Harv Moore today

 

Harv Moore 'The Boy Next Door' is a native of Pelham, New York but came to WPGC from Frankfort, Kentucky in March of 1963. Initially, he did nights till sign-off but within a few months was moved to mornings when Jerry G left for KYW in Cleveland, starting just days before the tragic JFK assassination.

Harv was also Program Director when Dean Griffith (Dean Anthony) left in November 1964 for WMCA in NY until the arrival of Cousin Warren Duffy in 1966. He also served as Music Director from 1971 when Davy Jones left for WMAL-FM but was promoted to Program Director again in 1972 when big Wilson vacated the position.

Harv continued in mornings until early in 1975 when he accepted an offer from former WPGC General Manager, Bob Howard to do mornings in Buffalo at WYSL. Today, Harv does mornings at WECK / Buffalo.

On Coming To WPGC:

Wayne Hetrick was the Chief Engineer. He and his wife put me up at their house until I found an apartment and could move my family to D.C. Our studios were in SE Washington in the WMA bus terminal...in the spring they would paint the buses (orange and black), and the paint fumes would drift in the windows of our studios.

On Milt Grant:

When I first started at 'PGC I recorded the Milt Grant show every Thursday night. His producer was a guy named Danny (can't come up with a last name). He was a character. We had a lotta laughs. Milt was a funny guy...serious...but funny. It ran Sunday afternoons. I still have one of the tape boxes labeled "The Milt Grant Show 2:00-2:25". (Not the show...just the box). Bob Howard gave me an extra $20 a week to record the show...lotta cash in 1963...bought a lot of cigs! I was still smoking at that time (like everyone else)...$2.50 a carton!

On 'MacNamara':

In 1963, we had a newsman we called MacNamara ("MacNamara here!")....helluva voice..He lived right down the street from the radio station...real name, Ted Radomski....he used to tell me about his brother who was struggling in an off Broadway show...several years later he was a superstar...the "off Broadway show was "Hair"...Ted's brother was one of the writers - Bill Rado (Radomski).

On the multiple 'Bob Raleighs':

The "original" Bob Raleigh #1 (Rolle Ferrar) and I started at WPGC the same day in March of '63. He was working in West Palm Beach - I was in Frankfort, KY. He and I became best friends, and we still are to this day - he is my son Bill's godfather. Bob left WPGC (was forced out), went to WWDC, then WEEL in Fairfax, VA and then to WBZ in Boston. He just retired after 20 years there. I have really lost track of the other Bob Raleighs - there were several - several "Dean Griffiths", too. Last I heard, Bill Miller was in Frederick, MD at a country station.

On 'The Redhead':

The Redhead (Joanie Fierstein) came to work for us in 1972 as a receptionist. I started using her on my show doing drop-ins, and then I asked her if she could come in a little early, drive the Money Car on my show, and then come in and be on the show with me. As I got busier in my PD job, I needed a secretary, so Joanie came in at 6, was on the show with me 'til 10, and then was my secretary for the rest of the day.

Fierstein was her married name. When she came to work for us in '72 she was divorced. After I moved to Buffalo, she stayed on at 'PGC for a while, but then they let her go. At one point she considered moving to Buffalo to continue her radio career, but then went to work for NASA. At some point, she remarried - her last name was Dell-Erba. She had a daughter, and then she kinda fell through the cracks. All the people that she was friends with at the station lost track of her. I think she married for the third time, and moved somewhere in the Frederick area.

On the 'Crusin' 69' album:

The Cruisin' 69 tape was an actual aircheck music and all. It's a pretty amazing story of how that all came about. The only part that I had to "recreate" was the very beginning and the very end.  A friend of mine in D.C. had a music tip sheet, and he told me a guy named Howard Silvers was trying to locate me to do a Cruisin' LP. He was very persistent, so I finally called him. He said he wanted to do a Cruisin' '68 for Baltimore, and wondered if I had any tapes of myself.

I told him I never worked in Baltimore...I worked in D.C. He said, "Well, Baltimore / Washington are considered one market". I told him I would look. I really never wanted to go into my basement archives, and start searching for airchecks. I didn't really save airchecks. Again, he was persistent, so I acquiesced. The only tape I found from circa '68 was a complete aircheck from 1969. I sent it to Howard, and he loved it. The only thing I did was cut an intro and an outro here in Buffalo. The rest of it was "pristine".

On Bob Howard & the Sale of WPGC:

Bob Howard had a "right of first refusal" should the station ever be put up for sale. It was a signed document from Max (Mac) Richmond. When the station went on the market, and it was announced that it was being sold to the Marriotts, Bob exercised his right of first refusal. He told me that he was trying to get some backers to put a deal together.

Glenn Potter called me at about 11:00 one night...woke me and my wife out of a sound sleep...doing mornings, I was getting up at 4AM. He told me that he and the Marriotts were buying WPGC, and he wanted me to assist them in doing some "community ascertainments" that were required by the FCC.

I told him that Bob Howard was also trying to buy the station, and that I worked for him, and assisting the Marriotts would border on "treason". He said Howard did not have the financial backing to buy the station. He said, "So, you're not going to help us?" I said, "I can't".

When the Marriotts took over, I knew my days there were numbered. I was the enemy. Potter called me into his office one morning after my show, and said "things were not working out". And they weren't.

In the meantime, I had been talking to Bob Howard's attorney, Jason Shrinsky. He was putting a deal together for someone that was going to buy what became DC101 - I think the guy was "Benderson". The negotiations dragged on and on.

Bob Howard could not put the money together to buy 'PGC. The Marriotts bought him out. It was over $500,000. Bob used the money to buy two stations in Buffalo, WYSL and WPHD in Oct '74., and he asked me to move here to program the two stations. I had worked for him since 1963, so we had a good working relationship. Bob sold the stations in '89 - walked away with 4.3mil...he passed away in 1993.

