WNBC (AM)
Encyclopedia
WNBC (originally WEAF-AM) was a radio station
that operated in New York City
from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network. The station left the air on October 7, 1988; its former frequency is occupied by CBS
-owned all-sports WFAN
.
Western Electric
. It was the first radio station in New York City.
The call letters supposedly stood for Western Electric AT&T Fone, although another meaning was given as Water, Earth, Air, and Fire (the 4 classical elements). Another story is that the licensee didn't like the originally assigned call letters, WDAM, and the FCC assigned the next available callsign in alphabetical order.
In 1922, WEAF ran the first radio advertisement (actually a roughly 10-minute long talk anticipating today's radio and television infomercials) which promoted an apartment development in Jackson Heights near a new elevated train line, (the IRT's Flushing-Corona line
, now the number 7 line
).
In 1926, WEAF was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America, making it a sister station to WJZ. RCA then formed the National Broadcasting Company
, which operated two radio chains. WEAF became the flagship
station of the NBC Red Network
. The other chain was the NBC Blue Network
, whose programming originated at WJZ (now WABC
), also owned by RCA. As a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
of 1941, WEAF became a clear channel station, and could be heard across most of the eastern half of North America
at night.
In 1943, the United States Supreme Court ordered RCA to sell off one of its radio networks, citing antitrust
concerns. The company decided to keep the Red Network, and it was rebranded as the NBC Radio Network after the Blue Network was divested, along with several stations (including WJZ), to Edward J. Noble and rechristened the Blue Network as the American Broadcasting Company
. WEAF's call letters were changed to WNBC in 1946, then to WRCA in 1954, and back to WNBC in 1960.
See NBC Radio Network for network programming during this time.
, the first in New York radio. Hosts included genial morning-drive companion Big Wilson, Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon
, New York-based actor Robert Alda
, NBC Radio comedian/satirist Mort Sahl
, the witty mid-morning game-show host ("Fortune Phone") Sterling Yates, late-morning talk radio provocateur Joe Pyne
, midday voices Lee Leonard
and later Jim Gearhart, sports talk host Bill Mazer
, plus late-nighters Brad Crandall (later of NFL Films
) and Long John Nebel
.
On weekends, WNBC aired almost all of the NBC Radio Network's Monitor
program, which featured many of WNBC's own hosts as well as the already established lineup holding court at NBC's Radio Central (Gene Rayburn
, Henry Morgan
, Bill Cullen
, David Wayne, Kitty Carlisle and Wayne Howell
).
Later in the decade WNBC shed its "Conversation Station" format and readopted a middle-of-the-road (MOR) music format, covering songs from the 1940s to the 1960s with non-rock and soft rock hits recorded after 1955. The format would feature such artists as Frank Sinatra
, Elvis Presley
, Nat "King" Cole
, The Everly Brothers
, Tom Jones
, The 5th Dimension, Peggy Lee
, and Dionne Warwick
. Hosts during this transition back to music included Wilson, Jack Spector (formerly of WMCA
), Jack Hayes, Charlie Brown and later Ted Brown
, hired away from then-dominant MOR station WNEW
. Well-known MOR host and vocalist Jim Lowe
joined WNBC for a time during one of his many shuttles to and from WNEW. By 1971, music from such acts as Sinatra and Cole would disappear, with a few exceptions, separating WNBC from its WNEW-like beginnings.
was hired in December 1971, giving New York its first exposure to the shock jock
genre. Imus stayed with the station for most of the next two decades, except for a couple of years in the late 1970s when there was a general purge of the air staff and a short-term format flip to current-based based Top 40.
Despite somewhat different formats, WNBC saw itself as a mostly unsuccessful competitor to New York Top 40 powerhouse WABC
. Thus they brought in Murray "the K" Kaufman
in 1972, and Wolfman Jack
opposite WABC's Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow
in 1973. This did not improve ratings much.
By 1973, WNBC was an Adult Contemporary radio station featuring the Carpenters
, Paul Simon
, Carole King
, the Stylistics
, Neil Diamond
, James Taylor
, and other artists of that era. They also began to play more 1960s-era rock and roll oldies, including the Motown artists, Beatles, Beach Boys, and Rolling Stones, at that point.
Ted Brown
would leave in the early 1970s and return to WNEW. In 1974, WNBC hired Bruce Morrow away from WABC. Norm N. Nite
arrived from WCBS-FM
in 1975, as did Joe McCoy in 1976. Mel Phillips was program director at the time of Joe McCoy's hiring. The ratings were still mediocre.
By 1975, WNBC was playing an Adult Top 40 format and while trying to compete with WABC they were also competing with a musically closer station, WXLO
. They featured hits from 1964 to then-current product. By this time, artists such as the Eagles, Billy Joel
, Steve Miller
, Fleetwood Mac
, Bee Gees
, Donna Summer
, and disco acts, among others, were mixed in. Unfortunately, while the mix may have been good, (and the station got decent ratings and made money), WNBC was still perceived as everyone's second favorite station behind WABC, 99X, or to a lesser extent, WNEW.
