A Radio Show About...Radio

And now, back to our irregularly scheduled program. It has been a while since we revisited a classic Dan Lewis program. This time we go back to September 28, 2008. Dan was doing a WBCQ fill-ins for JL, who was taking a bit of time off from the radio.

This show focused on radio and radio people. Dan memorialized Irving Blonder, whose company owned, among other things, UHF Channel 68 near NYC. Dan reminisced about 1970s characters such as Larry McCann and Uncle Floyd who provided Channel 68 viewers with many a strange and interesting program. Irv also was involved in the development of radar during the 2nd World War and later put his radar skills to work searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

Dan shared memories of Tomcat, Tom Kneitel. Tom was a proflic writer about the radio hobby. He was the founding editor of Popular Communications and wrote a well known book about tuning in on telephone calls. His book probably led to the passing by Congress of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Tom also experimented with the Ouija Board as a communication method.

In hour 2, Dan speaks with Bennett Kobb, a community media advocate. In 2008, Bennett was promoting an idea to bring Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) to the 26 MHz shortwave broadcast band, but aimed at a domestic audience. It was a great idea that never materialized.

Dan responds to an email from a listener who enjoyed the July 2008 Dody Cowan interview and heard from Dody Cowan, too. He also talks about the tech used to produce the program.

I hope you enjoy this Dan Lewis reprise about radio. You can listen here.

His and Hers - As You Like It

Dody and Jerry Cowan

If you listened to shortwave in the 1960s and 1970s, no doubt you came across a wildly popular request program hosted by a husband and wife team.  "His and Hers" was hosted by Canadian Jerry Cowan and his lovely Dutch wife Dody and broadcast to the world via Radio Nederland, the Dutch World Broadcasting System.  Every Tuesday they would read letters, play requests, and make the listener feel as if they were a guest in their living room.  I was a devoted listener and always wondered what happened to these old radio friends.  I heard that life had taken each of them in a different direction, that they had divorced, and that Jerry returned to Canada.  Then I heard that Dody had died.

Much like Mark Twain, rumors of her death had been greatly exaggerated.  Glen Hauser announced in his MT column that Dody was alive and living in France under the name Deborah Rey.  She had a blog, an email address, and was on Facebook.  I had to speak to her to talk abouit the old days and new projects.

And so we spoke.  The conversation was aired on my WBCQ program of July 20, 2008 and can be heard here.