Here’s something totally different. About four years before AM 1130 changed to Business News Radio WBBR, WNEW was programming ‘other’ things besides American Popular Standards. Jonathan Schwarz was an incredibly talented personality, and one whose name is very familiar, seems to not be nearly as memorable as the Rock N Roll variety of jocks. I think that’s a bit unfair. If I recall correctly, Schwarz was also heard on WNEW-FM (102.7) in its AOR days.
This particular evening, the theme is “A Tribute To Baseball”. Ironically, its the night of the Super Bowl (TM) (or, as the radio stations took to saying for a few years, “The Big Game”. Fear of being sued scares the pants off some people.
This opens with the show already in progress. Don’t be confused. At the beginning of this aircheck, there’s a commercial playing, and play by play of a baseball game going on underneath it. This isn’t tape bleedthrough, it is what actually aired on WNEW. The double audio only goes on for about 20 seconds. The play by play goes on for a couple of minutes. In fact, the show features play by play of all the major games up to that time… including the Red Sox/Mets 1986 World Series. Oh, yes. We get to hear Bill Buckner watch the ball go through his legs again. We get to hear the very FIRST New York Mets game! Not all the way through, these are just bits and pieces.
If you’re a baseball fan, or a Jonathan Schwartz fan you’ll really enjoy this aircheck!. Here are just some of the names you’ll hear – out of context, written in the aircheck description here, but you must listen to the whole thing to understand….
Sandy Koufax, Ken Coleman, Carl Yazstremski, Bill Buckner, Carlton Fisk (If I didn’t know better, I’d think Jonathan Schwarz was a Red Sox fan and we were in Boston!), Darryl Strawberry, Louis Tiante, Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner… and more!
And finally, the first 30 seconds or so of Mutual network news at 12 Midnight. Enjoy this, at the tail end of the WNEW Eleven Three Oh days. For you Washingtonians… this isn’t your All News station on FM. The heritage for THAT station was Alternative 99.1 WHFS Annapolis. They stole the legendary call letters!
%20New%20York%20|%20January%2031,%201988){kind=link}
I seem to recall he did this broadcast the morning/ midday on Super Bowl Sunday. On this particular day the Resins defeated Denver.
I think Joe is right. Jonathan hosted a Sunday mid-morning for years. His salute to Basebal on Super Bowl was an anual tradition going back to his NEW FM days.
I’d forgotten that Clorox spot (at 40:30). First time I’d heard it in probably more than a quarter century. Also, near the end, I really liked that partial broadcast, from 1938, of the Senators and Indians. Trivia time: That Senators franchise became the Minnesota Twins, and the second one (Senators) is now the Texas Rangers.
Sorry for not paying enough attention to the description, but I did learn that WNEW had a Mutual affiliation, having listened to the whole aircheck. From 1980-85, WHN was Mutual-owned, and of course, its NYC outlet. One other thing, I didn’t hear that little “be-doop” sound that Mutual used on commercial breaks in this aircheck. Anyone remember that?
The Senators-Indians broadcast is actually from September 21, 1939 when WJSV-Washington famously preserved its entire broadcast day.
I have to laugh a little at Schwartz’s totally erroneous description of the “Mutual” call of Bobby Thomson’s home run. That is in fact Gordon McLendon on the Liberty Network, not Mutual (Mutual did have their own broadcast but it doesn’t exist). The Liberty Network was a group of stations that ordinarily specialized in doing Western Union recreations of games but this was a rare occasion where they did a game live from the scene. This was well-known at the time Schwartz played this clip.