By Cheryl Harrison
MEDFORD TRANSCRIPT STAFF
At
first glance, the work station in Walter DeVenne's Medford home resembles
nothing more than an old cluttered basement. But amongst the stacks of old vinyl
records and an Elvis Presley trash barrel is a collection of music history which
includes DeVenne's personal experiences in the world of radio broadcasting.
A lifelong Medford
resident, DeVenne is currently the Sunday evening disc jockey at Oldies 103.3
FM. But his first exposure on the air was when he was just 12 years old,
working on a makeshift radio station with his friends, broadcasting
"My friends and I
broadcast our own radio station. It was originally broadcast from my bedroom and
eventually moved to this basement," said DeVenne. "We would even put
together six hour tapes to have something on the air while we were in
school."
At that time there were
a lot of little radio stations which people would operate, he said. Because
there were less licensed stations on .the air waves, there was more dead air
which novice broadcasters would tap into.
The station, DeVenne
said, ran for four years from when he was 12 up to 16. The call letters DeVenne
choose for his station was WALT.
"We would
broadcast the station on the 16.10 dial," he said. "The highest it
would go to is 16, but the dial always went a little higher."
In order to broadcast
from his basement, DeVenne and his friends used a Variable Oscillator, commonly
referred to at the time as wireless nurses, he said.
A wireless nurse is
similar to baby monitors, but the transmitter would be broadcast through a
real radio. DeVenne said the wireless nurse would be placed in the room where
the baby was and the mother would listen on the radio on one of the dead spots.
DeVenne and his friends
used this equipment to broadcast their own radio station on the air. Record
promoters would send copies of records to WALT not realizing that a group of
youths were operating the station.
"Every record in
the world was sent to us," he said.
DeVenne added he would
bring these records to the record shop and sell them and make some money off of
the extra copies.
The first experience
DeVenne had with a radio station was in elementary school, when he worked as a
gopher for WHIL, which is currently KISS 108, now located on Revere Beach
Parkway. During this time, DeVenne said he also worked at Medford Music, a
family owned music store, through the 1960's.
"I remember when
Kennedy was shot, I was in the record shop," he said.
His first professional
experience as a disc jockey was with WTBS.
"I didn't go on
the air until January 1968," he said. "Everything was AM. Back then,
FM was either classical or talk."
DeVenne worked with a
number of disc jockeys in the beginning of his radio career and bounced around
various radio stations. He also worked at WBCN during the midnight shift for
about 10 years just as rock and roll was beginning to be played.
"When I was real
young, I knew a lot about older records," said DeVenne. "I spent a lot
of time with people between 20‑25 years old."
During many of his
years in radio, DeVenne has been known to his listeners as "Little
Walter." He said he chose the name for three separate reasons: He was first
called "Little Walter" because his father was also named Walter; the
other two reasons were work related.
"They started
calling me Little Walter because I was so young when I worked at WHIL and even
started on the air," he explained. "I was younger than the people on
the air, but knew more about Oldies music."
The final reason he
adopted his nickname was due to the well known musical artist he has become
close with through the years, Little Richard.
"I was always
Little Walter because of Little Richard," said DeVenne.
Little Richard was one
of several musical artists which DeVenne said he has been able to make personal
contacts with in his radio career.
DeVenne first
began working for Oldies 103 on Oct. 7, 1987. He worked there until the station
changed management in 1995 and he was fired.
When the station
switched management in 1998, DeVenne was rehired by John Morgan, who became the
program manager.
"All of a sudden
the fun of radio turned into business," he said of the situation.
DeVenne said he still
remembers his first real experiences working at WHIL, currently KISS 108 FM,
between 1957 to 1959. He said he worked with Don Masters who did oldies on
Sunday afternoons.
"I never had a
play list," he said. "I never knew what the second song was going to
be that I would play. I did a lot of requests. I would never work for a station
that worked solely from a play list."
Local radio veteran
Dale Dorman, a disc jockey at KISS, said he has a different view on broadcasting
from a play list.
"If I didn't like
the music I was playing, I would work for another station. If I wanted to play
country, then I'd be at a country station right now," he said. "There
is a great deal of research that is done by someone else who makes the decisions
on the type of music which is played."
Playing the formatted
music is part of the job, Dorman said, he wouldn't be interested in playing his
own favorite music on the radio.
"Why would I want
to do that? I can play what I want to listen to at home or in my car," he
said with a smile.
Dorman, who was hired
at KISS when the station changed formats from beautiful music to disco in 1979,
has been in radio since 1964. He has worked at other Boston radio stations
including WVBF, the first top 40 FM station and WRKO.
Dorman said he was
working for WVBF when KISS 108 was originally established.
"I heard about
KISS 108 and decided it was a whole new team and I wanted to be a part of
it," he said of his decision to make the switch.
Similar to
DeVenne's early experiences at WHIL, Dorman said he gained a lot of experience
when he was young by hanging around local stations in his home state of New
York.
"I started when I
was 14 years old, hanging around radio stations, doing anything they would let
me do," Dorman said. `The idea of playing music on the radio was
amazing."
Demonstrating his
playful personality, Dorman sat in his small office at the KISS 108 radio
station struggling to open a Disney umbrella he received in the mail. Cartoons
and Disney characters surround his small KISS 108 office.
As with DeVenne's
cluttered basement, Dorman also has memories of his time in radio. Placed
between his Disney collection are flamed photos of musical artists with whom
Dorman has worked through the year;.
"Radio is
certainly a fantasy," Dorman said. "Our studio is relatively small,
but it is really a glamorous life. It is just a great way to make a
living."
Dorman said while
working at KISS, he has been able to see music change as well as the way it is
played
"At first there
was vinyl, then tape, then compact discs and now digital," he said
"The technology has changed, but the basic concept of radio hasn't. It is
an amazing a bunch of cycles of music. It is really exciting to see the music
change constantly"
Dorman smiles as he
recalls some of the favorite moments in his radio career.
"As a kid growing
up, I listened to Arnie Ginsberg," Dorman said. "When I met Arnie, he
said to me, `I don't like to look back because I'm afraid I'll miss what's going
on right now.' I thought this guy was brilliant because he thinks just like
me."
Ginsberg, the former
KISS station manager, has a long history in radio. He was a well known disc
jockey between 1956 and 1967 who not only worked for KISS, but also WMEX in
Boston.
"I was well known
as Arnie `Woo Woo' Ginsberg," Ginsberg said. "My show was called The
Night Train and I used horns, bells and whistles and it was on seven nights a
week. The show was aimed at teenagers."
Ginsberg remembered
working as a disc jockey, covering shows at the Boston Garden.
"When the Beatles
came in, it was the craziest thing," said Ginsberg. "The teenaged
girls were all screaming."
Ginsberg said he also
used to work as a disc jockey at local events, covering dances at Maiden High
School at least once a month between 1960 to 1965.
As Ginsberg moved from
disc jockey to the management level, Dorman also staged working on the
management side of HISS 108 as the operational manager for the station. Dorman
said he organizes schedules for all the disc jockeys, manages the contests and
other special events to make sure things run smoothly.
"Mere are some
people who are creative and others who are not," Dorman said. "I'm
responsible for making sure that all these creative events are planned and come
off without a hitch."
Despite his openness
about his radio career, Dorman said he is still unwilling to disclose why he
always says hello to his mother during his daily broadcasts.
"There is a story
behind it and I've heard a bunch of them, but no one has got it yet,"
Dorman said with a smile. "My general explanation is if you had an
opportunity to say hi to your mother on the air, wouldn't you?"
