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Marc Spector
WOR Producer


During 1974 and 1975 when Shep spoke to Marc in the control room, he was speaking to Marc Spector, Associate Producer, who was kind enough to share some of his knowledge, thoughts and experiences about those years with Shep.

Thank you Marc

About Marc

"My job was to coordinate all activities of life between Jean and WOR and his other radio project at the time--his national 'strip' show at the NBC Radio Network, which he recorded once a week (5 shows at a time for playback nationally). The other part of my job was to sit in on the recording sessions, take notes, name the shows and make sure the tapes were where they were supposed to be for broadcast when Jean was out of town and reruns were broadcast (which at times was somewhat frequent, although Jean would tape shows in advance for many of the dates he was away). I can remember these sessions like they were yesterday. Of course, we knew we were doing great radio but we never knew that people would be listening and appreciating these shows 30 years later."

Show Preparation

"Did Jean spend hours preparing the show or did he write a couple of words on a scrap of paper on his way into the studio? The answer is really: both of the above. Jean lived his show - it was really him. Therefore, his prep was just living and remembering and recalling things from decades or minutes before the 10-inch machine started rolling. But, in truth, the latter was what really happened. I remember Jean asking me what I thought of something right before we walked to the studio. He would write my answers down on a scrap of paper and that would be the basis of the show. He would do the same with the studio engineers who he used regularly for such material. He wanted to make sure the show was about what real people wanted to hear - not ivory tower stuff. It was his blue collar background, I suppose. Most of those guys really never 'got' Jean but they played along. Only a couple, like Herb Squires, really knew that they were a part of something very special."

"Live vs Memorex"

"Jean only came in a couple of times a week (maybe 3) even as early as 1974. I cannot remember ever seeing him 5 days a week. He was pretty active in those days with outside speaking gigs and would tape in advance or,on occasion, we would play a rerun which I would choose for broadcast. Leigh did keep copies of all the shows but I have no idea what she did with them as they were all recorded on 10" reels and were quite heavy and bulky. There was a master log kept. Of course, with no computers, it was kept in written form by Leigh and myself. I bet it is somewhere in Leigh's personal treasure trove that she left to someone, I hope. It would be a great find."

Shep's WOR Office

"One interesting tidbit that most people might not know is the office layout on the 24th floor of 1440 for the WOR talent pool Gambling and Bob and Ray had their own separate offices. We had a TINY TINY office in the corner of the general talent suite and we were right next to the Barry Farber Show; we hardly ever saw Barry because his show was a late-night broadcast. We did see his producer on occasion--a woman whose name I forget but a woman who Barry later married (or lived with for many years). Arlene Francis was to our left as was the McCanns Show."