In This Issue
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Haverhill’s Dr. Lahey Took FDR Secret
to the Grave; Likely Influenced VP Pick
WHAV Announces College
Student Internship Opportunities
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Program
Highlights
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Open Mike Show
Tim Coco is host of the
more than 50-year staple of democracy, Open Mike Show. The
two-hour program is also seen on WHAV.TV.
Mondays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Community Spotlight
Someone You Know is on
WHAV! Merrimack Valley non-profit organizations are invited to submit
news of events, fundraising appeals and other community calendar
announcements. Use the form on the News
page
to submit your information. Only local radio can bring you this level
of public service, but only WHAV does. This program is supported in
part by a grant from the Haverhill Cultural Council, a local agency
which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state
agency.
15 past every
hour.
Wave Weather
The Boston media
doesn’t always understand unique Valley weather conditions. Acclaimed
WHAV Meteorologists Rob Carolan and Gary Best and the rest of the team
provide Merrimack Valley’s most accurate weather forecasts every half
hour, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
Every 30 minutes.
Business Matters (NEW)
Thomas White and
Prudence Tippins offer an open dialogue on business that is free of
hidden agendas or deception and allows real change to emerge.
Thursdays,
7 p.m.
Democracy
Now is an award-winning investigative news magazine highlighting a
grassroots perspective and efforts to ignite democracy. Hosted by Amy
Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, the program pioneers the largest community
media collaboration in the United States. Interviews take place with
politicians, celebrities, muckrakers, academics, artists and “just
folks.”.
Thom
Hartmann is the nation’s top progressive radio talk show host,
according to Talkers Magazine, and is listed among the trade
publication’s “Heaviest Hundred: the 100 most important radio talk show
hosts of all time.” He is a four-time Project Censored-award-winning,
New York Times best-selling author of 22 books in 17 languages on five
continents.
International newscast
utilizing on-location
stringers of all nationalities, for-on-the- ground and unembedded news.
Anchored by Dorian Merina with headlines by Nell Abram and Jes Burns.
Produced by Dr. Michio
Kaku, Explorations in Science features news and interviews with leading
scientists on science, technology, politics and the environment.
The David Pakman Show
is a news and political talk program, known for controversial
interviews with political and religious extremists, liberal and
conservative politicians and other guests. The show, which has been
involved in a number of controversies involving challenges to
homophobic and racist
guests, focuses on the politics and news of the day, technology and
energy development, business, religion and other topics.
A
few popular comedies and dramas continued to draw listeners during the
1950s and 1960s even as other series were making the transition to
television. Hear the best of these weekday nights: Suspense (Mon.), X
Minus One (Tues.), Great Gildersleeve (Wed.), Our Miss Brooks (Thurs.),
The Couple Next Door (Fri.), Gunsmoke (Sat.) and Yours Truly Johnny
Dollar (Sun.).
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Listen Anywhere
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Web
WHAV.net
WHAV.TV (Open
Mike Show only)
WHAV.org
Cable TV
•
Andover: Channel 8
• Haverhill: Channel 22
• Methuen, Channels 8 + 22 (Comcast) &
32* (Verizon Fios)
• Plaistow,
Channel 17
• Sandown, Channel 17
* Methuen
Channel 32 is heard statewide in communities with Verizon Fios cable
television service.
A special thanks to the
boards, management, staffs and members of the public access television
stations above for bringing not-for-profit WHAV to those without
Internet access! If you would like to hear WHAV on your cable
television system, call your cable company or public access station.
For more information, call (978) 374-2111.
Radio
1640 AM
Cell Phone
Visit www.WHAV.net with your smartphone and be automatically directed to a page specially formatted for your small screen.
About WHAV
The WHAV call letters
have been associated with local broadcasting since 1947. WHAV is today
operated by Public Media of New England Inc., a not-for-profit
corporation. Since 2004, the call has served the Merrimack Valley’s
pioneer Internet radio station at WHAV.net and a number of public
access cable television stations in Andover, Haverhill and Methuen, and
Plaistow and Sandown, N.H. The station is also heard over AM 1640 in
northern Haverhill and Plaistow, N.H.
Public Media of New
England, Inc.
WHAV
189 Ward Hill Ave.
Haverhill, MA 01835
Business Office: (978) 374-2111
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Dr. Frank Lahey of Haverhill, sitting
center, knew President Franklin D. Roosevelt would die in office.
Open Mike
Show: Haverhill Heritage Series
Haverhill’s Dr. Lahey Took FDR Secret
to the Grave; Likely Influenced VP Pick
By Tim Coco
WHAV President
& General Manager (volunteer)
Haverhill
native Frank Howard Lahey (1880-1953) took a dark secret to his grave.
He knew in 1944 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not survive
a fourth term and feared being criticized for not making his findings
public.
The Open Mike Show took time March 4—the 80th anniversary of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inauguration—to dig into Lahey’s secret.
Roosevelt indeed died three months into his fourth term. The renowned
suregon was conflicted between his confidential duty to a patient and
his obligation as a citizen.
“I am recording these opinions in the light of having informed Admiral
(Ross T.) McIntire Saturday afternoon July 8, 1944 that I did not
believe that, if Mr. Roosevelt were elected President again, he had the
physical capacity to complete a term,” Lahey wrote in the July 10, 1944
memo that would be sealed for 60 years. Lahey specified the conditions
upon which the memorandum might be revealed.
