Walter L. "Salty" Brine, 86, a Rhode Island icon and veteran
broadcaster, died yesterday at his Narragansett home.
Brine's career spanned generations and his voice, skipper's hat and
one-liners became part of the fabric of the state. He woke up with Rhode
Islanders, entertained their children after school, and coined the
phrase that parents tucked their children to bed with: "Brush your teeth
and say your prayers."
Brine's career at WPRO-AM began in 1942 with the station's morning radio
program, which he hosted until his retirement in 1993. Brine also
created a children's television show, called Salty Brine's Shack, that
he hosted on Channel 12 from 1958 to 1968.
"A rare broadcaster," said Ron St. Pierre, who has Brine's old job at
WPRO. "With Salty, you always had the sense of a one-on-one connection.
You never had the sense that he was talking to a group of people; he was
talking to you."
Before St. Pierre became morning radio host, he was program director and
general manager at the station. St. Pierre also worked with Brine.
"I saw him three weeks ago, and I told him, 'Salty, I'm just keeping the
chair warm for you'," he said.
John Martin, who covered broadcasting for The Providence Journal from
1987 to 1999, called Brine's ratings "powerhouse."
"I think for most of the 50 years he was on the air, the station was
successful because of Salty Brine's day-part," Martin said. "He had
listeners who grew up with him, and then their kids grew up with him. He
had a longevity that's almost unique in the business."
Brine was a consummate performer, Martin said.
"He had an unmistakable charisma. An endearing cheerfulness. A robust
laugh. A welcoming smile," Martin said. "He could light up a room. When
you met Salty, you always felt like you were meeting that Salty Brine,
the guy who was on the radio."
Like so many things that Rhode Islanders come to love, he was one of a
kind.
"And we embrace that," Martin said.
Walter Cryan, who started his career in 1965, reading the news on
Brine's WPRO show, ended his own newscast last night with Brine's
signature: "Brush your teeth and say your prayers."
Cryan now anchors the 6 p.m. news on Channel 6. He also worked with
Brine at Channel 12, when Salty Brine's Shack was on the air.
"He had a perpetual smile, not only on his face but in his voice," Cryan
said. "I think he was made for broadcasting."
Brine's only son, Walter L. Brine Jr., cohosts The Loren & Wally Morning
Show, at WROR in Boston.
Salty Brine's first wife, Marion "Mickey" Brine, died in 2000. Brine
remarried and is survived by Roseanna Brine.
Like Del's Lemonade and the Independent Man at the State House, Brine
was part of Rhode Island's landscape.
State officials took it one step further, in 1990, and made him part of
the Ocean State's geography: The beach in the Galilee section of
Narragansett was renamed Salty Brine State Beach.
Brine filmed commercials there with the Cardi brothers, the owners of
Cardi's furniture, for whom he worked after his retirement from morning
broadcasting. Brine's talent for catchy phrases paid off for the Cardis,
too. When he was recording a radio commercial for the furniture store,
he had a few too many seconds to fill at the end of the 60-second spot.
So Brine, always the professional, stretched the last line of the ad,
said Peter Cardi, improvising yet another trademark saying:
"No-ho-ho-body beats Cardi's."
During his final broadcast as host of WPRO's radio show, on April 28,
1993, many of his competitors interrupted their own shows to call Brine
and wish him luck. Brine, then 74, said farewell to his audience.
"To all of you folks listening, this is my state," he said. "I love
everybody in it from the time they're born through the time they get
through school and college. I think I've lived through four generations."
He ended that last broadcast with his most famous line, "No school
Foster-Glocester!"
Funeral arrangements were incomplete yesterday.
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