Feed The World

There are times when you work on radio that you go to work with no great expectations for that particular day. Such was the case for me on December 2, 1985. During the 6:30 news, a report came across the Mutual Broadcast news concerning the famine in Ethiopia, about a young mother and her starving baby. To this day I cannot conceive of what this unknown woman did to try and save her baby from dying of starvation. She bit off her own tongue to feed to the child to keep it alive. She bled to death, the baby perished as well. I sat there feeling both numb and silenced, and in 60 seconds I had to be back on the air being my own chipper self. I was hosting the morning show at WSPR in West Springfield. It was a solo show, except for a guy named Bill Brady who did local news. When I heard the report, I wondered if I could do something to help get supplies to Africa, an I imagine, like most people, you feel empathy, but become bogged down with the thought of being only one person, so what can I do that will make a difference? That thought ran across my mind, but I had one thing the majority of people don't have. A radio show. All right, a small station that not a lot of people listened to, so I had to make it bigger, and get other stations to help with some major project to get people to help feed the hungry, no matter where they may be on this planet. Driving home that day, I was listening to a music station somewhere in the area, and the song, "Feed The World" was playing. At that moment, my thought was born. This song, the astounding song Bob Geldorf penned to help feed people. It had just been released the previous year, and had raised many supplies and much needed dollars. The following day I spoke with the GM of the station and told him I wanted to orchestrate a country wide simulcast of that song, on Christmas Eve, so that every radio station in the country would air the song, at the exact same time. They also would run daily promos on their stations, telling when the simulcast would happen, and include the name address and phone number of their local food banks or shelters. He told me go ahead and do whatever was needed. What I needed was a list of contacts who could get this thing going. I had three weeks to get this entire thing put together, and I was all alone with this monumental, seemingly impossible task in front of me. This was the second time this was to happen, the first being Bob Wolfe at WROM in Rome Georgia, who put together a simulcast of , "We Are The World" in early 1985. So I went to the library, yes the library, (we've come a long way baby), to find out who the guy was that did this. I went back to the station and called Bob for the first time. I explained the idea, he was in full agreement with the concept, but expressed doubts it could be done in three weeks. Then I hit paydirt. He had a list of names, contacts and radio stations around the country all of which made his effort the sucess it was. I got on the phone that day and stayed on it till close to midnight. Four AM rolled around quickly the next morning, but I was pumped. I had amassed a lot of stations that took the info I gave them and agreed to air the song at 3:20 PM, EST on Christmas Eve 1985. That time was chosen, as opposed to 3:05, the time I had originally picked, because one of the people I spoke with said it would be the 12 o'clock hour on the west coast, and Paul Harvey would be on the air then all over the place. Many of Bob's contacts gave me other people to call to possibly help get the word out, and this thing began to snowball. For the next week I was on the phone calling all over the country, then something peculiar happened. Some stations started calling me asking for a copy of the song, because it was never on their play list and they couldn't find it any where. I started making dozens of cassettes, mailing them out, trying to figure out why a song, released a year before could not by found in stores. That second week, I was talking to the GM of a station,of a BIG station in Chicago, and asked him if he had a copy of the song. He said they did, but people might have problems finding it it stores. I asked him why. He told me that the song, released and recorded in England listed the name of the artists as Band Aid. Yeah, so what? Seems that Johnson & Johnson had a copyright on the name Band Aid, and it was an infringement on their product, so the song was pulled from shelves, pending a possible lawsuit. I was as livid as I have ever been. People are gnawing off body parts to feed their children, and the fat cats in their 5th Avenue apartments could care less about anything more except their dinner choice that evening. The next day, I hit the airwaves and lambasted the Johnson & Johnson bastards for this abomination, and did so several times in the next 10 days. They would not stop this project, and I continued to make phone calls and write letters, and mail out copies of the song to whoever needed them. Towards the end of the second week of this drive, I had secured most of the area stations in the Springfield, with the help of Drew Hastings at WMAS, still on the air there. One