Boston native Bob Elliott was hired by 5000-watt radio station WHDH, working the station's morning drive time slot as a disc jockey. Ray Goulding was doing WHDH's hourly newscasts. The two men soon discovered that they enjoyed a real rapport over the airwaves and, after Goulding's newscast was over, he would often join Elliott in witty, ad-libbed skits that slowly and surely developed a devoted fan base. When WHDH obtained the rights to the Braves-Red Sox games, management offered the two men twenty-five minutes before the start of each game to showcase their unique buffoonery, and dubbed the proceedings with the catchy title Matinee with Bob and Ray.

 

For Bob and Ray fans that are only familiar with their network offerings on NBC, CBS, or NPR, the programs make for fascinating listening, offering a revealing insight into the workings of local radio during the 1940s. Matinee can best be described as sort of a free-form style of comedy jazz; nothing is scripted (well, about 90% is unscripted) and the program allows both men to indulge in flights of fancy, often veering onto offbeat comedic tangents from the most mundane mentions.

 

Matinee with Bob and Ray continued on WHDH in various formats and time slots until 1951. Beginning with quarter and half-hour shows on NBC and also launching their television show. Their five-minute appearances on NBC Radio's Monitor began in 1955, and four years later they moved to CBS for what many fans consider their finest hour, Bob and Ray Present the CBS Radio Network (1959-60). After a two-year period of concentrating on work in commercials, they returned to New York's WHN for an all-afternoon show, and moved to WOR around 1973. In the 1980s, they were entertaining public radio audiences with their NPR series, which ended in 1987.

 

Radio Archives is proud to present the two men at their finest, with Volume 4 of hilarious Matinee with Bob & Ray shows in Sparkling sound.