I left WKGN in Knoxvile and arrived at WPOP in Hartford Conn. on THANKSGIVING DAY, 1968. My first mistake was trying to drive THRU New York City and forgetting about the PARADE that day! But I arrived in time to be invited to PD Dan Clayton's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I voluntered to carve the turkey w
ith Dan's new electric carving knife and promptly cut the power cord. Dan forgave me and I got to work with a group of true radio professionals like Dick Heatherton, Jack Armstrong, Larry Black, Alan King, Mike Green, Lou Morton, Bill Winters, Mark Driscoll and others.
It seemed like all the great DJ's of the 60's came through WPOP but the turn around was very high. I was only there from '68 to '71 but this was the second longest of anyone ever . This was true "boss radio" like I had never heard before and I liked it. It sounded clean and uncluttered and it made WPOP the #1 station.
I started out doing 9PM to 1AM, then moved to midday and finally to morning drive when Bill Winters took a job at WCBS in New York.
We had a lot of fun playing basketball against local high school faculty and girl's teams. Our slogan was we always had a "perfect" record-we never won a game. We only charged the schools $50 to play which we turned into pizza and beer after the games (e
xcept for Larry Black who only drank milk). Below is a really great week of music on the "Bossmusic survey" which was printed in our widely distributed GO magazine. This issue is November,1969.
In the photo below the survey the WPOP bossketballers are playing channel 30 TV. I'm the victim of an interesting little play where the rest of the team leaves the court and I had to play alone against the entire other team.
mornings in 1970
December 1968
My name tag and the "Crumpet Caper" agent button for our contest giving away a trip to England. We also published two gold albums at WPOP between 1968 and 1971. Both were .............very groovy 
The WPOP boss jocks bossketball team played a full schedule of about 20 games a season for charity. Here we are playing the teaching staff at Pulaski High in New Britain. That's our music director Bob Pavia on the left and me on the right with a football coach of Pulaski trying to kill us both.
the picture above the boss jock bossketball team is taking a break or possibly a sit-down strike. I'm on the right with my groovy warmup still on. The rest of the group are true radio legends. That's Dick Heatherton next to me, Steve O'Brien squatting and Dan Clayton leaning down. Note that we are behind 18 to 9.
The newspaper article on the right is from the Hartford Times in 1970 and shows me presenting Hartford Mayor Ann Ucello with a spray of "broadcaster's roses" and a donation of rose plants to Hartford's famous rose garden. I understand from an email I received from someone who viewed this website that they're still growing today!
OK - this was weird - on WPOP we ran Dick Orkin's "Tooth Fairy" episodes and somehow we came up with a "Tooth Fairy Ranger" costume for me to wear to remote broadcasts. A caricature of me in the costume appears at right. It consisted of an Australian bush hat, dentist's coat, orange leggings and tennis sneakers. I was driving back to the station from a remote in Bristol still in costume and was pulled over by a cop for speeding. He just walked up to the car, looked in, and walked away. I suppose he figured whatever was going on with me was much more serious than speeding.
WPOP tribute site
the picture above the boss jock bossketball team is taking a break or possibly a sit-down strike. I'm on the right with my groovy warmup still on. The rest of the group are true radio legends. That's Dick Heatherton next to me, Steve O'Brien squatting and Dan Clayton leaning down. Note that we are behind 18 to 9. The newspaper article on the right is from the Hartford Times in 1970 and shows me presenting Hartford Mayor Ann Ucello with a spray of "broadcaster's roses" and a donation of rose plants to Hartford's famous rose garden. I understand from an email I received from someone who viewed this website that they're still growing today!
OK - this was weird - on WPOP we ran Dick Orkin's "Tooth Fairy" episodes and somehow we came up with a "Tooth Fairy Ranger" costume for me to wear to remote broadcasts. A caricature of me in the costume appears at right. It consisted of an Australian bush hat, dentist's coat, orange leggings and tennis sneakers. I was driving back to the station from a remote in Bristol still in costume and was pulled over by a cop for speeding. He just walked up to the car, looked in, and walked away. I suppose he figured whatever was going on with me was much more serious than speeding.
WPOP tribute site
