Even in its current talk incarnation, WABC will still do special weekends as a tribute to the golden days it once enjoyed. Both WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM, who at times could lay claim as its successor, have produced programs honoring the great station. A website devoted to MusicRadio 77, created and managed by Allan Sniffen, has thrived for years, and was an invaluable aid in telling their story.
Radio life goes on for the rest: Bruce Morrow bought and managed several stations of his own before selling at a nice profit. His partner was Legacy’s Bob Sillerman. Morrow and Dan Ingram still dabble on weekends at WCBS-FM, the hugely successful oldies station in New York. Muni now hosts a taped one-hour program on WAXQ, and it has that station’s highest ratings. He enjoys limited freedom to play what he likes. But it’s all for image—they don’t want him to do full-time work. Tom Tracy married a respected female judge and lives in South Carolina.
Vin Scelsa still plays whatever he wants, on the noncommercial college station WFUV. Still a stubborn nonconformist, he insists that his contracts state unequivocally that he have total artistic control of his program. As long as management signs off on it, he will remain an oasis of freedom and creativity in a tightly formatted world. He’ll never make it a full-time living, as he once briefly did, but with his other resources he doesn’t have to. Fornatale and Elsas are also at WFUV (and Dennis has an active voice-over career, like his late hero Bobaloo). Meg Griffin works for Sirius satellite radio, while Dave Logan and Lee Abrams are at rival XM.
Schwartz is heard weekends on WNYC-FM in New York and on XM satellite radio. Although you won’t hear much rock on his watch, he still is able to play the great music of past generations and is not ruled by a program director. His writing has given him the economic freedom to be his unique self—he is loved by many.
Zacherle is retired, doing occasional ghoul shows when called upon. He’s had a rich, full life, and his tastes remain simple. Living in a rent-controlled apartment, he probably still owns his old VW convertible.
Michael Harrison produced a comprehensive radio special,
The Official History of Rock and Roll,
before he began publishing
Talkers,
his trade magazine serving the talk-radio industry. His influence on the spoken media echoes his pioneering efforts in the early days of AOR. L. David Moorehead died at the age of sixty-two in July 1996, and Howard Bloom had a heart attack and passed on in November 1993. Pat “Paraquat” Kelley sells real estate in California.
Tony Pigg is the announcer for
Live with Regis.
Dave Herman is now program director for eYada, a computer-based talk format on the Internet, bankrolled by the founder of DIR, Bob Meyrowitz. Dave says he now has a better understanding of what I went through in attempting to bring structure to the chaos at WNEW-FM. Marty Martinez works with him there.
Tom Donahue died in 1975; his widow, Raechel, produces documentaries for PBS. Sam Bellamy is a paralegal in Southern California. Charles Laquidara retired after doing mornings at WZLX and currently lives in Hawaii. Maxanne Sartori works for a record label.
Jeff Pollack consults for the Hollywood film industry and assembles soundtracks. Ted Utz was a television general manager in Santa Barbara, California, before returning to New York as an executive for SFX, the radio-station owners and concert promoters. Charlie Kendall went on to do programming in Florida and South Carolina, bought stations in Mississippi, including the one he started on at age fourteen, and was the macho voice of over sixty AOR stations. He hosted the syndicated
Metal Shop
for years. He is a pioneer in computer-based radio and his interests in new media expand daily. He’s been sober since 1993, and now is the nicest guy in the world. My brother Dan-o works with him at Click Radio. Jim Monaghan does part-time at WDHA.
Mark Chernoff is still at WFAN, dealing with Don Imus and Mike and the Mad Dog on a daily basis. He still listens extensively to music radio and has his finger on its dying pulse. Mike Kakoyiannis recently sold his interests in a group of country stations. John Reiger sold WLIR after clearing his debt and now lives comfortably on the eastern end of Long Island. Ted Webb works in public service in Nassau County.
Mel Karmazin is arguably the most powerful man in broadcasting. We all speculate that he bankrolled the forum at the museum as a final tribute, knowing that the end was near and that he could no longer justify the continuance of WNEW as a rock station, despite his nostalgic feelings toward it. We may never know. There’s a very good chance that if this story has interested you, you are working for him in some manner, however indirect.
In August of 2000, Bill “Rosko” Mercer finally succumbed to the cancer he had bravely battled for so many years. In an obituary, one of his colleagues recalled Rosko telling him that as a boy, he had read an article by Albert Einstein and actually called the great man to discuss it. The world would be a much richer place if a transcription of that conversation existed. I often think of him and draw inspiration from his work.
With the coming of satellite radio, featuring hundreds of new frequencies and specialized formats with limited or no commercial loads, free form may yet again arise from the ashes to fly higher than it has ever flown before. And the prospect heartens all my colleagues from the golden days of FM, hoping for one last shot at glory, dreaming that they might have a hand in introducing their almost forgotten art form to a new generation.
But whatever any of us do for the rest of our lives, we will always hold a special place in our soul for 102.7 WNEW-FM, the one station that broke all the rules and got away with it longer than anyone else. May it rest in peace, love, and understanding.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Neer started in radio while attending Adelphi University and pioneered progressive radio on Long Island after graduation. In 1971, he joined the staff of WNEW-FM and worked there as a disc jockey and programmer for over twenty-eight years. In 1986, he became a sports talk-show host at WNEW-AM. He moved to WFAN in July of 1988, where he is currently a weekend personality and pre- and postgame host for New York Giants football. He is the sports editor for
Talkers
magazine and appears regularly on various syndicated radio and television shows. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Vicky, and their willful golden retriever, Lindsay.
Copyright © 2001 by Richard Neer
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Villard Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Neer, Richard.
FM: the rise and fall of rock radio / Richard Neer.
p. cm.
1. Neer, Richard. 2. Disc jockeys—New York (State)—New York—Biography. 3. Rock music—History and criticism.
4. WNEW (Radio station: New York, N.Y.)—Anecdotes. I. Title.
ML429.N44 A3 2001
791.44´028´092—dc21 2001033251
[B]
Villard Books website address:
www.villard.com
eISBN: 978-1-58836-073-1
v3.0