Granville’s Bascom spun great DJ career
By Erik Pekar, Town Historian
One of the many forms of entertainment is listening to the radio. Over the years, people have listened to the radio for many different types of programs, many of which had announcers or disc jockeys. Among the plethora of DJs who have graced the airwaves of the radio stations of the Northeast is Granville’s own Bob Bascom.
The road to the radio industry, and Bascom’s interest in it, began in his youth. “It started when I was very young,” recalled Bascom, “I might have been 10 or 12 years old. My sister and a couple of her friends would be at the house on Saturdays, watching American Bandstand, the TV show with Dick Clark. I thought, ‘wow, that’s pretty cool’, and, ‘I’d really like to play guitar and be up on stage’.” Bascom couldn’t play an instrument, but made a revelation. He recalled, “I said, ‘well, maybe I could play records,’ [with] other people singing and playing instruments.”
Bascom began to look into how he could get into radio. “From maybe age 15 or age 16,” recalled Bascom, “I started calling radio stations, talking to disc jockeys, requesting songs at first, but wanting to learn about the business.” One station soon stood out from his call-in efforts. “I became friends with two or three disc jockeys at a very popular radio station in Albany, WPTR,” recalled Bascom. “One in particular, fellow with the name Bruce Wayne, like the Batman, real name Ralph Iannotti, was my mentor . . . he mentored me into the business.”
The leads with the WPTR disc jockey soon steered Bascom right into radio. “They [arranged] for me to come down to Albany, and I would hang out at the radio station with the biggest legendary disc jockeys of this area back in the 50s and 60s. Bruce Wayne, Charlie Brown, Boom Brannigan, Don DeRosa . . . they’re the guys that mentored me into the business.”
Bascom graduated from Granville High School in 1968. After that, he continued his journey into radio. “They [the WPTR disc jockeys] got me into a trade school in New York City, called the Career Academy of Broadcasting,” said Bascom. “I attended there and got more background on how to be a radio DJ and all that, and broadcaster.” Bascom excelled in the trade school, and a year later, he graduated. He recalled, “I was not really a great student in school, growing up [in] elementary and high school, but I did very well in radio school. I am very proud that I was second in my class at radio school in New York City.”
Having received training and education in the intricacies of radio, Bascom was now ready for the big time, to actually be on a radio station. “Shortly after I graduated . . . I went to work at WKAG, Saratoga, New York,” he recalled. “That was my first station, worked part time there.” Next, he went to WBZA, in Glens Falls.
This early stint in local radio did not last long. The Vietnam War was in full swing at the time, and the draft was active. “We were all holding draft cards . . . [there] was pressure on all of us to determine whether we were going to serve or what branch we would serve in,” recalled Bascom. He joined the Navy. “My father was Navy, so I wanted to be like my Dad,” said Bascom, adding that he also joined “because I was going to be drafted in the Army, I was already informed.”
Bascom spent about four years in active service in the Navy, including schooling. His broadcasting talents did not go unnoticed. “[I] became a broadcaster in the Navy too. So I got to carry my profession over into my military career,” recalled Bascom. “I worked for American Forces Radio, AFPN, the American Forces Philippines Network. Two locations, one year in San Miguel, Philippines, and then one year at Subic Bay. Then I finished out my military career.”
Upon returning to the States and separating from the Navy, Bascom delved into radio. “I started my radio career full term. It was in Rutland, Vermont. . . . I worked with WHWB. They called that the Castle radio station, right across from Wilson Castle up there, on West Proctor Road.” Bascom moved between the stations a few times, adding that “I worked for the McCormick family in Rutland Vermont, with WHWB, Vermont Radio, WSYB, it was WRUT, then they changed the name, the call letters, to Z97.”
In the late 1980s, Bascom went to work at WFEA in Manchester, New Hampshire, owned by Sunshine Group Broadcasting. “New Hampshire was later in life, for a couple of years. That was the highest paying radio job I had. But it was a market of a quarter million people, plus it went into the Boston market,” said Bascom. His time in Manchester came to an end in an unusual way. “That’s the only station I got fired from,” recalled Bascom. “Now I didn’t get fired for any kind of insubordination, I was fired as a budget cut.” It came as a surprise for him, but in the end it worked out. “Oh, I remember crying after that . . . [but] six months later, they went out of business. It was a blessing, I would have lost my job.”
