40 Years of Pete Fornatale and Me

[LewGoodman]

A strange event occurred at 12 noon on Saturday, November 21, 1964. A rock music show or a rock 'n' roll show, as many still called it, debuted on FM radio in New York City. Some of us know what the "F" and the "M" really stand for, but in 1964 stodgy America said it meant "Fine Music." Fine, as in Montovanni and Andre Kostelanetz (commonly referred to in later years as Muzak or elevator music) and fine, as in "real" classical music. For a 19-year-old Fordham University sophomore to convince the powers that be at a Jesuit-run radio station, licensed as an educational radio station, to allow him to host a weekly rock 'n' roll show was a phenomenal work of persuasion that might rank up there with the power of a master politician, say a Bill Clinton, for argument's sake. But that is exactly what this kid from the 'hood was able to do. He called himself Pete Fornatale, which, by the way, was his real name. That's all--just a common ordinary diminutive of a first name and his entire last name. To look at the landscape of New York rock radio in 1964, there were three powerhouses--all on the AM band--and the most popular DJ at each went by the stage names of Murray the K, BMR, and Cousin Brucie. Sure, we knew their entire real names, but the audience was deemed too unsophisticated to accept them--we needed something catchier, so it was thought.

It was on a Saturday between noon and 2 PM in January or February 1966 that I entered Macy's Parkchester, in the Bronx, to search for a color TV/AM/FM/phono combination. I was 15 years old and no rich kid. We were definitely lower middle class, but I had amassed some $2,000 from my bar mitzvah (which occurred the day after JFK's assassination) and I was quite determined to part with some of it. After all, CBS and ABC had joined the ranks of NBC in September 1965 with all-color programming and being obsessed with rock music, I felt it was time to get a stereo phonograph, but I actually don't recall why I wanted an FM radio--perhaps it was only because "they" didn't make color TV/AM/phono combos. I immediately caught the rock song that was coming from one of these combos at Macy's and considering that all the salesmen were middle-aged, I found that odd. You see, rock was "just for kids" back then, though, of course, Ed Sullivan was savvy enough to know it made money for adults as well. Then, all of a sudden, my need for a color TV became quite unimportant--this music was coming from an FM station! I was flabbergasted. I learned in a very short amount of time that day that the station was WFUV at 90.7 FM and that this show was on every Saturday from noon to 2 PM. I memorized that and knew that as soon as my combo arrived, I had to listen to this DJ who wasn't talking as if his chair were on fire. No, he spoke in a normal pattern at a moderate speed--not unlike a Walter Cronkite or an Eric Severeid--but he wasn't speaking about Congress or inflation--he was talking about rock! Holy excrement!

That my RCA color TV/AM/FM/phono combination arrived on a Saturday between noon and 2 PM was just a coincidence, but it was an astounding one at that. Immediately after the deliverymen left, I tuned to 90.7 FM and my life would never be the same! The date was March 5, 1966. I started listening to Pete Fornatale, whose show, by the way, was entitled "Campus Caravan," for all 120 minutes every Saturday and it quickly became the most important part of my week. You may wonder why Pete's show meant so much to me. The best way to put it was that here was a child of rock who was extremely knowledgeable about the music that he played, and, obviously, loved, talking to us as if he were a friend. He also had a weekly "Sinatra's Corner," before that was considered cool, and a weekly "Comedy Capers," where I fell in love with the recordings of Woody Allen. But as much as I totally adored Pete and everything about "Campus Caravan," one day in July 1966 I had just about enough of his favorite group, the Beach Boys, and wrote him a lengthy letter, in which I said, "All good things must come to an end," and requested that he start concentrating on my favorite group--the 4 Seasons. The following Saturday, to my utter and total surprise, Pete read my entire lengthy letter on the air, only omitting the names of the DJ's who were on WMCA and WABC on Saturdays from noon to 2 PM, whom I had mildly reproached. (By this time, there were only two rock stations left on New York radio.) Pete did something else which caught my ear; he signed my letter off from "Lew" Goodman, though I had signed it "Lewis" Goodman. I continued to mail Pete a letter every week, signing it "Lewis;" Pete continued reading them on the air, calling me "Lew." Before long, I loved being called "Lew," and I "became" Lew, so, in effect, Pete Fornatale named me. This was quite appropriate, as he certainly meant a lot more to me then than my parents did. I believe that the thrill of hearing my name on the air affected me profoundly. I was a very smart kid and very proud of that. I had my love of the Beatles, the British invasion in general, and the 4 Seasons. I had some good friends. But my home life was one of intense sadness. My older sister, and only sibling, was hospitalized for schizophrenia. My mother forced me to keep that a secret. My parents were extremely neurotic. I had virtually taken off from school for an entire school year--September 1964 to June 1965. I didn't respect my father. I didn't have a girlfriend and the thought of having one was quite remote. But Pete was there for me and, in effect, saving my life. Because my best friend's grandfather worked for RCA, my friend and I purchased tape recorders that played giant cassettes (the technology never caught on) at the RCA Family Store in the RCA building in 1965. I found Pete the following year and was able to plug the tape recorder into the RCA combo and record "Campus Caravan" directly off the air without using a microphone! What would they think of next?! I recorded most of Pete's shows and one Saturday, when I had to take an achievement test in order to become an undergrad at Fordham University, I even successfully taught my mother how to tape the show!

Yes, Pete profoundly affected me in many ways. From the time I was seven until I was 14 or so, I had wanted to become a newspaper sports reporter (a combo of my love for Clark Kent and sports). Then, for a year, I had wanted to become a lawyer. But soon after Pete Fornatale came into my life, I decided to follow in his footsteps and become a DJ at WFUV! And in order to become a DJ at WFUV, one, even if non-Catholic, had to first become a student at Fordham. It didn't take me long to fall in love with Fordham's campus. With Gothic architecture and lots of grass (this was in my pre-marijuana days) its 80-acre campus was an oasis that sat in the middle of the Bronx. I first got to speak to Pete on the phone in October 1966 and he asked me my age. I said, "15, but I'll be 16 next month." Well, I guess that impressed him enough to invite me to the show the following week. Needless to say, that was the thrill of a lifetime. I soon realized that WFUV's antenna, atop Keating Hall, was clearly visible from virtually all the windows in my parents' apartment (two and a half miles away), so I'd often look at the antenna while listening to Pete. I visited the show many times that senior year of high school. And Pete frequently asked me to join him, Frank DeLigio and Tom Luciani (Pete's engineers) after the show for lunch. The first time it was at a nearby coffee shop that Tom called "the Greeks." Now, my mother had forbidden me to eat hamburgers out. ("You never know what they're chopping up.") But I guess since everyone ordered a burger, I followed suit. And there it was--a frozen patty that tasted just great!

I'll never forget that Saturday, in April 1967, when Rosko was Pete's guest. By then, FM had a full-time rock station, WOR-FM, thanks to the FCC forcing AM stations that simulcast on their FM stations to cease and desist doing so, and Rosko had quickly established himself as a giant there and a giant of New York radio. After the show, Pete invited me to join him and seven others for lunch at Ralph's, an Italian restaurant in the Allerton section of the Bronx that was owned by Ralph Gaudio, the first cousin of Bob Gaudio of the 4 Seasons. (Pete was quick to point that out to me.) I was wearing prescription sunglasses and inadvertently left my regular glasses in Bill Crowley's MG (Bill's now an anchorman on WCBS-AM), so by the time I retrieved them and entered the restaurant, there were only eight chairs at the round table. Rosko insisted that I pull up a chair between him and his wife! He treated this 16-year-old wonderfully! We discussed Richie Havens (someone Rosko had been playing a lot of and whom I thought was great) and his debut album, entitled "Mixed Bag." (Does that name ring a bell?) I told him that I wanted to be a DJ and he asked me many questions. I told him that I had been accepted to Fordham and Pete exclaimed, "You tell him before you tell me!" And it was Passover, but I decided to eat chumitz (nonkosher for Passover food) for the first time at that luncheon. So, between the hamburgers at the Greeks and the chumitz, Pete Fornatale has certainly affected my culinary lifestyle (not to mention my rebelliousness against my mother and religion)!

Because of my finding Pete when I was 15, I got my own rock show at WFUV, when I was 17 that I hosted until I was 22, and became their program director when I was 19. Pete appeared on my show in 1972 and, with him by my side, my first letter to him was read on the WFUV airwaves for the second time, though this time by me. Pete, of course, went on to WNEW-FM in 1969, where thousands of other "Lew Goodmans" out there in Radioland were lucky enough to encounter him for the next 35 years, though I doubt if anyone was ever affected by him as much as I was. No event, person, or situation in my life has ever affected me as profoundly or made me as happy as my years listening to "Campus Caravan" and my relationship with Pete Fornatale and I will be eternally grateful to him for that.

Happy 40th anniversary, Pete!

[wendyv]

Great story, Lew! Thanks for sharing!

And happy 40th, Pete! You are a blessing! [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Plainview]

Wonderful post, Lew....nice way to start my weekend!.....and a wish to Pete for a whole bunch of years more bringing us music and ideas.

B.

[Scott Muni]

Lew, this was a beautiful piece you wrote about being younger and listening to Pete. It reminded me so much of how intensely I felt doing the same thing listening to you on friday nights, clutching Toy (the AM/FM portable) to my chest, sometimes mouthing the bent coat hanger that replaced the broken antenna. The letter writing, the meeting you. Thanks for sharing.

[Plainview]

clutching to her chest.............mouthing the bent coat hanger.............the meeting you................????

oh lord, I think I have to go back to the 8 Deadly Sins thread, if you catch my drift.............................

coming Lewis????

[img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[AllenFelt]

Thanks, Lew, for sharing the story of your relationship with Pete and FUV. There are lots of posts on these boards, many of which are anecdotal in nature, and most of which deal with the music Pete plays (although sometimes only tangentially). Unfortunately, anecdotes often lack resonance, and reminiscences don't often strike a chord in the human heart.

Reading your post was like reading a short (well, very short) novela, weaving together a very real young man, his family, a radio station, and a rapidly changing social environment in a truly moving way. I was touched by your personal account, not only for the reasons I cited, but also for the additional insight you gave us regarding Pete and his enormous influence on the evolution of meaningful FM radio and on this wonderful radio station.
It's rare to read something that is so personal, yet totally lacking in self-indulgence. Thanks for sharing (as we social workers like to say!)
Allen

[AllenFelt]

Thanks, Lew, for sharing the story of your relationship with Pete and FUV. There are lots of posts on these boards, many of which are anecdotal in nature, and most of which deal with the music Pete plays (although sometimes only tangentially). Unfortunately, anecdotes often lack resonance, and reminiscences don't often strike a chord in the human heart.

Reading your post was like reading a short (well, very short) novela, weaving together a very real young man, his family, a radio station, and a rapidly changing social environment in a truly moving way. I was touched by your personal account, not only for the reasons I cited, but also for the additional insight you gave us regarding Pete and his enormous influence on the evolution of meaningful FM radio and on this wonderful radio station.
It's rare to read something that is so personal, yet totally lacking in self-indulgence. Thanks for sharing (as we social workers like to say!)
Allen

[ November 19, 2004: Message edited by: AllenFelt ]

[mistermixedbag]

And now, here's Paul Simon,
who I first met at a Simon and Garfunkel concert at Fordham in 1966, and the best thing from his last full album "You're the One:"


The first time i heard "Peggy Sue"
I was 12 years old
Russians up in rocket ships
and the war was cold
now many wars have come and gone
Genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on
but his catalog was sold

First time i smoked
guess what - paranoid
First time I heard "Satisfaction"
I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year
Summer leaves and my birthday's here
And all my friends stand up and cheer
And say man you're old
Getting old
Old
Getting old

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas day
And Buddah found Nirvana along the Lotus Way
About 1,500 years ago the messenger Mohammed spoke
And his wisdome like a river flowed
Through hills of gold
Wisdome is old
The Koran is old
The Bible's
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work 'em out

The human race walked the Earth for 2.7 million
And we estimate the universe about 13-14 billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the Lord was there beefore creation
God is old
We're not old
God is old
He made the mold

Take your clothes off
Adam and Eve
[img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Plainview]

well stated, Allen.....

