Al Wiman is best known to St. Louisans for his years as a TV reporter at channels 4 and 5. But in 1964, Al was a radio reporter for KFWB/Los Angeles.
When The Beatles came to town to play the Hollywood Bowl, Al was not only at the press conference, he also managed to work his way to the side of the stage just as the Beatles began their show. With tape recorder rolling, he did play-by-play of those exciting first minutes — quite a feat, considering the concert was promoted by Bob Eubanks, who was then a DJ at KRLA, the competing radio station. A few days later, Al and a couple of cohorts went into a studio and recorded an audio documentary, “The Beatles Story,” which Capitol records rush-released as a double album to cash in on Beatlemania.
On the 25 anniversary of John Lennon’s death, Al joined me to reminisce about those days, and to play the audio of that historic night in LA. Listen to our conversation here.