In 1977, Bob Pittman was hired as WNBC's new Program Director, replacing Mel Phillips. His first decision was to lay-off all of the station's personalities, some of which were veterans (including Don Imus, Cousin Brucie, Norm N. Nite and Joe McCoy), replacing them with younger-sounding disc jockeys from medium markets. He also shifted the format to from Adult Top 40 or Hot AC to a more aggressively current-based Top 40 format, with occasional nods to FM radio (such as commercial-free hours). As a result of this tweaking, the station was now playing artists such as Andy Gibb
, KC & the Sunshine Band, Boston
, Peter Frampton
, Fleetwood Mac
, the Eagles, Billy Joel
, the Bee Gees
, among others. However, listenership did not go up, but actually went down, and while some of the new air personalities would find success (Johnny Dark, Frank Reed, Michael Sarzynksi, Buzz Brindle and Allen Beebe would be heard on the station well into the 1980s), others would not (Ellie Dylan
, who replaced Imus in morning drive and was hired solely because she was Bob Pittman's girlfriend at the time, would be gone within months). By 1979, Pittman would leave WNBC (he would soon become the founder of MTV
), and Don Imus returned to the morning show. Under program director John Lund, WNBC's playlist was tweaked back to an Adult top 40 format, though ratings continued to be mediocre.
was hired in the late Spring. WNBC's success forced WABC to make radical changes and the station added evening talk and evolved musically to adult contemporary. WNBC followed suit with the music (but did not add evening talk), moving to a similar AC format to sister station WYNY. At that time, WNBC and WYNY were sort of fraternal twin stations (playing nearly identical music but presented differently).
WNBC promotion director Dale Pon (who later created the successful "I Want My MTV" campaign) created its slogan "The Next One", meaning that it would be the number-one ranked AM music station in New York City. As part of that campaign, TV commercials and subway boards softening the image of the cantankerous Don Imus by including two cute twin blonde little girls would say "We're #2" and blanketed the New York City metro area. When an Arbitron
report was released that WNBC believed confirmed that it was in fact the most popular AM music radio station in New York City, the slogan was changed to "The New One". Once WABC moved to all talk, WNBC added a few rock songs that were not heard on any AC stations in the area. By summer 1982, WNBC was near the top with some of their best ratings ever.
In fall 1982 to much fanfare, Howard Stern
was brought in from WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C.
, to do afternoon drive. Initially Stern played music (about 10 to 12 songs an hour), much to his dismay, though his ratings were high. Then, in 1983 with ABC
-owned WPLJ
evolving to a Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format, as well as WHTZ
's debut with the same format, WNBC began to lose some listeners.
shows which featured oldies from the 60's with some 50's and early 70's music, with current product in rotation.
Throughout his three years at WNBC, Stern had continuous battles with station management and other jocks at the station, specifically Don Imus and program director Kevin Metheny, whom Stern nicknamed "Pig Virus". Many of these conflicts were dramatized in Stern's autobiographical book and film Private Parts
which included an amusing scene where he is instructed by Metheny (fictionalized for the film as Kenny Rushton, with a nickname change to "Pig Vomit", and played by Paul Giamatti
) on the preferred "W-ehhNNN-B-C" pronunciation of the station's call letters.
Early in 1985, WNBC was basically a Hot AC station with a moderate amount of 60's and 70's music mixed in. That year they evolved from a music intensive format to more of a full service AC station, with music as a background and personality as the foreground. In the spring of 1985, former children's television show host Soupy Sales
started a talk-intensive program in middays, replacing the Frank Reed all request radio show, heard 1984-1985 weekdays 10AM-3PM. Soupy combined comedy, games, and talk, while playing 6 to 8 songs per hour.On weekends they became oldies-based, emphasizing 60's oldies while still playing current product in moderation; they were now basically out of the Top 40/CHR realm by then. Their younger audience base had already gone to WHTZ or WPLJ, but with Stern in afternoons and Imus in the morning they continued to do reasonably well.
Imus and Soupy Sales were down to six to eight songs an hour and Stern played about four songs per hour, although he complained about the type of music on the playlist he was supposed to be playing at the time. That summer, with radiocasts of the New York Knicks
and New York Rangers
, WNBC added Sports Night on weekday evenings, initially hosted by Jack Spector and then Dave Sims
. During the month of August, music was still heard during "Sportsnight", approximately four songs per hour before being dropped completely by August 31 of that year. Stern was attempting to stop playing music on his show at this point, but songs were still used sporadically, as September airchecks exist with him playing "Bend Me Shape Me" by The American Breed (and making fun of it), "Careless Whisper
" and "Freedom
" by Wham!
, "Part Time Lover" by Stevie Wonder
and a few others. He was probably playing about two records per hour but never seemed to completely drop music. Stern's days at NBC were numbered for unrelated reasons. At that point music was taking a backseat during the week on the station.
. However, Stern went in, and because there was no station management on hand, Stern did his show as normal refusing to cover the problems related to the storm. Ironically, he spent much of the show insisting that he was leaving the station, because he had learned that Soupy Sales had signed a syndication contract that had long been withheld from Stern.
After Stern's dismissal, ratings plummeted and they were under a two-share by the spring of 1986. Initially they played a bit more music and then went through several temporary afternoon hosts. Afternoons were back to about 12 songs per hour. The music was more of a gold-based Adult Contemporary format with many oldies and moderate amounts of current product. In the Spring of 1986 Joey Reynolds
moved onto afternoons with a talk-intensive show playing a few songs an hour. Wolfman Jack was dropped on overnights in favor of various weekend announcers playing oldies from 1955 to 1973 (mostly late 1960s). Weekends had Bill Grundfest
doing a talk intensive show a few hours each day playing four songs an hour. Despite these changes, by the fall of 1986, WNBC was in a ratings crisis.
