Barry Gray

Barry Gray, born Bernard YAroslaw on July 2, 1916, in Red Lion, New Jersey, helped create the talk radio format in 1945 while working as a disc jockey at New York station WMCA, when he held a telephone receiver to his microphone and aired a live conversation with bandleader Woody Herman; the success of that spontaneous interview led him to begin listener call-ins as well. He later worked overnight at rival station WOR from 1945 to 1948, interviewing figures ranging from Al Jolson to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., then broadcast for WMGM from the Copacabana night club in the late 1940s and on WMIE radio from Miami Beach. Returning to WMCA in 1950, he remained there for 39 years and continued the talk show format still used today. He also was an early television pioneer, hosting The Barry Gray Show on New York WOR-TV in 1949 and then hosting Winner Take All, the first Goodson and Todman game show, in 1951. Known as a fierce critic of bigotry, he endured McCarthyism and the Red Scare, was repeatedly attacked by right-wing columnist Walter Winehall, and was fearless in challenging hypocrisy and the abuse of power. In the 1950s and 60s he lived at 143 Dorchester Avenue in the Heathcote section of New Rochelle with his wife Nancy and their three children. In 2002, Talkers Magazine chose him as the eighth greatest radio talk show host of all time, and Larry King called him one of the big influences in his life and one of his genuine heroes.

New Rochelle, New York · United States