The Norm Nathan Show

On wz D.

Thank you, Dan Watkins, and I'm gonna enjoy it. Not that I didn't enjoy have enjoyed and on or brian on, but this takes me back to one of the men I personally have to tip a cap to that helped me get into radio, that helped me get on WBZ and that I used to enjoy listening to when I was a civilian. I'm just gonna say, Sonya, welcome, old Sport.

Thank you, thank you. It's so nice to be with you.

It's nice to have you. And I'm asking you if you remember the last time we were face to face.

I well, I believe it was at the movies. It was at the Friday night books.

Yes, it was free Friday nights.

Yes.

In fact, I went recently. I went. I hadn't been in years, and I went back this past summer and I and I was so sad. Yeah, you were. You were one of the attractions for me besides the movie.

Well, thank you for saying that. I did that for fourteen years in a row, and things happened. It was time to hang up the holsters, so to speak.

You get a great thank you.

I thank you for saying that Let's talk about your dad. Let's talk about peepers, Let's talk about the dumb birthday game, let's talk about sounds in the night. For anybody who may not have been around for Norm Nathan, explain to them the magic of your father.

Well, I don't even know where to begin, because I'm going to start breaking up a little bit. I'm going to try not to do this because nobody, nobody wants to hear me ugly cry. But he just was one of the funniest human beings I knew, and everyday situations he could twist them around and make them funny. And he just always had a bright side to him. And I know that his tagline was I want to leave the world a little funnier than I found it, And I think that he absolutely achieved that goal.

Of the things that I mentioned that were purely Norm talk about his love of the peepers.

He would every single year, he would go out because he was one of those people that live for warmer weather like most of us do, and he would start his countdown as soon as the days started getting longer, and as soon as the peepers it was peeper season. He would go out and go out and near. We had a bog and on our property and he would go out and record the peepers. And to this day, when I and he had he actually had a little key chain made where you could hit a button and

Now, I told you a number of stories that I heard Nor talk about on the air, and I talked about one and you remembered him bringing back a promotion from that. There was a movie that came out in the mid sixties with James Coleburn. They did two of them, Our Man Flint and In Like Flint and In Like Flint had had a theme song called Your Fabulous Face, and every now and then on easy listening stations you'll

Go ahead, right, Well, he my father was not a shopper, and so apparently I think he was given some kind of straw hat, and I think he wanted to be a big hit with my mother and he brought it home and she was not impressed at the slightest and she wasn't really a material person. But I do remember that story vividly because she was really upset that that was his offering after being away, you know, with you know, on a pretty exciting junket, and that's what he brought

Know, but for those that don't. Norman was married to Norma Nathan. The I column of the Herald page six reference like from New York. That's what Norman Nathan did, like page six does in New York. And she would do celebrity stories and who did what to whom depending and they made a great couple, Norman Norman Nathan.

Yeah. She named them the Mockdown media couple because because because the non mockdown media couple at that time was Nat and uh Natalie and check.

And check Curtis.

Yes, yes, And.

I'm going to take a break in about two minutes now. My producer said, you want a producer, your producer to join us. Tell us who's going to be joining us.

So his name is Tony Nesbitt, and I with him.

Yeah, I know very well.

Yeah, well, so Tony Tony has has created he's cultivated I don't know what the what the rape burb is, but he's created a YouTube YouTube channel on my dad and it's called Norm Nathan's Vault of Silliness with Tony Nesbit and he is cultivated over to one hundred volumes of this so or episodes, I guess that's what you would call it. And so I listened to it, and

Now I'm gonna suggest to people, I'm a minute away from a break, if you want to call in and talk Norm Nathan would Sonya Nathan Now, Sonya Nathan broad Street? Is that your marriage?

Last name Brad brad Street.

Brad Street. I'm sorry, sir, that's okay. She is here. We're going to talk about that old sport Norm Nathan. Up to eleven o'clock. Please join us phone number six one, seven, two, five four ten thirty or eight eight eight, nine to nine, ten thirty. And I can't wait to talk to Tony because I haven't spoken him in easily six or seven years. And let's just take the break so we can get it up the way asap. Time and temperature ten fifteen forty one degrees on Nightside.

Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.

Oh boy o, boy o boy, this is going to be a fun hour. I've got Sonya Nathan, daughter of Norm Nathan. I've got Tony Nesbitt, former producer here at WBZ. Tony. How the hell are you?

Morgan?

Sonya?

How are you?

It's good to hear your voice. For those of you who don't know, Tony produced everything here BZ Bruins, games, Norm Nathan's show, News. He was mister everything in those days.

Brud's David Brudnoy Peter read Dave Maynard.

On there was no end, no end to the way the station used you.

Well, it's funny because you mentioned it. Thanksgiving us tomorrow and happy Thanksgiving to both of you. There was definitely uh I thank tonya my sister from another mister.

I was.

I remember driving in to do the Majord Show during a little bit of a snowstorm early one morning on Thanksgiving morning. I can't quite recall if that was the day I was working sixteen hours and something like that. I was doing like from five am to nine pm. That was the only person. I was the only person available.

Giving You want to know something, I am in my home so when I say goodbye bye boss the at twelve o'clock, I can walk twelve steps and be in my bedroom.

Wow, you I know, right, And what you've.

Left to have had that option back.

In the day, you know, I don't know. Because it was such a thrill. I have to pinch myself sometimes all those people that I got a chance to work with and get to know and just be a part of a great time in radio. So it would be better to be there with everything than to be.

Will never be replaced. You've got magic.

Well, I was gonna say Tony would miss out on all my dad's really beautiful outfits if he didn't come. Yes, because you really needed to witness my dad's wodrobe in person.

The plaid and the hay on the shoes being at home.

You just you can't get that it doesn't have the same effect.

Well, I'm going to bring another I'm going to bring another person into this conversation because I know all of you knew him, and he knew your father very well. Call from Brookline, Bill Winnaker, Bill, good evening.

Oh wow, that's cool.

Good evening, Sonia, Hello everybody you know Bow and I considered Norm almost like a second father because we got addicted to his radio show. This was before Busy Sounds in the Night.

Morgan.

You must remember the show.

Oh clearly I mentioned it.

Okay, I'm sorry, I'm late to the show tonight. But Sounds in the Night on HDH, which is no more HDH as far as I know.

But.

That show went into the wee small hours of the morning. I was about twelve years old when I started listening to that, and I would go to school every morning like hop dead. I couldn't you know. I was up all night listening because he played. He played all jazz all night long, and I learned about the local organist Joe Boucci who used to play on Route one and different clubs, and it'd play Count Basie and it played

I had no knowledge of that. I'm so happy to learn of it though.

Yeah, it was an incredible he was so witty, I mean, he was a great, great host. It would have been a great show, but they decided not to finance it and go with it. But he did have us play this big benefit fundraiser and Bo was only ten and I was thirteen at the time. But we get a lot of special things with your dad, and we even played at your house. You did, and yes we did for a very special occasion.

What community.

U whe Where were you up like a farm up there? What? What town was that?

Middleton?

Middleton?

Yeah, we came to Middleton. We played at Middleton for like a s busnister or something like that.

You can't I'm rubbing all this, all these all these stories about my dad.

That of that uh was a paper.

We never got to see it, you know, all the all the years I was looking for it, and it's got to be a lost tape or something. But the show would have been incredible. He had great guests on and we we played the music and oh it was just I wanted to see that so much, but never go to see it.

To begin to.

Search, it's one of the four one of the three major stations, either four or five or seven. Okay, seven is now not not the seven It was back.

Then, and don't forget back. Then five was hd H that's right, seventy two it became CVB.

But it gave me goosebumps. If your dad did such a great job, I mean that show could have gone national, but they didn't want to finance at whatever station that was.

Your best guess place to start looking would have to be Channel four because they've stayed in the same building TV wise.

Yeah, so yeah, no, normal was all. I've been trying to track that down for years. And while we're.

Well, she.

