[Nfb-history] Fw: [Dtb-talk] Article about Ed Walker

Wed Aug 12 04:04:25 UTC 2009

Hello Colleagues:

     I thought the following would be of interest.

Regards,

Robert

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>; <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>; 
<dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:21 PM
Subject: [Dtb-talk] Article about Ed Walker

>
>>
>>I thought some of you would find this interesting It was taken from the 
>>Washington Post. John
>>
>>Ode to Joy Boy;
>>
>>DJ Ed Walker Is Up for Election Into Radio Hall of Fame.
>>
>>Steve Hendrix.
>>
>>On a recent afternoon at WAMU, an engineer cues some melodramatic theme
>>
>>music -- the swelling strings and sonorous piano of a more earnest age
>>
>>--
>>
>>and the smooth man in smoked shades leans into the mike. Hello again
>>
>>everybody," he croons. My name is Ed Walker and this is 'The Big 
>>Broadcast.'
>>
>>" Walker has been doing this every week since becoming host of the popular
>>
>>old-time radio series Sunday nights on 88.5 FM almost 20 years ago. He
>>
>>roooounds his vowels and pops his final T's and K's, just as he's done
>>
>>throughout a career of talking on the radio that spans nearly six decades.
>>
>>And he smoothly runs two right-hand fingertips over the bumpy sheets of
>>
>>Braille that help him negotiate his world -- a unique realm of rich sound,
>>
>>high drama and absolute darkness -- just as he has done since the day he 
>>was
>>
>>born in 1932. We'll have another episode of 'Johnny Dollar,' America's
>>
>>fabulous freelance insurance investigator; we'll have 'Dragnet' and
>>
>>'Gunsmoke,' the 'Adventures of Philip Marlowe' and then 'Gangbusters,' "
>>
>>Walker says, setting the stage for his weekly, backward-facing cavalcade 
>>of
>>
>>pop culture from a time when the gumshoes were tough as 20-minute eggs and
>>
>>dames were to be trusted only as long as it took to get one in a 
>>lovebird's
>>
>>clinch. Right now, it's time to forget everything except the nostalgia of
>>
>>old radio," Walker purrs, "as we go back into the '30s, '40s and '50s and
>>
>>bring back . . . The Big Broadcast. Swoon, violins, swoon. Is it easier 
>>for
>>
>>a sightless man to look back? For Walker, the answer is usually no.
>>
>>Despite
>>
>>his role as undisputed dean of long-gone radio, the 77-year-old is 
>>typically
>>
>>too busy to be mired in rear-view longing. The husband of 52 years and
>>
>>grandfather of five still plies the city via MetroAccess, traveling each
>>
>>morning to NBC's Washington bureau, where he works part-time answering
>>
>>phones for his lifelong friend and radio partner, Willard Scott, who still
>>
>>does occasional weathercasts for the "Today" show. Walker is fully wired,
>>
>>surfing the modern world with text-to-voice software and scanning the 
>>skies
>>
>>of satellite radio. Now, Walker is poised to ascend into the Radio Hall of
>>
>>Fame in Chicago, awaiting the outcome of an online vote
>>
>>(www.radiohof.org)
>>
>>that ends Aug. 1. As the well-wishing e-mails and calls have poured in,
>>
>>Walker has spent a lot of time lately pondering a life of broadcasts gone
>>
>>by. Radio has been everything to me," Walker says, sitting in the office 
>>he
>>
>>shares with Scott at NBC studios on Nebraska Avenue NW, its walls lined 
>>with
>>
>>sombreros, banners and the other goofy souvenirs of Scott's zany "Today"
>>
>>show career. When I was a kid, radio was my comic books, movies, 
>>everything.
>>
>>Now I look back and marvel that I was able to make a career out of it for 
>>50
>>
>>years in one market. I've gotten to interview all the people I used to
>>
>>listen to -- Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby. It's just amazing.
>>
>>Since
>>
>>he and Scott signed on as a DJ duo at WOL in 1952, Walker's voice has been
>>
>>heard on Washington radio more than just about any sound short of the
>>
>>emergency broadcast test signal. He's been a big band jock, talk show host
>>
>>and, most famously, half of the "Joy Boys" tandem through which he and 
>>Scott
>>
>>dominated Washington airwaves for nearly two decades. Each day on the old
>>
>>WRC, the two buddies sang their theme song ("We are the Joy Boys of radio,
>>
>>we chase electrons to and fro!") , voiced a multitude of silly characters,
>>
>>ad-libbed clunky sound effects and riffed seamlessly about everyday
>>
>>absurdities, a pair of Siamese jesters joined at the mike. That was the
>>
>>best," Scott says. That was the most fun I ever had in this business.
>>
>>Anybody who saw Eddie work, they just marveled at him. But getting that
>>
>>first chance to prove himself was anything but easy for a young blind man 
>>in
>>
>>the early 1950s. Walker had been obsessed with radio almost since he was
