Barry Gray (radio)
Encyclopedia
Barry Gray was an influential American
radio personality
, often labeled as "The father of Talk Radio".
Initially a disc jockey
, Gray was working for New York
's WMCA
in 1945 when he, bored one evening with simply spinning music, decided to put the telephone receiver up to his microphone and share his conversation with the listening audience. The caller that evening just happened to be bandleader Woody Herman
, one of the most popular celebrities of the day. This spontanenous live interview was such a hit with both his listeners as well as station bosses, that the talk radio
format
resulted. Gray subsequently began doing listener call-ins as well.
However, the technical aspects of early Cold War
broadcasting were challenged by the live call-in, over-the air format. U.S. government restrictions and problematic consequences could not stop Gray's talk show success in putting listeners on the air ... with or without WMCA and the government's permission. His audience loved it, and grew exponentially.
Rival station WOR
also saw the attraction of the talk format, and Gray worked an overnight shift there from 1945 to 1948 or 1949, http://www.billdulmage.com/skeds/others/wor.html http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=The+Barry+Gray+Show interviewing everyone from Al Jolson
to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sherwoodtimes/jolstory.html He also broadcast for WMGM
from the Copacabana
night club in the late 1940s. http://www.brieaustin.com/journalism/thegreat.htm
Gray broadcast on WMIE AM radio from three Miami Beach nightclubs, the Copa Lounge, Danny and Docs Jewel Box and the Martha Ray Club nightly in the fall of 1948 and into 1949 before he left the Miami area under some pressure. Gray bopped someone from his audience with his microphone,and this happened on the air. The impact was audible and the impact had been preceded by hot words of anger. This report of recollection fifty-eight years later comes from Ernest W. Bennett of Miami, Florida, who listened to Gray's broadcast every weeknight, beginning in Bennett's sophomore year at the University of Miami in the fall of 1948. Carl Warner, a retired newspaper publisher living in Clinton, Tennessee was then the remote engineer for the Barry Gray Miami Beach broadcasts. He also recalls the bopping-mike incident. He remembers hearing a loud bang in his headphones and looking up to the Copa Lounge stage seeing the podium turned over and Barry signaling him to cut the mikes. After about 30 seconds of dead air, he asked for his mike to be turned on.
Bennett recalls that period, and recalls from memory other reports of Gray's other pugnacious altercations, the final one, the audible one, was what apparently impelled Gray's departure. Gray said himself as Bennett recalls the exciting live-broadcast event, "I just hit the guy over the head with my microphone, folks." In this case the victim had been the aggressor toward Gray.
Reubin Clein
one of the greatest people I met in my life, publisher of Miami Life. Reubin Clein
was considered an agitator and generally an aggressive character. He was a former boxer; there were many in Miami who felt Clein should have been put in his place, but no one would ever mess with him because he was one of toughest people you would ever meet. Clein was always in to Wild West characters and would often wear a cowboy hat, boots and would have a big wooly beard. A generally gental person would not take crap from anyone and actually broke the mayor's nose at a political rally.
According to Bennett, Gray was popular on Miami radio:
"He was very big here; number one, like Larry King is known today. Indeed, Larry King began his broadcasting career from a houseboat anchored in front of the Miami Beach Fountainbleau Hotel in 1957."
Barry Gray returned to WMCA in 1950, and stayed there for 39 years, refining the talk show format still utilized today. During the 1960s, he was in the odd position of having an 11 p.m.-1 a.m. late night talk show on a station otherwise dominated by Top 40 music and the youth-targeted "Good Guys" disc jockey campaign. But for teenagers who kept their radios on into the night, Gray's show was a window into the high-brow New York culture of the 1940s and 1950s. Gray would often have authors on, and he made a point of saying he had actually read their books, something not all talk show hosts did. Gray also had a tendency towards risqué (for the time) topics, such as the novel nudity found in European films playing in art houses, or characteristics of the prostitution scene in Manhattan.
