Muhammad Ali

It began November 28, 1960 in Oneida, New York.  I went on the air as a part-time news announcer at WONG Radio, in a space that used to be the men’s room located in the basement of the Oneida Hotel.  My biggest interview at that time was with singer Julius LaRosa, still riding the crest of his public humiliation several years earlier by Arthur Godfrey, who was all over radio and TV in those days; a man who, when he died, nearly went unnoticed in 1983.

Though living with my folks, it wasn’t easy trying to live on forty bucks a week, so a few months later I moved on to become the afternoon DJ at WRNY Radio in Rome, New York.  It was nearly double the salary, and I was in charge of making out the commercial logs for the broadcast day.  I was one of the Big Y’s Guys.

A few months later, I moved on to WIBX Radio in nearby Utica, for a whopping income increase to $130 a week.  Being the late morning/early afternoon DJ was the gig, and I finagled a Saturday afternoon jazz program out of the deal.

After a while, I was replaced as the afternoon DJ by a pre-recorded audio tape that played music hosted by an unnamed voice from somewhere out there.  This was providential for me, for I was asked to take over the evening newscasting chores, which I really liked.  It was here where I made my very first report on a CBS Radio Network newscast, circa 1963: