Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of October 16, 2016
Edition #907

Now in both Real Audio and MP3

Talent: LONG JOHN WADE
Station: WFIL Philadelphia
Date: October 21, 1969
Time: 34:34

Long John Wade with George Harrison/Credit WDRCOBG.com

Long John Wade not only talked the talk of the Fifth Beatle, he literally walked the walk.

In February 1964, Wade - then a jock at WDRC Hartford - snagged an interview with the Beatles when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York. He became fast friends with the Fab Four, and joined them on their tour, a 35-day trek that included 26 cities and 15,000 miles. "He was the fifth Beatle," said Larry Kane, a reporter for WFUN Miami (who accompanied the recording legends on every date of their first two U.S. tours). "He really knew how to work them."

Born Carl Wehde on New Year's Eve 1939, the man who would become known as Long John Wade got his start in radio when he ran the station at his prep school, the New Hampshire School for Boys. His first full-time radio job was at WSPR Springfield, Mass., in 1961. Three years later, he joined his brother Don Wade at WDRC.

Wade moved to WFIL in 1966, and later worked at Philly stations WIBG, WCAU AM/FM and WIFI as well as WCBS-FM New York. He started the American Academy of Broadcasting in 1970 but had to close it and leave radio nine years later due to illness. Wade died May 15, 2006 in Cape Cod at the age of 66.
 

Enjoy Long John Wade here.

Enjoy Long John Wade here.
 

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