He was also known as a fierce critic of bigotry and survived the ugliness of McCarthyism
and the Red Scare. A constant target of the blacklisting right-wing columnist Walter Winchell
, who called him "Borey Pink" and "a disk jerk" in the 1950s http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,817546,00.html, Barry was fearless in calling out those he found mired in hypocrisy and abusive in power. The Winchell feud seemed to haunt him, however; years after Winchell had lost influence and become a recluse, Gray would still talk darkly on air about plots and physical attacks Winchell had orchestrated against him. Indeed, a 1995 biography of Winchell would report that he kept a photograph of a bloodied Gray on his walls. http://www.bachorgan.com/wardmorehouseiii/Prologue.pdf
After WMCA changed to an all-talk format in 1970, Gray was again fully in his element. He never backed away from discussing hot topics in politics, especially those that affected New Yorkers. A 1973 profile described him as "brash, abrasive [and] opinionated. [He] was the talk-show titan listeners love to hate, [and] is still going after more than a quarter of a century at the mike." By the 1980s he had shifted from a late-night to a mid-day slot at the station.
Gray left WMCA in 1989 when it dropped its talk format, and went to work slightly up the dial for a return to WOR
where he enjoyed national syndication. By the time of his passing, his show was considered to be politically conservative.
Gray appeared as his disc jockey self in the 1949 short subject
Spin That Splatter.
Gray also pioneered in early television, first as the host of The Barry Gray Show on New York WOR-TV
when Channel 9 went on the air in 1949, then more visibly as host of the very first Goodson
and Todman
game show Winner Take All, replacing Bud Collyer
in 1951. The Game Show Network
airs these very rare episodes every now and then, and they are informative: Gray's hosting style has more in common with today's David Letterman
and Conan O'Brien
than the classic television game show hosts of yesteryear.
In 2002, industry publication Talkers magazine
selected Barry Gray as the 8th greatest radio talk show host of all time. http://www.talkers.com/greatest/
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio personality
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
, often labeled as "The father of Talk Radio".
Initially a disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, Gray was working for New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
in 1945 when he, bored one evening with simply spinning music, decided to put the telephone receiver up to his microphone and share his conversation with the listening audience. The caller that evening just happened to be bandleader Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
, one of the most popular celebrities of the day. This spontanenous live interview was such a hit with both his listeners as well as station bosses, that the talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
resulted. Gray subsequently began doing listener call-ins as well.
However, the technical aspects of early Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
broadcasting were challenged by the live call-in, over-the air format. U.S. government restrictions and problematic consequences could not stop Gray's talk show success in putting listeners on the air ... with or without WMCA and the government's permission. His audience loved it, and grew exponentially.
Rival station WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
also saw the attraction of the talk format, and Gray worked an overnight shift there from 1945 to 1948 or 1949, http://www.billdulmage.com/skeds/others/wor.html http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=The+Barry+Gray+Show interviewing everyone from Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives . He was the first person of African-American descent elected to Congress from New York and became a powerful national politician...
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sherwoodtimes/jolstory.html He also broadcast for WMGM
WEPN
WEPN is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio...
from the Copacabana
Copacabana (nightclub)
The Copacabana is a famous New York City nightclub. Many entertainers, among them Danny Thomas, Pat Cooper and the comedy team of Martin and Lewis, made their debuts at the Copacabana. The 1978 Barry Manilow song "Copacabana" is named after, and is about the nightclub. Part of the 2003 Yerba...
night club in the late 1940s. http://www.brieaustin.com/journalism/thegreat.htm
Gray broadcast on WMIE AM radio from three Miami Beach nightclubs, the Copa Lounge, Danny and Docs Jewel Box and the Martha Ray Club nightly in the fall of 1948 and into 1949 before he left the Miami area under some pressure. Gray bopped someone from his audience with his microphone,and this happened on the air. The impact was audible and the impact had been preceded by hot words of anger. This report of recollection fifty-eight years later comes from Ernest W. Bennett of Miami, Florida, who listened to Gray's broadcast every weeknight, beginning in Bennett's sophomore year at the University of Miami in the fall of 1948. Carl Warner, a retired newspaper publisher living in Clinton, Tennessee was then the remote engineer for the Barry Gray Miami Beach broadcasts. He also recalls the bopping-mike incident. He remembers hearing a loud bang in his headphones and looking up to the Copa Lounge stage seeing the podium turned over and Barry signaling him to cut the mikes. After about 30 seconds of dead air, he asked for his mike to be turned on.
