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WRKO/Boston stalwart Dale Dorman, 71
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Bryan...@comcast.net
Nov 5, 2014, 8:07:06 PM11/5/14
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I just learned that longtime AM Top 40 disc jockey Dale Dorman died recently. Dorman expired Tuesday, October 21, 2014 after an unspecified "long illness" in Massachusetts.
After industry-wide structural changes in the 1980s eliminated all the amplitude-modulation DJ slots--just as they have for the last two decades been decimating local AM commercial newstalk hosting positions--Dorman, like many of his colleagues, transitioned to an FM pop music air personality.
The Bay State was where almost all of Dorman's decades-long career on the airwaves originated, including his long run at WRKO/Boston from the '60s to the late '70s, where I spent many of my Boston University nights tuned to his work at 680 kHz. Dorman had an unusually thin radio voice and a quirkily unconventional air persona as well, and many of his clever intros and out-cues to the 45s he played remain resonating in my cranium to this day.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
After industry-wide structural changes in the 1980s eliminated all the amplitude-modulation DJ slots--just as they have for the last two decades been decimating local AM commercial newstalk hosting positions--Dorman, like many of his colleagues, transitioned to an FM pop music air personality.
The Bay State was where almost all of Dorman's decades-long career on the airwaves originated, including his long run at WRKO/Boston from the '60s to the late '70s, where I spent many of my Boston University nights tuned to his work at 680 kHz. Dorman had an unusually thin radio voice and a quirkily unconventional air persona as well, and many of his clever intros and out-cues to the 45s he played remain resonating in my cranium to this day.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
cathyc...@aol.com
Nov 5, 2014, 9:23:22 PM11/5/14
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Who?
Bryan...@comcast.net
Nov 5, 2014, 9:41:34 PM11/5/14
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"CathyC" contemptuously wondered:
Who?
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Just another forgettable AM personality, I'm afraid, assuming you're one of those many folk who are surprised to learn there was any predecessor to the frequency-modulation band. He was, I'll grant, not nearly as famous as the late Oscar de la Renta. (Except to Boston-area AM radio fans, to whom he was probably MORE familiar.)
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
Who?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Just another forgettable AM personality, I'm afraid, assuming you're one of those many folk who are surprised to learn there was any predecessor to the frequency-modulation band. He was, I'll grant, not nearly as famous as the late Oscar de la Renta. (Except to Boston-area AM radio fans, to whom he was probably MORE familiar.)
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
Sarah Ehrett
Nov 5, 2014, 10:07:49 PM11/5/14
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On Wed, 5 Nov 2014 18:23:20 -0800 (PST), cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
>Who?
I found this as well as the wiki reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Dorman
"Dale Dorman was always fun, silly and just an all around kidder. And he’s
at his best on this cool Summer morning here as Boston celebrates America’s
Independence by tuning in to WRKO! Well, okay maybe thats not how all
Bostonians did it but many were tuned in to Uncle Dale every morning. I’m
always struck by how in the early 70s, WRKO really had a laid back sound
that didn’t quite fit many of the ‘typical’ RKO stations around the
country. Jingles were used infrequently and the whole atmosphere at WRKO at
the time seemed less intense as one would expect from this Top 40 giant.
Indeed, by 1976, WRKO was the hottest sounding station in Boston, and
perhaps in many ways one of the best in the U.S. but this was the
post-Drake era (by a couple of years). Others who were there will no doubt
have insight on the inner workings of early 70s WRKO. And of Dale Dorman,
one of Boston’s best and longest on air disc jockeys rivaling WBZ’s Carl
DeSuze and WHDH’s Jess Cain for total number of years on air in the market.
The only real difference was that they did it at one station, while Dorman
split his time up at four (In Boston) not counting his time in San
Francisco at KFRC.
Dale Dorman passed away on October 25, 2014 following a long illness. He
was 71. "
>Who?
I found this as well as the wiki reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Dorman
"Dale Dorman was always fun, silly and just an all around kidder. And he’s
at his best on this cool Summer morning here as Boston celebrates America’s
Independence by tuning in to WRKO! Well, okay maybe thats not how all
Bostonians did it but many were tuned in to Uncle Dale every morning. I’m
always struck by how in the early 70s, WRKO really had a laid back sound
that didn’t quite fit many of the ‘typical’ RKO stations around the
country. Jingles were used infrequently and the whole atmosphere at WRKO at
the time seemed less intense as one would expect from this Top 40 giant.
Indeed, by 1976, WRKO was the hottest sounding station in Boston, and
perhaps in many ways one of the best in the U.S. but this was the
post-Drake era (by a couple of years). Others who were there will no doubt
have insight on the inner workings of early 70s WRKO. And of Dale Dorman,
one of Boston’s best and longest on air disc jockeys rivaling WBZ’s Carl
DeSuze and WHDH’s Jess Cain for total number of years on air in the market.
The only real difference was that they did it at one station, while Dorman
split his time up at four (In Boston) not counting his time in San
Francisco at KFRC.
Dale Dorman passed away on October 25, 2014 following a long illness. He
was 71. "
Bryan...@comcast.net
Nov 5, 2014, 10:34:25 PM11/5/14
to
Thanks for the correction of Dorman's date of death, Sarah.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
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