W
hen Harold L. Neal, Jr. was named General Manager of WABC, he was charged with making WABC successful in terms of both audience and profits. Neal had been at WXYZ in Detroit. By 1960, WABC was committed to a nearly full-time schedule of top-40 songs...
Still, WABC played popular non-rock and roll songs as well, provided they scored well on the Top 40 charts. WABC's early days as a Top 40 station were humble ones.
WABC STUDIOS: 1964
Prior to moving to the studios at 1330 Avenue of The Americas, the WABC studios were located at 1926 Broadway in New York City.
Scott Muni at the microphone seated across from his engineer.
Scott and his engineer from the "other" side. Note the window into an adjacent lounge.
A close up of the WABC control board that the engineer ran.
Scott cues his newsman in the adjacent news studio
The record-to-cartridge transfer console at WABC 1964. The station did not use records over the air. Songs were dubbed from 45's over to tape cartridges.
Sam Holman was the first WABC program director of this era. Under Holman, WABC achieved No. 1 ratings during much of 1962, after WMGM reverted to WHN. By the summer of 1963, WMCA led the pack among contemporary stations, with WABC at No. 2 and WINS slipping to third place. It has been said, but is difficult to verify, that WMCA dominated in the city proper, while WABC owned the suburbs. This would be consistent with WMCA's 5,000-watt directional signal.
Hal Neal hired Rick Sklar as WABC's program director. He would go on to become a member of the Radio Hall of Fame and be credited as one of the pioneering architects of the Top 40 format. Under Sklar, the station went to the shortest playlist of any contemporary music station in history. The number one song was heard about every hour during the day and every 75 minutes or so at night. The other top 5 songs were heard nearly as often. Other current songs averaged once to twice per airshift.
The station played about 9 current hits per hour and several non-current songs. The non-currents were no more than 5 years old and the station played about 70 of them in total. In his book Rockin' America, Sklar said he was sensitive to payola concerns and advanced airplay. Through the years, WABC was known by various slogans, "Channel 77 WABC" and later "Musicradio 77 WABC".
Bruce Morrow and his oh-so-subtle leopard skin suit at Palisades Park in New Jersey.
SAY HELLO TO COUSIN BRUCIE
Cousin Brucie's show from November 29, 1967. It's a "time capsule" listening to the songs and Bruce you get a feel for the mood of the country during this time.
Imagine yourself as a teenager in 1967 lying in bed with your transistor or as a GI in Vietnam hearing this. This aircheck was sent to the soldiers in Vietnam over the Christmas Holidays. [ LISTEN ] (40:02)
Imagine yourself as a teenager in 1967 lying in bed with your transistor or as a GI in Vietnam hearing this. This aircheck was sent to the soldiers in Vietnam over the Christmas Holidays. [ LISTEN ] (40:02)
The station averaged 6 commercial breaks per hour but they were no more than 3 ads in a row. Often the air personalities delivered live commercials in their own humorous style, so that listeners would consider the spot part of the entertainment.
Early 1960s disc jockeys included Dan Ingram, Herb Oscar Anderson, Charlie Greer, Scott Muni, Chuck Dunaway, Jack Carney, and Bob "Bobaloo" Lewis.
But some of the best known WABC DJs are the ones that followed them in the mid-1960s and 1970s: Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, "Cousin Brucie" Bruce Morrow, Chuck Leonard (one of the earliest African-American DJs to be on the staff of a major mainstream radio station), Johnny Donovan, Bob Cruz (a Dan Ingram sound alike), Frank Kingston Smith, Roby Yonge, George Michael, Jim Nettleton, Jim Perry and Steve O'Brien.
BIG DAN INGRAM MAKES HIS MARK
Dan Ingram's famous "Gasser" promo featuring what would become his closing music theme (Tri Fi Drums) is on this aircheck. By now, Dan has really perfected his Top 40 announcing style.
He's quick, right on the mark with every element of the show and, of course, funny.
This is the Dan Ingram that inspired an entire generation to go into radio. You can tell why. And note how consistently he gives the number ranking of the songs as he plays them.This was VERY important to the millions of teenagers listening to the station at that time and Dan never disappointed!
This is the Dan Ingram that inspired an entire generation to go into radio. You can tell why. And note how consistently he gives the number ranking of the songs as he plays them.This was VERY important to the millions of teenagers listening to the station at that time and Dan never disappointed!
[ LISTEN ] to Dan on June 12th 1964.
Especially in the afternoons and evenings, WABC was the station that teenagers could be heard listening to on transistor radios all over the New York metropolitan area. Due to its strong signal, the station could be heard easily over 100 miles away, including the Catskill & Pocono Mountains through much of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
After sunset, when AM radio waves travel farther, WABC's signal could be picked up around much of the Eastern U.S. and Canada. Bruce Morrow often spoke about how he felt an almost psychic bond to his young listeners.
