Courtesy of Contributor Steven Green.
Recorded off the air into a mic/table cassette machine by the sound of it, our contributor made a couple of hours worth of recordings of this interesting aircheck of Cousin Brucie making an appearance on WINZ.
The first aircheck starts with Lee Sherwood but segues in to Bruce. Lee worked at WNBC-AM mangement.
And, perhaps thats the missing piece of the puzzle. Morrow would go on to do nights at WNNNNNNNBC shortly after this was recorded. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to bring the huge ratings he’d had at WABC with him. But it was entertaining, nonetheless.
Says Green,
Bruce left WABC two weeks prior to this day and took some jabs at WABC.
Within a year, WINZ would be an all news station.
This arrived in several segments. Here’s Part 1.
Okay, what puzzle?
Before we even get three minutes in, it’s said out loud that this is a reunion of the old WINZ jock staff, which Cousin Brucie was a part of in 1960.
Yes he was, and yes, it is. The puzzle (I shouldn’t have written it that way).. who did Bruce Morrow know to leave WABC and go to WNBC. Writing from an outsider’s point of view.
And if this is September, 1974, Bruce is already at WNBC. He started there August 15.
The date was provided by the contributor. Morrow probably left New York to do the special.
After 14 years as the number one nighttime jock in the market at WABC, who wouldn’t Brucie know four and a half blocks away at WNBC?
The story I’ve heard since the time it happened was WNBC took a shot at toppling Brucie with Wolfman Jack, missed, and decided to go for the genuine article.
Money, the ability to play more than 22 songs and a promise (kept) to be moved to middays by the end of the year were all Brucie needed.
The story I recall from Rick Sklar’s book (and mind you I last read it 15 years ago) was that in 1974, Sklar though Brucie was losing focus on the air (was constantly on the phone during his shift). Brucie’s contract was up for renewal, and Sklar decided to create a bonus structure based on ratings. Brucie balked, and subsequently left for WNBC. Never knew it was ever his wish to move to middays.?
I would have loved to hear which news sounder they were using for this weekend.