Category Archives: Radio

Hanna and Barbera aside, the two most important producers of Saturday Morning TV animation have been Joe Ruby and Ken Spears…and theirs is a fascinating story. They met when working as film editors and made that unlikely shift from cutting film to writing the shows that were recorded on it. Eventually, they were also producing…first at Hanna-Barbera, then at other studios and finally at their own. Along the way, they were the creators or at least the showrunners of so many of the most successful shows of the sixties, seventies and into the eighties — and they're still producing stuff. Plus, shows they launched are still around. They created Scooby Doo, for instance — not only the most popular property ever conceived for non-primetime animation but the template for so many other programs.

Wednesday, they're the guests on Stu Shostak's popular Internet radio show. Stu usually does his show live on Wednesdays but this one was recorded last Friday because his co-host for the week (me) has to be somewhere else. So I can tell you that the program went very well, though we only got through about a third of the Ruby-Spears story. We talked about them working as editors, about them starting out writing short segments for Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Yogi Bear, about them becoming full-fledged writers on shows like Space Ghost and The Herculoids and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. We got about as far as when they left H-B to go start their own studio…and then the rest will have to wait for another webcast.

You can listen to the show for free tomorrow (Wednesday) when Stu "airs" it at 4 PM Pacific Time, which is of course 7 PM Eastern Time…and if you live anywhere else, you can figure out the time based on that information. It runs about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Just go to the Stu's Show website at the proper hour.

And should you miss it, fear not. You can then go to the Stu's Show website at any time and download it as an MP3 for a measly 99 cents. In fact, while you're there, download a few more shows and get Stu's bargain rate of four shows for the price of three. They're all a lot of fun but this one is one of his best.

I mentioned I had two other complaints about SiriusXM Radio. Then when I started writing them up here, one of them suddenly seemed too trivial to mention. So here's the other one…

It's that I thought the premise of the station was to listen to ad-free programming. And maybe it doesn't technically qualify as advertising but they spend an awful lot of time on the channels they produce telling us we're listening to SiriusXM Radio and how wonderful SiriusXM Radio is and how we should tune in SiriusXM Radio. At times you want to yell at your speakers, "Are you people aware that I already have a subscription??? That I don't need a sales pitch for listening to SiriusXM Radio because I'm listening to SiriusXM Radio at the moment???"

I feel the same way when I get my subscription copy of a magazine and eleven little cards fall out urging me to subscribe.

A year or two ago, I was just getting into a rental car in Indianapolis when I received an e-mail from my friend, Broadway diva Christine Pedi. Christine is a brilliant impressionist (see here) and singer. I forget what her message was asking me but I made a mental note to phone her when I had a chance.

Then I got into the rental car, turned on the radio and heard, "This is Christine Pedi." There she was. Along with all else she does, Christine is one of the disc jockeys (that's not quite the term I want) on the On Broadway Channel on SiriusXM satellite radio.

That was the first time I'd heard satellite radio but I enjoyed it — well, let's say some of it — while cruising Indiana in the rental. I did manage to find some channels that didn't have Howard Stern on them and I have never heard anyone talk about sex and make it sound as stupid and unappealing as those folks on Playboy Radio. (Aside to Rick Santorum, who I just know reads this blog every day: You want to end recreational sex in this country? Have the government buy everyone a subscription to Playboy Radio. It's the Saltpeter of the Airwaves.)

Soon after I returned to L.A., I bought a new car and I got one with SiriusXM radio on it. I liked it at first but now find myself growing lukewarm to it. I have CDs in my auto — I didn't in the rental — and the car also has a USB port. I can load MP3s onto a flash drive, plug the flash drive into the USB port and play those MP3s through my car radio. It's not only the audio I pick (as opposed to what the SiriusXM programmers pick) but I can pause and resume. Just as TiVo has spoiled me for watching live TV, I'm not as fond of live radio as I once was.