THE BEATLES AND WABC
For a while they were synonymous. And, that is exactly what WABC was hoping for. It was not immediately obvious that The Beatles were going to be such a success. When the WABC disc jockeys first heard "Fab Four" records in 1963, they were hardly impressed. Comments were made like "stupid name for a rock group" and "no way". The WABC DJ’s were not alone in that assessment. There were many in both the music and the radio industry who felt the same way. Their opinions changed quickly.
By 1964 The Beatles had their first number one song in the U.S. with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", followed immediately by "She Loves You". Still, there was enough skepticism about them so that Sid Bernstein, a concert promoter, booked them in Carnegie Hall rather than Madison Square Garden for their first New York concert. It was a mob scene. On February 7 they appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" which resulted in the largest television audience for an entertainment program up until that time. The enormous response to these incidents convinced program director Rick Sklar that The Beatles success was going to be WABC’s success.
Of course, WABC was not the only New York radio station trying to jump on The Beatles bandwagon. So were WINS and WMCA. Competition was intense for everything The Beatles did from releasing new records to their visits to New York. At WINS, Murray "the K" Kaufman dubbed himself the "Fifth Beatle" and WMCA battled WABC for every exclusive. This created one of the great radio station battles of all time. The prize for the station that could ultimately outdo the others and attract that huge "Beatlemania" audience was going to be the ratings winner. And, they all knew it.
For its part in the rivalry, WABC was up to the challenge. Specific Beatles jingles were commissioned from PAMS centered around the theme "W A Beatle C". These jingles were attached to every Beatles record played. There were Beatles look a like contests, poster contests, and name your favorite Beatle contests. WABC even gave away a giant photo of The Beatles that was used as a backdrop for the ABC show "Shindig".
One of the keys, of course, was to be the first station to play a new Beatles record. All Top 40 music radio stations, not just those in New York, would do anything possible to be the first station to have a new Beatles recording. But there were times when WABC did not wait for a record to be released. Advanced pressings or taped dubs would find their way to WABC. There are various stories as to how this was accomplished.
One explanation comes from former PAMS (the company that was then creating WABC jingles) president Bill Meeks. Bill claims he had a contact in England from Radio London who knew someone (the girlfriend of one of The Beatles?) who worked for the recording studio in England that was recording new Beatles songs. She would grab new Beatles discs, give them to the captain of an airliner who would fly them to New York. He would then deliver them to WABC program director Rick Sklar who met him at the airport.
Another explanation comes from John Rook, program director of first KQV in Pittsburgh, then WLS in Chicago (both owned and operated by ABC). According to John: "Virtually all of The Beatles exclusives heard on WABC came from my contacts in England....we used to feed them to Rick at WABC."
However it happened, whenever WABC had an exclusive it dropped in jingles over the record that said "W A Beatle C exclusive" so it could not be taped and run on competing stations. Frequently an "exclusive" would appear on a Friday night when the record companies had closed for the weekend. This made it impossible for WABC's competitors to get copies for three days.
WABC had a huge advantage when The Beatles visited New York City. As the flagship station for the ABC radio network, it had access to lots of high tech equipment. This included wireless RF microphones. During The Beatles first 1964 visit to New York, when they stayed at The Plaza, it was impossible for virtually any of the media to get access to them. So, during their second 1964 visit when they stayed at the Delmonico Hotel, WABC mounted an all out offensive.
The suite above The Beatles was rented by WABC and was used to set up a remote studio. Using those wireless microphones, WABC disc jockeys Scott Muni and Bruce Morrow wandered around the hotel ready to broadcast anything that might have to do with The Beatles. It gave the station a huge edge. And, it didn’t hurt that as many security and hotel staff people as possible were presented with "gifts" from WABC. Needless to say, there were very few places where the WABC people could not roam.
The power of all of this was best illustrated when Ringo Starr lost his gold Saint Christopher’s medal which was attached to a chain around his neck. Apparently as he was entering the hotel, an over zealous fan inadvertently snatched it.
Bruce Morrow and Scott Muni learned this while interviewing him over the air at the hotel. WABC listeners also heard this and so did the girl who had the medal, Angie McGowan. She had her mother call Cousin Brucie that night. But, program director Rick Sklar, ever the master promoter, could see the advantages of stretching out this drama a while longer. Even though WABC recovered the medal within a few hours, Rick arranged for the girl to stay overnight, safely secluded with her mother in a hotel room while the station continued to broadcast appeals for the medal's safe recovery. As you would expect, this became a media sensation and WABC held all the cards.
By the time the following evening rolled around, everyone was listening to WABC to see if the medal would ever be recovered. Twenty-four hours after its initial loss and subsequent recovery, WABC reunited the medal with Ringo over the air. It was a publicity bonanza for the station.
