June 1 – Morning Juice

Each weekday after I got to work, I would listen to the morning Bruce Juice on WNEW-FM 102.7. Dave Herman was the morning man back then, who gently guided me toward the music of Bruce Springsteen to the point of practical mania and in need of my AM fix of his pick of Bruce songs.

For many years Dave Herman was my morning DJ, helping motivate me to get up and go to work, then greeting me once I was there. I now listen to 107.1 The Peak, which I used to love for its wise mix of old and new. However, it’s gotten somewhat robotic lately, same songs over and over, same lines out of the mouths of the disc jockeys. Everything and everyone is programmed. Some months ago, before I noticed the slippage, I decided to look up Dave Herman to see if The Peak’s DJ Chris Herrmann was related to him, not know of the spelling difference at that time. I was a bit shocked and horribly dismayed to read this awful story about Herman, one of my favorite radio personalities. He had been arrested for attempting to have sex with a child. It was disheartening, because he was like an old friend, someone who knew a lot about music and was willing to share his knowledge. He opened my eyes and ears to artists I’d not yet heard of, or hadn’t learned to appreciate. And then, just the other night, I read of his death. He was 78 and in custody awaiting trial. I don’t know if the charges are true, if he became a pedophile in his old age, or if he had always been that way and just never got caught, but I must remember that old friend, who really seemed like a nice guy, and be grateful for what he did for me musically.