Can you help Bill find a Kenny Mayer aircheck?

(Photo source: http://www.qsl.net/wb1gfh/mayer.html)

SWLing Post reader, Bill Albert, writes:

“I am trying to find an “air check” of Kenny Mayer, a well-known Boston late-night radio show host (now deceased) during the 1960’s and 1970’s. His show aired from 12-2AM Mondays, so it was one of the few interesting things one could listen to at that hour. He would play bits from classic old comedy albums (e.g., Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart in their stand-up days), and he’d ad-lib the sponsors’ advertisement spots himself. He was really a character, and his voice had a very unique cadence and intonation. I did manage to find one clip from a 1966 show featuring a routine entitled “The Great Society Affair”—a parody of the wedding of President Johnson’s daughter. God, how long ago that was!! Different world. There was also a bit by Godfrey Cambridge, and a number of Kenny’s home-made commercials. However, I’ve since lost that clip, and in any case I played and replayed it to exhaustion. If anyone has another “air check” of Kenny’s show, I would love to get a copy.”

If anyone has a lead for Bill, please comment!

If you’d like to read more about Ken Mayer, Bill suggests this article.

[Update: When I posted this request a few hours ago, I mistakenly posted the photo and information for Kenny Meyer instead of Kenny Mayer. Both of these gentlemen were prominent figures in the Boston broadcasting scene around the same time period (hence my confusion!).]

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13 thoughts on “Can you help Bill find a Kenny Mayer aircheck?”

Loyal Opposition November 25, 2022 at 8:34 pm

Mort Sahl worked until his 90s, but there is hardly anything out there. If anyone can help, I’d appreciate it.

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Mike Dobrowolski March 15, 2021 at 12:19 pm

Sit back, relax, unwind, unbutton and unzip. If it’s tight we take it off! I’m drinking ice coffee, but you might enjoy something stronger as we go through the early morning.

I miss the Kenny Mayer show, which I got into in high school around 1973-1974. I still listen to that comedy, but it is not the same unless you knew what was going on at Scullers or the Aku Aku. I loved the improvised commercials which sometimes went on for 4 or 5 minutes while I was waiting for Bob Newhart, Jackie Vernon, Jonathan Winters, Jose Jimenez, Bill Cosby, Shelly Berman, Henny Youngman, Phyllis Diller, Mort Sahl, Myron Cohen, Groucho Marx, Stiller and Meara, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, George Carlin, Buddy Hackett, Moms Mably, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein and many others.

I’d love to hear an entire show.

Mike

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Gary Nelson March 9, 2017 at 7:38 am

I have no air checks that go back that far but I do remember listening to WILD. Alan Dary, BIll Marlowe and Joe Smith. What a lineup!

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Bob Mayer January 7, 2017 at 11:25 pm

He was my father. Miss him every day

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Patrick Mancini December 16, 2018 at 1:31 am

Wow! I loved that show and sometime I could hear the clothers dryer…I was no older than 15 at the time, may be even younger. Bob, are there any surviving recordings? Nobody seems to have any information about this…

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1. Robert Mayer July 6, 2020 at 12:30 am
  
  Patrick I am seeing this now. I’m going to ask my brother if he knows of any air checks of my father’s radio show. Thanks – Bob Mayer
  
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jim October 30, 2019 at 12:49 pm

His gruff manner and comedy records show made my week. I didn’t mind the one way phone conversations and thought that because of that, people kept it short or at least it was easier for him to keep it short, to get back to Totie Fields, et al. I miss that show.

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Bob Creasi April 25, 2015 at 2:00 pm

Found this on a cassette from 1978, if still interested

http://www.creasi.com/Kenny_Mayer_WBOS_July_10_1978.mp3

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Bill Albert April 25, 2015 at 2:31 pm

Thanks, Bob! There are so few existing fragments left of that great show, it’s wonderful to hear a new one. If you should ever come across any more, I’d be delighted to hear them. Thanks again.

Bill

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Bill Albert January 11, 2014 at 4:13 pm

Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for the aircheck, but alas, that is the 1966 clip which I had already heard many times and to which I referred in the original post. Still, it is great to hear old Kenny’s voice again. If you come across any other recordings of his show, please let me know.

Bill

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