When The Beatles played at Shea Stadium in 1965, WABC ran a contest for a listener to design a medal to honor the group. "The Order of the All American" medal was awarded to each of The Beatles by Bruce Morrow. Again, the remote microphones were invaluable in giving WABC easy access to The Beatles in their hotel room for the awarding of these medals. It was all done over the air with much fanfare and the statement "another Beatles exclusive from WABC".
By the time of the second Shea Stadium concert in August of 1965, WABC again staged a remote broadcast from The Beatles' hotel, this time the Warwick. The 1965 concert also featured Cousin Bruce Morrow as one of its emcees. This is the concert frequently seen in documentaries about The Beatles where it is impossible to hear anything other than the screaming of fifty five thousand crazed fans.
This was the peak of Beatlemania and both WABC and WMCA benefited from it. By 1965, WINS was no longer playing music so the "Fifth Beatle" Murray the K moved to WOR-FM in 1966. It is important to note that WMCA also had many successes and its own exclusives. In fact, the WMCA disc jockeys were featured on the back of a record sleeve for The Beatles single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (flip side "I Saw Her Standing There"). WMCA disc jockeys were also at the Shea Stadium concerts. And, another success for WMCA was the fault of WABC itself.
Roby Yonge, a WABC disc jockey who knew he was about to lose his job, used his overnight radio shift to spread rumors about the "death" of Paul McCartney in 1969.
With that huge nighttime radio signal, which easily covered thirty states, this was an embarrassment for the station. Roby was fired while still on the air, but the ripple effect continued for some time.
As a result of this broadcast, "American Contemporary Radio" (the ABC News service carried by WABC and many other hit music stations in 1969) carried these newscasts the following morning. Note how the importance of this story moved to a higher profile position in the newscast as the morning progressed. This indicated how this story became bigger as the consequences of Roby's broadcast became more significant.
The Beatles chapter of the WABC story is an exciting one. Did WABC win the "war of The Beatles" over rival WMCA? Ultimately, WABC defeated WMCA in the rock radio ratings war but during the heyday of Beatlemania in the mid 60’s was too close to call.
Certainly the incident where Beatles fans outside the Delmonico hotel were singing WABC jingles gave WABC the edge. But, having your disc jockeys on a Beatles record sleeve was also an enormous achievement. Still, WABC benefited immeasurably during the entire era. Its overall ratings continued to climb which was always the real goal.
And, to this day there are many people who, when they think of WABC, think W A "Beatle" C!
By 1964 The Beatles had their first number one song in the U.S. with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", followed immediately by "She Loves You". Still, there was enough skepticism about them so that Sid Bernstein, a concert promoter, booked them in Carnegie Hall rather than Madison Square Garden for their first New York concert. It was a mob scene. On February 7 they appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" which resulted in the largest television audience for an entertainment program up until that time. The enormous response to these incidents convinced program director Rick Sklar that The Beatles success was going to be WABC’s success.
YOU'RE LISTENING TO W-A-BEATLE-C!
WABC gave away The Beatles backdrop from a television appearance in 1965. This is the promo from Scott Muni and Cousin Bruce: [ PLAY ] Who's Got 'em, We've Got 'em promo: [ PLAY ] We love you Beatles... Oh yes we do.....!! [ PLAY ] Dan Ingram "Beatles Spectacular" Promo: [ PLAY ] Cousin Brucie promo for 100 tickets to The Beatles Show at Shea Stadium! [ PLAY ] Cousin Brucie promo for a pair of tickets at the New York Paramount! [ PLAY ] Scott Muni on the phone with the winner of that contest: PLAY Cousin Brucie "Beatle Book" promo: [ PLAY ]
Of course, WABC was not the only New York radio station trying to jump on The Beatles bandwagon. So were WINS and WMCA. Competition was intense for everything The Beatles did from releasing new records to their visits to New York. At WINS, Murray "the K" Kaufman dubbed himself the "Fifth Beatle" and WMCA battled WABC for every exclusive. This created one of the great radio station battles of all time. The prize for the station that could ultimately outdo the others and attract that huge "Beatlemania" audience was going to be the ratings winner. And, they all knew it.
For its part in the rivalry, WABC was up to the challenge. Specific Beatles jingles were commissioned from PAMS centered around the theme "W A Beatle C". These jingles were attached to every Beatles record played. There were Beatles look a like contests, poster contests, and name your favorite Beatle contests. WABC even gave away a giant photo of The Beatles that was used as a backdrop for the ABC show "Shindig".
One of the keys, of course, was to be the first station to play a new Beatles record. All Top 40 music radio stations, not just those in New York, would do anything possible to be the first station to have a new Beatles recording. But there were times when WABC did not wait for a record to be released. Advanced pressings or taped dubs would find their way to WABC. There are various stories as to how this was accomplished.
