WMBR’s Renovated A Control
By
by Jake Kassen / Can of Worms, alternating Mondays 7–8 am and 88 Rewound, Saturdays 12–2 pm
History
The last time WMBR overhauled a control room was in 1998. At that time, almost all music was played from CDs, records, cassettes, and minidiscs. Song logging was on paper. The station installed a Pacific Research & Engineering BMX III radio console, a top-of-the line broadcast mixer. Over the next 28 years, hundreds of WMBR DJs laid hands on it. More than a million songs have been aired from A Control, each with a button press and fader push.
By 2025, the equipment was worn, the carpet threadbare, and the ceiling dingy. The room was cramped for DJs and guests. The desk was suboptimal for laptops and the single DJ computer had been awkwardly retrofitted above the console. The room looked tired and keeping everything operational was increasingly difficult.
Control Room A before renovation
WMBR’s General Manager, James Rock, launched an initiative to completely overhaul this space, known as “A Control”. The Control Room would get new walls, new carpet, a new ceiling, and, most importantly, a new desk. The analog console would be replaced with a modern equivalent, utilizing an Audio over IP (AoIP) system that provides far more flexibility and features. No more patchbays. All audio devices would connect to “blades” that convert the signals to AES67 format and be routed via a dedicated network across the station.
WMBR is fiercely independent. Most college radio stations are wholly owned by their parent institution and usually under the quiet oversight of paid staff who manage the station, handle the daily upkeep, and outsource major technical changes as needed. This is not the case for WMBR, an institution that has always been autonomous and creative, right down to facility design.
Since WMBR founding in the early 1960s (then WTBS), MIT has provided the station with a suite in the basement of Walker Memorial building but little else. For the renovation, WMBR would need to hire MIT’s project managers, hire a carpenter to build a desk designed in-house, and directly purchase and commission all new equipment.
After deciding to update the control room, WMBR put out a call for new community members with the hope of adding some additional volunteer help with this and other projects. As a longtime listener and admirer of WMBR, I’m one of the people who responded.
WMBR’s PR&E BMX III Console after being removed. 28 years of use!
Control Room Design
WMBR has roughly 90 different programs on the schedule, each with different preferences. Taking into account everyone’s requests yielded the following requirements:
- Three CD players, preferably ones that work. Must be within arm’s reach.
- Two turntables. Must be within arm’s reach
- Two computers for music playback and song logging. Must be within arm’s reach.
- USB-C connections for two laptops and related counter space. Must be within arm’s reach.
- One Cart machine. (Carts play the station IDs, PSA, show promos, etc.)
- XLR & RCA inputs for auxiliary equipment
- Generous physical space for up to three on-air guests
- ADA Compliance (ample clearances between desk and walls)
- Two lighting zones, each with adjustable brightness.
- Lots of rack space for equipment, easily accessible on both sides.
- Plenty of additional counter space. DJs like to spread out!
- Audio connection for the new telephone (WMBR had only recently replaced the 1A2 phones from the 1960s which had custom made audio integration hardware with the outgoing console.)
- It all has to fit into a roughly 10’ x 8’ room, leaving exposed windows into two other studios.
Rough rendering of proposed design
One thing not on the list is an “automation” system. All commercial radio stations and many non-profit stations use what’s known as automation, a system where some or all the programming is effectively controlled by a robot. A DJ or Programming Director pre-selects from a list of recordings and a computer runs the live broadcast. Often a host will record their mic segments in advance and these recordings get plugged into the playlist. Truly live radio is becoming uncommon. Many commercial stations have no local staff and even public radio and better-funded college stations are fully automated for large parts of the day.
With full automation, broadcast studios often consist of nothing more than a console, a computer, and some microphones. As WMBR shuns automation, we require a multitude of traditional playback devices, all readily accessible by the DJs. WMBR has an enormous record library with roughly 100,000 CDs and records going back 60+ years and will always need a way to air these recordings live.
Physical Construction
The new equipment was selected in late summer and started arriving in September 2025. We commandeered the adjacent performance space, A Studio, and assembled the new equipment on folding tables. The intention was primarily to configure and test, not to use extensively for live broadcasting. But out of necessity, the hastily assembled, ragtag setup would ultimately become a heavily used control room for many months.
