had a state rep that tried to ban butter in restaurants in favor of margarine. He went absolutely ballistic over this. Those were some of his best shows.

He also absolutely detested Mike Dukakis and during the 1988 presidential campaign, Jerry would often have radio hosts from other parts of the country on his show and he would give them the real scoop on Dukakis. It is not a stretch to say that Jerry played a vital role in getting Dukakis defeated.

While I would never say that Jerry Williams was a conservative Republican, he was a true American nevertheless and a real credit to the talk radio business (that he basically founded). I can honestly say that if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be here today (on Free Republic).

[raccoonradio]

Who knows. It was said today on WRKO that Sherm Feller (longtime PA announcer at Fenway Park, and co-writer of
"Summertime" by the Jamies IIRC) was the first...and back then, you weren't allowed to put callers on the air directly. You had to relay what the callers were saying.

Maybe Jerry was the first of the _issue-oriented_ talk show hosts. He did, later on, help to start to (now-
defunct) National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts.
He and others (like Mike Siegel) would do appearances with group members on C-SPAN or perhaps on the Donahue show.
These days while there is no NARTSH, you occasionally see get-togethers with talk show hosts on C-SPAN, with Mike Harrison and TALKERS magazine organizing it.