He reacts equally emotionally to music, which is another reason for his appeal, because those of us who love rock 'n' roll rejoice at hearing said so clearly what we have known for so long: "Rock 'n' roll isn't just music. There's a very complicated psychological response to music. Rock 'n' roll makes sense. There is an excitement and reality about it, and at the same
Bradley recalls with a slightly pained laugh that the WBZ music committee "threw 'She Loves You' in the waste basket" in June, 1963...
Summer doesn't object to the protest and Vietnam songs because they make people think, "A lot of people thinking shallowly beats a few people thinking deep thoughts." time it's a very subjective thing. I'm a very subjective disc jockey."
The contrast between Dick Summer and Bruce Bradley seem to make the two—who together make up almost half of WBZ's total programming—perfect complements. It is not an accident. Rock 'n' roll stations can choose a philosophy and maintain it just as consistently as can any other medium, an almost self-evident observation to anyone who has seriously compared, for example, WBZ and WMEX. "A station can't operate without objectives," Perry B. Bascom, WBZ's general manager, has said. Other rock 'n' roll stations have been known to choose a name for a disc jockey to keep the same name for years, no matter how many new disc jockeys occupy that time slot. Such a practice is unthinkable for WBZ—the idea of another disc jockey calling himself Dick Summer is appalling.
Tasteful Blend
Bascom, whose job it is to coordinate and supervise the entire radio operation, typifies WBZ's search for identity. When I referred to WBZ as a rock 'n' roll station, he told me, "You know, a lot of us hesitate to use the words rock 'n' roll. There's an image stigma attached to it. A lot of people prefer 'contemporary station'."
He described WBZ's approach to programming which is concerned both with broad cycles throughout the day—"we move out of housewives to the more teen-oriented in the afternoon, but we still try to hold onto housewives up until the 6 p.m. news"—and with the juxtaposition of individual songs—"a delicate flavoring, a tasteful blend." WBZ disc jockeys, Bascom said, are "mature and intelligent individuals who relate their activities to the entire community." His own role, he said, is to "guide the station toward its goal—becoming a vital and important member of the community we serve."
Bascom moved up through the sales department of the Westinghouse group of stations, with which WBZ and WOR in New York are affiliated, and came to WBZ seven months ago. He admitted freely that rock 'n' roll is his kind of music, and then, with the compulsion that seems to characterize a rock 'n' roll world in search of respectability, showed me a letter he had recently received from a woman who said she had just celebrated her silver wedding anniversary and listened to WBZ from 8:30 to 4:00 every day. "That's her twenty-fifth anniversary. That puts her in her middle forties," he said. "Or maybe even 50."