WVWA Photos
Recently unearthed by radio great Bob Shannon during his show "Behind The Hits". This rare station promotional record issued circa 1966 featured a live club appearance by WVWA's Johnny West. Still early in his career, Johnny was on his best behavior. Bob Shannon provides the back story.
The only surviving photo of the first (and only) Mrs. West!
The photo shoot and marriage took place at the live recording of this LP, which was made at the legendary (and infamous) "Pound Ridge Pagoda", chic a-go-go Upper Westchester nightspot. It was a momentous occasion, and one of dear Johnny's few moments in life of true joy.
When the club's proceeds, and Mrs. West, disappeared later that same evening, it was widely believed that Steve "Vegas" Finklestein (yes, older brother of the beloved WVWA DJ "Carts", who perished some years later in an acid-drenched leap from the "PIX Penthouse"; his life and gooey demise were the subject of a book by Peter Kanze and Scott Fybush, a copy of which one may actually be able to find at the Strand, or on eBay!) and Johnny's wife ("Randi") absconded with the entire net worth of the fly-by-night club operation in Steve's classic Caddy Convertible. The club became an Earl Scheib auto painting franchise soon afterward.
Steve was arrested some years later on the Strip, in an unrelated charge. His proclivities had been the stuff of Pound Ridge gossip for years, but even the strong, crime-hardened officers of the Las Vegas Vice Squad were visibly sickened at what they would only refer to henceforth as "the thing with the goats and the enema bag".
Randi, by this time, was vapor. However, some of the men at the Tuesday Night Poker Club of the Pound Ridge B.P.O.E. were known to be circulating rumors that Randi had indeed been spotted, playing a bit part in one of what the men very nervously referred to as their "reference films", which they claimed were "an ongoing avocation meant to enhance their business acumen and knowledge of world markets". Several angry local wives were responsible for the resignations subsequently of almost all the Poker Club's members.
They say out of every dark cloud, comes a silver lining.
Our thanks to the guy we remember fondly as "Carts", Ira
Finkelstein, ESQ (now Chief Litigator for Buzznet Media) for this rare find: two
of the NINE! playing card set issued in the late 1970s. Ira found these in
early March of this year--in a shoebox tucked away in the attic of his childhood
home in Scarsdale with other dog-eared memories after his parents died. He
remembers winning them at the WVWA booth at the Westchester County Fair in 1978
. He thinks he may have the entire set somewhere but thinks that years
ago, his little sister may have put them under the banana seat of her Stingray
bicycle never to seen again.
Like so many of the promotions done by NINE, these playing cards had been forgotten by all but the most rabid WVWA fan. The cards were created soon after Johnny West was forced by station management to cut his long hair and to shower...two things he had neglecting for some time. Notice that at the same time, Bob Roberts was given both mornings and afternoons and West moved to evenings. Website contributor and Buzznet Media mogul Bob Roberts remembers Johnny going up and down the halls yelling: "Nobody told me! Why didn't I get the memo?!"
This postcard was sent to us by collector Evan Dakes who remembers the days of WVWA-FM. He may be the only one alive who does. More to come.
This story could only have happened on WVWA. This recently-unearthed photo is the only known picture of "The Kid" [as he is still called by WVWA fans].
Ira "Carts" Finkelstein was a hot young dude who looked sixteen from upstate New York. No one is really sure where he came from...speculation runs from WHUC in Hudson, to Tom Shovan's WHVW in Hyde Park or maybe he was fresh out of Rockland Community College. All three were on his resume, but dark rumours persist that it was quite "padded". He was young and inexperienced, but ambitious and DRIVEN. WVWA General Manager hired him on the spot just before the format change to "NINE". He was to be the teen idol savior. However, the story hangs a hard left from this point.
You'll hear Ira "Carts" Finklestein [yes, "Carts" really is his middle name] on the "NINE!" tape right after the famed legal ID. His is the screechy, adolescent voice. Truth is, he only did that ONE break on NINE; Jerry Clifton heard him, and immediately called and hired him away at 99X in New York City, where he became Bobby "The Butt Bandit" Rodriguez on weekends. A pissed-off, cart-hurling Bob Roberts actually finished the shift (and spent the rest of that evening putting together what proved to be a fruitless audition package for a totally-uninterested Jerry Clifton.) Bob Roberts remained bitter for decades until the 1990s when he found a WVWA stock certificate tucked in the box of a 7 inch reel of tape of the station's jingles; Lolly Leonard had given him the 5 shares decades earlier as replacement for a bounced paycheck. In a moment of sobriety he and his accountant followed the clouded trail of mergers, acquisitions, buyouts and hostile takeovers which led to Bob's amazing discovery that he was a stockholder in Buzznet Media. He promptly packed his bathing suit and reported to the Buzznet corporate enclave to help develop the Speech Harmonizer Interface Terminal.
