Post by Mr._Shooter on Jul 26, 2005 22:40:37 GMT -5
Joe O'Brien, one of the original WMCA "good guys" here in New York, was killed this weekend in a car accident in Massachusetts, at the age of 90 years old. Joe started at WMCA way back in 1936 as a sports announcer, graduating to morning man. He later became the morning guy at WHUD in the Hudson Valley of New York, where I (young man that I am) first heard him and later came to know of him as a true statesman of modern radio. This morning, his successors at WHUD remembered Joe was a consummate professional, a storyteller with the Irishman's "gift of the gab", and a genuinely good guy. I believed every word they said - I felt like I truly knew the man based upon their sentiments...and upon the limited exposure I had. If anyone wonders what relevance radio once played in the American way of life, if anyone wonders why we, the radio faithful, mourn the loss of radio's relevance, look no farther than the likes of Joe O'Brien. Radio was once bigger than television...and a hell of lot more essential. Those who remind of us of as much, even in death, even in these, ahem, modern times, are the people who define us. 