On the afternoon of October 22, 1986, the station's "N-Copter" traffic
helicopter
crashed into the Hudson River
killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker
and severely injuring pilot Bill Pate. As millions of WNBC listeners heard Dornacker giving her traffic report she suddenly paused, a grinding noise could be heard in the background and Dornacker screaming in terror "Hit the water! Hit the water! Hit the water!", then the radio transmission was cut off and a very shaken radio host Joey Reynolds
awkwardly tried to figure out what had happened by saying "Okay, we're going to play some music here I think." Dornacker had recently gotten back to flying in a helicopter after surviving a previous crash of the N-Copter into the Hackensack River
in New Jersey
a few months earlier. An episode of NBC's television show Third Watch
featured a similar incident (although it may have been more of a reference to the crash of WNBC-TV's helicopter, which crashed into the Passaic River
in New Jersey over a decade later, with no deaths).
WNBC had a turnover of programming in early 1987. On February 23, oldies were dropped on overnights in favor of Alan Colmes
, who would also do a talk intensive show and a few songs per hour. On February 27, 1987, Joey Reynolds show was ended and Bill Grundfest temporarily moved into this time slot. On March 9, 1987, Alan Colmes moved to afternoons and continued to play four songs per hour. Joey Reynolds did not run his own board and had Big Jay Sorensen as his producer and board operator. Since Colmes ran his own board, Jay Sorrenson moved to the overnight shift and opted to do a music intensive show, similar to the way it was before Alan Colmes took that slot. This show was now marketed as The Time Machine, playing oldies from 1955-74 (emphasizing 1964-69), complete with old jingles and an echo effect
, resulting in a sound similar to WABC's during its Top 40 heyday. Two weeks later, on March 23, 1987, Soupy Sales
had found out that there were plans to end his show and at that point he walked off mid way through with Dale Parsons finishing the show. Weekender and assistant programming director, Jim Collins moved into that time slot with a gold based music intensive show on a temporary basis. Then on April 6, 1987, a couple weeks after Soupy Sales laft, his former sidekick, Ray D'Ariano moved back into the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekday time slot but was now playing 1955-73 oldies. His show was music-intensive with current product lightly in rotation until the summer, playing about 12 oldies an hour.
In the summer of 1987, WNBC considered going all oldies running the Time Machine full-time, with the exception of Knicks games, Rangers games, and Imus In The Morning. But instead, they increased the amount of oldies programming but not on a full-time basis. Therefore, WNBC modified their format, keeping Imus in the morning playing a few AC cuts and a couple oldies an hour with his usual talk. Alan Colmes continued hosting the afternoon drive talk show but dropped music altogether. In evenings, Dave Sims
continued with sports talk along with Knicks and Rangers games. The Time Machine remained on overnights but was now expanded to full-time on weekends with hosts Dan Taylor
(laid off from WHN
when they became WFAN
),"Big" Jay Sorenson, "The Real" Bob James, Jim Collins, Lee Chambers, Dale Parsons, Carol Mason and others. Ray D'Ariano continued his midday weekday oldies show but was not part of the Time Machine programming. His show had newer WNBC jingles, no echo sound effects, and slightly softer songs. From the Summer of 1987 to the station's demise on October 7, 1988, WNBC's format was classified as Adult Contemporary but they only played Adult Contemporary cuts during Imus's show. The actual format was block programming featuring AC and Talk in morning drive; All Oldies on Middays, overnights, and weekends; Talk weekday afternoons; and sports weekday evenings and whenever the Knicks or Rangers played a game. It was difficult to classify WNBC's format at that point.
, which now owned NBC through its purchase of RCA two years earlier, announced that it would sell off the NBC Radio division. In February of that year GE made a multi-station deal with Emmis Communications
and, in New York, the WNBC license for 660 was included in the sale. Emmis announced it would move WFAN to the 660 frequency. At the time, WFAN was located at 1050 AM, and had a somewhat marginal signal in portions of the New York area. As the deal only included the license for WNBC and not the station's intellectual property, GE would proceed to shut down the station for good.
On October 7, 1988 at 5:30 p.m., the WFAN call letters, studios, programming and staff moved to WNBC's old frequency at 660 AM, which has a much better signal. Earlier in the day, the station aired a 90-minute retrospective titled "WNBC-The First 66 Years," hosted by Dale Parsons. The program was written and produced by Parsons and his wife, Ginny, who spent nearly six months researching the station's history. The last voice heard on WNBC was that of Alan Colmes
, who said "I'm Alan Colmes. Thank you, God bless you, and for the last time, this is 66 WNBC New York. Let's do the countdown." and counted down the seconds to WNBC's demise with the legendary NBC chimes
(the notes G-E-C) playing in the background. Their soon-to-be former TV sister station, WNBC-TV, abruptly cut from a pre-produced history piece on WNBC and NBC Radio during their 5:00 p.m. newscast to cover the sign-off live. After 66 years, the long history of NBC radio in New York had come to an end.
Earlier in the day, regular music programming ended at 6 AM; Jay Sorenson played "Imagine" by John Lennon
followed by NBC chimes and a 5 second pause. Although the FCC regards the 660 frequency as changing its calls from WNBC to WFAN on that day, WFAN does not claim WNBC's history. It did, however, sign up Imus to take Greg Gumbel
's place in the morning. Imus would remain on the morning drive-time slot for 19 years, until his firing in 2007 for comments about the Rutgers University
women's basketball team. He moved to WABC near the end of that year.