One explanation comes from former PAMS (the company that was then creating WABC jingles) president Bill Meeks. Bill claims he had a contact in England from Radio London who knew someone (the girlfriend of one of The Beatles?) who worked for the recording studio in England that was recording new Beatles songs. She would grab new Beatles discs, give them to the captain of an airliner who would fly them to New York. He would then deliver them to WABC program director Rick Sklar who met him at the airport.
Another explanation comes from John Rook, program director of first KQV in Pittsburgh, then WLS in Chicago (both owned and operated by ABC). According to John: "Virtually all of The Beatles exclusives heard on WABC came from my contacts in England....we used to feed them to Rick at WABC."
More fans, and more hysteria as they anticipate the arrival of the Fab Four.However it happened, whenever WABC had an exclusive it dropped in jingles over the record that said "W A Beatle C exclusive" so it could not be taped and run on competing stations. Frequently an "exclusive" would appear on a Friday night when the record companies had closed for the weekend. This made it impossible for WABC's competitors to get copies for three days.
WABC had a huge advantage when The Beatles visited New York City. As the flagship station for the ABC radio network, it had access to lots of high tech equipment. This included wireless RF microphones. During The Beatles first 1964 visit to New York, when they stayed at The Plaza, it was impossible for virtually any of the media to get access to them. So, during their second 1964 visit when they stayed at the Delmonico Hotel, WABC mounted an all out offensive.
When the Beatles came to the Delmonico Hotel, the fans waiting outside the hotel had something that generations before them didn't have: transistor radios.
Live with The Beatles at the Delmonico Hotel August 28 1964
[ LISTEN ]
By now most of the 10,000 teenagers who packed the streets outside of the hotel were listening to WABC on their transistor radios. When WABC disc jockeys Scott Muni and Bruce Morrow asked them to sing WABC jingles as they were playing on WABC, the entire crowd was able to do so in unison.
[ LISTEN ]
By now most of the 10,000 teenagers who packed the streets outside of the hotel were listening to WABC on their transistor radios. When WABC disc jockeys Scott Muni and Bruce Morrow asked them to sing WABC jingles as they were playing on WABC, the entire crowd was able to do so in unison.
WABC even cashed in on Ringo's lost medallion.
The power of all of this was best illustrated when Ringo Starr lost his gold Saint Christopher’s medal which was attached to a chain around his neck. Apparently as he was entering the hotel, an over zealous fan inadvertently snatched it.
Bruce Morrow and Scott Muni learned this while interviewing him over the air at the hotel. WABC listeners also heard this and so did the girl who had the medal, Angie McGowan. She had her mother call Cousin Brucie that night. But, program director Rick Sklar, ever the master promoter, could see the advantages of stretching out this drama a while longer. Even though WABC recovered the medal within a few hours, Rick arranged for the girl to stay overnight, safely secluded with her mother in a hotel room while the station continued to broadcast appeals for the medal's safe recovery. As you would expect, this became a media sensation and WABC held all the cards.
By the time the following evening rolled around, everyone was listening to WABC to see if the medal would ever be recovered. Twenty-four hours after its initial loss and subsequent recovery, WABC reunited the medal with Ringo over the air. It was a publicity bonanza for the station.
When The Beatles played at Shea Stadium in 1965, WABC ran a contest for a listener to design a medal to honor the group. "The Order of the All American" medal was awarded to each of The Beatles by Bruce Morrow. Again, the remote microphones were invaluable in giving WABC easy access to The Beatles in their hotel room for the awarding of these medals. It was all done over the air with much fanfare and the statement "another Beatles exclusive from WABC".
L to R: Dan Ingram, Paul McCartney, Rick Sklar, and Bruce Morrow.By the time of the second Shea Stadium concert in August of 1965, WABC again staged a remote broadcast from The Beatles' hotel, this time the Warwick. The 1965 concert also featured Cousin Bruce Morrow as one of its emcees. This is the concert frequently seen in documentaries about The Beatles where it is impossible to hear anything other than the screaming of fifty five thousand crazed fans.
This was the peak of Beatlemania and both WABC and WMCA benefited from it. By 1965, WINS was no longer playing music so the "Fifth Beatle" Murray the K moved to WOR-FM in 1966. It is important to note that WMCA also had many successes and its own exclusives. In fact, the WMCA disc jockeys were featured on the back of a record sleeve for The Beatles single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (flip side "I Saw Her Standing There"). WMCA disc jockeys were also at the Shea Stadium concerts. And, another success for WMCA was the fault of WABC itself.
Roby Yonge, a WABC disc jockey who knew he was about to lose his job, used his overnight radio shift to spread rumors about the "death" of Paul McCartney in 1969.
