Al Brady

"Al Brady" aka Al Brady Law was born Allan Baldwin, and raised on Staten Island, New York, where he was greatly influenced by all the major city radio stations and DJ's and becoming very knowledgeable of the music and artists.

Brady had three stints in New York radio from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. His work was varied, from air personality to programmer.

WOR-FM 1969

His start in New York took place as WOR-FM evening jock in 1969. A year later, even though he bolted for Miami, Brady was heard filling in on WWDJ, primarily on nights. After some work in Denver, he was back at WWDJ on a full-time basis as the station’s program director, along with his air work.

Following the short gig at ‘WDJ, Brady appeared at WXLO where he was hired solely as the “99X” program director.

Brady in for Cousin Brucie April 1, 1975.

However, Al’s dual hats would return in a big way at WNBC Radio. In 1974, he was named a joint assistant program director and air personality. Later that year, he took over as program director but only briefly before resuming his APD/weekend air work. He remained at the NBC flagship until 1976.

After stints in Boston and Washington, Brady landed yet another coveted New York job. Unfortunately, Musicradio WABC was a shadow of its former self in 1979.

Al Brady became program director of WABC in the Fall of 1979. At that time WABC was mired in problems. The music audience was deserting AM for FM and the disco craze of the late seventies had exacerbated the problem as WKTU, an FM Disco station, took the ratings crown away from WABC for the first time in years.

As observers now know, no one was going to save WABC as a music station. While Disco was getting the credit - or blame - for knocking WABC out of the top spot, the reality was that it was inevitable.

To its credit, Musicradio WABC did not go down without a fight. Al Brady was brought in to stop the bleeding and made a number of moves that were very controversial. Among them was the "Thanksgiving Massacre of 1979" - as it has come to be called by Musicradio WABC fans. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Al fired long time WABC DJ's Harry Harrison, Chuck Leonard and George Michael. Brady followed the controversial time at WABC with his best success - a return to the NBC family.

Al would take his first GM job at WYNY. The station had a great group of talent notably Dan Daniel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Bill St. James. Al and the PD Pete Salant took the station to a 5.0 share. His background was pure programming, not sales, and that’s why he was capable of managing such rapid audience growth. Eventually, he was promoted to VP of programming at NBC Radio.

Al Brady passed away at the age of 67.