In the complicated switch that saw WFAN move to the 660 frequency, the 1050 frequency that was formerly the home of WFAN became that of Spanish-language WUKQ, owned by Spanish Broadcasting System
. However, SBS already owned an AM station in the market, Newark
-based WSKQ at 620 kHz., and at the time, FCC
rules stipulated that companies could own only one AM station per market. As a result, SBS received a temporary waiver to run 1050 while exploring the sale of either AM frequency. SBS chose to keep 620 (it is now WSNR
), and 1050 was traded to Forward Communications, which owned WEVD, then at 97.9 FM. After that deal was approved, WEVD's call letters and programming moved to 1050 AM (it is now WEPN
and ironically a sports station), and SBS took over 97.9 as WSKQ-FM
. The October NBC-Emmis switch also saw Emmis's WQHT (then at 103.5 MHz.) move to 97.1 MHz., which had been the home of NBC's WYNY
. Emmis sold the 103.5 frequency to Westwood One
, who also acquired the WYNY call letters and its country music format.
In all this, WFAN retired two of the oldest radio call letters from the dawn of commercial radio: WHN and WNBC.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
that operated in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network. The station left the air on October 7, 1988; its former frequency is occupied by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-owned all-sports WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
.
NBC Network Radio
WNBC signed on for the first time on March 2, 1922, as WEAF, owned by AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
. It was the first radio station in New York City.
The call letters supposedly stood for Western Electric AT&T Fone, although another meaning was given as Water, Earth, Air, and Fire (the 4 classical elements). Another story is that the licensee didn't like the originally assigned call letters, WDAM, and the FCC assigned the next available callsign in alphabetical order.
In 1922, WEAF ran the first radio advertisement (actually a roughly 10-minute long talk anticipating today's radio and television infomercials) which promoted an apartment development in Jackson Heights near a new elevated train line, (the IRT's Flushing-Corona line
IRT Flushing Line
The Flushing Line is a rapid transit route of the New York City Subway system, operated as part of the IRT Division and designated the 7 route...
, now the number 7 line
7 (New York City Subway service)
The 7 Flushing Local and 7 Flushing Express are rapid transit services of the New York City Subway, providing local and express services along the full length of the IRT Flushing Line...
).
In 1926, WEAF was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America, making it a sister station to WJZ. RCA then formed the National Broadcasting Company
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, which operated two radio chains. WEAF became the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
station of the NBC Red Network
NBC Red Network
The NBC Red Network was one of the two original radio networks of the National Broadcasting Company. After NBC was required to divest itself of its Blue Network , the Red Network continued as the NBC Radio Network.It, along with the Blue Network, were the first two commercial radio networks in the...
. The other chain was the NBC Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
, whose programming originated at WJZ (now WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
), also owned by RCA. As a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, usually referred to as NARBA, is a treaty that took effect in March 1941 and set out the bandplan and interference rules for mediumwave AM broadcasting in North America. Although mostly replaced by other agreements in the 1980s, the basic bandplan...
of 1941, WEAF became a clear channel station, and could be heard across most of the eastern half of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
at night.
In 1943, the United States Supreme Court ordered RCA to sell off one of its radio networks, citing antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
concerns. The company decided to keep the Red Network, and it was rebranded as the NBC Radio Network after the Blue Network was divested, along with several stations (including WJZ), to Edward J. Noble and rechristened the Blue Network as the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. WEAF's call letters were changed to WNBC in 1946, then to WRCA in 1954, and back to WNBC in 1960.
See NBC Radio Network for network programming during this time.
1960s
By the early 1960s, the station gradually switched from NBC network programs to more local-oriented programs. In 1964, it adopted a talk formatTalk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
, the first in New York radio. Hosts included genial morning-drive companion Big Wilson, Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon
Edward Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995...
, New York-based actor Robert Alda
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:...
, NBC Radio comedian/satirist Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
, the witty mid-morning game-show host ("Fortune Phone") Sterling Yates, late-morning talk radio provocateur Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne was an American radio and television talk show host, who pioneered the confrontational style in which the host advocates a viewpoint and argues with guests and audience members...
, midday voices Lee Leonard
Lee Leonard
Lee Leonard is an American television personality who was involved in the launch of cable television networks ESPN and CNN.-Early life:...
and later Jim Gearhart, sports talk host Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer is an Jewish American television and radio personality.Winning numerous awards and citations, including three Sportscaster of the Year awards for New York from 1964–66....
, plus late-nighters Brad Crandall (later of NFL Films
NFL Films
NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...
) and Long John Nebel
Long John Nebel
Long John Nebel was an influential New York City talk radio show host.From the mid 1950s until his death in 1978, Nebel was a hugely popular all-night radio host, with millions of regular listeners and what Donald Bain described as "a fanatically loyal following" to his syndicated program, which...
.
On weekends, WNBC aired almost all of the NBC Radio Network's Monitor
Monitor (NBC Radio)
NBC Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network, it originally aired beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday...
program, which featured many of WNBC's own hosts as well as the already established lineup holding court at NBC's Radio Central (Gene Rayburn
Gene Rayburn
Gene Rayburn was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show Match Game for over two decades....
, Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan (comedian)
Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He is remembered best in two modern media: radio, on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist, and on television, where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show I've Got a Secret...
, Bill Cullen
Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades...
