Dick Summer, The Lovin’ Touch Show on WBZ Boston | 197x
In trying to find an appropriate photo to post with Dick Summer’s mug (one should never really try to do that… aren’t publicity photos copyrighted or something)… I realized that there are more words written about this true radio pioneer than most seekers of broadcast history would imagine. Summer was not a ‘Top 40′ innovator. He didn’t care about the one liner and the same lame hit played every hour. No, Dick Summer was a man who wanted to really connect with his listeners. His concept of radio, was a music show featuring album cuts from popular artists whose songs fit the mood of whatever the topic of discussion was, which in the 60s and early 70s was usually romance, to go with the theme of his after midnight “Lovin’ Touch” program on WBZ. Summer worked at WBZ Boston, then at WNEW and WNEW-FM New York, returning to Boston later to program WMEX. Later, toward the end of the 1970s, Dick Summer would reprise his “love” theme on WYNY New York, but its this long running first stint at WBZ that most fans remember as his best.
Contributor Alan Vesely describes how this recording came about:
When I was 15, back in the summer of 1966, my folks moved into the house they still call home in Manitowoc, WI. My Dad took the single car garage that came with the property, cut it in half, stretched it out and made a double garage out of it. He helped me insulate the attic, put in a kerosene heater and make a little den for myself. My buddies and I, lacking imaginatioin as we prepared to enter our sophmore year in high school, named the place the Wisconson Club, after the local beer we were drinking at the time. Over the next seven years, through high school and college, I spent most of my summer nights there.
The wee hours were spent listening to Dick Summer apply the Loving Touch on WBZ. From this distance I cannot recollect why, but one night I hit the record button on my Teac reel to reel. Dick Summer begins by soliciting calls from naysayers. Dick Summer took three calls. They had nothing nay to say. I think you’ll agree, these conversations captured the essence of what the Loving Touch was all about.
After the second caller, I turned the recorder off, but not the radio. When I heard the third caller, the most extraordinary of all, I regreted my haste. I hit the record button once more and caught the rest of the show.
As bad as the world sometimes seems to be, you just know it’s at least a tad bit better because these folks were, and I hope still are, in it.
Thanks Mr. Summer.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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I’m struck by how GREAT the audio was for an aircheck recorded in Wisconsin of a station in New England! 1971 audio for AM was much better in the analog world vs. the current world of distortion and buzz from all of the digital transmissions on AM. Plus, AM receivers in 1971 were still being made with an eye toward quality. All in all, a wonderful example of how great radio used to be…
I remember Dick Summer from WISH in Indianapolis. He was so different and cool, and I missed listening to him when he moved to Boston. Then, late one summer night in the 1960’s, I was trying to fall asleep at my Grandmother’s house in the country in Indiana. Feeling misunderstood as teenagers are wont to do, I was dialing my transistor radio very softly, muffling the sound a little with my pillow (where was my earphone?). Out of the darkness, I heard Dick Summer, all the way from Boston, on WBZ. It was like the Universe was saying, “It’ll be OK.”
Pretty special note Linda. Thank you. Radio is a parade…It seems like once it’s over all that’s left is sweeping up after the horses. But your note sounds like memories of the marching bands. Please go to http://www.dicksummer.com and pick one of the cds there. Let me send it to you as a “Thanks for remembering” gift. Dick Summer