Scott Muni

Born Donald Allen Muñoz in Wichita, Kansas, Muni grew up in New Orleans. He joined the United States Marine Corps and began broadcasting there in 1950, reading "Dear John" letters over Radio Guam. After leaving the Corps and having considered acting as a career, he began working as a disc jockey; in 1953 he began working at WSMB in New Orleans. His mentor was Marshall Pearce. In 1955 he took over for Alan Freed at station WAKR in Akron, Ohio, and after that worked in Kankakee, Illinois.

WSMB

WABC c.1966

Muni then spent almost 50 years at stations in New York City. He became a Top 40 broadcaster at 570 WMCA in the late 1950s, just before the start of their "Good Guys" era, and did a number of record hops in the New York area. In 1960, he moved to rival Top 40 station 770 WABC.

There he did an early evening show called "Scotland's Yard" and was among the first WABC DJs to capture the attention of the teenage audience for which the station would become famous. He also participated in the competition to cover The Beatles on their first visits to the United States, and thus began a long association with them.

In 1965, Muni left WABC and ran the Rolling Stone Night Club while doing occasional fill-in work for WMCA. Muni had explored some opportunities beyond radio: for a short time he co-hosted a local weekly television show on WABC-TV 7 with Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow.

WOR-FM

Muni decided to return to radio, and in 1966, he joined 98.7 WOR-FM, one of the earliest stations in the country to program free-form Progressive Rock music. The progressive format did not last at that station.

In 1967 Muni moved to 102.7 WNEW-FM, which had been running a format of pop hits and show tunes, hosted by an all-woman staff. This time, the Progressive Rock format really took hold, with WNEW-FM becoming a legendary rock station. Muni stayed there for three decades as the afternoon DJ and program director. Muni was described by fellow WNEW-FM DJ Dennis Elsas as "the heart and soul of the place". Under assorted management changes during the 1990s WNEW-FM lost its way, and in 1998 Muni ended up hosting a one-hour noontime classic rock program at WAXQ "Q104.3", where he worked until suffering a stroke in early 2004.

WOR-FM: Johnny Michaels, Murray the K, Scott Muni, and Bill Rosko.

Muni was known to his listeners by the nicknames "Scottso" or "The Professor", the latter to emphasize his rock expertise. While he sometimes spoke in roundabout phrases and succumbed to progressive rock radio clichés such as "That was a tasty cut from ...".

He also conveyed on the air and in his professional relationships a gruff immediacy that was a by-product of both his time in the Marines and his earlier Top 40 skills.

His low, gravelly voice was instantly recognizable and often lampooned, both by other disc jockeys and by impressionists.

Scott worked a split shift at WMCA before going to WABC in December of 1960. After leaving WABC in February, 1965 he worked a few fill in shifts at WMCA in 1965 as well a running the Rolling Stone Night Club. In October of 1966 he moved to WOR-FM's new progressive rock format. In 1967 he switched to WNEW FM where he remains today. He has been program and operations manager at various times at NEW-FM and has a "lifetime" contract there. Scott has done the voice overs for Rolaids ("how do you spell relief?"), J.C. Penny's (80's), Pontiac, and football games for the ABC TV network.

"Letter To An Unborn Child"

He recorded the spoken single "Letter To An Unborn Child", about a soldier with a premonition, which was released in 1967 to little acclaim.. Scott also wrote columns for high school papers while at WMCA. Known as the "professor" because of his vast knowledge of inside stories about the music business. Originally wanted to be an actor. Did Saturday night TV show (6-6:30 WABC NY) with co-host Cousin Brucie shortly before leaving WABC radio. Scott did many record hops in the Tri-state area 50's-early 60's, and filled in a week for vacationing Dick Clark on Bandstand in 1962.

Here's Scott working at WNEW-FM in January of 1971. [ Part 1 ] (29:17)

The date is November 5, 1970 and heard over the airwaves of WNEW-FM are the dulcet tones of Scott Muni. [ LISTEN ] (18:33) and continues here: [ LISTEN ] (18:58)

These airchecks feature a variety of items. Among them are spots for the films Monterey Pop, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the documentary, Groupies. (IIRC, Groupies features Suzy Creamcheese, made infamous by Frank Zappa.) The first two films were in revival.

Muni specialized in playing records from up-and-coming, or sometimes just-plain-obscure, acts from the United Kingdom on his weekly Friday "Things from England" segment. He also hosted the syndicated radio programs Ticket to Ride and Scott Muni's World of Rock.

A bizarre exchange occurred in August 1972 when a hostage-holding bank robber called Muni on the air and engaged him in a long, often nonsensical conversation; the two peppered their post-hippie speech with discussions of Bob Dylan music and requests to hear the Grateful Dead. The incident became part of the inspiration for the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.

Muni often referred to "we interviewed so and so," making reference to himself and either "Black" Earl Douglas or another producer. Indeed, Muni was friendly with many of the musicians whom he played, and they would often stop by the studio to visit on-air. He played poker in the studio with the Grateful Dead, and he would let Emerson, Lake & Palmer browse the station's huge record library and put on whatever they liked. An oft-related story tells that he was interviewing Jimmy Page when the guitarist suddenly passed out from the aftereffects of the Led Zeppelin lifestyle. Muni calmly put on a record, revived Page, and completed the interview on the studio floor.

Muni with Lennon

Muni was close to John Lennon and his family, and after Lennon's murder he vowed to open his show with a Lennon or Beatles record, a pledge that he kept for the rest of his career.

Here is Scott interviewing John Lennon at WNEW-FM studios on February 13, 1975.
[ LISTEN ] (35:32)

Ex-Beatle John Lennon stopped in today to play DJ and to promote his new album of rock standards, Rock ‘n Roll, which would be released four days later.

Scott with Ronny Wood
June 25, 1975

In addition to radio broadcasting, Muni also did voice-over work for radio and television; the most known were a commercial for Rolaids antacid ("How do you spell relief?") and promos for Monday Night Football. He also voiced many episodes of NBC's Friday Night Videos during 1985–86 and promos for ABC Sports which included boxing events on Wide World of Sports, the USFL on ABC, the Pro Bowlers Tour, the Sugar Bowl, the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs & Auto Racing including the Indy 500. His voice is also heard giving the introduction on the 1971 live albums Chicago at Carnegie Hall and Melanie at Carnegie Hall.

Muni's last gig was an hour-long afternoon show on New York classic rock station Q104.3, where he landed in 1998. He died on September 28, 2004 at the age of 74 in New York City.

Muni is included in an exhibit display of important disc jockeys at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The DJs at Q104.3 keep Muni's promise to New York listeners and still start their noon hour with the "12 o'clock Beatles Block".

Scott Muni was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in the "Legends of Rock Radio-Programming" category for his work at WNEW in 2014. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2015.

WHERE DID SCOTT WORK? Here is the list: WSMB, WAKR, WMCA, WABC, WOR-FM, WNEW-FM, and WAXQ.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: New York Radio Archive.