Here’s a ‘world premier aircheck’ of Cousin Brucie, as recorded by contributor Keith Teicher live on 66 WNBC New York on 09/05/75. Sure, there are ‘checks of Bruce Morrow out there but most are quite worn down and muffled. This is clear, right off the original master tape.
I don’t know about you, but Cousin Brucie sounds slightly different on WNBC than he did on WABC. Compare airchecks… perhaps its a more subdued Bruce Morrow we hear on this one. Although, Brucie is Brucie and his sound is totally unique – but there’s something about this particular aircheck that stands out. What is it? Your listener comments are welcome below.
Well, you’re right…Bruce is lower-key here than he was on WABC, but is that really a surprise? He’s doing middays on an Adult Contemporary station instead of evenings on a Top 40.
george michael was the best post hitter of all time! did brucie’s move to wnbc help thier ratings at all vs. the alphebet?
Calradio is right. Brucie would do evenings for maybe another year before returning to evenings. I’m in the minority because I like Brucie during this period. Ironically, if you listen to Bruce on WABC the last few years, he was also more understated than he was during the ’60s.
Exactly, Nick. Beginning sometime in the early seventies, screaming Top 40 radio (emphasis on [the word “]screaming[“]) was on its way out, and WABC capitalized on it by toning down the deejays’ announcing voices, including those of Cousin Brucie and even Dan Ingram. Plus, since WABC management, circa 1970, wanted to make Cousin Brucie a little less “teen” and a little more “adult,” anyway, it also altered his on-air moniker to , alternately, “Bruce Morrow” and “Cousin Bruce Morrow”. So you hear the early-Seventies Top 40 version of Cousin Brucie as well as the mid-Seventies soft rock-hit-radio version of him on this aircheck. (Interestingly, he reverted back to Cousin Brucie, albeit in name, when he moved to WNBC back in the late summer of 1974.) (He reverted back to his screaming (at times, including his newly-resumed, trademark scream, “Eyiiiiiii!”) on the air when he moved to ‘CBS-FM in ’82.
Calradio, the reason is really that Cousin Brucie is on an adult contemporary station, period.
I first heard Cousin Bruce doing middays on WNBC in the summer of ‘75. He was fairly even-keeled(as heard on this check), but he did always did a funny live-read of a Black Jack bug spray. He’d always follow the mention of the product with “ooo-we BABY!”.