Told you your mother was so good to us too. Over the years. She was great.

I did.

I did her a favor. One night she we were playing at the Kennedy wedding well. Peter Lawford's thought I got married to uh uh got married to Peter McKelvey.

Uh.

And so Peter Laffer was married to one of the Kennedy sisters. And so we played on the compound and your mother wanted coverage of that, but no one could get in. So I took pictures of the whole night, brought them to the Herald about two three in the morning. They developed them. I was I never got my film back, so I don't have those pictures. But they filled the whole column of the Sunday paper the next day to Kennedy wedding. But I love both of your parents and

And I know I've told this story before, but I'm going to do the best I can to be as brief as possible with a break coming up. Norm was working at HDH the summer of eighty Saturday nights. He would do trivia on his show and Joe and Jane Citizen I say it that way, meaning just the listeners. He would pick and choose a variety of listeners to be a part of the trivia panel, of which I got chosen uh to be a regular contributor. That fall,

I never heard that story before. So I'm glad you told it. You You're you're the best trivia person I've ever run across, because there isn't a subject you can't talk about.

Thank you for that. But I have to do this. Take a break because it's ten to thirty. We've got news coming up. If Tony was here, he'd be yelling in my earphones right now.

So let's say the three of you. Yes, you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Yeah, I'll bring you Bill. It's going to hang up. Bill, Bye bye. Thank you for calling. Simon Temperature here on night Side ten thirty made it forty one.

Degrees night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ Boston's news radio sound.

You're hearing our papers recording made by Norm Nathan somewhere in the i'll say eighties and nineties, and the redistributing of the sound is thanks to Tony Nesbitt, who has painstakingly that all of Norm's cuts and clips from back in the day and made them available again. We have Sonia Nathan here and Tony is as well. So Tony tell people how they can hear, because I think you have over two hundred clips of Norm.

I do.

First, I wanted to say I know exactly where that cut was recorded when, probably early nineties, like you said, But that was Norm risking his life at the end of his driveway in Middleton, at the bog that he had at the end. That's why you hit the cars racing by as.

He was recording.

I hope it's worth something irridescent so people could see him.

Yeah, you know, I don't know the plaid. Maybe he had some reflectors on, or he pocked the car down there too before he came into work. That's every spring. That's where he got the cuts from. And now I go out every spring and I record the peepers and air them on the little podcast if you will, or rebroadcast.

Podcast that I do called norm Nathan's Vault of Silliness with your what.

Are the call letters? Or how do you find that?

All?

Right?

So it's it's on all sorts of streaming platforms, so you can find it on YouTube and Spotify, Amazon, Uh, you know, pocket cast Cast dos just every whey pretty much everywhere good pods. iHeart that's a familiar name, I think.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's every week I put out an episode. It varies in length anywhere from an hour to this week, we've got like ninety minutes, and I've got a whole bunch of cassettes, some that from my own personal collection and a ton of them that were just I mean, you want to talk about pains taking Lee and just the love and dedication that was put into this by a listener, Joan from Cooksbury, who is still with us,

And Jack Hart listening, call in, call in and what's the lady from Tewkesbury's name, Joan? Joan, if you're listening, please call in. And anybody listening who had affection in their heart for Norm Nathan. We have about twenty minutes of this subject to go. Please call in and Sonya do me a favorite. Tell people what Norm was like. He has just done five or six hours of overnight radio and he comes in the house six thirty quarter of seven.

Talk about that experience, Well, he a lot of times, I e.

It was I probably was sleeping when he came home, and that that was one of the downsides of all of the different shifts that he had, because most of them were at night. However, he loved working at night because he had a real distrust of bosses and management and so he he just thought this was well because right Tony he had all the freedom he wanted, which was great. And that's why that was that was magical, magical radio that was happening during those those wee hours.

And if I'm not mistaken, both HDH and bz's management program directors then let them play what of the music he wanted to play? Is that accurate?

