Posted on 12/06/2006 8:23:04 AM PST by raccoonradio
Read below for today's Howie Carr column
Hub's Oversized Criminal Underbelly
by Howie Carr
Boston Herald 12/6/06
OK, so Carmen Salvatore DiNunzio isn’t fat, he’s obese. The Big Cheese goes 4 bills easy. He’s the don of doughnuts, the capo of capicola. He’s putting the sub back in subpoena.
There’s an old saying that history first repeats itself as tragedy, then as farce. I guess we know which category Boston organized crime now falls into. Just call it the Marinara Mob. People don’t ask him if he’s got a gun in his pocket. They assume it’s a pepperoni.
But hey, it’s not like he’s the first fat guy (allegedly) mixed up in Boston organized crime. There’s a long tradition of overeating. Remember Gerry Angiulo on the FBI tapes, telling his boys, “I’m sending for Vinny and his partner, Fat Vinny.”
Or look at Kevin O’Neil, Whitey Bulger’s money-launderer. In the most recent pictures of him, he doesn’t weigh much over 300 pounds. But that was after he’d done a stretch at Club Fed.
In the old days, out of the street, or in the case under the counter, which was where O’Neil spent most of his time, cowering, he was known as “Turtleneck Pants.”
See, he’d pull his pants up, like that would somehow obscure his 60-inch waist.
Now he’s lost over 100 pounds, although it looks like Kevin Weeks found most of them. Their boss, Whitey Bulger, didn’t like his guys to be fat. Guys like Whitey pride themselves on staying buff, if you know what I mean.
One guy Whitey had on the payroll for a while was Nick Femia. An old Joe Barboza hand, Femia managed to become that rare creature, an overweight cocaine addict. When they were operating out of the Lancaster Street garage, Femia used to sneak down to McDonald’s on Causeway Street for a trans-fat fix, and if Whitey discovered his stash, he’d start screaming at Femia, pelting him with tasty, salted spuds.
Another hood who got fat and stoned was Stevie Flemmi’s brother, Jimmy the Bear. Jimmy the Bear killed lots of people, and ate lots of food.
There was once a state rep even tubbier than The Big Cheese - actually, a couple, but I’m thinking of Rep. John ‘McFeel‘ McNeil, who later ended up in the Franklin County House of Correction after he went down on a child-pornography rap.
“You know what the worst thing is about weighing 460 pounds?” he once asked me, and I had no immediate answer. “It’s when you lose 60 pounds, nobody even notices!”
The Big Cheese knows the feeling, I’m sure.
The irony is, the only place most hoods aren’t fat is in the movies. Check out the mugshot here of Alex Petricone. It was taken when he was getting arrested with Buddy McLean, the founder of the Winter Hill Gang.
Then he made a good career move, fleeing to Hollywood, changing his name to Alex Rocco and unlike Buddy and the rest, he survived, getting good roles in, among other films, “The Godfather II” and “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.”
But in those movies, playing (what else?) a gangster, he was 50 pounds lighter than he was back in the day.
Check out the photo of Tony Pino, the Brinks bandit. In the movie he was played by Peter Falk. None of that Raging Bull realism for Columbo - he would have needed to pack on at least 50 pounds to realistically portray Pino.
>>Alex Rocco
sound clip: Do you know who I am?
http://fozzy42.com/SoundClips/Movies/GodFather/mogreen.wav
I listen to Howie's show every day. It's the best 4 hours of talk radio on the planet.
It's sad that most of the planet still doesn't know all about Howie Carr.
I don't know why they haven't tried to syndicate his show more. He's only heard in a few New England markets although one can listen online. I believe the 2004 campaign would have been the perfect time to market his show nationally. Nobody knows more about John Kerry than Howie.
I think he has the best callers on talk radio. They are really funny. What I enjoy most about the show is there isn't a bit of political correctness. Howie doesn't care what he says or to whom he says things. Unlike people like Hannity who always talk differently to minorities, Howie talks to everyone in the exact same manner. Also love the Kennedy stuff and the segments where people call in about personal experiences they have had with Kennedy and Kerry, two of the most awful people on the planet.
"Unfortunately", as Tom Reilly would say, past efforts
didn't work out. One big problem: he's on in the same
time slot as Hannity, who ranks second only to Rush
in listenership, and many stations would prefer to take
Hannity. Also some non-New Englanders might not understand
New England/MA politics, though admittedly the likes of
Kennedy and Kerry are known nationally.
Humor? Howie has it, though the liberals on some radio boards
say he's not funny or "he's a one joke guy". He's no Al
Franken, eh...(zzzzzzzzzzzzz)
Howie does have a bit of a national profile what with the
book, etc., and some talk radio fans nationwide know about him. It's kind of too bad that he wasn't asked (or, if
asked, didn't accept) to do fill-ins for Rush (and get
someone else to cover Howie's show that day). That would
really have expanded his national profile and maybe
with more interest in him, stations might have gone for him.
But in the past, he has popped up on stations in Seattle,
Salt Lake City, Wichita, Newark OH (nr. Cincy); in Maryland,
Florida, Albany NY I believe, etc. The Seattle station
that used to carry him, KIRO-FM, later replaced him with
someone else and these days is known as "The Wolf"
with a country format (owned by 'RKO's owner Entercom)
Didn't realize he had been in so many markets. Were they just trying him out or was he permanently (as permanent as one can be on radio) on the stations? When I went to the affiliate list on his web site none of those locations were ever listed. The reason I was looking is because for a short time there was a management change at WRKO and he was taken off our local station. I was trying to find a station that streamed his show so I could still listen. The only one was in New Hampshire and they only had about 60 slots for streaming. That was also before WRKO started streaming all its shows.
