A “Milkman” Was He

MARTY WILSON

(WNEW 1980-1987)

Marty Wilson (WNEW 1981-1986)Marty was quite young when he heard broadcasting’s call. His parents surprised with him with tickets to be in the Peanut Gallery on the “Howdy Doody Show.”  He spent more time looking at the cameras, mike booms, and production staff than he did at Buffalo Bob and the puppets!

 A few years later he took the tour of NBC Radio and was hooked.  In junior high school he became a member of the Cousin Brucie Fan Club and would visit the WABC studios on West 66th Street.  He then worked for Bruce backstage at Palisades Amusement Park.

 After enrolling at City College he majored in cutting class to work at the college radio station where he became Assistant Station Manager and hosted a number of shifts.

Symphony Sid
Symphony Sid (early 1970’s)

In 1968 he got a job at WEVD as a summer and part time engineer. In addition to learning how to understand commercials in 16 languages, he met Symphony Sid.  One night at a remote from the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn, Sid became a little “under the weather.”  He turned to Marty and said, “You finish the show, I’m going home.”  Marty then moved to the other side of the glass.  He became a staff announcer, and when Sid retired, Sid gave him his record collection and later Marty hosted his own show, “Jazz Through The Night,” at times broadcasting from his Upper East Side apartment in a studio he built.

 After leaving WEVD, he worked briefly at WHLI with the “Music Of Your Life” format.

 During the “Jazz Through The Night” years he met Bob Jones, who was on the air at WNEW.  Bob convinced PD Jim Lowe to give him an audition.  The audition consisted of, “Here’s a reel of tape, there’s the studio, there’s the record library, do an hour.”

 He was hired as the weekend host of the ”Milkman’s Matinee” and shortly thereafter became the full time Milkman following in the footsteps of a number of great hosts.  He introduced a number of features during that time including an audience participation novelty called “It Could Be Verse” where listeners would try to guess what song was playing just by listening to the verse. Ted Brown enjoyed his style and insisted that Marty be his vacation substitute.

 In 1987 Marty also conceived the idea for a syndicated program, “A Moment Of Musical History”, a daily feature, that was heard nationally and is still on the air as of this writing in 2012!

 After leaving WNEW, he and a college buddy of his bought a station in New Haven, Connecticut, which he ran for nine years. After selling the station he joined the staff of “Jukebox Radio,” doing afternoons and then middays.  Marty then concentrated on doing voice-overs and producing commercials for a variety of clients and agencies from his own studio in sunny South Florida.

One thought on “A “Milkman” Was He”

  1. I remember Marty well, but I’m not sure where we met. I grew up glued to WJZ-AM listening to Sid as long as I could stay awake, He was on until 6 am. I first discovered Sid on WMCA, then he awitched to WJZ (now WABC). I created The Music of Your Life with Al Ham and I believe WHLI was one of the first stations to carry this syndicated format. We created the format on a Bridgeport daytimer, which was put on the air by a guy named Farina. I think the call was WWDJ or WDJZ. I can’t really remember. The station was oener by a New Jersey dentist and a Bridgeport guy in the crain business, named McLean, if my memory serves me. We used mty records and the station’s collection, which belonged to Farina.
    The miulkman I remember was Art Ford on WNEW-AM, who was against Sid. I followed Sid to WEVD when he did some live broadcast from the Village Gate, but the best remotes were from the Royal Roost, and of course, Birdland.
    I used to publish the Hall Radio Report. Maybe someone remembers that from the 1970s.
    This is a great site

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