Barry Gray (radio)
| Barry Gray | |
|---|---|
Barry Gray in 1951
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Bernard Yaroslaw July 2, 1916 Red Lion, New Jersey |
| Died | December 21, 1996 (aged 74) |
| Known for | Talk radio |
Barry Gray (born Bernard Yaroslaw; July 2, 1916 – December 21, 1996) was an American radio personality, often labeled as "The father of Talk Radio".
Initially a disc jockey, Gray was working for New York's WMCA radio station in 1945 when he, bored one evening with simply spinning music, decided to put the telephone receiver up to his microphone and share his conversation with the listening audience. The caller that evening just happened to be bandleader Woody Herman, one of the most popular celebrities of the day. This spontaneous live interview was such a hit with both his listeners as well as station bosses, that the talk radio format resulted. Gray subsequently began doing listener call-ins as well.
However, the technical aspects of early Cold War broadcasting were challenged by the live call-in, over-the air format. U.S. government restrictions and problematic consequences could not stop Gray's talk show success in putting listeners on the air ... with or without WMCA and the government's permission. His audience loved it, and grew exponentially.
Rival station WOR also saw the attraction of the talk format, and Gray worked an overnight shift there from 1945 to 1948 or 1949, interviewing everyone from Al Jolson to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. He also broadcast for WMGM from the Copacabana night club in the late 1940s. In addition during 1947 he hosted the New York-based show Scout About Town for the Mutual Broadcasting System, during which he would present an Award of the Week to popular stars of the stage such as Mitzi Green and Morey Amsterdam.
Gray broadcast on WMIE AM radio from three Miami Beach nightclubs, the Copa Lounge, Danny and Doc's Jewel Box and the Martha Ray Club nightly in the fall of 1948 and into 1949 before he left the Miami area under some pressure. Gray bopped someone from his audience with his microphone,and this happened on the air. The impact was audible and the impact had been preceded by hot words of anger. This report of recollection fifty-eight years later comes from Ernest W. Bennett of Miami, Florida, who listened to Gray's broadcast every weeknight, beginning in Bennett's sophomore year at the University of Miami in the fall of 1948. Carl Warner, a retired newspaper publisher living in Clinton, Tennessee, was then the remote engineer for the Barry Gray Miami Beach broadcasts. He also recalls the bopping-mike incident. He remembers hearing a loud bang in his headphones and looking up to the Copa Lounge stage seeing the podium turned over and Barry signaling him to cut the mikes. After about 30 seconds of dead air, he asked for his mike to be turned on.
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