With that huge nighttime radio signal, which easily covered thirty states, this was an embarrassment for the station. Roby was fired while still on the air, but the ripple effect continued for some time.
The Beatles chapter of the WABC story is an exciting one. Did WABC win the "war of The Beatles" over rival WMCA? Ultimately, WABC defeated WMCA in the rock radio ratings war but during the heyday of Beatlemania in the mid 60’s was too close to call.
Certainly the incident where Beatles fans outside the Delmonico hotel were singing WABC jingles gave WABC the edge. But, having your disc jockeys on a Beatles record sleeve was also an enormous achievement. Still, WABC benefited immeasurably during the entire era. Its overall ratings continued to climb which was always the real goal.
And, to this day there are many people who, when they think of WABC, think W A "Beatle" C!
THE BIG BLACKOUT.
THE BIG BLACKOUT OF 1965
Before the famous Northeast Blackout of 1965, Dan Ingram noted that the studio's electric power was fluctuating and began having fun with the slowed-down music. After playing "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", he quipped it was played "in the key of R." Ingram then proceeded to run some recorded commercials and a portion of Si Zentner's "Up a Lazy River", backtimed to the news, while commenting on how everything...was slower than normal.
WABC bumper stickers.During the 6 pm newscast, WABC left the air as the outage settled in for real. Ingram later drove out to the transmitter site in Lodi, New Jersey, with a box of records, and continued his show from the backup studio housed there. In the late '60s, U.S. AM stations that also had an FM side were figuring out how to deal with newly-passed FCC legislation requiring them to provide at least 12 hours of original FM programming a day.
WABC bumper stickers.
One solution was to experiment with the new album rock, or progressive rock, format that was just coming into its own at the time. It was an unforgettable era as programmers, freed from the restrictions of the Top 40 format, experimented with long album cuts, themed music "sets" and a totally laid-back approach usually only heard on jazz stations.
December 26, 1969.
2:00-3:00 PM(56:01)
3:00-4:00 PM
(55:25)
4:00-5:00 PM
(52:46)
5:00-6:00 PM
(55:10)
THE TOP 100 OF 1969
Complete.Unscoped.
Complete.Unscoped.
Two other WABC-AM jocks had shows on WABC-FM on Saturday night: Chuck Leonard with Swingin' People and Dan Ingram with The Other Dan Ingram Show. All of these shows were gone by March of 1968. In the 1970s, WABC was either No. 1 or No. 2 consistently, often trading places with WOR. Once in a while, a station attracting an older audience (like WOR or WPAT) would move into the top spot. These stations were not truly WABC's direct competitors because they targeted a much older audience. Chief competitor WMCA began running evening talk by 1968 and stopped playing top 40 music altogether in the fall of 1970.
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(BOTTOM TWO) 1968 scheduleThen in 1971, Country Music station WJRZ abruptly flipped to a Top 40 format and became known as WWDJ. That lasted until April 1974. WOR-FM evolved from progressive rock to Adult Top 40 playing the hits of 1955 to current product by 1968.
They dropped most pre 64 oldies in 1972 and became known as WXLO 99X. That station evolved into more on an Adult Contemporary format in 1979 and a Rhythmic Top 40 format in 1980. Other FM competitors like oldies station WCBS-FM, soul station WBLS, and album-oriented rock stations like WPLJ and WNEW-FM all did well in the ratings, but none rivalled WABC's success. AM competitor WNBC also never came close to WABC's audience during this period. WNBC then had a format similar to 99X playing Adult Top 40.
1 HOUR OF MUSIC POWER
Hear Dan (who had a cold at the time) play the top songs of the year, read the commercials, do the jingles and do his show as you would have heard it as it was broadcasted that day.
"Big Dan" Ingram plays the Top 100 of 1967 on December 26, 1967.
There are promos here for Roby Yonge (who was officially starting on January 1) and also references to WABC dropping all the network commitments which had so long interfered with the music. Dan also comments about another famous New York institution; The WPIX-TV Christmas "Yule Log".
In 1977, WNBC tried sounding younger and moved their format musically closer to WABC. Then by 1979 they tried sounding older and somewhere in-between. Until 1978, WABC remained dominant.
WABC's ratings strength came from its cumulative audience, what the radio industry calls "cume". Most listeners didn't stay with WABC for long periods of time, as the station had some of the shortest "time spent listening" (or TSL) spans in the history of music radio—an average listener spent about 10 minutes listening to WABC. It was the price paid for a short playlist, and numerous commercials between songs (the large number of commercials being due to WABC's large audience), but what WABC lacked in TSL it more than made up for with its sheer number of listeners.
By 1975, WABC tried becoming more music-intensive, reducing commercial breaks to three per hour. It began playing 3 to 5 songs in a row, still mixed with talk and personality, but done in a tighter manner.