“It is to be opened and utilized only in the event that there might be
criticism of me should this later eventuate and the criticism be
directed towards me for not having made this public. As I see my duty
as a physician, I cannot violate my professional position nor possible
professional confidence, but I do wish to be on record concerning
possible later criticism,” Lahey wrote.
Lahey was asked by McIntire, the president’s personal physician, for a
second opinion on Roosevelt’s health. Lahey concluded Roosevelt either
had been in heart failure or “on the verge of it” during a recent
wartime conference in Russia. He said the president suffered by high
blood pressure and coronary damage.
While Roosevelt decided to continue his run for an unprecedented fourth
term, the surgeon likely influenced the vice presidential decision when
he wrote, “I have told Admiral McIntire that I feel strongly that if he
does accept another term, he had a very serious responsibility
concerning who is the Vice President. Admiral McIntire agrees with this
and has, he states, so informed Mr. Roosevelt.” The president privately
replaced Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the ticket with Senator
Harry S. Truman the day after the Lahey memo. Truman officially
replaced Wallace during the Democratic convention later that month.
Despite court case, secrecy
persists
In 1984, Dr. Harry Goldsmith convinced Linda M. Strand, who signed the
letter as a witness and succeeded Lahey after his death in 1953, that
the conditions for the letter’s release had been met. Goldsmith had
heard of the letter’s existence from another of Lahey’s former
colleagues. Lawyers at Herrick and Smith, Boston, who had held the
letter in the firm’s safe, refused to release it. Massachusetts
Superior Court Judge Jeremiah J. Sullivan sided with the law firm.
Strand, supported by the National Archives and Records Administration,
among others, appealed.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, taking the appeal for itself
and hearing the matter between Dec. 5, 1985 and Feb. 18, 1986, agreed
with Strand. “The evidence presented suggests that Dr. Lahey was part
of a conspiracy of silence regarding President Roosevelt’s ill health.
These opinions, regardless of their validity, constitute posthumous
criticism of Dr. Lahey ‘for his conduct in relation to his consultation
and his failure to make a public
report thereof’ (emphasis added). The condition precedent to
Herrick & Smith’s redelivery of the ‘Lahey memorandum’ has
occurred. Strand is entitled to possession of the memorandum,” the
court ruled.
Strand turned the memo over to Goldsmith who held the letter in
continued secrecy for another 21 years until he self-published “A
Conspiracy of Silence: The Health and Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
The then-little-known book received scant attention. Only recently,
when Lahey’s Dr. David Steinberg discussed the letter, did the facts
finally become common knowledge.
Lahey, one of the first inductees into the Haverhill Citizens Hall of
Fame, founded the Lahey Clinic. He was president of the American
Medical Association in 1941, head of the Army and Navy Procurement
Board in World War II and was recognized for numerous contributions to
medical practices and research. His father owned the successful
Fletcher and Lahey construction and quarry business, and asked his son
to join the business. Lahey, however, went to Harvard Medical School
and trained as a surgeon, served in World War I and then opened his own
practice in 1926 in Kenmore Square, Boston.
Upcoming Haverhill Heritage Series’ segments will feature: Construction
of I-495, Louis H. Hamel’s Second Life as Fred Allen’s Sidekick and
more.
The Open Mike Show,
broadcast live from WHAV’s Edwin V. Johnson Newsroom, is heard Monday
nights between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. A video simulcast is seen on the
Internet at www.WHAV.net and Haverhill Community Television Channel 22.
In addition to listener calls, original investigative reporting and
topics in the news, the show’s Haverhill Heritage Series has shed light
on such topics as “Haverhill’s Urban Renewal Program,” “Haverhill’s Titanic Newspaper Battle” and “How FM Inventor Armstrong Links to Two Sisters from
Merrimac and Poet Whittier.”
Dr. Frank Lahey’s secret memo of July 10, 1944
WHAV
Radio College Internship Program
WHAV Announces College
Student Internship Opportunities
WHAV has openings for newsroom interns. Interns
learn to gather, write, announce and edit news stories. In addition,
students may cover live events/conduct remotes, record actualities in
the field, produce talk shows, voice community calendar announcements
and more.
Overview
The WHAV Radio College Internship Program is
designed to provide practical, on-the-job experience to students
interested in pursuing careers in broadcasting, journalism and related
fields. The program is year-round and may be adapted to students on
both semester and quarter systems. Internships are generally limited to
two one semester/quarter, but may be extended to two with supervisor
and school approval. The internship is unpaid.
Hours
Interns will generally work 15 to 20 hours per week. Most schedules are
flexible, and efforts are made to accommodate school schedules.
Eligibility
A prospective intern must be a student currently
enrolled in an accredited college and/or university with at least a 2.5
(C+) cumulative grade point average. The student must be receiving
course credit for the internship. Students are required to provide
“proof of credit” for the internship from their college or university.
Reliable transportation is a must.
Selection/Placement
The student should submit a resume with a cover
letter to WHAV. The cover letter should also indicate dates and times
of availability. Please, no telephone calls. Materials may be emailed
to [email protected] or sent to:
WHAV
189 Ward Hill Avenue
Haverhill, MA 01835
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