day on the phone he asked if I called the TV stations in the area. I honestly never thought of that, so I did. Dave Madsen, then at 22, climbed on board to cover the story, 40 did to. Then I started getting calls. A radio station in Miami put me on the air. Then Chicago, Austin, Seattle, and a few others. In September of that year, Mexico was rocked by a massive earthquake, and, of course the country was in shambles. A call came into by one afternoon at the station, about 6 days before the simulcast was about to take place. It was the CEO of Stereo Rey in Mexico. He had heard of the project, and his country was hungry also. He told me that his network of stations across Mexico would get the word out, and he had no problem getting the songs to his stations and others there. Of course, It was Mexico. Seems Johnson & Johnson didn't care about them either. Less than a week to go, and now this project is in 2 country's. I might add now that I spent the best part of those three weeks on the air or at my desk, sometimes round the clock to answer the phone and keep adding affiliates to the list. I'm glad I did this. Friday night rolls around, I answer the business phone, and an accented voice asks to speak to George Murphy. When I said, "Speaking", he informed me he was calling from JFK Airport, and his name was Frank Partridge, the head of the BBC in London. He had heard of the simulcast on some New York station, and was waiting for his flight back to London. He wanted all of the details I could give him, and told me the story would be sent across England upon his return. I could not figure out how he contacted me, and didn't ask him. Now the station list was in England. The next day, I purchased a copy of Billboard Magazine, which I did every week. They had called me about a week earlier about the simulcast, and I didn't think they'd do anything with it. I was wrong. Now I knew how Frank Partridge found me. This is what was in Billboard. Might be difficult to read. http://books.google.com/books?id=3yQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=wspr+1985+billboard+magazine+george+murphy&source=bl&ots=x2bSE82xXJ&sig=5VWebZeW_aEK7zt-tMCloqjVuP0&hl=en&ei=Oo_US4fzEcL-8AbO5J3TDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false I managed to get the Armed Forces Radio Network on board, along with the Canadian Broadcast System. Some station in Hawaii called me. This thing had become massive, and all those stations constantly putting out the word about where to donate money and food in their area. I was ready for Tuesday, three days away. Tuesday, December 24th. I did my morning show, and, of course, constantly gave out the names of all the local shelters, food banks, soup kitchens. I knew that this same thing was happening in many places around the globe. The calls kept coming in. My friend Alan Eisenstock in Los Angeles called me on the air. He had heard of this event on the air in LA. He said he'd call me back after the simulcast. I got off the air at 10 AM, and I don't remember what I did till 2 that day. I came back to the station, and there was clothes and canned goods everywhere, that had built up in the previous week. Around 2:30, I went back on the air. The camera crew from Channel 40 showed up. Thanks, Dave. Channel 22 came in. Channel 3 out of Hartford, another crew from New Haven, and a crew from Vermont or New Hampshire. The producer of that crew told me they learned about it after hearing it on Paul Harvey. Bill Brady was in Hartford, listening. About 3:15, I went live on the air, and spoke of this project, and how I stayed up for days, for I never, ever wanted to hear another story even remotely similar to the one that started this thing. I watched the clock, and timed it to the second, then hit the start button on the turntable. There were dozens of people in that studio, and around the world, day or night, wherever it was this song was playing. A bit more than 3 minutes that meant millions were listening, and some of which were at least contemplating doing something...anything. The song ended, people in the building cried, and cheered. They all understood why I did this. IT was not about me, it was about mankind. It was about the most basic human need. Food. And if only one more person got food because of it, it was worth every second. Bill Brady called me, and listed off several stations in Connecticut that were airing the song. Alan Eisenstock called me from LA. He said every FM station across the dial, and many on the AM side aired it. Christmas Day came and went, and CNN did a piece on the Broadcast. On Friday, a story about the simulcast appeared in the local paper. The broadcast was heard in 23 nations on approximately 10,000 stations. I received letters from all over the country. Frank Partridge called me from London and informed me it was a "smashing success" there. It's amazing what you can do when you find the right people to help you in any situation. Each one of us can make a difference. I guess my message now is, the next time you want to help somebody who can't help themselves, help them eat. It is a start to the brotherhood that seems so far gone these days.