Fed up with the short playlist, Cousin Brucie left in August 1974 to defect to rival WNBC. Rick Sklar was promoted in 1976 to vice president of programming for ABC Radio, and his assistant program director Glenn Morgan became WABC's program director. The station's influence could be found in odd places: Philip Glass' 1976 opera, Einstein on the Beach, has as part of the background a recitation of WABC's DJ schedule in the 1960s.
The end of the 1970s found FM radio beginning to overtake AM music stations in most markets. In June 1975, an FM station on 92.3, owned by the San Juan (Puerto Rico) Racing Association flipped to Soft Rock and became known as Mellow 92 WKTU. That station had very low ratings and had no effect on WABC.
Program Director Rick Sklar.
During the seventies, the WABC engineers would try to come up with some "creative edits" on some of the hits WABC was playing. This could include changing the lyrics around or mixing up different parts of the song in a humorous way. Dan Ingram was the recipient of these "specials" and, if he liked them, he would play the "new version" on his show. So now, Ladies and Gentlemen, we present The Bay City Rollers and their minor spelling problem (along with a January 21, 1976 Dan Ingram aircheck). [ PLAY ] (16:21)
George MichaelGEORGE MICHAEL IN THE 70s
George Michael on July 19, 1977. This aircheck is a clinic for anyone who is interested in how to do uptempo Top 40 radio. Listen to the song intros. George doesn't just time his talking over the instrumental to the vocal. He adjusts his voice to the rhythm of the song. He works each intro as he raises his voice for uptempo hits and mellows out for ballads.
He had a terrific technique of trailing his voice into the vocal instead of dropping his voice in front of it. Be sure to catch his intro to Chicago's "Saturday In The Park".
Any George Michael fan will remember how George didn't just say "Chicago". He always screamed "CHICAAAGOOOO!" Note also how he talks in and out of the other elements of the show including the commercials and promos. His entire show is a one tight segueway into another. He builds momentum in and out of everything. [ LISTEN ] (52:43)
DonovanBut on July 24, 1978, at 6 PM, WKTU abruptly dropped its Soft Rock format in favor of a disco-based top 40 format known as "Disco 92". By December of that year, WABC was unseated, as WKTU became the No. 1 station in New York City. The first "disco" ratings saw WKTU with 11 percent of the listening audience—a huge number anywhere, let alone in a market the size of New York City—and WABC dropping from 4.1 million listeners to 3 million, losing 25 percent of its audience practically overnight.
Magazine adsBoth WABC and its sister station WPLJ ran full time studio board operators, better known as engineers. The "disc jockey" was responsible for running the personality part of the show, but not the mechanics of it. The engineers did that.
The two sat facing each other in the same studio (not separated by a glass wall as was the case with most stations who had engineers at that time). The idea was that they could work together closely as a team to produce the desired sound. And, as you can see from the setup, there was a constant discussion between the two that went on between records (actually, there were no records... everything was on "cart" which look like 8 track tape cartridges). Of course, they had to both work well together and like each other for this to work. A four hour shift in such close proximity with two people that did not get along could have been a disaster!
On August 2, 1979, the Donna Summer disco hit "MacArthur Park" was playing during Dan Ingram's afternoon drive program. During the song, DJ George Michael (who also was a sports reporter) interrupted to break the news that New York Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman Munson had died in a plane crash. In late summer, WABC moved, temporarily, back to their tight playlists. That Fall, Al Brady took over as programming director of WABC. He had come from WHDH Boston, where he evolved that station from Middle of the Road to more of an Adult Contemporary format.
Ron LundyThat November, he let Harry Harrison, George Michael, and Chuck Leonard go. He made a couple shifts longer, moved Dan Ingram to mornings, moved Bob Cruz from overnights to afternoons, and hired Howard Hoffman for evenings. For overnights he hired Sturgis Griffin and eliminated the late night shift merging that with evenings and overnights. In the first six months of 1980, ratings were slightly up and stable. Also, Brady made a deal for WABC to air New York Yankees baseball beginning the next year in 1981, though the station carried a few Yankee games from 1010 WINS during Republican Convention week in 1980. It was the first sign of the beginning of the end for the music format of WABC.
Al Brady left WABC in July and soon became General Manager of crosstown WYNY, which by then had a similar format to their then-fraternal twin sister station WNBC, as well as WABC. That fall, Jay Clark took over as program director at WABC. Jeff Mazzei arrived as assistant program director from crosstown WNEW (which was moving from adult contemporary to big bands and standards).
