Spending the entire summers at Hammonnassett State Park in the mid 50’s introduced me to Alan Freed on WINS in NYC. He was every night except Sundays. There was also an afternoon show on WMGM in NYC with some other DJ whose name I don’t remember. In the fall, winter and spring I needed my old “short wave” radio (which I bought for $1 from a neighborhood kid in New Britain, CT) to pick up an after school show out of Springfield, MA. But the thrill of hearing “the Hound” on WKBW in Buffalo was beyond description. That must’ve been about 1956-7. We moved from New Britain, CT to Kensington, CT, in the winter of 1955 and late-night radio was still preferred to TV. I stumbled onto the show and listened when it “came in” clearly enough to enjoy “the sounds”. He was on later than Alan Freed and after Alan died he was the only one that we could listed to (other than local yokels who didn’t know RNR from their rear-ends).
Imagine my ecstasy when he came to WPOP (1410 AM) in Hartford in 1958 (I’m pretty sure of the year). He was only there for a year or so, though. I think I may still have a reel-to-reel tape of an entire show (2 hours). “Bony Maroney” by Larry Williams is one of the tunes on it so that puts a time frame to it. One of his memorable sponsers was Gold Seal Catawba (“The anytime wine, baby”).