Well, this was funny. But when I was a kid, I would he had to fill out these sheets where he would have to put in the songs that he was going to play during his his shift, and he didn't really want to do that, so he had me do it. And I was thrilled because I thought this is really cool. And so I would, you know, make up all of the playlists for him for his shifts, and I thought that was really fun. And he, you know, because at the time, there were two shifts at WHH.

That was my music.

So anyway, but getting back to when he came home, he would probably feed the chickens, and because he really considered himself like a Lloyd farmer or a lord mayor of our property, which we had a nice piece of property, and he lovingly, you know, took care of the horse and we had a compost bin and chickens and dogs and cats that all kind of ran free on our property.

All right, That darn sun casts so much light into the windows. Let's let's speaking of the phone ringing, Let's take a call. It's Scott and Land. So Scott, let's talk about norm Nathan. How do you feel about.

Nor Hi Morgan? Scott Scot, I know you, Sonia, I know you. We have a mutual we have a mutual friend Wendy.

Wendy. We oh, okay.

I think that's maybe how how we might have met.

I think I'm excusing you with another scritch, but I know the Wendy that you speak of.

Yes, yes, well, Sonia, I loved hearing your dad on Friday and Saturday nights overnight. I would see it my friend's bakery. He was an overnight baker on Newman's Bakery and swamp Scott and uh. While we were on hanging out in the shop, we'd have norm on and one of our favorite things is was when he would call phone booths around the world.

He would call part remember that.

Let's say remember that, Morgan, Yes, I do. Oh? Was that was that enjoyable? And you know in those days.

Still have the list of phone numbers Scott, Oh you do you?

Wow, that's great.

I don't even know if.

They say, I don't think, I don't. You can't find a phone booth anymore.

I know I would be ask if you got anybody with it would be fun to try and see who picked up.

Was still by somebody else?

You know, well, you.

Try that, I'll do a live broadcast or something, and.

Yeah, we'll do that, but that was that was funny. And someone would pick up and Norman say, you're on the air in Boston and you know what's going on in Paris, And it was just such an exciting thing to hear on the radio. And and then and then and they talked to his friend Chauncey. Yeah, it's kind of this, the character with his lovely bride, remember, you know, and he would say, how are you, Norman old Sport?

Remember those it was yet Yeah.

That's right, that's true, Tonya, yes, oh yeah. One one year there was one of those First Night celebrations in Beverly and your dad was a featured speaker at the one of the church. One of the churches in Beverly is part of the First Night and I went. I

Okay, Tony, don't you find that amusing? Tony?

Oh? I do?

I know?

You do?

You know what you wish for the same.

But today Friday and Saturday overnights are a special time slot, you know, for the over the weekend, and it was I just wanted to say, it was such such a pleasure to hear your.

Dad on the radio over the years.

I agree with you.

Yes, that time.

Slot has been golden hours for legends of BZ. Yes, think of I think it term Bergeron, think of Jordan Rich. I can keep going, but I'm gonna take a break, So Scott, thank you for the call.

Thank you very much, and every Thanksgiving to everybody.

All right, let me take a break. We'll get one more segment, and we've got a call from Idaho. Next up here on night Side, Dan Rai's off tonight. I'm here on Morgan time and temperature ten forty six forty one degrees.

Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.

All right, we have got two callers and two people online. Tony Nesbitt is one of the two people online. Former producer here at BZ, producer everyone and everything. There was not a show that he was not a master control riding the board as they say, and Sonya was, yes you were, and overworked and underpaid. And they said Brad Street is here, and her claimed the same. She was Norm's daughter. So let's take a couple more calls and get out cleanly. I have Laurie and Idaho Laurie.

Good evening, good evening, everybody nice to us. No, I don't I have to say thank you for the peepers. It almost maybe cried. Was in New England for years. I came out to the Pacific Northwest to do the aging parent thing for a few years. And oh, I'm assuwing them, but thank you for those peepers. So Tony on the stuff you have on your your podcast or whatever it is, can I get those peepers and listen to them?

Yes, they are part of usually I played them at springtime. Okay, so end of March April. So the shows that are around that time, I'd have to do a quick search as to you know which number of the shows. I also am on Patreon to help support the show.

