660 WNBC
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 ...
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...
Jim Collins & “The Time Machine”, 66 WNBC New York | November 29, 1987
Date of Recording: 11.29.1987 Station: 660 WNBC New York (W2XY/WBAY/WEAF/WRCA/WNBC) Format: Full-Service Gold-Based Adult Contemporary Branding: “Sixty-Six W NNNNNNNN BC“ Featured Air Personality: Jim Collins (WPGC/WNBC/others) Contributor: Frank Davis Total Time: 54:10 Airchexx Entry: 1,542 WNBC Burnin’ up in a heatwave of hot STEAMING Rock N Roll!… Curator’s Notes: But, you say, this aircheck is already posted!! Well, yes. But this is the LONG version. Our Christmas present to you is this 54 minute clip of WNBC’s signature Oldies program, “The Time Machine”. Pre-dated in the New York area ONLY by 101.1 WCBS-FM, this was simply the best Oldies show on the air at that time. The whole idea was to re-create the 1960s sound of 77 WABC, and, righ...
The Benny Goodman Show, 660 WEAF New York | January, 1935
Date of Recording: 01.1935 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 660 WEAF New York (W2XY/WBAY/WEAF/WRCA/WNBC) Format: General – Pre-Rock era Network Block format Featured Air Personality: Benny Goodman Contributor: Archive.org Post Date: 12.11.2017 Total Time: 41:04 Airchexx Entry: 1,533 Curator’s Notes: At left, the giant, 50 KW transmitter in use at WEAF New York during the 1930’s Visitors to this archival site may be somewhat unfamiliar with how radio sounded during the “Golden Age” of radio broadcasting in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In the days before television, radio was often the only source of entertainment. While radio stations across the United States and Canada pretty much carried similar programming, mos...
Big Wilson, 66 WNBC New York | April 1969
Date of Recording: 04.xx.1969 Station: 66 WNBC New York Featured Air Personality: Big (John) Wilson Format: Pop/Full Service Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Original Post Date: 03.02.2010 Curator’s Notes: There’s a lot that’s been said about Big Wilson – he’s a legendary personality on the old WNBC. Problem is, when people think of radio in the 1960s in New York City, the first station that always comes to mind is WABC. So, WNBC was always dwarfed… and never really tried to compete in the Top 40 arena anyway, as NBC, the network, always had features running on air which disrupted the music presentation. Big Wilson is captured here in a recording that sounds like it was made with a microphone placed in front of a table radio speaker. The audio quality is...
Joel Sebastian, 66 WNBC New York | October 7, 1985
Date of Recording: 10.07.1985 Station: 660 WNBC (WEAF/WRCA/WNBC) New York, New York, USA Format: Top 40/Variety Featured Air Personality: Joel Sebastian (WLS/WNBC) Contributor: Jim Hampton Airchexx Entry: 1,486 …here’s a little bit of the Gary Burgess humor, he wrote out the forecast listen to this… what’s for tonight? Dark! Comments: If you’ll listen closely enough, you’ll definitely notice Joel Sebastian’s voice. Yes, where did I hear him before? WLS, of course! New Contributor Jim Hampton, who just donated roughly a dozen airchecks to the Airchexx Museum archive, recorded this himself – and so that’s high-quality, first person tape recordings from an incredibly historic WNBC broadcast. This was just before the Weekend “Time Mac...
Airchexx.com Presents: A Christmas Carol, as produced and aired by 66 WNBC Radio New York | December 24, 1975
Date of Recording: 12.24.1975 Station: 660 WNBC New York City, New York, USA (WEAF/WRCA/WNBC) Format: Top 40 Featured Air Talent: Don Imus (Imus in the Morning), Dick Summer, Cousin Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie), Bill Rockefeller, Bob Vernon, Charles McCord Contributor: Steve Tefft Beware the ides of Christmas past… Comments: Aired on Christmas eve, 1975, following the Cousin’ Brucie Show (who does a short promo for it), this 28 minute production is every bit as good and professional as any you’ve ever heard. NBC pulled out all the stops in getting the radio and TV side together to add voices. Imus played Scrooge, but listen to the cast of characters heard here… Dick Summer, Cousin Bruce Morrow, Bill Rockefeller (producer), Bob Vernon (66 WNBC PM Drive)… more. ...
Jim Collins, 66 WNBC “Time Machine” | November 29, 1987
Date of Recording: 11.29.1987 Station: 660 WNBC New York, New York, USA Format: Adult Contemporary and Talk Weekdays, Oldies Overnights & Weekends (Variety format) Featured Air Personality: Jim Collins Contributor: Frank Davis …”You Say it, We Play It!” Comments: This is a fresh, re-issue of WNBC’s last, great format, “The Time Machine”. Sources say that before GE sold all of its radio properties, in particular, WNBC sold to Jeff Smulyan (who decided to shut it down and move then WFAN from 1050 down to 660), WNBC management was close to ending most of its daytime talk and variety programs and taking the weekend “Time Machine” Oldies format full time. As we all know, that never happened. Too bad, as many of us remember this format as the ...
Steve York, 66 WNBC New York | April 23, 1983
1983 might be considered the year that 66 WNBC finally hit the post as a true Top 40 station. Nights were full of the hits of ’83, one of the top rated shows in New York, and the station was boasting Imus in the Morning and Howard Stern in the afternoon. Having witnessed the demise of WABC almost a year earlier, WNBC finally achieved what it couldn’t all throughout the 70s – ratings superiority over 77 WABC. In addition, while the programming was superb, the station switched to AM Stereo (the Khan system) and it sounded incredible even in mono! This era is largely forgotten by nearly everyone but its important to remember that while Z-100 launched in 1983, WNBC really took over for a time as THE Top 40 station in the Big Apple. Shortly before WHTZ came on the air, 7-Midni...
Imus In The Morning – Last Day on 66 WNBC New York | 1988
Don Imus… love him or hate him, he’s sure been around a long time. After WNBC was a long-standing Morning gig at SportsRadio 66 WFAN (that made HOW many years on one frequency?), then to onetime rival 77 WABC, where Imus has been since 2007. In this particular aircheck, you’ll hear the I-man clearly state that he’s not doing a final show… because, after all, tomorrow morning he’ll be right back on the same frequency at the same time period, “so, what’s the point?” Lots of great memories here, from a time just hours away from the most profitable format New York had seen in years – SportsRadio 66 WFAN!
Wolfman Jack sits in with Murray the K, 66 WNBC | August 1973
Originally posted in November 2007, two legendary personalities share the mic from an era when those heard between the records were every bit as important as the music. WNBC was in a period where it tried competing with crosstown WABC, with its own psudeo-top 40 format, but still with so much network programming on the air, a throwback to the WEAF days before television, never could get close to the success of the great MusicRadio 77. Still, there were some shining moments. Here’s one.
Dan Taylor and the WNBC “Time Machine” | September 12, 1987
Its been said that nobody could imitate WABC’s Dan Ingram. If anyone could get close, though, Dan Taylor could. VERY close! In this edition of the WNBC Time Machine, Larry Scott opens with News On The Hour featuring some interesting stories about people long gone now. Terri Raskin reports WNBC Traffic & Transit, then there’s WNBC Instant Weather from the National Weather Service. Then, there’s the Classic Hits of the 60s with Dan Taylor! Now, everything you hear, from the way the jingles are positioned to the drop-ins and Taylor’s sense of humor might not have intentionally mimicked Big Dan Ingram, but its an uncanny coincidence if not! In some ways, Dan Taylor does Ingram BETTER! No wonder Taylor was picked as WCBS-FM’s morning man for a couple of years ...