Under Clark, the station played current music leaning toward a more Adult Contemporary (AC) sound, trying to appeal to a slightly older audience, as most younger listeners had moved to the FM dial. Part of the reason was the Top 40 chart was leaning that way at that point as well. So WABC still played rock and soul crossovers in moderation, but began to move away from album cuts and more toward 1960s and 1970s oldies. In September of 1980, they also dropped the "Musicradio WABC" slogan and became "77 WABC, New York's Radio Station" (though they called themselves New York's radio station at times as Musicradio), the apparent implication being that the station was more than just music.
By early 1981, WABC's cumulative audience was down to 2.5 million—rival WNBC, a perennial also-ran, was by this time beating them with 3 million. Fewer people were tuning into WABC, listeners who had switched to FM were not coming back, and, while still moderately successful, the ship was sinking. Like Al Brady Law, Jay Clark tried to improve the time-spent-listening.
Newscaster Rick James reviews lots of historic events that happened during Dan's tenure, there are many phone calls from friends, family and stars and Dan plays many jingles, including some rarities and jingles made just for this anniversary show.
There's also some airchecks within this aircheck, although many are incredibly poor quality.
You wouldn't know it from the aircheck, but in just over 10 more months, WABC's days as a music station would be over.
Part 1 (26:25) Part 2 (38:58)
WABC-AM 770: Friday, July 3, 1981
Also, that March, WABC became the full-time flagship radio outlet for Yankees baseball games, a distinction the station carried through the end of the 2001 season. This would be the longest continuous relationship the team would have with any flagship station (to date). Jay Clark reasoned that Yankee baseball would bring back some listeners to the station and that they would recycle back into the music format, but not even the "Bronx Bombers" could save music on WABC.
In the fall of 1981, WABC dropped the remaining heavy-rock cuts and non-crossover urban hits. They began playing more oldies, as well as songs from the adult contemporary chart, and added an "advice" talk show with Dr. Judy Kuriansky from 9 pm to midnight on weeknights. Howard Hoffman and Sturgis Griffin exited at this point. By then, WABC was almost unrecognizable as a Top 40 station, the ratings were languishing, and rumors, which began as far back as 1979 were rampant that the station would be changing its format to talk and news sooner or later.
THE 1980s WITH ROSS AND WILSON
"Ross and Wilson" did the last morning show on WABC while it was still a music station. In fact, they stayed on after the format change in 1982.During the "New York's Radio Station" era, WABC tried to evolve into an adult radio station with more conversational talk and less of a hard hitting Top 40 format. It was somewhat successful for its time given that the music audience was deserting AM for FM. Yankee Baseball was added to the the schedule and additional talk features were slowly added. Ross and Wilson started at WABC on March 9, 1981.
Here's an air check of their show from about 9 months later on December 3, 1981. [ PLAY ] This recording is diced like an onion, but still clearly illustrates how 80s programming dramatically differed from the 60s and 70s.
By early 1982 it looked sooner than later. The management at ABC denied the rumors but did state that plans were to modify WABC into a Full Service AC format with music by day and talk evenings and overnights like KDKA Pittsburgh was doing. Once a week beginning in February, WABC was auditioning prospective talk shows for the Midnight to 2 a.m. time slot.
In February 1982, WABC officially confirmed it would be going to an all-talk format that May. They stated that there would be ample notice before the switch happens. At that point the once a week overnight auditions for talk shows ended and WABC continued playing music overnights until the switch.
The airstaff began saying goodbye with a comment here and there from February into May. Finally, on April 30, it was announced that the switch to all-talk would occur on May 10 at noon. From May 7 to 9, the departing station air-staffers said their goodbyes one last time. The official music format ended 10:45 p.m. May 9 of 1982. The station then ran a west coast Yankee Baseball Game. From 2 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. they ran the normal Sunday evening public affairs programs preempted due to the Yankee game. Ross & Wilson played their usual 4 songs and the music ended with a tribute show from 9 a.m. to noon May 10 hosted by Ron Lundy & Dan Ingram.
Staffers that departed included Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Marc Sommers, and Peter Bush. Assistant Program Director Jeff Mazzei left for a similar position at WCBS-FM where he would stay for well over 25 years. Marc Sommers also went to WCBS-FM and eventually Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram would. Johnny Donovan and Mike McKay remained at WABC as staff announcers and producers. Mike McKay did not long survive the transition to talk and Johnny Donovan has some 30 years later since retired from WABC.
On May 10, 1982 Musicradio WABC became Talkradio WABC. The main reason is really quite simple: FM Radio.
Introduction to The Greatest Top 40 Radio Station of all time, Ron Lundy's final regular show, Dan Ingram's final regular show, Mike McKay and Marc Sommers say goodbye and Peter Bush does a very good listener participation final music show. PLAY (1:01:18)
Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram sign off WABC on the final show from May 10, 1982.
Ron and Dan talk about some highlights from the Musicradio era, play some music and, of course, say goodbye before the final song.