>>
>>born, completely blind, in Forrest, Ill., during the Depression.
>>
>>According
>>
>>to family lore, little Eddie's first words were "Turn the radio on. His
>>
>>mother told of how he once snooped out the big Delco portable she had 
>>hidden
>>
>>in a closet awaiting Christmas Day. She would say, 'You'd think it would 
>>be
>>
>>easy to hide something from a blind kid,' " recalls Walker's daughter, 
>>Susan
>>
>>Scola, 51, a teacher in Potomac. But not a radio. When the neighborhood 
>>kids
>>
>>were outside playing ball, Walker traveled with the Shadow, Fibber McGee 
>>and
>>
>>Jack Benny to a world where he had the eyes of a fighter pilot. Not many
>>
>>people get more from radio than Eddie," Scott says. What do they call it,
>>
>>theater of the mind? That's perfect for him. Soon after his family moved 
>>to
>>
>>Washington, Walker's parents turned him from listener to broadcaster by
>>
>>giving him a phonographic oscillator, a kind of low-watt toy transmitter.
>>
>>Walker hooked it up to an outside aerial, boosting its range to the end of
>>
>>the block, and his radio career began, at age 8. I had my own show on that
>>
>>thing," he says. After finishing his schooling at the Maryland School for
>>
>>the Blind, Walker was ready for the real thing. He applied to American
>>
>>University's new broadcasting program, the first of its kind in the 
>>country.
>>
>>He had the voice, but not the eyes. The District's rehabilitation agency
>>
>>would pick up tuition for a radio major only if Walker could produce a
>>
>>professional willing to vouch for the concept of a blind person 
>>functioning
>>
>>in a broadcast booth. Everyone said it was impossible," Walker remembers.
>>
>>They wanted me to be a social worker or a piano tuner. That's what blind
>>
>>people did. He finally found a program director willing to call Walker's
>>
>>ambitions feasible. He became AU's first blind student, helped launch 
>>WAMU,
>>
>>then a tiny AM campus station, and hit it off with Scott, a fellow student
>>
>>broadcaster. We were doing satire from the first words we ever spoke to 
>>each
>>
>>other," says Scott, who once let Walker take the wheel of his car on
>>
>>Whitehurst Freeway to satisfy his friend's curiosity about driving.
>>
>>We're
>>
>>like brothers, only better. We really love each other. For years, they
>>
>>scrounged on-air gigs. Walker found ways to accommodate his blindness.
>>
>>His
>>
>>father dictated commercial copy as Walker typed it in Braille. At one
>>
>>station, Walker would deliver the headlines by listening to the news
>>
>>broadcast of another station in his headphones and repeating the 
>>information
>>
>>into his own mike. Like an interpreter, "he did it instantly," Scott says.
>>
>>One day, he put the headphones on and it was the 'Bible Hour. They'd 
>>screwed
>>
>>up the schedule. Ed said, 'Due to technical difficulties, we won't have 
>>the
>>
>>news at this time.' " The pair hit the big time in July 1955, when WRC
>>
>>signed them as the "Joy Boys. They were so popular, kids reenacted their
>>
>>skits the next day in many a local classroom. Their theme song was hummed
>>
>>everywhere. Their guests got bigger and bigger: Don Adams wrote a skit for
>>
>>them; Bill Cosby dropped by. Scott went on to play Bozo the Clown and 
>>Ronald
>>
>>McDonald on Washington TV, and to become weatherman and funnyman on NBC, 
>>but
>>
>>he and Walker have remained a team off the air and both look back at the
>>
>>"Joy Boys" time as a creative high point. That was a wonderful time,"
>>
>>says
>>
>>Walker's wife, Nancy, who is sighted. We were invited to Constitution Hall
>>
>>for concerts, movie premieres at the Uptown. I was always amazed at how 
>>many
>>
>>people we met who had no idea Ed was blind. Scola says her father has 
>>always
>>
>>hated to be shut out of any arena or activity just because he walks with a
>>
>>white stick. She remembers long games of hide-and-seek with him. You could
>>
>>hide from him right in the middle of the room," she says. I would always
>>
>>giggle, but my sister could be absolutely still. Walker doesn't often talk
>>
>>about his blindness on the air. His official biography at WAMU doesn't
>>
>>mention it at all. Those who know him say he's spent his life making sure
>>
>>his achievements, which included shows on WMAL (630 AM) and NewsChannel 8,
>>
>>are measured on their merits, not by his disability. I don't want to get 
>>an
>>
>>award because I can't see," Walker says. It's not important. A blind 
>>person
>>
>>can do just about anything, except drive a car or fly an airplane. And
>>
>>Willard let me drive once, so maybe I can do that, too.
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