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Harry and Betty Webb, whose marriage was the culmination of a radio romance, play with baby Melanie.
HISTORIC
OF THE AIR
WBEN newscaster Webb is on the air weekdays at 7, 8, 9 A.M. and noon.
16
ALL of the romance that goes on around a radio microphone isn't confined to the script, according to Harry Webb, now WBEN's popular morning newscaster.
Back in 1945 when Harry was an announcer at WSNY, he met pretty brunette Betty Sheffield, who was conducting a women's program on the Schenectady station. This was all very well except that Harry was announcing nights and Betty was working days.
But love laughs at time schedules, so Betty slyly arranged to do her script-writing at night — in the studios — and they were married on Aug. 24, 1946. Their daughter, Melanie Boyd Webb, was born Nov. 8, 1947.
Harry, a handsome six-footer, is a native of Fulton, N. Y. Graduating from Williams College with an A. B. in German, he was active in drama there and was a member of the Williams College Glee Club which sang at the New York Hippodrome in 1936.
Leaving Williams in 1938, Harry engaged in insurance work in Syracuse, then joined WSNY. He later became a public relations man for the Chamber of Commerce in East Orange, N. J., before becoming affiliated with WBEN.
During the war he sang in many War Bond shows.
Betty majored in dramatics at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and still retains an abiding love for that state.
Harry likes his work although he can't say the same about the hour at which he arises — 4:45 A.M., six days a week. He broadcasts bulletins at 6, 7, 8, 9 A.M., and Noon from The Buffalo Evening News editorial rooms. A conscientious worker, he listens to practically every newscast possible in order to check pronunciation and diction.
His most interested fan outside his own family is a court stenographer with offices near the WBEN studios. She practices at home by taking in shorthand the complete 9 A.M. news round-up; is one of Harry's severest critics, and never fails to tell him when he talks too fast.
Young Mr. Webb, who was born during the historic week when the United States declared war with Germany in World War I, also participated in a historic Buffalo radio inaugural. On his first day at work. Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1946, he had the honor of putting The Buffalo Evening News' frequency modulation station WBEN-FM on the air for the first time.