Hold Me Down ! COUSIN BRUCIE Just Called !

[dinoKeymaster]

Can’t ya hear that Groovy Beat Now Baby…..Lets Go-Go-Go ,With Cousin Bruce!
Stays half the week in Mid-Hudson Hideaway and Works at Sirius Radio the other Half .HAS AGREED TO RECORD A ‘Replication” of A DOVER COMMERCIAL. We Had a good Chat about the old Days-WABC 77 am . Did commercials for Island, N.Y.National ,But doesn’t recall Dover. He’s still a fun guy to talk to ,full of jokes,and filled me in on his running at Island With a Factory backed Dodge .Said his ’69 Cousin Brucie ‘Dream Car’ has been restored ,but lost track of where it ended up. Wishes he still had his Vette…. but drives a GM pick-up around the snow ,upstate. Catch Him Live (They way he likes it) On SIRIUS Radio Channel 6 EST-Wed. 5-9pm and on Sat.-8-Midnight. Encore repeat on Sundays at 6-10.Sending him Commercial Script and Reminded me he has a new Book out> http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Beat-Goes/dp/0982306431

This all started at this Post:
http://www.doverdragstrip.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=352

His original Theme song by the Four Seasons ! > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxb8PD_uQPE

About The “CUS”:
He moved to the early evening “teen” shift in 1965 On WABC ,where he became a legend and remained in early evenings until moving to rival WNBC in 1974. After leaving WNBC in 1977 he became the owner/operator of a group of 8 radio stations (and one TV station) where he did some on air work at WALL in Middletown NY and WRAN in Dover, NJ. He hosted a CBS produced syndicated show “Cruisin’ America” in the late 80’s heard on many stations around the country. Coaxed back to the New York City airwaves he continues to be heard On SIRIUS Radio Wednesday and Saturday nights.

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[paul-ceasrine]

COUSIN DINO,
Those Dee-Jays knew had to spin em’. 45 RPM and 2-minute singles.
Kept them coming like .19 cent White Castle Hamburgers.

Don’t know if you remember, they had a ‘Win-A-Date with Yvonne Craig’.
HOLY BAT-GIRL
Paul,,,,

[dmcarthur]

I met Cousin Bruce twice. First time as a kid in the “Great Eastern” department store in Yonkers behind Nathan’s (Adventures Inn) where he and other radio guys were signing autographs. My next encounter was in the early ’70 when I worked in the White Plains regional sales office for Chrysler Motors Corp. Chrysler gave Bruce a Imperial to drive for a few years. That may be where he made the Dodge connection?

[dinoKeymaster]

Gotta Write A Script for ‘Commercial” ….wanted a 66-67 Match race promo…Any Ideas?

[bigblockmoparParticipant]

An idea for a Cousin Brucie promo circa 1967- How about Sox and Martin’s 426 Hemi Belvedere (ss/b) vs. Bill Jenkins’ 427 Camaro (ss/c)? Mopar vs. Chevy- doesn’t get any better than that!

[anonymous]

Many of us grew up on Cousin Brucie, wether it was in bed listening on the transistor, in the garage working on the cars, or cruising downtown. In 90 and 91 while hauling logs from Ct. to Newport Vt. on friday nights I would tune into Brucie’s radio show he had in Brattleboro Vt. Great Memories were made while listening to Cousin Brucie.

[hvy70ssParticipant]

GROOOOOVY!! OK COUSINS GET READY…THIS SUNDAY AT NATIONAL SPEEDWAY IN CENTER MORICHES…. Wow sorry for the flashback. I remember as a kid with my 5 band Montgomery Ward radio tuning in Friday nights just to here the race commercials!! Dino….how ’bout a match race commercial with “Dandy” Dick Landy and “The Honker” or other A/FX cars from that period?? They were the birth of funny cars and got everyones attention with that motor setback and altered wheelbase. Cousin Brucie…hooda thunk?

Bobby Smith

[dinoKeymaster]

Match Race ideas…want to keep it authentic…Jenkins never appeared that we can tTrace ,BUT Sox & Martin Did as Did Landy vs Flynn. …then theres always the Goose & Snake( Funnys)….IVO and Snake (T/F)….or a few others. I’ll check the ‘real’ appearances and throw some choices out.

