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Herb Oscar Anderson, 80s, NYC LEGENDARY radio personality (WABC, WOR)
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That Derek
Jan 29, 2017, 8:07:48 PM1/29/17
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https://www.facebook.com/herboscar.anderson/posts/974099542721905
"Hello Again" ..... This is Herb's son John, I wanted to let you know that Dad passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family this morning at 9:50 am at South Western Vermont Medical Center. I can tell you that he loved all of you and really appreciated the time he spent with you on the radio and Facebook. Dad appreciated the honor of being able to entertain you and be part of your family, throughout the years. His wife Terry and family send you their love. Thank you for all your support. My father requested in lieu of flowers please donate to: Voice of a Vet PO Box 558 Hoosick Falls NY 12090 in his memory. As Dad would close out his show "here's my best to you" John, and Family.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rip-herb-oscar-anderson-an-ella-guy-who-fit-into-an_us_588e441de4b0cd25e4904a2a
CONTRIBUTOR
RIP Herb Oscar Anderson, an Ella Guy Who Fit Into an Elvis World
01/29/2017 02:57 pm ET
After a lifetime of hellos, it’s time to say goodbye.
Herb Oscar Anderson, one of the more unlikely personalities in the early pantheon of rock ‘n’ roll disc jockeys, took another piece of an era with him when he died Sunday.
Particularly to anyone who grew up around New York in the late 1950s and 1960s, HOA was part of what WABC, radio, music and the city sounded like.
His personal imprint was in many ways unusual, because when you think of early rock ‘n’ roll DJs, you think of Jocko, Dan Ingram, Scott Muni, Alan Freed, Hal Jackson, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K.
None of whom sounded anything like Herb Oscar Anderson.
Anderson came out of another era, a softer era where the music on the radio was big bands and the golden-age standards of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin.
But in 1960, when the struggling WABC decided to bet its chips on rock ‘n’ roll, Anderson was hired by his friend Len Goldenson to do the morning show.
Anderson had done rock ‘n’ roll before, on smaller Midwestern stations and then on WMCA and WMGM. But he did morning rock ‘n’ roll, the kind that eased you out of bed rather than blasting you out of bed.
Today’s Morning Zoo style, it wasn’t. Anderson would come on the air singing “Hello Again,” an easy-listening melody that owed more to Lawrence Welk than Little Richard. He wished his listeners blue skies and told them how happy he was to be back in their homes.
Singing was part of the HOA package. He was still serenading listeners a half-century later on his last radio gig, a long-running popular standards show on WOSN in Vero Beach, Fla.
His Facebook page has a video from the WOSN studio where he finishes a show by singing “The End,” a song popularized in the late 1950s by Earl Grant.
Anderson’s own tunes on WABC stood in contrast to many of the records he played, but he said in an interview years later that he never saw a disconnect.
“I never thought rock ‘n’ roll was an entirely different kind of music,” he said. “Particularly in the early days.”
That would change by the late 1960s, as Scott Benjamin relates in his excellent Anderson profile at http://www.musicradio77.com/hoaprofile.html. Anderson told Benjamin he left WABC in September 1968 because he didn’t like the new, harsher sounds of acid rock.
But in the years before that, Anderson had made a comfortable peace with any gap between his own love of Ella and Sinatra and the new Beach Boys, Four Seasons and Beatles music he played for a living.
“That’s what a professional disc jockey does,” Anderson said a few years later. “On a station like WABC, you don’t come in play your own records. You present the music of the format in an entertaining, engaging way.”
It helped that he was doing a morning show, back when morning was the calm part of the radio day. There was news, weather, a bit of banter. Listeners were invited to join the Happy Huggy Bear Club.
That first WABC Musicradio77 lineup – with HOA, Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club, Charlie Greer, Farrell Smith, Jack Carney, Chuck Dunaway, Scott Muni, Bill Owen and Big Joe’s Happiness Exchange at midnight – was known as The Swinging Seven.
The amount of swinging varied widely from host to host.
But that’s what early rock ‘n’ roll radio was, and it mirrored early rock ‘n’ roll.
Just as the music was heavily laced with Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Brook Benton and other pop-style artists, the radio wasn’t all Dr. Jive and Mad Daddy. It included a lot of hosts who, like Anderson, came out of big band and smooth-talking radio.