Shortly after Christmas in 2025, James (WMBR GM), Will (Tech Director), and myself yanked out all the old equipment from Control Room A. The expected timeline was for the new Control Room to open mid-February.
In early January, a contractor began the physical renovation in ernest. A disused door into the station’s repair shop was removed and covered, a fabric wall was replaced with more durable drywall, new lighting installed, and the space was painted. The process went quickly and we seemed to be on track.
Meanwhile, the station hired a carpenter to build the custom desk. Warning signs quickly appeared, such as the shop waiting too long to source the butcherblock stock for a countertop. The initial completion deadline was missed. When the desk was finally delivered, several construction problems were evident. The desk was returned to the workshop and it would be almost two months before it returned to the station.
By April, the desk finally returned. Former WMBR DJ (and master carpenter) Doug Gesler of “Lost Highway” fame returned to the station to finish some details skipped by the original millworkers.
Finally, by mid-May, the physical renovations were complete. The week preceding Memorial Day was the big install. Piece by piece, the temp studio got relocated to its new home.
As large of a project as this was, it’s nothing compared to the previous renovation back in 1998. At that time, every device had two wires (analog stereo pair) run to a patch bay and from the patch to the underside of the large console in the desk. Every wire needed a connector (XLR, RCA, etc) soldered to one end and crimped to a proprietary connector on the other.
In the new control room, analog and digital signals are carried over Cat6 cable with RJ45 terminations. Pre-made Female RJ45 to XLR adapters are used to save time. There’s no physical patch bay as input signals are converted to AES67 data streams and move via multicast networking to every endpoint simultaneously. In effect, every destination receives every source – a virtual router (database) indicates which one should be decoded back to an analog or AES/EBU endpoint.
I don’t think such a system would have been inconceivable to the students who first moved into WMBR’s home in the Walker Memorial building some 60 years ago, or to the station members who last renovated the room in 1998. But they certainly would have been envious of a system that needs only 100 connections instead of several hundred.
Looking through WMBR’s equipment shop, into the new Control Room A, through the window into Performance Studio A (Live Music), and through another window into Control Room C. This doorway is now walled off.
“Sanity Testing” the placement of equipment on desk shortly after installation.
New Desk and equipment from the DJ’s perspective
Side of desk with built-in equipment racks. Mic arms and monitors are easy to reposition as desired.
Rear of the under-desk equipment rack. Lighting was added to help servicing. Protective panels are acrylic with venting slots and attached via magnets for quick access.
It All Comes Crashing Down
The station hosted a small grand opening ribbon cutting in May, complete with a cake. (Not to be eaten in the new control room!) And for the next few weeks DJs started to get settled in the new space.
And then, late on Friday evening of July 18, “A control underwent unexpected spontaneous disassembly” in the words of WMBR’s Technical Director. The drop ceiling dropped. Almost everything on the desk was damaged, as well as the desk that had taken so long to complete.
The cause of the failure was a steam pump that failed elsewhere in the basement of the Walker Memorial building, outside of WMBR’s suite. The basement became hot and humid and century old ductwork brought this humid air into WMBR’s space. WMBR’s fairly new air conditioning was able to keep the space cool. Too cold, in fact. Condensation formed on the ducts and pipes in the ceiling and dripped onto the ceiling tiles. The drop ceiling had been inadequately attached when it was installed in the 1990s. While that hadn’t been a problem for the past 30 years, the increasingly water logged ceiling tiles made the overall drop ceiling so heavy that the anchors gave out, introducing the grid, lighting, and ductwork to the new desk and carpet.
Thankfully, the room was unoccupied and no one was hurt. (Ductwork in other parts of the station also fell overnight when the station was unoccupied.)
And thus started renovation Part II. Once again, WMBR purchased new equipment. The ceiling was eventually replaced by MIT. WMBR staff fixed and repainted the walls. The once pristine desk now has battle scars.
After a restoration and many agonizing delays, Control Room A resumed broadcasting on Halloween 2026.