, David Wayne, Kitty Carlisle and Wayne Howell
Wayne Howell
Wayne Clay Howell Chappelle , known professionally as Wayne Howell, was a voice-over announcer for the NBC television and radio networks from 1947 through 1986...
).
Later in the decade WNBC shed its "Conversation Station" format and readopted a middle-of-the-road (MOR) music format, covering songs from the 1940s to the 1960s with non-rock and soft rock hits recorded after 1955. The format would feature such artists as Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Nat "King" Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, The 5th Dimension, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, and Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
. Hosts during this transition back to music included Wilson, Jack Spector (formerly of WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
), Jack Hayes, Charlie Brown and later Ted Brown
Ted Brown (radio)
Ted Brown , was a charismatic radio personality who worked at several stations in New York City including WMGM, WNEW and WNBC during the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of AM radio.-Biography:...
, hired away from then-dominant MOR station WNEW
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
. Well-known MOR host and vocalist Jim Lowe
Jim Lowe
Jim Lowe is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1956 number-one hit record, "The Green Door". He also served as a disc jockey and radio host and personality, and has been considered an expert on the popular music of the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:Born in Springfield, Missouri, Lowe...
joined WNBC for a time during one of his many shuttles to and from WNEW. By 1971, music from such acts as Sinatra and Cole would disappear, with a few exceptions, separating WNBC from its WNEW-like beginnings.
1970s
Don ImusDon Imus
John Donald "Don" Imus, Jr. is an American radio host, humorist, philanthropist and writer. His nationally-syndicated talk show, Imus in the Morning, is broadcast throughout the United States by Citadel Media and relayed on television by the Fox Business Network.-Personal life:Imus was born in...
was hired in December 1971, giving New York its first exposure to the shock jock
Shock jock
Shock jock is a slang term used to describe a type of any radio broadcaster who attracts attention using humor that a significant portion of the listening audience may find offensive. The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms,...
genre. Imus stayed with the station for most of the next two decades, except for a couple of years in the late 1970s when there was a general purge of the air staff and a short-term format flip to current-based based Top 40.
Despite somewhat different formats, WNBC saw itself as a mostly unsuccessful competitor to New York Top 40 powerhouse WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
. Thus they brought in Murray "the K" Kaufman
Murray the K
Murray Kaufman , professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
in 1972, and Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
opposite WABC's Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow
Bruce Morrow
Bruce Morrow is an American radio personality known to many listeners as Cousin Brucie.-Radio work:...
in 1973. This did not improve ratings much.
By 1973, WNBC was an Adult Contemporary radio station featuring the Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, the Stylistics
The Stylistics
The Stylistics are a soul music vocal group, and were one of the best-known Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. They formed in 1968, and were composed of lead Russell Thompkins, Jr., Herbie Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads, graced by the...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, and other artists of that era. They also began to play more 1960s-era rock and roll oldies, including the Motown artists, Beatles, Beach Boys, and Rolling Stones, at that point.
Ted Brown
Ted Brown (radio)
Ted Brown , was a charismatic radio personality who worked at several stations in New York City including WMGM, WNEW and WNBC during the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of AM radio.-Biography:...
would leave in the early 1970s and return to WNEW. In 1974, WNBC hired Bruce Morrow away from WABC. Norm N. Nite
Norm N. Nite
Norm N. Nite , was born Norman Durma and is the author of the Rock On! series of books. Rock On is coined as the official encyclopaedia of rock and roll music. He has spent many years on radio stations such as WGAR-AM and WMJI-FM in Cleveland and WCBS-FM in New York City...
arrived from WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM is a CBS-owned radio station in New York City. The station's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in Manhattan, and its transmitter is located on the Empire State Building....
in 1975, as did Joe McCoy in 1976. Mel Phillips was program director at the time of Joe McCoy's hiring. The ratings were still mediocre.
By 1975, WNBC was playing an Adult Top 40 format and while trying to compete with WABC they were also competing with a musically closer station, WXLO
WRKS-FM
WRKS , known by its on-air branding 98.7 Kiss FM, is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station in New York City, owned by Emmis Communications...
. They featured hits from 1964 to then-current product. By this time, artists such as the Eagles, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, Steve Miller
Steve Miller (musician)
Steven H. "Steve" Miller is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more popular-oriented sound which, from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of successful singles and albums.-Early years:Born in Milwaukee,...
, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
, Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
, and disco acts, among others, were mixed in. Unfortunately, while the mix may have been good, (and the station got decent ratings and made money), WNBC was still perceived as everyone's second favorite station behind WABC, 99X, or to a lesser extent, WNEW.
In 1977, Bob Pittman was hired as WNBC's new Program Director, replacing Mel Phillips. His first decision was to lay-off all of the station's personalities, some of which were veterans (including Don Imus, Cousin Brucie, Norm N. Nite and Joe McCoy), replacing them with younger-sounding disc jockeys from medium markets. He also shifted the format to from Adult Top 40 or Hot AC to a more aggressively current-based Top 40 format, with occasional nods to FM radio (such as commercial-free hours). As a result of this tweaking, the station was now playing artists such as Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb was an English singer and teen idol, and the youngest brother of the family whose other male siblings formed the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.-The early years:...
, KC & the Sunshine Band, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, the Eagles, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
, among others. However, listenership did not go up, but actually went down, and while some of the new air personalities would find success (Johnny Dark, Frank Reed, Michael Sarzynksi, Buzz Brindle and Allen Beebe would be heard on the station well into the 1980s), others would not (Ellie Dylan
Ellie Dylan
Ellie Dylan is currently the President and Founder of The SKYSHAPERS Foundation and the CEO, President and Founder of SKY U, LLC...
, who replaced Imus in morning drive and was hired solely because she was Bob Pittman's girlfriend at the time, would be gone within months). By 1979, Pittman would leave WNBC (he would soon become the founder of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
), and Don Imus returned to the morning show. Under program director John Lund, WNBC's playlist was tweaked back to an Adult top 40 format, though ratings continued to be mediocre.
Filling the void left by WABC
In 1981, John Lund left WNBC and the station's assistant PD, R.E."Buzz" Brindle served as interim program director until Kevin MethenyKevin Metheny
Kevin Metheny is a radio executive, famously nicknamed "Pig Virus" by Howard Stern from his days as Program Director at WNBC. He and various other historical Stern program directors were portrayed by Paul Giamatti as a composite character under the name Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton in the 1997 movie,...
was hired in the late Spring. WNBC's success forced WABC to make radical changes and the station added evening talk and evolved musically to adult contemporary. WNBC followed suit with the music (but did not add evening talk), moving to a similar AC format to sister station WYNY. At that time, WNBC and WYNY were sort of fraternal twin stations (playing nearly identical music but presented differently).
WNBC promotion director Dale Pon (who later created the successful "I Want My MTV" campaign) created its slogan "The Next One", meaning that it would be the number-one ranked AM music station in New York City. As part of that campaign, TV commercials and subway boards softening the image of the cantankerous Don Imus by including two cute twin blonde little girls would say "We're #2" and blanketed the New York City metro area. When an Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
report was released that WNBC believed confirmed that it was in fact the most popular AM music radio station in New York City, the slogan was changed to "The New One". Once WABC moved to all talk, WNBC added a few rock songs that were not heard on any AC stations in the area. By summer 1982, WNBC was near the top with some of their best ratings ever.
In fall 1982 to much fanfare, Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
was brought in from WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, to do afternoon drive. Initially Stern played music (about 10 to 12 songs an hour), much to his dismay, though his ratings were high. Then, in 1983 with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-owned WPLJ
WPLJ
WPLJ is a radio station in New York City owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister station WABC inside 2 Penn Plaza in midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building. The station currently plays a Hot Adult...
evolving to a Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format, as well as WHTZ
WHTZ
WHTZ — branded Z100 — is a commercial pop/contemporary hit radio radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...
's debut with the same format, WNBC began to lose some listeners.
Transition from Music Intensive to Full Service
In the spring of 1984, Dale Parsons took over as program director. After that, Stern cut down to four songs an hour and began to talk much more. On overnights beginning in the spring of 1984, WNBC added taped Wolfman JackWolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
shows which featured oldies from the 60's with some 50's and early 70's music, with current product in rotation.
Throughout his three years at WNBC, Stern had continuous battles with station management and other jocks at the station, specifically Don Imus and program director Kevin Metheny, whom Stern nicknamed "Pig Virus". Many of these conflicts were dramatized in Stern's autobiographical book and film Private Parts
Private Parts
Private Parts may refer to:*Intimate parts, such as the human sex organs*Private Parts , a 1993 autobiography by radio personality Howard Stern*Private Parts , a 1997 film based on Howard Stern's autobiography of the same name...
which included an amusing scene where he is instructed by Metheny (fictionalized for the film as Kenny Rushton, with a nickname change to "Pig Vomit", and played by Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
) on the preferred "W-ehhNNN-B-C" pronunciation of the station's call letters.
Early in 1985, WNBC was basically a Hot AC station with a moderate amount of 60's and 70's music mixed in. That year they evolved from a music intensive format to more of a full service AC station, with music as a background and personality as the foreground. In the spring of 1985, former children's television show host Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
started a talk-intensive program in middays, replacing the Frank Reed all request radio show, heard 1984-1985 weekdays 10AM-3PM. Soupy combined comedy, games, and talk, while playing 6 to 8 songs per hour.On weekends they became oldies-based, emphasizing 60's oldies while still playing current product in moderation; they were now basically out of the Top 40/CHR realm by then. Their younger audience base had already gone to WHTZ or WPLJ, but with Stern in afternoons and Imus in the morning they continued to do reasonably well.
Imus and Soupy Sales were down to six to eight songs an hour and Stern played about four songs per hour, although he complained about the type of music on the playlist he was supposed to be playing at the time. That summer, with radiocasts of the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
, WNBC added Sports Night on weekday evenings, initially hosted by Jack Spector and then Dave Sims
Dave Sims
Dave Sims is an American sportscaster. He currently is the television play-by-play commentator for the Seattle Mariners, the radio play-by-play man for Sunday Night Football on Westwood One, and the host of Basketball and Beyond with Coach K on Sirius XM Satellite Radio...
. During the month of August, music was still heard during "Sportsnight", approximately four songs per hour before being dropped completely by August 31 of that year. Stern was attempting to stop playing music on his show at this point, but songs were still used sporadically, as September airchecks exist with him playing "Bend Me Shape Me" by The American Breed (and making fun of it), "Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper
"Careless Whisper" is a 1984 single by George Michael , released by Epic Records in the UK, Japan, and other countries; and by Columbia Records in North America. The song was George Michael's first solo single although he was still performing in Wham! at the time...