I didn't do anything for a few years, and I started that up. Also, there's another thing called buy me a coffee.

Obviously, all right show, how I hear you guys right here too.

Yeah, And so the show is on iHeart. I'm not sure how many they There's some streaming platforms like Amazon. Google used to do this as well, Spotify with they'll only have the last twenty five episodes. But YouTube and my distributor Castos they have every episode all the way from one to currently two hundred and eleven. I think, oh wow, yeah, so there's a lot to listen. Then I need to discover the Patreon site. I should add

Let me ask.

I don't mind doing the torch rob.

I mean anything like that number. I don't know.

Number was what? Uh?

Is there a number attached to the peeper clip that you played? Okay, all right.

I can I can do a quick search here, Yeah you can, you guys.

Please, I want to say my production.

Right. When I get a little I will search my scripts and just do a little word search for papers and see what happens.

All right, la, but tell me no. My introducing to Norm was I was I went from friends to a place northern Vermont of summer camp and I'm a terrible sleeper. So I had my walkman with the radio thing on it. The only station that came in was whatever station he was on at that time, and that was my discovery of him, and I loved him. And I have to agree with the Bob Broley comment. So thank you very much.

Ry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving. There goes Laurie, and probably i'll last call it some quincy John. You made it happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving and many many more and greatly appreciated what you all do. And God bless and Okay, everything's fantastic as usual. Thank you. First, Yeah, Nom Nathan was great. Mister McDonald was great, and your other gentleman, mister Brudnoyd, he was great, and all the shows are great and w h C H W b Z. Yeah, it's we're very buss where we live. And that was nice to war. He's cutting from Idaho. It's a very fortunate your trivia. I answered the trivia question on the radio one time,

I do recall that, I recall the situation. I don't remember the question, but I do even remember you saying donated to the homeless, which I did.

I know you did, your your your, You're a keeper, as they say.

Well, thank you, Yes he is. What about norm Nathan? What more do you want to add to what's been said over the past hour.

Uh, other than he was a class act and the credit to the way he was raised and brought up into the business and everything else. And he you know, he made the world a better place.

Yes, he did. Good thing to say at the end.

And when you said Nemuth, the first thing I thought it was the monkeys.

It's funny you mentioned the monkeys. Over the weekend on my show Tend to Midnight, The Morgan Show, I interviewed Mickey Dolans just fortality was.

The only only live, only one alive.

Yeah, that be a question, isn't it.

Mike is gone and Peter's gone.

It's sad he's he's the keeper of the plane.

And the other one Dave Davy Jones, Peter Jones.

David Jones passed away first, Peter Tork passed away second, and Mike Nesmith passed away within the past two years, and Mickey is the one left. All right, John, I gotta go, but but thank you for your merry Christmas Giving, well, happy Thanksgiving, and Tony, I'm glad to hear you still around and your thing, your fingers are still in the business.

It's the radial courses through my veins.

What can I said? Well, there you go, and it's nice to hear your thank you and Sonya. I'm so glad that we were able to get in touch and I could get you in the radio because as you hear, there's still a lot of people who have an elevated perspective of your father.

Well as I as I said you because I think this all came about because we heard you talk about my dad over the summer with Jack Hrt and when I wanted to call your producer, not to be on the air, but just to let you know how grateful I am that you are keeping his memory alive, because that's that's so important for us. And isn't it nice that we're sharing that mission with you?

Yeah, and well you know what, I wouldn't be sitting in front of this microphone now if it weren't for your father.

Well, he was the best and you were you were inh worm. You absolutely are all.

Right, you too. I gotta go, you know, news is knocking you guys.

Happy, thank you, thank you very much, thank.

You, Tony. Happy Thanksgiving, Sonya. We will be in some time. We will do it again sometime in twenty two.

I would love that, would love that, and be well and thank you so much, thank you.

Bye bye. All right, next hour, we're gonna talk about your favorite concert here in BC time. In temperature ten fifty eight forty one degrees