The WABC "Chime" strikes for the last time and Talkradio WABC is born. [ PLAY ] (1:00:49)
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
May 10th 1982, the day WABC stopped playing music, is sometimes called "The Day the Music Died". WABC ended its 22-year run as a music station with a 9 am–noon farewell show hosted by Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy. The last song played on WABC before the format change was "Imagine" by John Lennon, followed by the familiar WABC "Chime Time" jingle, then a few seconds of silence followed by a minute jingle for talk radio before the debut of the new talk format.Initially after the format change, the station ran satellite talk shows from corporate ABC's "Talk Radio" network. Initially, WABC's lineup consisted of Ross and Wilson until 10 am, Owen Span from Satellite until noon, Art Athens and News until 1 pm, Money Management talk until 2 pm, Michael Jackson (a talk show host and not the late pop star) from satellite until 4 pm, another advice show with Dr. Toni Grant from satellite until 6 pm, and ending with a half-hour of news at 6. Sports Talk began at 6:30 pm and remained on until 9 pm.
Doctor Judy remained in her time slot. Overnights were hosted by Alan Colmes, who played some music initially, but he stopped playing it by mid-1983. At that time, he was less politically based and more entertainment-based. Weekends had Child Psychology advice shows (Dr. Lawrance Balter), Home and Garden shows, talk about religion (Religion on the Line), and of course, the Yankees.
Ross and Wilson stayed on and continued to play 4 songs per hour (mostly 1960s and 1970s hits but also some currents) throughout 1982. In 1983, they stopped playing music as well. Ross and Wilson split up in 1983 when Ross went over to WHTZ. While the station's final ratings as a music station were mediocre, their talk ratings initially were even lower.
The station stuck with the new format. After Brian Wilson left in 1984, Alan Colmes moved to mornings. Jay Clark left that year. He was replaced by John Mainelli and at that point they dropped satellite programming. They added more issues-oriented talk shows, with an increasing number of conservative talk show hosts, although several liberals, including Colmes and Lynn Samuels, also hosted shows. The ratings grew and by the late 1980s, they were a very successful talk station.
Bruce Morrow, Ron Lundy, Rick Sklar, Chuck Leonard, Harry Harrison
RICK SKLAR
Rick Sklar was the programming genius behind Musicradio WABC.
In August of 1984, Rick was interviewed on WBAI in New York. This is an interesting interview because Rick talks about the various air personalities of WABC including Herb Oscar Anderson, Dan Ingram, Bruce Morrow and even the firings of Roby Yonge and Bob Dayton. He also talks about the "Principal of the Year Contest", the WABC Music Meetings and some anecdotes from The Beatles era at WABC. [ PLAY ] (35:04)
TALK, TALK, AND MORE TALK...
From 1984 to 1996 WABC broadcast the popular Bob Grant, a controversial, early "right-wing" talk radio host. After years of what many considered inflammatory remarks, he was fired in 1996 for a controversial comment regarding the death of United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. After a number of years at competitor station WOR, Grant returned as a host as of July 2007, was removed again in December 2008, and returned again as a weekend host in September 2009. Alan Colmes would leave in 1985 and by 1987 he emerged at WNBC on overnights, where he played moderate amounts of music there. He would move to afternoons on WNBC and eventually drop music there as well. He was on the air at WNBC's sign off in 1988. Colmes eventually returned to WABC.Within its first years, the revamped WABC brought in Rush Limbaugh, who would go on to be the anchor program of the local station for two decades, and soon after the giant of talk syndication, the model for countless other conservative radio shows to follow. In the early 1990s Phil Boyce took over as program director.
On February 6th 2006, the Walt Disney Company announced that it would sell WABC and other radio properties not affiliated with either Radio Disney or ESPN Radio, along with ABC Radio's News & Talk and FM networks, to Citadel Broadcasting Corporation for $2.7 billion. The transaction became final on June 12, 2007. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.
WHO WORKED AT WABC? Here is the list: Herb Oscar Anderson - The Morning Mayor, Ross Brittain, Bob Cruz, Bob Dayton, Johnny Donovan, Chuck Dunaway, Jeff Finch, George Flowers, Fred Foy, Alan Freed, John R. Gambling, Charlie Greer, Gil Gross, Harry Harrison, Howard Hoffman, William A. Hopkins, Dan Ingram, Chuck Leonard, Bob 'Bob-A-Loo' Lewis, Al Lohman, Ron Lundy, Jack Matthews, George Michael, Glenn Morgan, 'Cousin' Brucie Morrow, Scott Muni, Jim Nettleton, Tripp Rogers, John Rook, Mark Simone, Frank Kingston Smith, Brian Wilson, and Roby Yonge.
Some materials located on this page were originally published by the following: Musicradio77
