Christmas Eve Programs
(As originally broadcast on WTIC, Hartford, CT)

Christmas Eve on WTIC was a special night in the 1960s and 1970s. Each year several announcers were given the opportunity to present a one hour program. After the 7:00 news block and until 11:00 you would hear elaborately-produced programs carefully produced and curated by the individual hosts. Thanks to Dick Bertel's younger son, Doug, we present seven of the Bertel family Christmas Eve shows, featuring Dick, his wife Jean, and his children Darcy, Jim, Susan, and Doug, along with special guests. Enjoy!  1964:  The Night before Christmas This is the program that answers that immortal Christmas question:  What’s a ‘boose?  In a rare appearance, Dick Bertel’s wife Jean can be heard laughing when their son Jimmy goes to the hall closet to fetch an example of something he believes Santa’s elves have packed for him at the North Pole. (More information) 1965:   It's a Small World In this episode, Dick Bertel uses "Walt Disney's 'It's a Small World,' a Salute to UNICEF and the World's Children" exhibit inside the Pepsi pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair to illustrate to his daughter Darcy, son Jimmy, and their listeners how "Christmas is for everyone, not just a special few." (More information) 1966: Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas This episode's special guest is (Laura) Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas (1889-1971) whose 1897 letter to "The New York Sun" inspired editor Francis Church (1839-1906), who had been a war correspondent during the Civil War, to pen the response, "yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." 1967: Christmas in Connecticut This year, Dick Bertel, daughter Darcy, and son Jimmy spend “Christmas in Connecticut” with legendary opera star Marian Anderson, a Danbury resident, and Serie Larson, the curator and assistant director of the Mark Twain Memorial in Hartford. They also introduce baby Susan who was born in September. (More information) 1968: Down to the Sea in Ships In this edition, Dick Bertel and his children Darcy, Jimmy, and Susan listen to stories of Christmas during the days of sailing ships as told by B. MacDonald Steers, who retired in 1960 as the educational director at the outdoor living history museum Mystic Seaport, and Alfred P. Knapp, a booster of the Sailing Masters of 1812, a fife and drum corps founded in 1963 in Essex, Conn. (More information) 1969: Our Visit into Christmas Past Recalling the Gilded Age, Dick Bertel’s 1969 Christmas show was recorded on location at the Nook Farm home of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) and inside the Goodwin Parlor at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, both in Hartford, Connecticut. (More information) 1970: Christmas in Many Different and Beautiful Ways From New England to North Carolina, Dick Bertel and his children are taken on a tour of “many different and beautiful” Christmas celebrations along the eastern United States by humorist Bill Stockdale (1918-2009), a motion picture photographer and lecturer who writes travel columns for “The New York Times,” “The Boston Globe,” and “The Worcester Telegram.”  (In 2004, he will be awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Travel Adventure Cinema Society.) (More information) 1971: Missing 1972: "Rudolph" Composer Johnny Marks Johnny Marks (1909-1985), the composer of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" and many other popular songs, is interviewed by Dick Bertel with his children Darcy, Jimmy, Susie, and Dougie. (More information) 1973: An Especially Merry Christmas Tonight “Let’s go back to the beginning” Dick Bertel remarks as he plays excerpts of interviews from past programs.  He starts the show by observing that “there are no outside lights” to help celebrate the holidays, a consequence of the national energy crisis caused by OPEC nations placing an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. (More information) 1974: Missing 1975: Puppets & Marionettes - Frank Ballard This year, the director of the puppet arts program at the University of Connecticut's School of Fine Arts, Dr. Frank W. Ballard (1929-2010), tells WTIC Radio personality Dick Bertel, his wife Jean, and their children Darcy, Jimmy, Susie, and Dougie how puppets and marionettes have been used for several centuries to portray Christmas stories by many cultures around the world. (More information) 1976: Big Book of Christmas Stories For the first time since 1965, Dick Bertel conducts his entire WTIC Christmas Eve radio show without a guest and just with his children Darcy, Jim, Susan, and Doug instead.  This episode, the 15th in the series, will turn out to be the last edition because Bertel will leave WTIC in April 1977 after twenty-one years of service there. (More information) Program notes on all programs above, by Doug Bertel

Note: These are large files; it may take a long time to load.
You can save the file to your hard drive by placing your curser over the link,
pressing the right mouse button, and selecting "save target as . . ."  
With a T1, cable modem, or DSL this might take 1-3 minutes.

Return to Home Page