The marriage of the ceiling and desk
Final Thoughts
WMBR now has one of the most technically modern control rooms in greater Boston, equal or more capable than our commercial radio counterparts and public radio outlets.
This project has added another chapter to WMBR’s long and colorful history. Will the renovated A Control last another 28 years? Stay tuned.
Renovated Space Highlights:
Laser Cut mounting brackets: WMBR’s Technical Director (Will) makes some classy custom brackets and panels out of maple and walnut hardwood.
MacOS Remote Start Integration: Many DJs rely heavily on computer playback sources. At many stations, they have dedicated playback applications integrated with their console (see automation discussion above) but at WMBR, we support everything. Creative solutions have been created to allow almost any application to start playing when the DJ turns on the corresponding channel on the console.
WMBR DJ Dashboard: A screen above the consoles shows DJs all sorts of station info: FM Transmitter parameters, The status of the “backup” playback, weather, RDS data (The text that appears on car radios), and incoming text messages.
Laser cut maple turrets, courtesy of Will
Controls on the console
The DJ Dashboard
Recently played music screen for DJs
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Review: Ma Rainey, “Mother of the Blues”
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by Bruce Sylvester / Troubadour, Thursdays 2 – 4 pm
Yes, Bessie Smith is known as the empress of the blues, but her predecessor Ma Rainey was called the queen of the blues. Whereas Bessie was downhome regal, Ma was simply downhome, as we hear on authoritative five-CD, 118-track Mother of the Blues: The Complete Paramount Recordings 1923-1928 (Black Swan/George H. Buck Jazz Foundation).
Born around 1882 (sources vary), she grew up in Columbus, GA, and sang vaudeville in tent shows before discovering blues music in 1905. Since boundaries between musical genres weren’t an issue back then, her sidemen on records were a jazz who’s who: Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Dodds. Pianist Tom Dorsey was hokum bluesman Georgia Tom and later became gospel’s influential Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey. Tampa Red’s heard too.
Blues lyrics could move around. “Frankie and Stagger Lee” cobbles together murder ballad “Frankie and Albert” with bad-man tale “Stagger Lee.” Rainey’s “Southern Blues” shares a stanza with Lead Belly’s “Western Plains.” “Lost Wandering Blues” has important lines in Blind Lemon Jefferson’s“Matchbox Blues” (“Matchbox” to Carl Perkins and later The Beatles). Here’s the original recording of “C.C. Rider” (aka “Easy Rider”), a song revamped in countless ways by Lead Belly, Chuck Willis, Lavern Baker, Elvis Presley, Ian & Sylvia, and Eric Burdon & the Animals among others.
Lesbian “Prove It on Me Blues” shows how frank early blues could be. She sings of murder threats and voodoo too. A century after she co-wrote it, “Sleep Talking Blues” is still good advice about not sabotaging a relationship.
Born Gertrude Pridgett, she became known as Ma Rainey after teaming up both musically and in business with her older husband, William “Pa” Rainey. She was no beauty but had a big, friendly face and, by many but not all accounts, was nice to deal with. She knew the importance of appearance with her clothes, gold teeth, and necklaces of gold coins. On stage, she might emerge from an enormous cabinet. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a song here and the title of the fictionalized film starring Viola Davis, referred primarily to a dance she’d do.
Her recording career ended as the Great Depression neared. She returned to the lovely home she’d bought her family in Columbus and died of heart trouble in 1939. Younger blueswoman Memphis Minnie’s 1941 elegy to her is still on disc. Of course, blues preservationist Maria Muldaur has covered her. Odetta surely listened to her.
The box is mostly chronological with a few alternate takes. Audio quality was a challenge. Among the labels producing early blues, Paramount and Gennet had little concern for it – a problem for reissuing Ma Rainey’s and Blind Lemon Jefferson’s catalogs as well as early Alberta Hunter and Skip James sessions. The original masters are long gone so original 78 RPM platters had to be borrowed from serious collectors. The press notes relate: “Doug Benson oversaw detailed audio restoration, beginning with compiling the best surviving 78s of all 118 songs he could find. He then began a comprehensive remastering effort. In a few instances, he chose to leave in surface noise if removing it would have adversely affected the music. The decision was made to remaster rather than de-mix and remix the audio for two major reasons: one, that de-mixing software doesn’t work well on acoustical recordings, which make up about half of this set; and two, to be faithful to the original releases as they were presented at the time.” The sound here fluctuates but generally is as good or better than could reasonably be expected.
An accompanying 12”x12” 100-page paperback book has song lyrics, sessionography, and essays including detective work to separate fact from fiction in her legend. The abundant illustrations include ads, newspaper clippings, a marriage license application, and a photo of her Columbus home, which is now a blues museum.
Would Janis Joplin have been first in line to buy this box?
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Categories: Review
Remembering Alex McNeil
By
Alex McNeil, host of the Friday “Lost & Found” and the Saturday morning show “88 Rewound” passed away on July 13, 2026. Below are some remembrances of our friend and colleague. The ones by Angelynn and Rick were given at a memorial service for Alex. You can download all the remembrances from the service here.
Angelynn Grant:
Hi, my name is Angelynn Grant and I host “Coffeetime” on WMBR. In the summer of 2006, I moved my show from Tuesdays to the Friday time slot following Alex’s “Lost & Found”. In those two decades that Alex and I were time slot mates, he became a good friend. Since COVID, I think we both missed all the chats we’d have as his show ended and mine began. We went out of different control rooms and when I would get to the station, I would always poke my head into his room and say, “What was that song you played?” Or “gosh I LOVE that song.” And, once my show had begun, he would pop into my control room to talk about music, station business or, my favorite, show me photos of the grandkids and tell me what sweet, funny things they’d said.
There has been an outpouring of appreciation for Alex from the WMBR family and also from listeners. When WMBR’s Chuck Rosina, who’s here today, did a tribute to Alex on the Friday “Lost & Found” two weeks ago, a listener texted, “Alex combined an encyclopedic knowledge of music with delightful good taste in his playlists. He could come up with whimsical themes for a show and then fill two hours with a combination of familiar and obscure songs that sounded great.” And, last week, when deejay Jake Kassen, who’s also here, hosted Alex’s other show “88 Rewound” another listener texted, “I learned so much from his shows and our many text exchanges over the years. His time capsule approach to “88 Rewound” really made it distinctive. Not just oldies but true cultural history.” And Jake emailed this to me, “Alex was a time traveler. For two hours on Saturday, he transported us back to the 1960s to listen to the radio as it would have been broadcast, placing the songs in their historical context. It was unique, captivating radio.” And our fellow deejay Larry Azrin wrote this apt reflection on Alex just the other day: “He always greeted me warmly and possessed a sly, understated sense of humor that could easily catch me off guard with a quick zinger.”
Whenever I told Alex I loved a particular musician or song, he never forgot. We shared a love for Jackie DeShannon and, when he got to interview her, he asked her to autograph her new album for me. In 2007, I told him that hearing the theme song to the TV show “Room 222” on his Lost & Found had filled me with a soothing joy. Seven years later he remembered this and played it again when he filled in on my show. He knew how much I adored Lulu and, in 2017, he told me she was going to appear in the greater Boston area. I was reluctant to drive all the way to Shirley, Mass, but Alex strongly encouraged me and it was the most amazing show. These are very specific anecdotes, but so indicative of how considerate a friend Alex was.
Alex made a big impact at the radio station, both behind the scenes and over the air. He was a great deejay, a good friend, and an all around great guy.
Rick Roth:
I’m Rick Roth one of the station managers of WMBR. I’m not sure why he chose me to speak as you see I’m using my phone, not 3 x 5 index cards. I don’t usually tell people, but I went to Harvard Divinity School, if he knew he must have been worried I might go over the two and a half minutes. And I’m also surprised because I have a “Kill Your Television” bumper sticker on my van.
The perfect pop single from the Billboard top 100 from the ’60’s runs on average about two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Alex would have known, I had to look it up.
Knowing Alex, he would have checked my timing, but nobody here is as exact as he would be, so I might risking going long for a minute or so.
My first thought was to honor him maybe like his show 88 rewound, with a countdown. “The Top 100 Reasons We Loved and Admired Alex McNeil.” I had to abandon that concept. There were far too many bubbling under reasons.
