Rambling With Gambling

We always took radio for granted, whether it was AM or later FM. It was free, though would fade in and out at inconvenient times like in a tunnel or on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge.

We don't take satellite radio for granted mostly because it's new and we pay for it, but we probably will someday. Will we notice when they stop putting AM/FM radios in our automobiles? I wouldn't know because my Mazda was built in 2000 and I have no intention of ever owning another car or truck. I'll rent them for a purpose but never own one again. Not even if its gifted to me. Too much bother and expense. It's a long gone era in which, mostly men, measured their self-worth by the kind of car they drove.

The title of this post is Rambling With Gambling and he was a fixture in our kitchen growing up and on the car radio if my mother was driving. New, Weather, Sports, and Observations was how I would describe it. A less charitable person might say that is how they filled the airtime they had been given. I know better as I was a DJ, or Radio Personality, in college. It was an unpaid job and highly coveted. You didn't want to screw up by having dead air, when no music or PSA (Public Service Announcement) was playing or the news was being read. I used to like when the teletype machine which received news stories would do a three or four ring alarm. That meant it was important and had to be read as soon as possible. I liked these when they occurred in the middle of the night, which was my preferred time slot. After 2AM one of these alarms one time sent me running to the machine only to discover it was a test. If I had read the earlier feeds I would have known in advance. Undoubtably,  I was busy wading throught the stacks and stacks of albums our station owned, WDCV 88.3 on your FM dial in Carlisle, PA. I could do that call in my sleep.

From Wikipedia:
Rambling with Gambling was a news and talk radio program that aired in New York City from 1925 through 2016, almost uninterrupted, with one name change toward the end of its run. It was hosted by three generations of people named John Gambling throughout its entire 90+ year run.

From the Internet

Helicopter 710

Thought back to the days of Fred Feldman and helicopter 710, while stuck in traffic on the Northern State Parkway on Long Island. There were 4 helicopters covering the traffic, which I could see. Overkill, maybe?

In my youth, on the little radio in the kitchen, there was only one helicopter pilot and that was Fred Feldman.  Here is his obituary from 20 October 1996:

"Fred Feldman, New York radio's first helicopter reporter who spent 16 airborne years monitoring traffic for rush-hour commuters and who invented the term ''rubbernecking delays'' to explain why they would be late for work, died on Friday at his home in Roseland, N.J. He was 63."

 It is amazing to compare our little kitchen radio which gave us school closings on winter days, and Fred Feldman's reports on the roads from his perch in Helicopter 710 on Monday through Friday.

There were not many helicopters reporting on traffic in those days, let alone in wind and snow. Fred did it for a long time and we appreciated his insight even if we we not on the roads he was reporting upon. He provided a soothing patter, as did many of the radio broacasters or the era.

Our mothers were at home and looking out their kitchen windows for trouble on the street. The calming voice of Fred Feldman was often in the background, as well as the generations of John Gamblings:

Rambling with Gambling: