Radio . . . and Me - 29

My earliest memory, Dear Reader, of great rock ’n roll radio brings in Alan Freed on 10-10 WINS, New York.
It’s late on a Sunday afternoon, he’s putting out a steady stream of rapid DJ patter, then introducing the monster hit, ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’’ by Elvis Presley. (That must have been in 1956.)

A couple of years before, the legendary Freed (even back then!), who had coined the term, “rock ’n’ roll,” had moved to WINS, from Cleveland, to take the evening shift.
In 1958, another legend, Murray “the K” (Kaufman) arrived, starting overnights, and then worked in the evenings, when I began listening to his ‘Swingin’ Soirée,’ ‘on clear radio nights.’

’Number, Please?’

Those of us ‘of an age’ can remember that phrase from every time we wanted to make a phone call.
If you lived in a small town as I did, you often didn’t even have to say the number. You could simply say, ‘Aunt Matilda, please,’ and you would be connected to her phone, because the folks at ‘Central’ knew your voice (even if you were calling from another phone).

In St. Peter’s, when I was growing up, Jesse and Jack Adams were the great people you spoke to at ‘Central’ when placing a call. Jack could often show a quick wit, by commenting, ‘My, you look well today!’ Jesse was the one who called me in Ottawa in 1969 to deliver the sad news that my Mom had passed away.
Over the years, they exchanged many messages across the village