Lew, the story also highlights the direction 'free' radio has gone; what with the issues regarding Clear Channel, the handful of corporations that control the majority of stations, the fear among broadcast media to upset the government....my seguey is obvious; besides celebrating Pete's contributions, FUV's pledge drive demands that we support radio that is diversified and stimulating. I personally am hesitant to invest in satellite radio, but more and more I see that to get quality and freedom in the American media, we have to pay, be it supporting PBS, listener sponsored radio, or satellite.
So again, a tip of the cap to Pete, and to the people dedicated to individuality.

Baz

[LewGoodman]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr. Mixed Bag:
<STRONG>Paul Simon,
who I first met at a Simon and Garfunkel concert at Fordham in 1966</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I spent several hours writing the post that starts this thread, feeling quite ill the whole time with a cold and winging it without notes. Leave it to Pete to catch me in a vital omission--one that I've written about many times on the FUV boards. It was December 3, 1966 and this high school senior was at the Fordham gym with two of my friends, whom I introduced to Pete, the Fordham senior who sat in the first row. I became totally obsessed with Simon and Garfunkel that night--went out the next day and purchased their three albums. It was an important omission because although I had already been to FUV and met Pete, it was such a thrill to be at the same concert with him (not to mention I did like S & G a lot before that day).

Then in October 1967, on Kol Nidre, the eve of Yom Kippur, S & G returned to Fordham's gym (post-Graduate and superstars still playing such a small venue) and I, the Fordham freshman, went over to talk to Pete, the Fordham alumnus. I had to sneak out of the apartment that night because of Yom Kippur, fearful of my father's reaction. Paul announced to the crowd that it was Kol Nidre, but that they were atheists. The crowd of mostly Fordham students cheered.

Pete's 1966 interview with S & G was great--truly great. I wish I still had it on those giant cassettes.

[hrsh37a]

Satelite Radio -

I thought that it is great if you are in moving vehicles alot ... perfect for truckers.

Then I started streaming WFUV, and it reminded what radio is like without the screaming jocks, commercials, and standard playlists. In the SF Bay area, we have no radio station where you can hear music that is not programmed off of a corporate genre's playlist. We had one for a short time a few years ago, but that is now a country station. There is one classical station, but the signal is weak in the south bay. There a 2 NPR stations, neither of which plays ANY music at all.

I enjoyed streamning WFUV and other radio from live365.com. (Check it out if you have a chance - there is a there station called "An Idiot's Delight" - I wonder what the inspiration was for that?) The problem was that I couldn't stream in my car and I didn't want to stream at work, taking up valuable bandwidth.

Along came satelite radio again. Alex Bennett, whom I enjoyed listening to both in NY and in SF was back on the air. Vin started a satelite version of An Idiot's delight and Dennis Elsas is broadcasting, all on Sirius. There are 3 classical stations, 2 NPR stations and 1 PRI station (that broadcasts World Cafe). I bought Sirius radio last week and in no time flat, I'm hooked. I can think of only one radio station that might play Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" (not the Arlo Guthrie version) and that would be WFUV, but guess what - I heard it on Sirius this week.

So that begs the next question for MMB that might be better suited for the Music Wish List thread - Is there a chance that we might hear Mixed Bag on satelite radio?

Robert

[Eco Teach]

First , Lew , that was wonderful . My inability to walk up Keating's stairs to get to work at 'FUV as a young freshman in the late summer / early Fall 1967 is mostly responsible for 35 years of radio obsession and frustration . I didn't " discover " Pete until his migration to 'NEW . I remember the S&G concert but I didn't want to go !!! Oh well , that was yesterday and yesterday's gone ! I think satellite radio will be the future for stations like 'FUV . The move of Mel Karmizan to Sirius gives them great credibility . We'll see . Pete , congratulations and long may you run ! Peace!

[Plainview]

might get it here; try
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/arts/music/20pete.html?oref=login