I dreamed that Alex Trebek was replaced by Alex McNeil and that a big board of categories all Alex came up. The category is Alex McNeil and these are some of the jeopardy answers: For $100 “Won a round of Jeopardy” For $200 “Was beaten at Jeopardy by a sewage engineer” – for $300. “Shakespeare’s ummmmm…. greatest admirer” and for the daily double “This music lover and wonderfully obsessive completist had a recording of every single Billboard top 100 for the entire ’60’s” Every answer, all the way down the board would be in the obligatory Jeopardy form of a question, “Who was Alex McNeil?”
I once had a perfect music moment with Alex. He and I and Doug Gesler went to see the Byrds and Marty Stuart perform Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It was so great to be with two guys who knew so much about it and loved the music and had a deep appreciation, a great musical moment.
When Alex had just entered hospice care at home, I wrote him a letter: “Alex – I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that you are a huge reason I am still at WMBR. Your example – always doing the station’s work, hard work, and never letting the difficulties of the community get to you – was a great one. Your perspective, and the humor and wit with which you delivered it, tempered my frustrations more times than I can count. Your love of music, and your expansive knowledge of music, have inspired not just me but countless station members and even more listeners. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a wonderful piece of music I was sure was obscure to everyone – only to discover you had already played it. I believe that music is love. I hope music can carry you beyond time and space. Peace and love, brother. Peace and love.”
I asked him once to name his favorite song and to my surprise he answered, “my favorite song is Patsy Cline’s “When You Need a Laugh” – there’s a little catch in her voice at the very end that gets me every time.”
There is a hole in our hearts, music and good memories and friendship and love and laughter will fill it.
When you hear something great you never heard before, think of Alex and be like him, share it.
Larry Azrin:
I wish to share with you some of my personal memories, and experiences that I had, with my dear departed friend and WMBR colleague since 1996, Alex McNeil, and also provide some biographical information. Alex was the longtime host of the Friday “Lost and Found”, and since 2013, also host of the Saturday morning chart countdown show “88 Rewound. He died several Monday mornings ago, on July 13th. It still does not feel entirely real to me, as Alex always seemed so healthy and sensible, that I imagined he would continue as a WMBR DJ well into his eighties, and that he’d eventually be recognized (unofficially …) as “The World’s Oldest Rock N’ Roll DJ”.
It is difficult to summarize in a few sentences a great friendship of nearly 30 years, but if I were forced to, I’d say:
A good, decent man who used his considerable talents in a positive way
WHAT TALENTS?:
– Exceptional organizational skills
– a very strong work ethic
– An obsessiveness (in the most positive sense), that allowed him to achieve complex, multidimensional long-term goals
FINALLY …
– A deep intelligence (beyond the strict academic definition), driven by curiosity about many subjects, especially music and television.
On a personal note, he always greeted me warmly and possessed a sly, understated sense of humor that could easily catch me off guard with a quick ‘zinger’. He was also quite generous in his praise – when I started coming back to WMBR after I moved away in 2006, he’d sometimes introduce me, when reading the upcoming Lost & Found schedule, as “The Legendary Larry Azrin”. I was flattered at first, but soon asked him, “PLEASE don’t say that!”.
AS some of you may know, he helped facilitate my return to more active involvement in WMBR (after I moved to Maryland in May 2006), as he (and his wife Jill) very graciously allowed me to stay at their home during my ever-more-frequent visits to WMBR. In time, we became friendly, not just because of our common interests as fellow station members, but also in exchanging personal/ family info: he’d fill me in on his latest travels (usually involving several record store visits), his son Jeff (and Jeff’s ever-expanding family) and his daughter Joanna; likewise, I’d do so about my sister Susan, and my nephews Leo and Noah. We even exchanged Christmas cards (… and I’m Jewish!).
I go back aways with Alex, to even before he was a WMBR member, as I heard him do a “Listener Airtime Pledge” show c. 1995, I think it was on Eli’s show (thanks Leigh Cochran, former ‘Lost & Found‘ DJ). My reaction was:
1) . He might make a good ‘Lost & Found‘ DJ.