On His Days Since Then:

New owners came in and cleaned house - I mean EVERYBODY - 'cept me. I stayed on for a while, but decided to move on. I was doing the morning show with my friend Bob Taylor - The Taylor & Moore Show...highly successful. We had created the mythical Land of Fa - ruled by the Fa King. We told every Fa King joke you can think of. It was hilarious if I do say so myself. (We put a CD out a coupla years ago, and it was the #1 best seller here in Buffalo for months).

Anyway, the new owners thought they were building a better mousetrap, and brought in a new morning show. I think they had 4 different hosts in 4 weeks. Taylor and I went to another station in town, but we were on in the afternoon, and the format was different.

In 1995, independent record promoter Jerry Meyers and I started a small record company, producing and recording local singers. In 1998, the program director of Oldies 104, WHTT / Buffalo coaxed me into doing a Saturday show. Then, they asked me to do 12n-3p Monday thru Friday. Then, they asked me to be Assistant Program Director, and do 10a-3p Monday thru Friday. I later did afternoons, 2-7p.

My contract was up Dec 31, 2006. They let me know in October that they were dropping Oldies, going to a "Mix" format. I wasn't comfortable with that. They asked me stay on thru March 31, 2007 during the transistion. They still have me on their website. They want me to do some weekend work and special products, but I'm just kicking back for the present time.

Mike Cohen writes:

I can tell you that Harv Moore in my opinion was more than just a WPGC Good Guy. He was a Great Guy. Harv was the consummate morning man who was entertaining and funny. Consider... Harv aired one of Washington's highest rated morning shows without a producer and without being raunchy. (Harv occasionally got "spicey" but never crossed the line. Besides, its a lot harder to be funny and clean.) Harv was and I'm sure still is a "class" act. You can count me as a big Harv Moore fan both professionally and personally.

 

Columbus writes:

Most things seem so much more magical in the distance than when you get there...I heard Harv Moore on WPGC when I was in high school...the time when your favorite songs have this once in a lifetime significance...its hard to live up to that...but he did....Harv was a genuinely funny guy...didn't have to prepare stuff...just talking with him the humor was so natural...and he knew how to live in a big picture kind of way... on the edge but in control... always with a feeling for the people around him...we all have regrets ...and I mean this in the best way...I don't think Harv has too many... he's really a huge talent and a humble great guy...

 

BD Howard writes:

My dad (General Manager, Bob Howard) hired Harv Moore out of Kentucky and he seemed to stay with him forever, very few others stayed long! My dad and I had a falling out in'71 (by then my folks had already split) and he and I didn't speak for more than a decade. When we reunited, he was in Buffalo and Harv was still the Morning Mayor. I felt as though he was perhaps stuck in a time warp. He seemed to be, next to Dick Clark, the second oldest teenager in existence.

 

 

Anita Miller ("April May') writes:

Harv let eveyone get their 15 minutes of fame every chance he got and for a man of his fame that was amazing -- no ego just the boy next door for real. He told jokes about my blueberry muffins on air: I believe they were used for door stops and paper weights. Said my parents were going to enroll me in cooking school but I burnt the application! We got a lot of mileage out of my lack of culinary skills. I had to put the fire department on danger money every time I turned on the stove!

 

 

Rick Young writes:

Glenn Potter was looking to make changes in the station from the get-go. Harv was fired in January '75. Harv was not about to take direction from him, and THAT was no secret. Plus he had a fallback deal with Bob Howard which surprisingly took some time to put together. Harv was one hell of a nice guy, that I can absolutely attest to. I remember the day well. It was snowing like hell, and Potter entered Harv's office to give him his two weeks notice. Harv said he knew it was coming, but was surprised at the timing. Anyhow, and I wasn't there, he basically said "I'm outta here now".

I remember seeing Harv's office after he had left, and wondered what else was coming down. Barry Richards had this gig on Channel 20, and Harv and the Redhead were guests periodically during the transition to Buffalo. Then he was gone, and Joanie dropped off the map. There was a kind of real sadness as to what had transpired during my almost one year there. Morale had plummeted after the sale, and the Mormons were a disaster. They knew nothing about how to treat people, or about the radio business.

 

 

Photos

Business Card	The Morning Mayor in 1965	Good guy DJ in the '60's	The boy next door in 1970
In Teen Life Magazine	With Dean Griffith #2 (Hank Burdick)	Studio Shots,1971	An ear for the hits in 1971
With new control board in March '72	Mister Music in library, 1973	With Prog. Asst. Anita in 1973	With a record guy
With Big Wilson in 1973	With Joe Namath in 1973	With David Gates in 1973	With Big Wilson,  Bob Raleigh (Bill Miller) & Winners
Passin' Out the Cash with 'Big Money' in 1973	Keepin' the Cash Comin' in 1973	With a 'Big Money' contest winner in 1973	Still another 'Big Money' contest winner in 1973
With Jim Collins,  ? & Columbus	With Billy Kilmer in 1973	With 'The Redhead' in 1973	w/Levi's Gremlin winner in 1973
Ridin' high at the circus in 1973	w/Jim Collins & Bob Raleigh (Bill Miller) in 1974	With Kash for Kids Guy in 1974	Before station sale, in 1974

Playlists

Click on thumbnails below to see enlargements.

05/21/71	06/05/71	06/12/71
06/26/71	07/24/71	09/04/71
10/16/71	10/23/71	11/13/71
03/18/72	05/13/72	02/10/73
04/07/73	04/14/73	06/16/73
07/07/73	08/04/73	10/27/73
11/10/73	01/12/74	04/13/74