Barry Farber

This is only the second post to my blog. I thought it would be easier to write, but now I wonder where bloggers find the time. Anyway, here goes:

I remember the days when I listed to two Barrys on the radio: Barry Gray and Barry Farber. They were heard at night and were an interesting alternative to late night TV. Barry Gray was one of the first persons I heard on a rock and roll radio station, WMCA, in New York when I got my first transistor radio, circa 1959. As I recall, he used to broadcast from 11:00 PM until 1:00 AM and I would routinely fall asleep listening to him interview various personalities. Barry Gray died a number of years ago and those who replaced him never seemed as interesting. In those days I also discovered Jean Shepherd and Long John Nebel, but I’ll leave those recollections for another day.

Some years after discovering Barry Gray, I found another Barry on another radio station, WOR, I believe. Barry Farber was from North Carolina and spoke with an accent usually heard only south of the Mason-Dixon line. This Barry told us he was a student of languages, speaking quite a few of them fluently. He spoke slowly and deliberately, enunciating and emphasizing every word as he regaled us with folksy stories from the south. Then one day, he disappeared from the airwaves. I thought he was gone forever, but to my pleasant surprise, he’s still around.

This past Saturday, I was listening to WABC talk radio, specifically Mark Simone. His show ended at 10:00AM and someone name Larry Kudlow was to follow. I usually switched to another station at that point, but I was late in doing so on this day and all of a sudden I heard the sweet southern tones of Barry Farber. He told us he was filling in for the regular host and it was a joy to hear his voice again. He took calls from listeners and told stories. There were two stories in particular I enjoyed. Both were about President Calvin Coolidge. Barry made the point that Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal” because he rarely spoke, and when he did, it was only few words.

The first story illustrated the point: President Coolidge was at a White House dinner party and an actress was seated next to him. She turned to the president and said, “I bet a friend of mine that I could get you to say more than two words.” Silent Cal replied, “You lose.”

The second story, while not as illustrative of the point that President Coolidge rarely spoke, was more interesting. I repeat it here, not verbatim, but from memory:

Coolidge came home one day and his wife was upstairs.
“Is that you, Calvin?” she called out.
“Yup,” he answered.
“Are you coming back from church?” she asked.
“Yup,” was his reply.
“Did Reverend Brown give the sermon?”
“Yup.”
“Was it a good sermon?”
“Yup.”
“What was the title of the sermon?”
“The responsibilities of the rich towards the poor.”
“Was it convincing?’
“To the poor it was.”

With stories like these, Barry Farber deserves to be back on the air in more than just a fill-in capacity.

Note: I later learned he is on something called Talk Radio Network, if you can find it.