Bennett recalls that period, and recalls from memory other reports of Gray's other pugnacious altercations, the final one, the audible one, was what apparently impelled Gray's departure. Gray said himself as Bennett recalls the exciting live-broadcast event, "I just hit the guy over the head with my microphone, folks." In this case the victim had been the aggressor toward Gray.
Reubin Clein
Reubin Clein
Reubin Jackson Clein, Sr. was editor and publisher of Miami Beach scandal sheet "Miami Life" from 1934–1965. The original precursor to tabloids like the National Enquirer, the Miami Life weekly was won by Clein in a poker game in 1934...
one of the greatest people I met in my life, publisher of Miami Life. Reubin Clein
Reubin Clein
Reubin Jackson Clein, Sr. was editor and publisher of Miami Beach scandal sheet "Miami Life" from 1934–1965. The original precursor to tabloids like the National Enquirer, the Miami Life weekly was won by Clein in a poker game in 1934...
was considered an agitator and generally an aggressive character. He was a former boxer; there were many in Miami who felt Clein should have been put in his place, but no one would ever mess with him because he was one of toughest people you would ever meet. Clein was always in to Wild West characters and would often wear a cowboy hat, boots and would have a big wooly beard. A generally gental person would not take crap from anyone and actually broke the mayor's nose at a political rally.
According to Bennett, Gray was popular on Miami radio:
"He was very big here; number one, like Larry King is known today. Indeed, Larry King began his broadcasting career from a houseboat anchored in front of the Miami Beach Fountainbleau Hotel in 1957."
Barry Gray returned to WMCA in 1950, and stayed there for 39 years, refining the talk show format still utilized today. During the 1960s, he was in the odd position of having an 11 p.m.-1 a.m. late night talk show on a station otherwise dominated by Top 40 music and the youth-targeted "Good Guys" disc jockey campaign. But for teenagers who kept their radios on into the night, Gray's show was a window into the high-brow New York culture of the 1940s and 1950s. Gray would often have authors on, and he made a point of saying he had actually read their books, something not all talk show hosts did. Gray also had a tendency towards risqué (for the time) topics, such as the novel nudity found in European films playing in art houses, or characteristics of the prostitution scene in Manhattan.
He was also known as a fierce critic of bigotry and survived the ugliness of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
and the Red Scare. A constant target of the blacklisting right-wing columnist Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
, who called him "Borey Pink" and "a disk jerk" in the 1950s http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,817546,00.html, Barry was fearless in calling out those he found mired in hypocrisy and abusive in power. The Winchell feud seemed to haunt him, however; years after Winchell had lost influence and become a recluse, Gray would still talk darkly on air about plots and physical attacks Winchell had orchestrated against him. Indeed, a 1995 biography of Winchell would report that he kept a photograph of a bloodied Gray on his walls. http://www.bachorgan.com/wardmorehouseiii/Prologue.pdf
After WMCA changed to an all-talk format in 1970, Gray was again fully in his element. He never backed away from discussing hot topics in politics, especially those that affected New Yorkers. A 1973 profile described him as "brash, abrasive [and] opinionated. [He] was the talk-show titan listeners love to hate, [and] is still going after more than a quarter of a century at the mike." By the 1980s he had shifted from a late-night to a mid-day slot at the station.
Gray left WMCA in 1989 when it dropped its talk format, and went to work slightly up the dial for a return to WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
where he enjoyed national syndication. By the time of his passing, his show was considered to be politically conservative.
Gray appeared as his disc jockey self in the 1949 short subject
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
Spin That Splatter.
Gray also pioneered in early television, first as the host of The Barry Gray Show on New York WOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
when Channel 9 went on the air in 1949, then more visibly as host of the very first Goodson
Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...
and Todman
Bill Todman
William S. "Bill" Todman was an American television producer born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest running shows with business partner Mark Goodson.-Early life:...
game show Winner Take All, replacing Bud Collyer
Bud Collyer
Bud Collyer was an American radio actor/announcer who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars...
in 1951. The Game Show Network
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
airs these very rare episodes every now and then, and they are informative: Gray's hosting style has more in common with today's David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
and Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
than the classic television game show hosts of yesteryear.
In 2002, industry publication Talkers magazine
Talkers magazine
Talkers Magazine is a trade industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media"...
selected Barry Gray as the 8th greatest radio talk show host of all time. http://www.talkers.com/greatest/