2) . He sounded like a college professor – Well, I was right about one of those two above, ha ha …
AS DJ’s, we “bonded” over our mutual collector-geek interest in various Billboard Magazine charts, in particular the “Bubbling Under” – this was a separate chart started in June 1959, of 10 to 35 current singles, charting from #101 to #135, listed directly below the “Hot 100” singles; hence the designation “Bubbling Under”. Some of his shows were entirely “Bubbling Under” singles, and in 1998 I began starting off all my shows with (at least one) “Bubbling Under” set. Here’s the actual chart, on the left:
Bubbling Under the Hot 100 Part 3 | PopBopRocktilUDrop
WE also shared an interest in the “Forgotten Top-40″ – chart singles that reached (at least) the #40 position on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ charts but weren’t really remembered anymore – he even recorded several cassette tapes to ‘test” people (including me). YEAH, he was serious about this stuff … This was the theme of several of his early shows (which, unfortunately, aren’t on Track-Blaster). The common denominator of all this, was that we both had a great interest in 1960s singles that were hits of some sort but not remembered anymore; the “Almost-Hits”, so to speak ….
The ULTIMATE chart-geek anecdote involving him is:
One time at WMBR, someone overheard Alex and I going back and forth testing each other on some chart stuff, and on impulse went into the Record Library to grab our Billboard “Pop
Top-40″ book, to “quiz” us, to see who was more knowledgeable about dates/ chart positions/ labels of Top-40 songs (Y’know, the REAL important stuff). We went it for about 10 – 15 minutes, till it was collectively decided to declare this a tie, so we could both save face.
I’ll admit now that Alex was more knowledgeable than I was overall about chart info, although it was obvious that both of us had wasted much time, I mean SPENT much time studying up on chart positions. On a serious note – I realize that a lot of WMBR listeners completely dismiss this chart info stuff – but it was damn important to an artist’s career (and, to the Music Industry as a whole) in the 1960s, as it often determined if they got to record another single for that label, or if they did record again, how much promotion the label would give their next recording.
CASE in POINT: Smokey Robinson was The Temptations producer for a while, but in 1965 – 1966, his last three productions of the group charted at:
#17: ‘Since I Lost My Baby’ {July 1965}
#13: ‘My Baby’ {Sept 1965}
then, OH NO:
#29: ‘Get Ready’ – {Feb 1966} although now considered a classic, back then, just a sub-par chart performance (Smokey also co-wrote all 3 of these ….)
… WELL – that was IT for Smokey as their producer , as that simply wasn’t good enough for Berry Gordy Jr. The Temptations were a very valuable Motown property, and he simply needed better (chart) results from Smokey. SO – he replaced him with Norman Whitfield, who produced these chart results:
#13, #3, #8, #8, #6, #14, #4, #26 and #6 through the end of 1968. Whitfield continued to write/ produce for them through the summer of 1974.
AS FOR his shows, what impressed me most was:
1) . The incredibly wide range of musical genres. He did had his favorites, such as the 1960s “Girl Group” sound, or more generally, certain 1960s female singers (in particular: Jackie DeShannon, Dusty Springfield, Leslie Gore, Evie Sands),The British Invasion (Beatles/ Kinks/ The Who/ Manfred Mann), early/ mid-1960s Motown), but he tried to play as many music styles as possible, often organizing his sets by genre.
2) . The creativity of his “theme” shows. It usually wasn’t a spur-of-the moment decision as to that week’s theme – he usually spent weeks, often months, sometimes several years researching a particular theme, to get enough tracks. Some were routine (“Remakes”, “More Top-40 from 1967 – 1969), BUT some _only_ Alex could come up with, such as:”The Obfuscation show” , where the Song Title is NOT mentioned in the lyrics (Think of Bob Dylan ‘Positively Fourth Street’):
Playlist for Alex McNeil on WMBR’s Lost and Found, Friday, July 5, 2013 (Noon-2pm)
3) . The way he wove in the occasional hit with mostly obscure stuff – I’ve found as a ‘Lost & Found’ DJ, that you don’t want to _totally_ ignore the major hits, but you don’t want to overload any show with too many well-known recordings that (you assume) much of your audience already knows – it’s kind of an art. I don’t know how many times that I checked an obscure title, thinking that I’d be the first to play it (YAY!), but then to discover, Alex had not only played it, but frequently more than once. So YEAH, he played a lot of obscure but good stuff.
