New York
Cousin Brucie, WCBS-FM New York Radio Greats Reunion | June 09, 1988
Date of Recording: 06.09.1988 Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York Format: Oldies Branded: “New York’s Oldies Station” Ownership: CBS, Inc / (Today) Entercom Communications (Wikipedia) Featured Air Personality: Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie) (WABC/WNBC/WCBS-FM) Contributor: Frank Davis Boy did I sound young! Curator’s Notes: This is really Part 1 of a two recording set of Cousin Brucie hosting a show on the Radio Greats Reunion. This was a Saturday, and we also have the Sunday, 6/10/1988 broadcast featuring Bruce Morrow. This begins with a quick aircheck of Les Marshack on the overnight show in 1969 on WABC.. and right into Marshack on the phone with Bruce Morrow. They get to talking about his days at MusicRadio 77 – well, both of their days at WABC, an...
Dick Summer, 95.5 WPLJ New York | 1973
Recording Date: 1973 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 95.5 WPLJ (WABC-FM) New York (Wikipedia) (Website) Branded: “Rock ‘N Stereo” Format: Freeform Album Rock Ownership: The American Broadcasting Company / ABC (Current:) Cumulus Media Sister Stations: 770 WABC/WABC-TV 7 (Current:) 770 WABC/WABC-TV 7/94.7 WNSH/103.9 WMBN Featured Air Personality: Dick Summer (WBZ/WPLJ/WNBC/WYNY/others) Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Total Time: 12:25 (Telescoped) #1,576 If you’re 90 years old this Spring and you’re getting married, I suggest you be very careful… Curator’s Notes: If you’ve never heard the beginnings of Freeform Album Rock, this will be quite a shock. There’s almost no trace of any real ‘hard’ rock here. Plenty of album cuts and...
Imus in the Morning – 66 WNBC New York | September 9, 1979
Recording Date: 09.09.1979 Station: 66 WNBC New York (Wikipedia) (WNBC Tribute Facebook Page) Format: Full Service/Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Don Imus (Imus in the Morning) Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Original Comments: (edited) In the long story of Don Imus’ career, few events could be stranger than NBC management’s decision to fire the personalities of WNBC radio. Among those let go in late ’77 were Cousin Bruce Morrow and morning man Don Imus. Imus had been a new face in the hallowed halls of the flagship station of the NBC radio chain back in 1971, at a time when WNBC radio was still just rolling out from under a middle of the road format that was ostensibly 50 percent still network programming. With Imus in the Morning and Brucie at night, when he arrived ...
Imus in the Morning – Final Show; 77 WABC New York | March 29, 2018 Part 1
Recording Date: 03.29.2018 Station: 770 WABC New York Format: News/Talk Branded: “Where New York Comes To Talk” Ownership: Cumulus Media Featured Air Personality: Don Imus (Imus in the Morning) Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks #1,575 You have no idea… how much I’m gonna miss you… Curator’s Notes: The recording has much white noise in it, however, it’s listenable. I have no words. The great Imus. Down to this. Whether he was forced out or chose to go out and retire on his own is certainly Imus’ business. But at the end of this long aircheck, Imus gets very emotional. His deep pipes now very light and raspy, a shell of the ‘shock jock’ he once was, Don Imus performs the final Imus In the Morning Program ever. There’s more...
Big Ron O’Brien, 66 WNBC New York | February 2, 1982
Recording Date: 02.04.1982 Station: 66 WNBC (defunct) (W2XY/WBAY/WEAF/WRCA/WNBC) New York (Wikipedia) Format: Adult Contemporary Branding: “Sixty Six, W NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN B C” Ownership: The National Broadcasting Company Featured Air Personality: Big Ron O’Brien (02.24.1951 – 04.27.2008) (Obit) (Wikipedia) Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Total Time: 12:53 (Telescoped) #1,573 W NNNNN B C! Four Fourteen with the all-night creature feature… Curator’s Notes: Knowing Big Ron was in a class by himself, having worked with many of the legends, such as Larry Lujack at WCFL and all, one would think that this talented guy would be holding down drive time on what by 1982 was New York City’s de-facto Top 40 station. Adult oriented...
Norm N Nite, WCBS-FM 101 New York | November 22, 1981
Recording Date: 11.22.1981 Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Oldies Branded: “New York’s Oldies Station” Ownership: (Then) CBS / (Now) Entercom (Website) Featured Air Personality: Norm N. Nite (WGAR/WMJI/WCBS-FM/WNBC) Contributor: Ray Bozzanca Description by Contributor On May 1,1982 Norm N Nite would start the Top 20 countdown shows on WCBS FM N.Y. The first Top 20 countdown show featured the year 1966. This aircheck is from Novemeber 22 of 1981 when Norm N Nite countdown the Top 10 songs of 1961 in his last hour of his show. The Top Ten Countdown was a regular feature. Each Countdown featured a different year, from that particular date. This is a really fun aircheck! Few jocks are as knowledgeable about the arti...
