John Delach

Weekday mornings in the late 1940s: We lived on the second-floor of a two story railroad flat at 1821 Himrod St. in Ridgewood, Queens. Back then, my mother didn’t work and I hadn’t started kindergarten so  mornings were mostly leisurely. We survived on the $75-dollar monthly alimony / child care checks she  received from my father until Mom could no longer stretch that miserly sum of money as far as she needed.

Mom then found a job at Equitable Life Insurance on Thirty-Second Street opposite the Pennsylvania Station. By then I was also attending grammar school at St. Aloysius, our local parish school, where the good Dominican nuns, especially those who took men’s names happily beat the crap out of “so called” trouble makers. Sister Raymond James was the best at her trade. She flew with her wing nun, Sister Agnes Miriam. They didn’t take prisoners.

We didn’t acquire our first TV until 1951 or 1952. Until then, AM Radio was our outlet to the world and our radio was set to WNEW. I stopped listening when that 12-inch RCA arrived, but Mom loved her radio especially Martin Block’s: Make Believe Ballroom.

Block’s Ballroom had a theme song:

It’s make believe

ballroom time.

Put all your cares away.

All the bands are here

 to bring good cheer

your way.

It’s make believe

ballroom time.

The hour of sweet romance.

Here’s your make

believe ballroom,

Come on children,

Let’s dance,

Let’s dance,

Let’s dance.

That’s my only remembrance of WNEW from those days. Martin Block’s show originated in 1936 as a fifteen-minute affair, three days a week for which Block was paid $25. It quickly expanded to 90 minutes, five days a week with multiple specials on weekends.

One anecdote that demonstrates his popularity and influence involves Fanny Rose Shore, a newbie singer who made it to New York where she landed a non-paying job at WNEW. An audition was arranged for Block. Shore chose the song, Dinah, When Block introduced her on the air later that morning, he forgot her name. Without missing a beat, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Dinah Shore.”

Miss Shore later revealed, “I was so grateful that I never corrected him.”

Dinah Shore performed on several sustaining programs on WNEW, and sang duets with another young singer- Frank Sinatra.

Martin Block left WNEW in 1954 for ABC. He passed in 1967.

As I grew, developed and came of age, my musical tastes took me far a field from WNEW’s broadcasts. It was only a broadcasting coincidence that allowed me to re-discover this gem. In 1961, I discovered the New York Football Giants. I watched a late-night exhibition game on WCBS TV between the Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. By the end of that contest, I was hooked. That was the beginning of my life-long fan relationship with the team.

Following my new heroes that first year wasn’t easy. Back then, every team’s regular home games were blacked out, even if those games were sold out. My only access to home games was to tune into the Giants radio broadcasts. The team’s flagship outlet was WNEW and the play-by-play announcer was Marty Glickman, a well-known New York radio personality and former Olympian. Al Derogartes, a former Giants lineman whose day job was as an executive at Prudential Life Insurance Company, provided the color commentary. Dero’s analysis was brilliant.

But Marty was a “homer” in every sense of that term who actually got in the way of his own broadcast. He frustrated me so much during that 1961 season that I decided to buy a season ticket for 1962, a ticket I still retain, 65 years later.

However, listening to these games meant that most of the radios in our house ended up set to 1130 and I began to wake up to (Gene) Klaven and (Dee) Finch. This funny duo had first come together in 1952. I didn’t recall Klaven when I first began listening to them in 1961. I soon learned the reason. Back when I listened to WNEW with my mom, the duo was Gene Raymond and Finch. Curiously, when Rayburn left for a bright career in TV, his replacement’s name fit like a part of a puzzle.

Klaven was a natural born funny man, who used dozens of voices and characters. Think of an early Robin Williams. Finch played the perfect straight man. The two of them were really funny and could easily compete with the great Bob and Ray.

In Part Four we will dwell on the long life and the death of WNEW.