Our home was spared but lots of people in Montello sustained thousands of dollars damage. In the 50’s, a brand new home with an attached garage was only $8,500 dollars.

In the 60’s, what card game was complete without a Top-40 personality radio station playing in the background? It still warms the cockles of my heart when I think back to the first time I heard my radio heroes and the songs they were playing and the comedy bits they were performing. I’m glad it does because it’s no fun getting cold-cockled. I logged lots of time listening to my all time favorites: Ed Hider, Jess Cain, Ron Landry, Joey Reynolds and Jack Burns. I later became friends with most of these performers and even got work on the same station with a couple of them.

I was hooked on all the entertainment coming out of my little transistor radio, musical and otherwise. AM was king with teenagers who wanted to hear their favorite tunes and radio celebrities. Naturally, I had those teeny, tiny speakers just low enough so my parents couldn’t hear. We knew all the songs, the stations and the dj’s. In 1956, I really got a kick out of WBET’s Jack Burns during his short stay in my hometown. Nine years later, I was playing his Burns & Schreiber Columbia Comedy Album on WBET. Jack Burns teamed up on the radio in Los Angeles with George Carlin and they called themselves, “The Wright Brothers”. The station was KDAY where Alan Freed landed after the dj payola scandal. Lenny Bruce loved Burns and Carlin and he acted as their agent getting them bookings.

At age 14, a student at North Jr. High, I spent endless amounts of time on the weekend hanging around radio stations. But I also got my pop music education, from a classmate named Andrea Mariani. She and I often played the records Friday nights at Father Harkin’s Dances at St. Edward’s Gym. To this day, every time I hear, “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison, I remember the red-faced father enforcing his famous “all dance” policy. He and several burley police officers grabbed non-compliant boys by the neck forcing them to box step with some plain Jane. Every fourth song was slow and all boys had to dance. I’ve often-wonder how many weddings happened because of those early pairings. In any case, it was a great way to meet girls. Andrea Martin, whom I met at the Winthrop School, loved music and bought every popular 45 at Billy Burke’s High Street music store. In February of 1959, she was the person who broke the news to me that Buddy Holly’s plane crashed and the music died. My favorite radio hangouts were WOKW, WBET, WCOP and WMEX. It all started around 1961. The only reason the year stands out is because no matter which station I popped in to visit, the Tokens, “Lion Sleeps Tonight” was playing. Later when I left home, those stations were on in all the rooms I rented. In a strange way, Brockton is the reason I got interested in music and radio. There weren’t many choices. When you’re 5’6” and 135 pounds, you won’t make the starting football team in a class of 750. By age 16, I built my radio transmitter and broadcast on the AM band for a quarter-mile. I also spent time in Florida attending an Engineering school and became an FCC Licensed 1^st Class engineer who could tune any TV & Radio transmitter in the world.

For that reason, I took trumpet lessons from Dick Johnson at the famous Billy Flanagan Music School. Just across the hall another student, Steve Smith, was taking drums from, Mr. Flanagan. Billy Flanagan was a famous big band drummer in the 40’s working with the Tommy Dorsey Band among others. His school was on Center St. and almost directly across from the original and now famous W.B. Mason Office Products Building. As fate would have it, Steve Smith went on to become the drummer in the band Journey. On the radio, I played all Journey’s hits and later received a Gold Record from the band. Journey’s, “Don’t Stop Believing” is the song that ended The Sopranos Series on HBO. Steve and I crossed paths again backstage in the early 80’s when Journey played the 4 sold out nights at the Worcester Centrum.

In the early 60’s, Brockton High School went on double sessions. Juniors and seniors in the morning, sophomores in the afternoon. Upper classmen loved leaving the building shortly after noon because they could hold down a job. But split sessions, kept the BHS football team out of the record books. In 1963, my senior year, the team that went 5 –3 -1. At the time, Armond Columbo was a teacher at the North Jr. High.

Brockton High is a Big League School. Big Jock, Big Band (I played 2nd trumpet). It’s a rough city. Born animals lived there: pro football players, and boxers like Rocky Marciano, Marvin Hagler, and Bobby Townsend. Members of my class were involved in fatal robberies and given life in prison. At St. Edward’s Church (today St. Edith Stein), I only passed my CCD final, by looking within the soul of Bill Faradie Jr. But I did win the city-wide creative writing award in 1961 beating out 730 students and also having a speaking voice. During senior year, I read the daily announcements before classes began. Not being a big, rough guy, radio and writing was my ticket to a better life. It wouldn’t have happened without my 8th grade English teacher, Ann McEachern who urged me to follow my writing talent, and my guidance counselor, Russell Ford, who suggested I apply to Emerson College in Boston. I had never heard of Emerson in 1964. It was a great fit and changed my life. I couldn’t have loved radio more, couldn’t think of anything else. At Emerson, Vin DiBona was the first program manager to hire me at WECB Radio. He went on to become a TV producer and owner of America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC. WECB Radio went Top-40 Rock’s Roll in Sept. ’64 and I loved it. At Emerson College, I learned that if you can afford to wait, won’t accept no for an answer, and have the goods, you can do anything you choose. At Brockton High, I learned what to think, at Emerson College, I learned how to think. I got the “never give up Gene” from my Dad, who made my career possible.

I had the most fun traveling out of town to giant record hops. If you were lucky and knew an upper classman you might be asked to “cruise the drag” or take in a dance outside the city. Travel was inexpensive, leaded gasoline was 31 cents a gallon. Weekends found a continuous line of cars on Main St. cruising from the clock at East Main Street (in front of what is now the Louis F. Angelo School) south to the Congregational Church in Campbell. The kings of the drag were custom car owners. People such as “Red” Hawkins, Mike Donovan, “Bobby” Wall, Walter Scott and his brother Ralph, who often gave me a ride. All car club members displayed their polished aluminum VEIGHTS Car Club Plaques below their de-chromed trunks. The colors of choice for custom cars were: Gold Flake Candy Apple Red, Gold Flake Copper and Silver Flaked White.

During the day, several of the custom car fanatics worked at a car wash on Court Street. But after sundown, they were king of the cool cars. In the 60’s, even without a high school diploma you could find a job and actually live on your income. Times have changed. Today, you kill yourself so you can live.

Baby boomers who enjoy music all remember their first concert, but we never called them concerts. In the early days of rock n’roll, there were no assigned seats, $200 tickets, $70 sweat shirts or Beatles. We just went to hear the music that we embraced. My first live rock show was in 1959 and like so many things in life, it happened because I did something of little interest. A group of friends under the direction of life long pal Joe O’Sullivan decided to take in the Brockton Fair and it was extremely easy to slip under the fence. That evening, I was drawn to live rock n’roll while listening to Johnny & The Hurricanes wailing up a storm on “Red River Rock”. The price was right because once inside the fair grounds, all entertainment was free. We simply stood around the stage 50 spectators deep and enjoyed the sounds. This was a time when kids made music for kids.