Stranger still, Bobby "The Bandit" Rodriguez (the "butt" dropped over the years) is featured on Buzznet Media's demo for "99" twenty-five years later. It could only have happened in Pound Ridge!
Bob Roberts "spinnin' the tables and readin' the labels" at New York's Big 90. Where that phrase was just a line with most jocks, Bob would forget what song he was playing and have to follow the spinning label to remind himself. Many at WVWA thought he looked like a bobble-head doll when he did that and it led to the nickname "Bobble Roberts". This photo also shows clearly the masking tape "adjustment" the chief engineer made after Johnny West complained that the studio headphones were out of phase.
Another new find: WVWA's Johnny West from a series of photos taken through the studio glass when he locked the door and played "Jim Dandy" by Black Oak Arkansas over and over again for the better part of four days! He cited "the need to boogie" as the reason. The other WVWA jocks cited "the need to breath" as the reason the studio windows were left open for much of that winter following his stunt.
A recent guest book question by "Terry from Action Central"
requested
information on the short-lived "Good Guys" campaign. Here is the
webmaster's personal WVWA Good Guys sweatshirt that he won
on-the-air in 1965 during the 9 Double O-a-go-go weekend.
One of the early "Nine" surveys. Circa late 1973,
note Johnny West's "far-out" look! Right On, Johnny!
Bob Roberts helps out with cancellations during a
snow day by putting the WVWA production room on-air.
(photo from the Pound Ridge Pennysaver in a page one article on the
station, date unknown)
As much as Johnny West and Bob Roberts sounded like the best friends
on-the-air, the fights off-air were legendary. This photo - (shot in
the hall of WVWA - note the trade out flocked wall paper) - could have
been about anything even Bob's love of plaid clothes.
Another new find for the collection: Here is the WVWA mobile studio at Rye Playland during the "Truck O' Luck" promotion in 1966! The same van was re-lettered several times during the 13 years it was owned by WVWA. It was known at various times as "Mobile News 90", "The Good Guys Caravan of Hits", "Truck O' Luck" and "The Love Truck". While the signage changed, the original and familiar brown color remained throughout it's long service.
Lemuel Ropnoodle (real name: Owsley Quartsnorf) at
the controls at
WVWA. "Lemuel" served as overnight disk jockey and program director
during the Nine Double O Radio days after coming up from KRAP. Since WVWA
was a "daytimer" on a Mexican clear channel, there was no reason for a
disk jockey to man the station after signoff. No one at the station had the heart to
mention it to Lemuel for the first six months.
This is the original WVWA back when union rules still required the
jocks
to work with engineers. The shot is taken through the glass from the board
op's vantage point.
The format at the time was the classic 9-double-O MOR.
(Note: the photo shows the youngest known picture of Bob Roberts at
WVWA.
While the image shows what could have been Bob cueing the NABET
engineer,
he is in fact that telling him that he [Bobby, the intern]
has the cola drink the engineer had him shag.)
Home Sweet Home. Success
hasn't changed Johnny West's life. West has recently been
been written out of most stories involving the creation of IRVING-FM, a radio
format that proved popular for several minutes earlier this year. While
West had no real control of anything with the company, investors blamed him for
the short run of the promising mix of music that was sold for use
in several New Jersey flea markets and the stock fraud scandal that followed.
A new addition from the Bob Roberts collection:
Thanks for the memories,
Bob "Baby Ribs" Roberts"
We apologize for the poor image quality on this one, but it is the only
known photo of the host
of WVWA's long running Sunday Morning Polka show. There was a lot of discussion about the
need to address the Polish population in neighboring Rockland County. Howie Leonard,
the
General Manager at the time on 9 Double O Radio, hired Suleyman
"Jimmy" Demirel and his band to
do a three hour polka-fest every Sunday. Demirel worked cheap and in the six years
his
show was on, no one noticed that he was Turkish or that his band, the WVWA Polka Kings,
didn't play polka music.
More to come! Stay tuned!