That was sort of a dirty little secret, Anderson said years later – that rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just a teenage thing.
“WABC certainly wanted teenagers,” he said. “But I was doing a radio show for adults. I was proving rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just for juvenile delinquents.”
Personally, he said, he learned to like much of the music he played, citing the musicality of the Beatles as an example.
Asked in the 1990s how he felt about contemporary morning radio, he gently sidestepped, saying it just wasn’t his style.
He did lament that much of commercial radio no longer gave DJs the freedom he had. It would have been hard, he said, if he had been told not to talk to his audience, or not to sing them a song.
“People like that,” he said. “It makes radio personal.”
Maybe even makes the skies a little bluer.
To hear some vintage Herb Oscar Anderson, check out http://www.musicradio77.com/index.html.
"Hello Again" ..... This is Herb's son John, I wanted to let you know that Dad passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family this morning at 9:50 am at South Western Vermont Medical Center. I can tell you that he loved all of you and really appreciated the time he spent with you on the radio and Facebook. Dad appreciated the honor of being able to entertain you and be part of your family, throughout the years. His wife Terry and family send you their love. Thank you for all your support. My father requested in lieu of flowers please donate to: Voice of a Vet PO Box 558 Hoosick Falls NY 12090 in his memory. As Dad would close out his show "here's my best to you" John, and Family.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rip-herb-oscar-anderson-an-ella-guy-who-fit-into-an_us_588e441de4b0cd25e4904a2a
CONTRIBUTOR
RIP Herb Oscar Anderson, an Ella Guy Who Fit Into an Elvis World
01/29/2017 02:57 pm ET
After a lifetime of hellos, it’s time to say goodbye.
Herb Oscar Anderson, one of the more unlikely personalities in the early pantheon of rock ‘n’ roll disc jockeys, took another piece of an era with him when he died Sunday.
Particularly to anyone who grew up around New York in the late 1950s and 1960s, HOA was part of what WABC, radio, music and the city sounded like.
His personal imprint was in many ways unusual, because when you think of early rock ‘n’ roll DJs, you think of Jocko, Dan Ingram, Scott Muni, Alan Freed, Hal Jackson, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K.
None of whom sounded anything like Herb Oscar Anderson.
Anderson came out of another era, a softer era where the music on the radio was big bands and the golden-age standards of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin.
But in 1960, when the struggling WABC decided to bet its chips on rock ‘n’ roll, Anderson was hired by his friend Len Goldenson to do the morning show.
Anderson had done rock ‘n’ roll before, on smaller Midwestern stations and then on WMCA and WMGM. But he did morning rock ‘n’ roll, the kind that eased you out of bed rather than blasting you out of bed.
Today’s Morning Zoo style, it wasn’t. Anderson would come on the air singing “Hello Again,” an easy-listening melody that owed more to Lawrence Welk than Little Richard. He wished his listeners blue skies and told them how happy he was to be back in their homes.
Singing was part of the HOA package. He was still serenading listeners a half-century later on his last radio gig, a long-running popular standards show on WOSN in Vero Beach, Fla.
His Facebook page has a video from the WOSN studio where he finishes a show by singing “The End,” a song popularized in the late 1950s by Earl Grant.
Anderson’s own tunes on WABC stood in contrast to many of the records he played, but he said in an interview years later that he never saw a disconnect.
“I never thought rock ‘n’ roll was an entirely different kind of music,” he said. “Particularly in the early days.”
That would change by the late 1960s, as Scott Benjamin relates in his excellent Anderson profile at http://www.musicradio77.com/hoaprofile.html. Anderson told Benjamin he left WABC in September 1968 because he didn’t like the new, harsher sounds of acid rock.
But in the years before that, Anderson had made a comfortable peace with any gap between his own love of Ella and Sinatra and the new Beach Boys, Four Seasons and Beatles music he played for a living.
“That’s what a professional disc jockey does,” Anderson said a few years later. “On a station like WABC, you don’t come in play your own records. You present the music of the format in an entertaining, engaging way.”
It helped that he was doing a morning show, back when morning was the calm part of the radio day. There was news, weather, a bit of banter. Listeners were invited to join the Happy Huggy Bear Club.