Sometimes though, I listen to SiriusXM and I do like the On Broadway channel…though I can't help but note some blurry distinctions. I also listen to couple of the oldies channels — usually the fifties, sixties and seventies stations. The other day, I found myself listening to "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and I assumed I was on the seventies station but I wasn't. Turned out, I was on the On Broadway channel. All the ABBA songs that were in the Broadway musical Mamma Mia are now, I guess, considered Show Tunes. The On Broadway channel was playing the original ABBA recording, not the version performed on the cast album. A little later, I did switch over to the seventies channel and I heard…the exact same record.

I guess the definition of Show Tune has changed. I'm not saying this is good or bad but it's changed. With Broadway shows featuring tunes first recorded by Elvis or Billy Joel or the Beatles or Frank Sinatra or Olivia Newton-John (etc.), all those works are now Show Tunes. It's not a distinction about style of music…it's just where it's been played. The Frankie Valli records that are re-created in Jersey Boys are apparently now Show Tunes. The other songs Frankie and his guys recorded that didn't make it into Jersey Boys are not Show Tunes. Just a point of information.

Anyway, I like listening to SiriusXM from time to time but I think I prefer the music I bring into my car. I like the SiriusXM jazz channels and some of the "talk radio" stations…though I can only listen to talk radio until I start feeling they're putting on a show the way WWE wrestlers do instead of addressing issues. So I rarely listen for long. I like Christine's interjections between songs she plays because she has something to say. Most other "jocks" there don't…although the day the death of Davy Jones was announced, Cousin Brucie over on the sixties channel threw together a nice tribute including call-ins from Monkees fans. I even heard one of them quote the story I posted on this blog about Shelly Goldstein and Davy.

There are two other things I don't like about SiriusXM but this is running long and I have work to do so I'll save them for later. But I can't leave the topic without mentioning that folks in Southern California have a rare (too rare) opportunity to see Christine Pedi perform live on our turf. She's doing her "Great Dames" show, which is quite a delight, on April 18 at the Gardenia, which is located at 7066 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. The show starts at 9 PM and you'd better call for reservations because Christine has a lot of fans and the place ain't that big.

Speaking of folks on the radio: Throughout February, regular listeners of Radio Rashy, the weekly podcast of writer Paul Dini and magician-actress Misty Lee, have been subjected to a steady dose of me. I recorded four episodes of my silly anecdotes and they've been posted one per week this month. The last one is there now for your dining and downloading pleasure. In it, I discuss working for Sid and Marty Krofft and tell a long story about Glenn Close and seeing her in Sunset Boulevard…and we ramble through other topics. I will not be on the show in March because I'll be busy eating Creamy Tomato Soup at my local Souplantation. Here we are.

Hey, it's Sunday — time for Week Three of my marathon appearance on Radio Rashy, the weekly podcast hosted by Paul Dini, Misty Lee and a sock monkey named Rashy. It's another hour of me telling silly anecdotes. In this installment, you get to hear about how Stan Freberg records changed my life. You get to hear about how I cast a cartoon show at a funeral. You get to hear about how I prevented my Uncle Seymour from being caned to death for changing the channel on a TV set. And there are other tales you might enjoy. One more part to go after this one.

I'm the guest all month long on Radio Rashy, the weekly podcast hosted by Paul Dini, Misty Lee and Rashy. Rashy, the most believable of the three, is a sock monkey who likes to get into trouble…and in a way, aren't we all? Here's a link to this week's installment, which starts with an anecdote about Ricardo Montalban and includes tales of the late, great Daws Butler.

Each week, my friends Misty Lee and Paul Dini host a fine chatty podcast at Radio Rashy. This week, their guest is me and you can hear it or download it here. Next week, their guest will be me. The week after, their guest will be me. And the week after, their guest will be me. That's right: I'm babbling on there for all of February…and in a Leap Year, no less.

This week's episode kicks off with me telling everything I know about Soupy Sales and then it wanders off towards other topics. Before the month is out, we'll have covered one or two more. These episodes each run around an hour…so by March, even I'll be sick of listening to me.