Excerpted from Gary Craig's Corner

© Hartford Magazine, January 2008 and reprinted with permission.

On the last Monday of every month royalty meets for some schmooze and some tunes at the Arch Street Tavern in Hartford. Men and women you heard on the radio and saw on television in Hartford's broadcasting heyday get together to trade stories and listen to to the incredible Hartford Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Donn Trenner, former music director for Steve Allen.

They call themselves "BOOBs" (Bunch of Old Broadcasters). There's Bob Ellsworth full of life at 85, and the first anchorman on Channel 3, and John Fleming who worked for WDRC then went on to be the VP of the Screen Actor's Guild and oncamera pitchman for Bernie's. (I think I bought a washer from him.) There's Bill Hennessy, who's worked on both TV 3 and WTIC-AM, Arnold Dean, broadcasting from Syracuse to Hartford and still on the air handling sports like a champ, Dick McDonough, WDRC alum now at WMAS, Norm Peters, formerly of TV 8 and 30, WTIC-AM/FM/TV, and others.

Let me tell you, they're a lively group. I'm just a snot-nosed kid. I've been on the air only 26 years.

Oh the stories I heard! Bob Ellsworth, the Channel 3 night anchor also did radio news for Bob Steele during the day. One time he finished his newscast and threw it back to Bob 10 seconds late. Bob waited until a record was on, walked into the other studio and said "Where the (blank) did you learn to broadcast?"

The night was great and I even walked away with a souvenir: a vintage WPOP T-Shirt.