" and "Freedom
Freedom (Wham! song)
"Freedom" is a song by British pop duo Wham! in 1984, becoming the group's second UK #1 hit. It was written by George Michael, one half of the duo.-History:...
" by Wham!
WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
, "Part Time Lover" by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
and a few others. He was probably playing about two records per hour but never seemed to completely drop music. Stern's days at NBC were numbered for unrelated reasons. At that point music was taking a backseat during the week on the station.
Decline
On September 30, 1985, Howard Stern was terminated abruptly after a series of outrageous bits and listener complaints. In Private Parts, Stern detailed how WNBC management expected that his last day would be September 26, and that Stern would not go in to work on September 27 due to Hurricane GloriaHurricane Gloria
Hurricane Gloria was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season and prowled the Atlantic Ocean from September 16 to September 28. Gloria reached Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale near the Bahamas, but weakened significantly...
. However, Stern went in, and because there was no station management on hand, Stern did his show as normal refusing to cover the problems related to the storm. Ironically, he spent much of the show insisting that he was leaving the station, because he had learned that Soupy Sales had signed a syndication contract that had long been withheld from Stern.
After Stern's dismissal, ratings plummeted and they were under a two-share by the spring of 1986. Initially they played a bit more music and then went through several temporary afternoon hosts. Afternoons were back to about 12 songs per hour. The music was more of a gold-based Adult Contemporary format with many oldies and moderate amounts of current product. In the Spring of 1986 Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, host of the U.S. radio program The Joey Reynolds Show via the WOR Radio Network. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV- in Buffalo at WGR TV 2...
moved onto afternoons with a talk-intensive show playing a few songs an hour. Wolfman Jack was dropped on overnights in favor of various weekend announcers playing oldies from 1955 to 1973 (mostly late 1960s). Weekends had Bill Grundfest
Bill Grundfest
Bill Grundfest is a US television writer and producer. He has won a Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated for an Emmy Award three times.-Writer and Producer:His work as a writer and producer includes:...
doing a talk intensive show a few hours each day playing four songs an hour. Despite these changes, by the fall of 1986, WNBC was in a ratings crisis.
On the afternoon of October 22, 1986, the station's "N-Copter" traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crashed into the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker was an American rock musician, actress, and comedienne turned traffic reporter.In 1986, while working for WNBC 660 AM Radio in New York City , Dornacker was aboard during two unrelated crashes of the helicopters leased to WNBC...
and severely injuring pilot Bill Pate. As millions of WNBC listeners heard Dornacker giving her traffic report she suddenly paused, a grinding noise could be heard in the background and Dornacker screaming in terror "Hit the water! Hit the water! Hit the water!", then the radio transmission was cut off and a very shaken radio host Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, host of the U.S. radio program The Joey Reynolds Show via the WOR Radio Network. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV- in Buffalo at WGR TV 2...
awkwardly tried to figure out what had happened by saying "Okay, we're going to play some music here I think." Dornacker had recently gotten back to flying in a helicopter after surviving a previous crash of the N-Copter into the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
a few months earlier. An episode of NBC's television show Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
featured a similar incident (although it may have been more of a reference to the crash of WNBC-TV's helicopter, which crashed into the Passaic River
Passaic River
The Passaic River is a mature surface river, approximately 80 mi long, in northern New Jersey in the United States. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey,...
in New Jersey over a decade later, with no deaths).
WNBC had a turnover of programming in early 1987. On February 23, oldies were dropped on overnights in favor of Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
, who would also do a talk intensive show and a few songs per hour. On February 27, 1987, Joey Reynolds show was ended and Bill Grundfest temporarily moved into this time slot. On March 9, 1987, Alan Colmes moved to afternoons and continued to play four songs per hour. Joey Reynolds did not run his own board and had Big Jay Sorensen as his producer and board operator. Since Colmes ran his own board, Jay Sorrenson moved to the overnight shift and opted to do a music intensive show, similar to the way it was before Alan Colmes took that slot. This show was now marketed as The Time Machine, playing oldies from 1955-74 (emphasizing 1964-69), complete with old jingles and an echo effect
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
, resulting in a sound similar to WABC's during its Top 40 heyday. Two weeks later, on March 23, 1987, Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
had found out that there were plans to end his show and at that point he walked off mid way through with Dale Parsons finishing the show. Weekender and assistant programming director, Jim Collins moved into that time slot with a gold based music intensive show on a temporary basis. Then on April 6, 1987, a couple weeks after Soupy Sales laft, his former sidekick, Ray D'Ariano moved back into the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekday time slot but was now playing 1955-73 oldies. His show was music-intensive with current product lightly in rotation until the summer, playing about 12 oldies an hour.
In the summer of 1987, WNBC considered going all oldies running the Time Machine full-time, with the exception of Knicks games, Rangers games, and Imus In The Morning. But instead, they increased the amount of oldies programming but not on a full-time basis. Therefore, WNBC modified their format, keeping Imus in the morning playing a few AC cuts and a couple oldies an hour with his usual talk. Alan Colmes continued hosting the afternoon drive talk show but dropped music altogether. In evenings, Dave Sims
Dave Sims
Dave Sims is an American sportscaster. He currently is the television play-by-play commentator for the Seattle Mariners, the radio play-by-play man for Sunday Night Football on Westwood One, and the host of Basketball and Beyond with Coach K on Sirius XM Satellite Radio...
continued with sports talk along with Knicks and Rangers games. The Time Machine remained on overnights but was now expanded to full-time on weekends with hosts Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor
Daniel Taylor is an American shot putter. He is currently sponsored by Nike. He is currently competing around the world in track and field.-High school:...
