Local icon Ginsburg wooed by the Hall
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"Boston has always had good radio," says Arnie Ginsburg. "The listeners are loyal to their stations, and the stations aren't afraid to experiment."
Ginsburg should know. As one of 16 greats who will be inducted next Wednesday into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, he went from local fame to national prominence. After an early career as an engineer, Ginsburg pioneered rock 'n' roll radio in the '50s and '60s at the now-defunct WMEX, before ultimately moving into management as the general manager of WBCN-FM (104.1) and co-owner of Boston's own short-lived music video TV station.
But despite his place in rock history, his first love, he says, was the medium - not the music. Now retired to Ogunquit, Maine, the multitalented DJ looks back with pleasure on a long career that started as a hobby. "As a kid, I built radio receivers," he recalls. "Every phase of it fascinated me."
Still best known for the "woo woo" train sound he made on air, Ginsburg will be joined at the luncheon by eight of his fellow inductees: talk-host Larry Glick, news anchor Jack Hynes, station president and philanthropist Norman Knight, sports broadcaster Bob Lobel, WBZ-TV's first female anchor Shelby Scott, African-American TV pioneer Sarah-Ann Shaw, and station owner Don Thurston as well as the Globe's own former media and music critic Bill Buchanan.
Seven others, including talk legends David Brudnoy and Jerry Williams, Carl De Suze, Bob Clayton, Louise Morgan, Norm Prescott, and Sunny Joe White, will be honored posthumously at the event, which will take place at the Dedham Hilton. (For ticket information, call Lynne Osborn at 617-763-0109.)
The luncheon, which will have Jordan Rich of WBZ-AM (1030) as its master of ceremonies, will be the second annual ceremony hosted by the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In addition to saluting these talents, the event will also raise funds for the expansion of the project.
Now based at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, the fledgling hall of fame currently consists of a display with information about its members. Long-range plans include expanding the display and creating a physical museum that would house archival tapes and other material.
However, over the next year, organizers hope to launch a website that would act as a "virtual museum" of Massachusetts broadcast history, says Art Singer, president of the hall's board of directors. Such a museum would commemorate the state's contributions to electronic media, from Guglielmo Marconi's trans-Atlantic signal to Jerry Williams putting callers on the air. In addition, says Singer, the site could serve as a clearinghouse.
"I would like us to be a site where broadcasters can go to find out what's happening," he says. "A place where people would be able to access archival materials."
Such material, including tapes and airchecks, are more than history, say the radio buffs. They reflect life in the 20th century.
"As a young child, I was fascinated by radio," says Ginsburg. "Radio was born just before I was born, in the '20s, and it grew and grew and became a big part of people's lives. It's satisfying when you can spend your whole working life with something that fascinates you."