[paul-ceasrine]

DJ DINO,
Those late 60’s AM Radio shows were pretty good.
‘Hello, Cousins’
Even the ‘Cousin Brucie’ sponsored ‘Thom McCann’ shoe radio commercials were good.
Remember the phrase lines for the drag racing spots.
“Sunday, Sunday’ Sunday”
“Raceway Park” (with that squeaky voice)
And the the classic with the Hemi powered engine rumbling in the background.
‘First there was West Coast Music Power, Now here’s West Coast Funny Car Power’

P.S. Didn’t ‘Video Bob’ win that “Bat Girl” date with Yvonne Craig? Bet he’s still riding on the back seat of the ‘Bat Cycle’…She had the best legs on T.V.
PC

[dinoKeymaster]

Paulie…all your suggestions are COPIES of other tracks ‘trademarks” …Raceway Park still uses the Squeaky voice at their website And the Sunday Sunday thing was origuinally used by many tracks all over .Gil Cohan -the owner used it at his Mich. track before he opened N.Y.National. Brucie and I are going to Make a Dover ‘sound’. I just so happens, I have Steve Evans original Drag Strip Commercial cassette “Be THERE” with Radio spots from all over the country.Problem is finding a cassette player that still works ! Tons of ideas on it.

[paul-ceasrine]

DINO,
Yes,,, ‘Sunday, Sunday, Sunday’…New York National Speedway, Center Moriches.
Route 27 (Sunrise Highway),
The radio broadcasts didn’t tell you about all the traffic lights you would hit along
Sunrise Highway 😮
But the ‘killer’ was, the drive home from Eastern, L.I. to Putnam County, after racing.
Thank God, New York National had 4-wide racing.
* Best AM Radio from the ‘Cousin’, when he put the ‘British Invasion Groups’ versus the
‘American Pop Rock Groups’
Hermans Hermits, The Dave Clark 5, and Gerry and the Pacemakers
versus
The Grass Roots, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Turtles.
Good late 60’s stuff.
PC

[break-awayParticipant]

Yes,Break Away Fire Bird was announced for National Speedway advertisement,I think 1972. Break Away Bob

[dmcarthur]

I came across this in the local newspaper here in Florida.

Jan C. Gabriel’s name may not ring a bell, but his voice surely will. It was Jan Gabriel who first came up with the phrase “SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!” for the US 30 Drag Strip and Sante Fe Speedway TV & radio commercials. These commercials were arguably the catchiest local commercials ever.

“SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!” was later copied in many other markets (often with Gabriel himself doing the vocals). It still is commonly used for Monster Truck exhibitions and continues to be the subject of numerous parodies. NBC’s Jay Leno and Al Roker use the phrase often for laughs. It is an American institution and it all started because of one local area man.

However, Jan Gabriel did much more for Chicago area media than just promote businesses in commercials. Since the late 50s, Jan has been a radio personality, a radio and TV producer, writer & announcer of thousands of commercials, host of a local TV show, host of a national TV show, president of an advertising agency, and much more. In the early 60s, he was a night jock for WJOB in Hammond – a “screamer” much like Dick Biondi. He would also emcee and DJ dances around the Northwestern Indiana and Chicagoland south suburbs. He was the host of the “Up Tempo” TV dance program that aired on Channel 26. He produced & directed “Flash Gordon Theater” for Channel 7. His nationally syndicated TV program “Super Chargers” ran for a dozen years, locally on WLS-TV & WMAQ-TV. He put out the popular “Battle of the Monster Trucks” video tape series. He was a part-time drag race announcer in the early 60s. That turned into a career as 14-year announcer for the Sante Fe Speedway and another 3 at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway.

In 1990, he found out he had a genetic Polycystic Kidney Disease. In 1992, he had surgery to open up clogged arteries near his heart. It was also around then that Jan began dialysis to keep his blood clean and he was put on a kidney donor list. Early 1993 brought yet another heart surgery. Late 1993 was still another surgery, but this time it was because a matching kidney had been found and the kidney transplant finally took place. This donated kidney worked for about 12 years and life picked up again for Jan Gabriel. However, the kidney failed in 2005 and his poor health returned. In addition to the daily dialysis routine, Gabriel found out that he had Peripheral Artery Disease, a disease that constricted the blood vessels in his legs. It ended up costing him both of his legs. For the last few years, he had been on a kidney waiting list. Unfortunately, his match never came. Jan C. Gabriel lost his struggle at the age of 69 years.
He is survived by his wife Teresa and his daughter, Amanda. No funeral or wake arrangements have been announced.

[dinoKeymaster]

Thats Right ,Gabrial is featured Exactly as stated in Steve Evens “Be There” a compilation of Drag Strip Commercials I Just Reviewed last Night ….The laughing “Mouse’ we all relate with for Raceway Park-N.J. WAS Also used by him First At US 30. N.Y. National Speedway did SunDay SunDay! but only was copying other tracks that did it first all over the country. In All of the 40 commercials on the Tape…Not one said “Match Race Madness”

Our Cousin Brucie Commercial, WILL Have “Sunday at the Fast Track In The East”…AS WE Did It Back Then.

[vbobParticipant]

HEY
I saw this in the Waterbury newspaper about Cousin Bruce Morrow the other day!
‘V’

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