John Zacherle, Halloween Special, WCBS-FM 101.1 New York | October 31, 1991

101.1 FM New York WCBS-FM CBSFM Bill Brown Bag Golden 101
WCBS-FM Logo, original Oldies format circa 1999

John Zacherle 1918-2016, Film, TV Actor and Radio Broadcaster
Date of Recording: 10.31.91
Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York, NY, USA
Featured Air Talent: John Zacherle (09.26.1918 – 10.27.2016) (WCAU-TV, WABC-TV, WOR-TV, WPIX-TV, WNJU-TV, WNEW-FM, WXRK-FM, WCBS-FM). Elected into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia in 2010. Died on 10.27.2016 at age 98.
Contributor: Ray Bozzanca
Airchexx Entry: 433 (Repost at entry 1,450) (What does this mean? (1))

We interrupt this program because of a local weather emergency. This is NOT a test!

Comments:

With that statement and EBS tones, (at 38 minutes in) the whole tone of this FRIGHTFULLY GREAT aircheck is set in stone!

This has to be the best Haloween special I’ve ever heard. WCBS-FM really did it up right, letting John Zacherle take over the hosting duties for a night of scary fun. Contributor Ray Bozzanca sent this in, in pieces (and unscoped for future use by us if we ever are financially able to pay royalties…) which your webmaster lovingly scoped down to something acceptable to the powers that be.

The music is scoped out, but anything not subject to royalties is left over, which is most of this 3 hour show. Zacherle has a wierd sense of humor, but so appropriate as he picks just the right music for a Howlin’ good time!

Adding to the frightening nature of this aircheck, about halfway through, WCBS-AM Newsradio 880 Meteorologist Craig Allen cuts in with the old EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) alert sounder to give a weather emergency. A word about this… the old two-tone alert and the way the announcement was made really gave a sense of urgency to the situation. In your webmaster’s opinion, the current EAS alert, which is a series of computer tones to trigger an automated message, doesn’t do much of anything to scare the pants off listeners – but that’s what its SUPPOSED TO DO! The old system DID wake up listeners. I know, I used to drop what I was doing to listen to it. Editorial finished.

This runs 1 hour, 15 minutes, scoped.