The union is the Association of Employees of the Educational Foundation, Communications Workers of America, Local 1300 and they've been looking for a new three-year contract to replace an agreement that expired at the end of October. Management wants concessions that include cutting in half the company's match for employee retirement plans and is demanding control over redefining job descriptions. With that, WGBH would be able to assign employees to work at TV, radio, and on the Web. The union is not so crazy about that idea but says it would make some concessions to preserve jobs and WGBH's financial health. Union workers will vote on March 12 on the management offer. If they reject the proposed contract, both sides will reach an impasse and WGBH then can implement the terms of its final offer, beginning March 15...
At stake in the result of the contract negotiations are lots of jobs. WGBH employs 850 people. The local union represents 280 writers, editors, production workers, and marketing employees. Then there's the trickle-down effect on all the other WGBH properties...
10 Timeline Memories:
1.1887] Signing In: Anne Sullivan arrives at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of Helen, their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter…
2.1931] Star spangled: President Herbert Hoover signs into law our first national anthem, Francis Scott Key’s “Defense of Fort McHenry” aka “The Star Spangled Banner”…
3.1959] ‘Happy Trails’: Lou Costello of the legendary Abbott and Costello comedy duo, suffers a fatal heart attack 3 days shy of his 53rd birthday…
4.1969] This is a test: Apollo 9 is launched on a mission to test the lunar module that will be used in the moon landings…
5.1984] The new commish: Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee is elected as the 6th commissioner of baseball effective October 1. Well, he looked good, anyway…
6.1985] Premiered on this date: “Moonlighting” starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis on ABC-TV. This terrific series ran until May of 1989…
7.1991] Hell breaks loose in L.A.: Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by LAPD officers in a scene captured on amateur video tape…
8.1992] Hang him high: Islanders’ great Mike Bossy becomes the second Islander to have his uniform (#22) hoisted to the rafters at Nassau Coliseum. Dennis Potvin’s #5 was the first one…
9.1995] Stalking softly: A stalker is arrested while trying to break into Roberta Flack’s Manhattan apartment but the singer starts playing “Killing Me Softly” on the piano and the stalker falls into a coma…
10.2005] Up, up and away: Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, touching down in central Kansas after a 67-hour, 23,000 mile journey. In September, 2007 Fossett vanished while flying. He was legally declared dead in 2008. Eventually Fossett's remains were found...
Music Memories:
- 1965] Number One on this date: "My Girl" - Temptations...
- 1966] Formed on this date: Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay form Buffalo Springfield...
"WRKO...The Launch" (Part 3): (March marks the 44th anniversary of WRKO Boston. All month long, I will be serializing the story behind the actual launch of what would become one of the country's legendary Top 40 radio stations and today continues to be a mainstay in New England)...
On June 21, 1966, WNAC Program Director, Bob Henabery, sent an *internal memo to Jerry Bess of RKO Corporate following a critique of KHJ Los Angeles. Bob highly praised the station and copied GM Perry S. Ury on the memo. Perry sent Bob to Los Angeles to tape the station and critique it so he could convince Bess that we should follow in KHJ's footsteps. In September 1966, Billboard Magazine published **Radio Response Ratings for Boston, showing there was room for another Top 40 radio station in the market. I was **hired in late August to produce that station - WRKO-FM. The automated station was so successful that word had leaked that WNAC was about to change format as early as January 25, 1967, following a **Boston Globe story about WRKO-FM. Paul Kelley Jr. sent an internal memo to the Blair Radio sales team mentioning a conversation he had with a salesman from WNAC indicating a format change to contemporary music taking place no later than April 1. On January 31, the **Bennington Vermont Banner writes an article titled "End of the Yankee Network." On February 7, **Eleanor Roberts of the Boston Traveler chronicles the demise of WNAC and mentions the rumor of a new "rock 'n' roll" format for the newly assigned WRKO call letters. In a Billboard magazine interview on February 25 , GM Perry S. Ury states that a format change to "Hot 100" (Billboard terminology) will take place in mid-March and announces the new call letters as WRKO. Perry adds: "FM and AM will simulcast from 6am to 6pm with separate programming from 6pm to 6am." He also indicates that oldies will be played on FM...*Click Staff Memos: Bob Henabery's KHJ Critique, **All other items under "News Clippings." Tomorrow: "WRKO...The Launch" (Part 4) (The Programming Staff Is Ready)...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Jessica Biel (29), Brian Leech (43), Tone Loc (45), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (49), Herschel Walker (49), Tim Kazurinsky (61), Jennifer Warnes (64) and Lee Radziwill (78)...
Timeline Countdown: 10 days until Daylight time, 17 days until the first day of spring, 28 days until MLB opening day, 47 days until Passover & 52 days until Easter...