Tony Pigg, 95.5 WPLJ New York City | September 2, 1977
Recording Date: 09.02.1977 Station: 95.5 WPLJ (WABC-FM) New York (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Album Oriented Rock (AOR) Branded: “New York’s Best Rock” Ownership: (Then) American Broadcasting Company (ABC) / (Now) Cumulus Media (Website) Featured Air Personality: Tony Pigg Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks #1,571 It’s Tony Pigg at W P L J… and this is vintage Steve Miller Curator’s Notes: Well, the jocks could say pretty much what they want within the constraints of WPLJ’s album rock format, but Tony Pigg really plays it straight in this 15 minute ‘scoped aircheck (The unscoped version I WANTED to post runs 1 hour 20 minutes!). Tony Pigg, I’m told but can’t verify, was at the station from ...
Rich Kaminsky, 95.5 WPLJ New York City | April 10, 1999
Recording Date: 04.10.1999 Station: 95.5 WPLJ (WABC-FM/WWPR) New York City (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Hot Adult Contemporary (Hot AC) Branded: New York’s Hit Music Station! Ownership: (Now) Cumulus Media Featured Air Personality: Rich Kaminski (WPLJ/WLTW) Contributor: Anonymous #1,570 You know what this song means? (Livin La Vida Loca?)… Living the crazy life! Curator’s Notes: By the time of this recording, WPLJ was firmly established as a Hot AC, with a playlist that was big on uptempo pop hits, and some lighter Rock hits… but no Rap. That’s the setup for our first aircheck of Rich Kaminski. He sounds GOOD doing the WPLJ format. One note about airchecks made from the late 90s to present is, there are long music sweeps with produced liners and sweepers and ...
Sky Walker, 95.5 WPLJ ‘Power 95’ New York | August 28, 1990
Date of Recording: 08.28.1990 Station: 95.5 WPLJ New York Format: HotAC Ownership: ABC Featured Air Personality: Sky Walker Original Post Date: 04.11.2010 Original Comments: In this all-too-short QuickCheck, Sky Walker runs a TIGHT board, playing the hits of the day in the CHR incarnation of WPLJ. It wouldn’t be long before the station would morph into a HotAc station, but here, it’s all Top 40!
Paul Cubby Bryant, 100.3 WHTZ (Z100) Newark, NJ (New York City) | April 10, 1999
Recording Date: 04.10.1999 Station: 100.3 WHTZ New York City (Wikipedia) (Website) (Twitter) (Facebook) Format: Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) Ownership: (Now) iHeartMedia, inc. / (Then) Malrite Media Branded: Z100, New York’s #1 Hit Music Station Featured Air Personality: Paul Cubby Bryant (WGH-FM/WHTZ/WKTU) (Wikipedia) Contributor: Anonymous Total Time: 5:15 (Telescoped) #1,569 Z100.. Cubby on the mic, Schroeder for the peanuts on the Piano, and Miss Grammy… Lorde Hill on vocals Curator’s Notes: Its been quite a while since we posted a Z100 aircheck, but nothing has really changed. Z100 is still a hot CHR station, although today the jocks speak a bit less and the music… well, there’s no rock today but that’s the state of pop music in 2018. This is...
Jack Spector, 570 WMCA New York | 1967
Recording Date: 1967 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 570 WMCA New York Format: Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Jack Spector Contributor: Paul Ford Original Comments: Curiously, we’ve never featured anything by Jack Spector before. Now, courtesy of contributor Paul Ford, we take a listen to a very high quality recording of WMCA Good Guy Jack Spector. This is short, but compare this, early 60s approach to Top 40 with any of our ‘checks of crosstown 77 WABC during this time and you’ll instantly notice the difference! WABCs streamlined, yet personaility/jingled approach to the format buried WMCA. Jack Spector is great, however. WMCA would change formats away from Top 40 in just a few short years, but here, the station is full of energy!
Don K. Reed and the Do-Wop Shop, WCBS-FM 101.1 New York | January 15, 1989
Date of Recording: 01.15.1989 Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York (Website) (Wikipedia) Format: Oldies Branded: “New York’s Oldies Station” Featured Air Personalities: Bobby Jay, Don K. Reed Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Total Time: 27:51 (Telescoped) Airchexx Entry: 1,555 “Bringing the Memories on a Sunday Night here on the Do-Wop Shop…” Curator’s Notes: The most difficult part of being the curator of this online museum is finding adequate words to describe some of our airchecks. This one is especially difficult, because, not only is the audio fidelity nearly perfect, the program itself is quite rare. When WCBS-FM returned with its modified Classic Hits format from Jack-FM, one of the popular shows that did not return was the Do-Wop Shop. Don K. Re...