4) He also collected vintage TV themes of the Lost & Found era, he had hundreds of such albums. “Route 66” by Nelson Riddle was frequently his Opening theme music, although he didn’t playlist it often:
Search for the Song “Theme from Route 66”
Sometimes when he filled in on ‘Coffeetime’, he played nothing but TV themes:
Playlist for Alex McNeil on WMBR’s Coffeetime, Friday, December 2, 2011 (2-4pm)
EXAMPLES of his OBSESSIVE (in a positive sense) NATURE:
1) PERSONAL: He succeeded in collecting ALL of the singles that made the Billboard Top-40 Pop charts in the 1960s in physical forms – so, mostly original singles, some albums, a few CDs (but nothing on tape, or later CD-r’s counted). I, myself, gave him the very Top-40 single {on an LP} he was missing, circa 1999. We made a “big deal” of it, and on-air I presented him, during his show, this album below to complete his quest:
Anita Bryant – In My Little Corner Of The World | Releases | Discogs (Anita Bryant’, ‘In My Little Corner Of The World’ (June 1960/ Carton Records)
I considered myself a completist, but that’s waaayyyy beyond what I could do.
BUT WAIT! THERE’s MORE:
Not content with possessing all of the charted Pop Top-40 singles from the 1960s, he next aimed for all of the charted Billboard ‘Hot-100’ singles of the 1960s. … And, although it took some more years, he eventually did it.
BUT WAIT! THERE’s E V E N MORE … :
He took aim at:
1) All the 1960s singles on The “Bubbling Under” charts, that I referred to earlier. I’m not sure if he completed that, but I think that he came awfully close.
2) 1) All the 1960s singles that made the R&B charts, but didn’t make the Pop charts, either ‘Top 100’ or ‘Bubbling Under’
2) WMBR: When in the very early 2000s, the subject of “What Lost & Found-related material should we acquire for the WMBR Record Library?” came up, instead of just listing off-the-top of his head some of his favorites missing from the Record Library that we should get, he created and typed up a specific list of 5 categories, in order of priority to acquire, and listed several examples of each. I actually made us of his data base when I was trying to figure out what titles to look for first, on my “searching for material for the record library” trips around the local Record store circuit.
VOLUNTEER WORK for WMBR:
He was the Fundraising Director one year, and also for many years during Fundraising Week, he created a list of all the audio (vinyl/ CD premiums) that listeners could pledge for. He also appeared on-air other shows (not just Lost & Found) during Fundraising Week, to support their fundraising efforts.
He created a comprehensive database listing of all the tracks on a number of compilation albums and CDs in The Record Library, on a station computer in the Office, for several genres:
– Pop
– R&B/ Soul
– Jazz
– Blues
… which I personally found extremely useful, for locating many elusive tracks that I otherwise could not find in the Record Library. This took several years of tediously entering the individual tracks info of Artist/ Song title manually.
He also did much work over his entire time with WMBR in checking possible Dupe (more than one copy of … ) singles/ albums/ CDs against the Record Library, to create more shelf space there, discarding vinyl and CDs material not needed. He did a lot of this when I was Record Librarian from 1998 – 2003, helping to cut down a HUGE backlog of possible Dupes, an entire set of shelves-worth.
- MUSICAL EXPERIENCE:
He played bass, starting in a music group at Yale playing (mostly) the Pop/ Rock/ R&B hits of the day, then gradually worked in some ‘Progressive’ stuff (such as early Traffic, one of his very
favorites), then periodically getting together for college reunions, and also a few shows locally here and there. He was a great admirer of legendary Motown bass player James Jameson, who
played on nearly every Motown recording between 1963 and 1968, and many recordings both before and after those years, including many classics such as ‘Dancing In The Street’, ‘My Girl’, ‘Bernadette’, ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘I Was Made Was Made to Love Her’ and ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’.
IN CONCLUSION:
I hope that you have learned something about Alex’s contributions to both WMBR, and my experiences.
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Categories: Remembrance