For eight years, from 1999 to 2007, NewsTalk 77 WABC New York took one day out of the year to remember it’s historic music radio format. It was a treat for listeners, and while pre-produced by then Production Director Johnny Donovan (himself a jock during the MusicRadio 77 years), it also gave the talk show hosts the Memorial Day holiday off. This year for 2019, WABC is re-airing portions of previous Rewound programs on Labor Day. We aren’t sure why they picked Labor Day, but the station has been sold to Red Apple Media from its former owner, Cumulus. We think this is a tremendously good sign, that the new ownership is starting out by paying honor to the station’s Music Radio past!
In honor of that, we here at Airchexx are once again presenting WABC’s Rewound program from the year 2007. All 12 hours were donated to us on CD from WABC’s “Restorian” Rob Frankel. I (Steve West) am so very thankful to Rob and his thoughtfulness!
To listen, click the BIG BLUE BUTTON below
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Hour #6: – Back to December 19, 1974 and the George Michael show. Listen carefully and you might hear George miss hitting the post by a microsecond… as Johnny Donovan says, that’s the first time anyone ever heard that!
First posted in 2007!
When I emigrated from England to the USA, I landed at JFK and got into a taxi. The driver had the radio on, tuned to WABC, of course, and I’ll never forget, the first ‘radio voice’ I heard was George Michael, a little after 6:00 pm, saying, “I’m gonna make you happy!” And he did! I was a devoted fan of WABC from that moment. I found out later that George was not completely happy at WABC and felt restricted in his involvement regarding the music the station aired, as he’d had more say-so on his previous job at WFIL. However, George was a real pro, and listeners would never guess that anything was troubling him. He was the perfect replacement for Cousin Brucie, in my opinion.