If you are an insomniac, over 35, and live in the eastern half of the United States, chances are that Larry Glick kept you company at some point between the 1960s and the 1990s. On Boston-based WMEX, WHDH, and WBZ--whose monster signal reaches into 38 states and Canada in the best conditions--the Commander manned the overnight shift, when callers are scarce and listeners struggle to stay awake (or tune in to get talked to sleep). Glick humoring inebriated callers, or randomly dialing rest-stop pay-phones to strike up a conversation with whomever answered, entertained. He didn't shout. He laughed, and so did his listeners--the Glicknics. Great callers earned "Glick University" t-shirts. Horrid ones got shot off the air. The overnight format dictated a free-for-all on topics and allowed callers greater latitude. I caught Glick toward the tail end of his career, when he had shifted from overnights to the nighttime shift. His voice put me to sleep with a smile on my face. After he retired from the airwaves, Larry followed the Boston migration pattern south to Boca Raton to serve as a greeter at Legal Seafoods, where patrons from the northeast disbelieved that he was the Larry Glick. It's a testimony to Glick's career that earlier this year, when CBS, owner of his former home of WBZ, ditched local programming in its overnight Boston slot for a syndicated program, a listeners' revolt forced the corporate behemoth to reconsider and reinstall the local host. That slot was a Boston tradition, and Glick helped make it so. If you have never heard Larry Glick, the difficulty in describing his schtick to you lies in the fact that nobody in radio is doing it. He was an original. Before I hosted radio shows, I listened to them. Larry Glick was about the best radio host I've ever heard--at least that's what my memories from being ten tell me. Larry Glick, now dean of the Glick University in the Sky, rest in peace.
He was another one of my mother's favorites. How old was he?
He was 87. He died after 10 hours of open-heart surgery, which I think would kill me too.
