Gus Gossert; The Oldies But Goodies Show, WPIX New York | 1971

From New Contributor Stewart Tick, here’s an early 70s show that became a classic and was the genesis for WCBS-FM’s “Do Wop Shop” which ran for nearly 30 years on 101.1.

Writes Stewart Tick:

l vocal groups, and featuring many of the more obscure and offbeat doo-wop records that had been played by DJs like Alan Freed and Alan Fredericks in the New York area. (I suppose this was probably mostly an attempt to provide an alternative to the national Billboard-chart Top 40 oldies that WOR-FM was playing in their regular format then.) In ’71, Gossert switched to WPIX-FM and expanded his show to Saturday night as well as Sunday. His mellow and laid-back “FM rock DJ” approach contrated sharply with the Top 40 format of WPIX at that time. Then in early ’72, Gossert suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from the New York airwaves, never to return – despite having a huge local following. (I heard several rumors about what had happened to him, but noone I’ve spoken to seems to know for sure.)
Of course, the audience for a weekend doo-wop show was picked up by WCBS-FM again in ’73 or so, at first by Norm N. Nite with his sunday night “Nite Train” show. When Norm left for WNBC in ’75, Don K. Reed took over on Sunday nights, and the name was changed to the “Doo-Wop Shop”, which it remained until the show was cancelled in 2002.