I think Howie's cheapness has also worked against him. Had he spent the bucks to stream his show say a year before the 2004 election he might have done a lot better in syndication.
I agree that Boston stuff probably wouldn't interest many listeners but he could save that for his last hour (6-7.) The other stuff he does, whether it's national politics or topic stuff (i.e., old people driving, bst's, death pool, celebrity marriage pool, etc.) would appeal to a lot of listeners. If I owned a radio station and another station in my area carried Hannity, I would be very tempted to pick up Howie. I think in the long run he can compete with Hannity. He does a much better interview. Never lets any of the people he interviews get away with much.
What I like the most is he's not phoney. There's something about Hannity that creeps me out. Sure, he's a conservative and so am I, but there's something about him that doesn't ring true. I know people that know him and I've heard he as a very nasty streak. What you hear with Howie is what you get. I might be wrong but I believe he's the real deal.
So "I might be back in time to catch the Chump Line!(hope,hope,hope)
Hope Max Robbins can leave the party long enough to be on tonight. I really love that segment.
>>What you hear with Howie is what you get. I might be wrong but I believe he's the real deal.
I'd agree.
When he aired in other markets outside New England he was there for a little while; not sure how long. But eventually interest kind of dried up, and also he changed syndicators.
First it was ABC Radio, then SupeRadio and now I think
Entercom syndicates him. (btw I'm not sure if the affiliate list has been updated: they didn't have WVMT or WCRN listed.
WCRN 830 may stream...and they carry all 4 hours)
Meanwhile his competition in Boston, Jay Severin, made
a much ballyhooed jump to national syndication starting last January. In Sept. came news that he was leaving Westwood
One syndication and going back to Boston only (WTKK).
While he had supposedly over 40 affiliates, I heard
the ratings weren't good (plus often pre-empted by
sports) and Westwood One wanted to shed salary.
So Greater Media (WTKK's owner) stepped up and offered
to give a 7 yr deal (!) to Jay to have him come back and
do "Boston only". Jay tried to paint it as "I really just wanted to come back to Boston" (though he did his show
from Sag Harbor NY!) but low ratings and Westwood One
costcutting may have been a factor...
I only hope that the costcutting now going on in radio
doesn't affect Howie...I hope Entercom doesn't give him
a bad salary offer once his contract is up (whenever
that is...)
geez I'd emailed Howie/Sandy a couple weeks back asking them to update the affiliates list (i.e., get the webmaster to do it) but it still doesn't mention WVMT or WCRN!
http://www.wrko.com/article.asp?id=50105
Oh I guess you can listen live to WCRN (see below) and
also note that sometime in the next few months WCRN
will be boosting their power.
http://www.mikerobertswebdesign.com/wcrn/
Yea, there were several problems with the phones again on Howie's show yesterday. How long before Howie decides to possibly leave WRKO for good-that is if WRKO doesn't boot him themselves?
I think the reason he was originally dropped from WVMT was because they got some new management either at WRKO or with his syndicator and they tried to really up the fees for VMT to take Carr. As soon as the useless management was gone Howie was back on WVMT.
As long as WRKO continues to stream I won't worry too much about whether he is syndicated. It was great to be in Nova Scotia this summer and be able to listen to Howie live. One of my neighbors loved the trumpet when he does the illegal alien updates. Man, how politically incorrect is that and how cool is it?
Did you ever listen to Bob Grant? He used to be great. Something happened to him when WABC fired him. It really appeared to take the wind out of his sails.
BTW, I really miss the Chris Wallace segment on Fridays. Chris has been a real baby about coming on again with Howie. Wallace told Sandy that he is only doing radio previews of the Sunday show with Fox affiliate radio stations but that's a load of doo doo. I understand he's on with John Gambling every Friday on WABC in NY.
Yes it was great he got back on WVMT. When I go to Burlington VT for vacation I'd tune him in on 620 WVMT; during the time
he was off I'd struggle to pick up WRKO (having a station in
Montreal at 690 didn't help!) I'm told these days btw that
much of VT can get Howie via WCRN 830.
Yes, on the La Cucaracha horn!
I didn't really hear the Grant show though Jerry Williams
used to mention him, and after Grant went off the air in NY
Hannity had him on as a guest.
Yes Chris Wallace should be back...
I'm sure that Howie would like to talk about the present situation with Boston talk radio if he could. I'm sure that he has plenty to say about the subject of Boston talk radio.
Hope someone fixes the problem in the short term...phone company issue? WRKO tech. problem? Assume it's the former
by the way am wondering if Air America will be gone in Boston on Jan 1; a radio insider has mentioned online that whether or
not a buyer for Air America is found, Clear Channel, which owns 1200 & 1430 in Boston, will probably change the format
anyway. Maybe to Spanish (word has it in LA the same
thing may happen). If so:
Hola, esto es WKOX y WXKS. Nosotros ahora transmitimos en español. Si usted quiere discurso local que no es Mike Barnicle, va a WRKO y La Programas Todd Feinburg y Howie Carr.
La Nuevo Programa
--Alberto Franken
--Estephanie Miller
--Eduardo Schulz
--Tomas Hartmann
--Geraldo Springer (lo siento, no mas)*
*--I used freetranslation.com: "Hello, this is WKOX and
WXKS. We are now broadcasting in Spanish. If you want
local talk that ISN'T Barnicle, go to WRKO and the
Todd Feinburg Show/Howie Carr Show, etc.
lo siento, no mas= "I'm sorry (he's not there any more)"
Howie Carr already has a Spanish intro to his show, and he plays it every now and then.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.