Posted by Bob Smith on October 23, 2009 at 11:26:24:
In Reply to: Re: Soupy Sales R.I.P. posted by Allan Sniffen on October 23, 2009 at 07:27:03:
Actually, at one time Soupy Sales' act worked VERY well on radio--in the 1949-53 period he was the highly popular morning man at WJW(AM) in Cleveland, the same station that gave Alan Freed his major market start at the very same time. Sales' WJW morning drive show helped get him noticed in Detroit, where ABC O&O WXYZ-TV hired him and launched him on his way to TV success.
As far as the show he did at WNBC a generation later, it sounded to me to be light and upbeat, but without the edge that both Imus and Stern brought to the mike. Nothing wrong with that, if you're planning on skewing a little older, but it wasn't going to be a magnet for young adults. It was a well done show but a lot more like what you would have expected to hear in personality radio in the 1950s, a gentler humor for a gentler time. He'd have been a good fit for WNEW (AM) or a similar station skewed to an older audience than the one WNBC wanted. Tastes of younger adult listeners simply changed to the point that what worked in 1955 or 1960 lacked the edge that people came to expect by 1985.
Of course, Imus wasn't the only or even the most reliable barometer of what worked or didn't work. He always acted like he hated everyone else he shared the schedule with. So it's no surprise Sales was one of his targets--Stern was an even bigger one, of course, and the feeling there became mutual.