After the time over in Manchester, Bascom returned to the Granville area, seeking a local station. “I wanted to be close to Granville because I love Granville so much, and took the job with Pine Tree Broadcasting,” recalled Bascom. “Lakes Region Radio, which was kind of like a mom-and-pop station, but it was a brother and sister, Michael and Judy Leech.”
As the 1990s progressed, Bascom decided to try his hand at commercial production. He was familiar with the work, having done it in the employ of radio stations. Bascom recalled “that started early for me, I got real lucky . . . I got hired to do commercials for Chevron, which was a gas company, and they had a promotion for china [plates] or something that they were giving out for every so many gallons of gas. It was a national commercial.” For a few years he had a company based in Granville, called Pro Voice Productions, which made radio commercials and identifications and the like. He soon caught the radio bug once more, and by the end of the decade Bascom was back at Lakes Region Radio.
The Lakes Region Radio morning show took on a new form with Bascom’s return. “It developed in the last couple of decades that morning radio was banter, several people in the studio,” recalled Bascom. “So we developed that in Poultney here, with Judy who owned the station, Roy, who was our sidekick, a 90 year old man who joined us. We found that was great because it was a mix of a couple of generations.” The show with Bob, Judy and Roy was successful for some years.
Bascom cites the support his parents gave towards his goals as a reason for his success. “I like to say that my real heroes are my parents, who were great Granville people. Marguerite Bascom, Romaine Bascom, nicknamed Dub, and they were retailers on Main Street. . . . [they] respected the fact that I liked the radio thing,” said Bascom. “It’s very important that parents let their kids develop their wings, let them do what they want to do, because it’s their life once they fly out of that nest.”
Bascom interviewed many musicians over the years. One standout in the musicians he recalled was the late Harry Chapin. “One of the nicest people . . . [he] and his wife Sandy had a place . . . up near Castleton, Vermont. . . . Harry was one who worked with us in Rutland on Jimmy Fund, and on other fundraising. He was a humanitarian type guy, always helping people.”
The radio career of Bascom also resulted in him meeting some local politicians. In New York, he met some early on. “Jerry Solomon, who became a big politician in Washington, . . . and the late Ed Bartholomew, who was Mayor of Glens Falls . . . the three of us [worked together] at WBZA. That’s an interesting bit of trivia there.” During his time in Rutland, he met quite a few politicians. “Bernie, . . . Pat Leahy, Bob Stafford, Jim Jeffords, people like that in Vermont, Tom Salmon, Dick Snelling,” said Bascom. He recalled an anecdote of an encounter with Dick Snelling. “I can remember Governor Dick Snelling of Vermont, walking into the Rutland station, kidding me because he knew I lived in Granville. He’d say, ‘Oh, I see, you make your money in Vermont, take it back to New York.’ I said to him, ‘Well, you have to remember how many Vermonters work at Telescope.’ ‘Ah! Touché, touché,’ he said.”
Bascom also liked meeting the average person. “One of the things I enjoyed the most of my career was doing those kinds of things . . . the public . . . festivals, fairs, carnivals, broadcasting from those. They were loads of fun. You’d meet the people, a lot of people you never got to meet otherwise. They’d hear you, come up and introduce themselves. It was a real treat.”
Bascom retired in 2012 from the Lakes Region Radio stations, WVNR and WNYV, ending about 40 years of involvement in the radio industry. Now 72, Bascom makes his residence in the Philippines along with his close friend and wife Joji, who originally lived there.
Looking back on his career, Bascom is thankful of his opportunity to enter broadcasting. “I just feel so blessed, that I could a job that I wanted to do, since I was a kid,” said Bascom. “I do have days where I wake up missing it. I miss going into the studio, because it was a fun time. But, I like retirement too, except for the aches and pains of being 72.” The local fame never changed his perception or outlook, however. “We’re all the same,” said Bascom, “We’re all brothers and sisters.” Listeners of radio stations fondly recall the shows and disc jockeys that they liked, and Bob Bascom is remembered in well regard by those who listened to his programs.
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