(laid off from WHN
WHN
WHN was a radio station in New York City located at 1050 kHz. Its best known format was country music, which the station played from 1972 to 1987...
when they became WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
),"Big" Jay Sorenson, "The Real" Bob James, Jim Collins, Lee Chambers, Dale Parsons, Carol Mason and others. Ray D'Ariano continued his midday weekday oldies show but was not part of the Time Machine programming. His show had newer WNBC jingles, no echo sound effects, and slightly softer songs. From the Summer of 1987 to the station's demise on October 7, 1988, WNBC's format was classified as Adult Contemporary but they only played Adult Contemporary cuts during Imus's show. The actual format was block programming featuring AC and Talk in morning drive; All Oldies on Middays, overnights, and weekends; Talk weekday afternoons; and sports weekday evenings and whenever the Knicks or Rangers played a game. It was difficult to classify WNBC's format at that point.
The beginning of WFAN and the end of WNBC: 1987-1988
In November 1987, General ElectricGeneral Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, which now owned NBC through its purchase of RCA two years earlier, announced that it would sell off the NBC Radio division. In February of that year GE made a multi-station deal with Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications is a media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company owns radio stations and magazines in the United States, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.-History:...
and, in New York, the WNBC license for 660 was included in the sale. Emmis announced it would move WFAN to the 660 frequency. At the time, WFAN was located at 1050 AM, and had a somewhat marginal signal in portions of the New York area. As the deal only included the license for WNBC and not the station's intellectual property, GE would proceed to shut down the station for good.
On October 7, 1988 at 5:30 p.m., the WFAN call letters, studios, programming and staff moved to WNBC's old frequency at 660 AM, which has a much better signal. Earlier in the day, the station aired a 90-minute retrospective titled "WNBC-The First 66 Years," hosted by Dale Parsons. The program was written and produced by Parsons and his wife, Ginny, who spent nearly six months researching the station's history. The last voice heard on WNBC was that of Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
, who said "I'm Alan Colmes. Thank you, God bless you, and for the last time, this is 66 WNBC New York. Let's do the countdown." and counted down the seconds to WNBC's demise with the legendary NBC chimes
NBC chimes
The NBC chimes, named for the radio and television network on which they have been used, consists of a succession of three distinct pitches: G3, E4, and C4 , sounded in that order, creating an arpeggiated C-major chord in the second inversion, within about two seconds time, and reverberating for...
(the notes G-E-C) playing in the background. Their soon-to-be former TV sister station, WNBC-TV, abruptly cut from a pre-produced history piece on WNBC and NBC Radio during their 5:00 p.m. newscast to cover the sign-off live. After 66 years, the long history of NBC radio in New York had come to an end.
Earlier in the day, regular music programming ended at 6 AM; Jay Sorenson played "Imagine" by John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
followed by NBC chimes and a 5 second pause. Although the FCC regards the 660 frequency as changing its calls from WNBC to WFAN on that day, WFAN does not claim WNBC's history. It did, however, sign up Imus to take Greg Gumbel
Greg Gumbel
Greg Gumbel is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments on the CBS network...
's place in the morning. Imus would remain on the morning drive-time slot for 19 years, until his firing in 2007 for comments about the Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
women's basketball team. He moved to WABC near the end of that year.
In the complicated switch that saw WFAN move to the 660 frequency, the 1050 frequency that was formerly the home of WFAN became that of Spanish-language WUKQ, owned by Spanish Broadcasting System
Spanish Broadcasting System
Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States. SBS is also invested in television and internet properties, deriving the majority of its income from advertising through its media products.SBS owns the internet portal LaMusica.com...
. However, SBS already owned an AM station in the market, Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
-based WSKQ at 620 kHz., and at the time, FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
rules stipulated that companies could own only one AM station per market. As a result, SBS received a temporary waiver to run 1050 while exploring the sale of either AM frequency. SBS chose to keep 620 (it is now WSNR
WSNR
WSNR, AM 620, is a radio station in the New York metropolitan area with a brokered time format owned by Blackstrap Broadcasting. On Saturdays and Sundays WSNR, AM 620, is a radio station in the New York metropolitan area with a brokered time format owned by Blackstrap Broadcasting. On Saturdays and...
), and 1050 was traded to Forward Communications, which owned WEVD, then at 97.9 FM. After that deal was approved, WEVD's call letters and programming moved to 1050 AM (it is now WEPN
WEPN
WEPN is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio...
and ironically a sports station), and SBS took over 97.9 as WSKQ-FM
WSKQ-FM
WSKQ-FM, known on-air as Mega 97.9, is a radio station in New York City owned by Spanish Broadcasting System . Currently located at 97.9 FM, the station has a tropical format, which consists of such musical styles as Bachata, salsa, merengue, and Reggaeton.-History:The 97.9 FM facility's heritage...
. The October NBC-Emmis switch also saw Emmis's WQHT (then at 103.5 MHz.) move to 97.1 MHz., which had been the home of NBC's WYNY
WKTU
WKTU is a radio station based in New York City that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New...
. Emmis sold the 103.5 frequency to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
, who also acquired the WYNY call letters and its country music format.
In all this, WFAN retired two of the oldest radio call letters from the dawn of commercial radio: WHN and WNBC.