That first WABC Musicradio77 lineup – with HOA, Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club, Charlie Greer, Farrell Smith, Jack Carney, Chuck Dunaway, Scott Muni, Bill Owen and Big Joe’s Happiness Exchange at midnight – was known as The Swinging Seven.
The amount of swinging varied widely from host to host.
But that’s what early rock ‘n’ roll radio was, and it mirrored early rock ‘n’ roll.
Just as the music was heavily laced with Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Brook Benton and other pop-style artists, the radio wasn’t all Dr. Jive and Mad Daddy. It included a lot of hosts who, like Anderson, came out of big band and smooth-talking radio.
That was sort of a dirty little secret, Anderson said years later – that rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just a teenage thing.
“WABC certainly wanted teenagers,” he said. “But I was doing a radio show for adults. I was proving rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t just for juvenile delinquents.”
Personally, he said, he learned to like much of the music he played, citing the musicality of the Beatles as an example.
Asked in the 1990s how he felt about contemporary morning radio, he gently sidestepped, saying it just wasn’t his style.
He did lament that much of commercial radio no longer gave DJs the freedom he had. It would have been hard, he said, if he had been told not to talk to his audience, or not to sing them a song.
“People like that,” he said. “It makes radio personal.”
Maybe even makes the skies a little bluer.
To hear some vintage Herb Oscar Anderson, check out http://www.musicradio77.com/index.html.
marcus
Jan 30, 2017, 4:02:19 PM1/30/17
to
I saw Herb in 1966 when he was the emcee at a Battle of the Bands competition in my hometown of Danbury CT.
He was a bit hokey with his theme song of "Hello Again" and always singing "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" at the end of his show, but he was a comfortable presence every day while getting ready to go to school.
"All the way with HOA", the station jingle for him.
Jake D Jude
Jan 30, 2017, 6:07:20 PM1/30/17
to
That Derek
Jan 31, 2017, 10:37:32 AM1/31/17
to
http://www.insideradio.com/free/rip-former-wabc-personality-herb-oscar-anderson/article_4242b4d6-e6e9-11e6-ac9d-07ab6ee903c1.html
Legendary WABC Personality Herb Oscar Anderson Dies.
Jan 30, 2017 Updated 17 hrs ago
Herb Oscar Anderson, morning personality on then-top 40 WABC New York in the 1960s, died Sunday in Bennington, VT. A contemporary of Dan Ingram, Scott Muni, Cousin Brucie and Murray the K, Anderson sounded unlike any of them, coming from “another era, a softer era where the music on the radio was big bands and golden-age standards,” David Hinckley writes in an appreciation of Anderson in the Huffington Post. “He did morning rock ‘n’ roll, the kind that eased you out of bed rather than blasting you out of bed,” Hinckley writes. “Today’s ‘Morning Zoo’ style, it wasn’t.”
Raised in an orphanage, Anderson was also known for singing during his radio show and his New York radio career also included work at WMCA and WMGM. His career took him to Minneapolis (WDGY, KSTP) and Chicago (WBBM). Recently Anderson was hosting a popular standards show on “Ocean 97.1” WOSN Vero Beach, FL.
To hear some vintage Herb Oscar Anderson, head to http://www.musicradio77.com/index.html.
Legendary WABC Personality Herb Oscar Anderson Dies.
Jan 30, 2017 Updated 17 hrs ago
Herb Oscar Anderson, morning personality on then-top 40 WABC New York in the 1960s, died Sunday in Bennington, VT. A contemporary of Dan Ingram, Scott Muni, Cousin Brucie and Murray the K, Anderson sounded unlike any of them, coming from “another era, a softer era where the music on the radio was big bands and golden-age standards,” David Hinckley writes in an appreciation of Anderson in the Huffington Post. “He did morning rock ‘n’ roll, the kind that eased you out of bed rather than blasting you out of bed,” Hinckley writes. “Today’s ‘Morning Zoo’ style, it wasn’t.”
Raised in an orphanage, Anderson was also known for singing during his radio show and his New York radio career also included work at WMCA and WMGM. His career took him to Minneapolis (WDGY, KSTP) and Chicago (WBBM). Recently Anderson was hosting a popular standards show on “Ocean 97.1” WOSN Vero Beach, FL.
To hear some vintage Herb Oscar Anderson, head to http://www.musicradio77.com/index.html.
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