It was during the period in early 1971 that I became good friends with Howie Fatell and Bonnie Glantz.

Howie was one of the three guys who lived next to us in the townhouse at 737 Southgate, and Bonnie was his girlfriend.

In addition to being a fullltime student, Howie had a job as a DJ at one of the local radio stations, WQWK-FM, or QWiK Radio as they styled themselves.

I’m not sure how it first happened, but probably when Howie was at the station doing his show, he must have needed something, perhaps a record album, and he called me up and asked me to bring it to him, or perhaps he simply needed a ride home. After that, I stopped in to see him every now and then, and that’s how I got to meet Jay Gilbert, who did the show following Howie’s.

QWiK radio played progressive rock, but it had a sister AM station (WRSC-AM) that played Top 40 hits in the daytime.

During this period, Howie did the 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM show, and Jay followed him at 9:00.

Howie was a wealth of insider info about the station. For example, a year or so earlier there had been a female DJ who called herself the QWiK Chick. She was quite good, and I enjoyed listening to her, but one day she disappeared without a trace. No explanation given. According to Howie, management had found her diddling with a male companion in a closet and had cashiered her on the spot. Howie felt that a guy caught in the same flagrante delicto situation would merely have had his hands slapped.

Bonnie was a pre-law student, and I remember having long chats with her from time to time while she was waiting for Howie to finish his show.

Given that Howie’s show came on at five o’clock, I’d usually have Carl’s stereo system tuned into it while I was cooking supper for the gang. I’d typically be making supper around five or so and we’d be eating about 5:30 or six.

On one occasion Howie was talking about the John Lennon album the Plastic Ono Band which had come out late the previous year. On one of the songs Lennon sang that he was the walrus though he no longer was, but as Howie pointed out, that in an earlier song from The Beatles double album called “Glass Onion” Lennon sang “The walrus was Paul.” 

Howie wanted listeners to call in to give their interpretations of this discrepancy.

Well, I jumped up from the dining room table and ran to the phone and dialed the QWK radio number which I must have known by heart by this time. Howie answered the phone. What follows is my reconstruction of that conversation.

Howie: This is QWiK radio.

Me: Howie, this is Jim.

Howie: Oh, hi, Jim. Do you have an explanation for the walrus paradox?

Me: Sure do. The Beatles, and especially John, were getting sick of people coming up with all sorts of elaborate interpretations of the Beatles lyrics when they knew that their lyrics really didn’t have any deep hidden meanings at all.

Howie: OK.

Me: So John wrote “Glass Onion” specifically to deal with all that crap.

Howie: I’m glad you said “crap”.

Me. Oh, sure. Say, you aren’t recording this, are you?

Howie: Oh, no.

[There was a periodic beep in the background. In those days there was a state law, I think, that required a station to play that beep to signal whenever they were recording a phone conversation. So I knew damn well that Howie was recording me!]

Me: Oh, OK. Anyway, when Lennon got around to writing his solo album, he was being more serious, and he was saying that he was putting all the Beatles cr-, uh, stuff behind him. So while the “Glass Onion” lyrics were just nonsense to get people to go crazy, now he’s being serious.

Howie: OK, Jim. Thanks for calling.

And a few minutes later, after the current song ended, Howie played the tape of that phone call.

When Howie got home that evening, he came over to tell us that the station manager had called in an uproar right after hearing the tape of my call. 

“Don’t you know that he can sue us for playing that call? You told him that you weren’t taping him!!!” He was apoplectic.

Howie explained to him that the caller was his next door neighbor and there was no way he (meaning I) was going to sue. Howie got a big kick out of it apparently.

Sometime in that spring the station brought in a new DJ, Don Goldberg, who had been working in Philadelphia. Howie was familiar with his work (Howie being from Philly) and was initially excited about Don’s arrival. I got to spend a fair amount of time with Don, who was a pleasant, down to earth fellow.

And then the inevitable happened. I’m surprised that Howie didn’t see it coming. 

The station shook up the schedule to give Don a prime time slot. As a result both Howie and Jay lost their time periods. Jay was relegated to a morning show starting a 6:00 AM. I don’t know what time Howie was relegated to, because he quit.

The next time I saw Jay, he was philosophical about the whole thing. He commented that Howie didn’t know how to roll with the punches. 

On the other hand, for Jay Gilbert, DJ-ing was his vocation, so he could afford to take things in stride. For Howie it was a way to earn some extra money, and the 5:00 PM gig fit his schedule perfectly. Some other time slot might not work for him at all if he wanted to maintain his full time student status.

If I keep writing these memoirs, Howie, Bonnie, and Jay will most likely appear again, so keep them in mind for the near future.