The WABC music chime is silenced...
The death of musicradio followed the playing of the final WABC music chime at 11:59:55 AM on Monday, the 10th day in the not so merry month of May. The year was 1982. At 9 AM on that last day, Dan Ingram joined Ron Lundy for 3 memory packed hours of the radio station that started it's successful quest to dominate the New York market in December of 1960...
The first WABC jock lineup in December, 1960:
6-10 AM Herb Oscar Anderson, 10-11 AM Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, 11-1 PM Charlie Greer, 1-3 PM Jack Carney, 6-7:30 PM Newscope, 7:30-10 PM Chuck Dunaway, 10-12 M Scott Muni, 12M-4 AM Big Joe's Happiness Exchange, 4-6 AM Bill Owen. Programming consultant: Mike Joseph..
The final WABC jock lineup on the morning of May 10, 1982 on "The Day The Music Died"
5-9 AM Ross and Wilson, 9-11:59:55 AM Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram. Operations Manager: Jay Clark...
At exactly 12 Noon, Musicradio 77 became Talkradio 77...
For a review of jocks and programming people that made WABC the highest rated station in America for 22 years, airchecks, great interviews and memories, the best source of information on Musicradio 77 is available at http//www.musicradio77.com but I will offer some personal memories of the station I tried to beat a couple of times in my commentary...
More May 10 Memories...
1869] A golden spike is driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the 1st transcontinental railroad in the U.S. ("westward ho")...
1872] Victoria Woodhull becomes the 1st woman nominated for the U.S. presidency (sorry Hillary, it's been done)...
1908] The 1st Mother's Day observance takes place during church services in Grafton, WV and Philadelphia (meanwhile in Orthodox Temples the women still sit upstairs)...
1924] J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the FBI, a job he will hold until his death in 1972...
1927] The Hotel Statler in Boston becomes the 1st hotel to install headsets in each of its 1,300 rooms (of course there was nothing to listen to in 1927 but hey, you can't have everything)...
1954] "Rock Around The Clock" is released as a single commercially (promo copies went out on May 6th). This, the 1st time around, the single charts for only one week. One year later after the release of "Blackboard Jungle" the song will top the charts in July of 1955...
1964] Dusty Springfield makes her U.S. television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show"...
1965] This was a big date for the baseball rivalry (Yankees-Red Sox) that started in 1903 (they're playing against each other now at Yankee Stadium). Dating back to May 10, 1946 each team has won twice on this date after the game in 1965 when the final score was: Yaz 3 Mantle 2 with those 2 stars providing all the runs in a 3-2 Red Sox win...
1969] The merger of the AFL and NFL becomes official with Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Baltimore agreeing to become part of the AFL. The AFC and NFC are formed featuring two-13 team conferences...
1969] ("Whaaaa was in that punnnnch anyway ? I thought it tasted funnnny") The Turtles perform at the White House and Mark Volman celebrates by falling off the stage 4 times (they we're happy but not together)...
1970] In one of the greatest sports photos ever, Boston Bruin Superstar Bobby Orr flies through the air after taking a pass from Derek Sanderson and putting the puck in the St. Louis net for the winning overtime goal that produced an NHL championship for the hometeam...
1973] Led by Willis Reed's 18 points and 12 rebounds, the Knicks win their 2nd and last NBA championship in decisive Game 5 against the Lakers...
1974] Led by the great Dr. J, Julius Erving, the New York Nets win the 1st of their 2 ABA titles by defeating Utah (Erving scores 20 and pulls down 16 boards)...
1974] Eric Clapton records "I Shot the Sheriff" (he will top the charts with it)...
1982] WABC changes format (feature story)...
1983] "Laverne and Shirley" bows out on ABC-TV (the series started on January 27, 1976 as a spinoff of "Happy Days")...
1985] The Go-Go's announce their breakup. The all-girl group had 2 top 10 hits with "We Got The Beat" and "Vacation" (they will launch a reunion tour in 1990)...
1986] Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear rock down the aisle...
1996] "Twister" premieres and just in time for tornado season...
1997] The state of Illinois executes convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murders of 33 young men and boys...
2002] Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life with no parole (the FBI agent sold U.S. secrets to the Russians for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds)...
2003] The New York Times announces that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair had "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud" according to an investigation conducted by the paper (something you'll never find in this blog because you have to be a journalist to committ journalistic fraud)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content and to avoid journalistic fraud, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Commentary...
For a Brooklyn kid who dreamed all of his life of becoming a disc jockey on WABC but not quite get there, I was able to have some Kevin Bacon like separations with America's number one rated radio station. I mean I worked in the same building that housed the station. Before they would get their own building the station was on West 66th Street which combined AM, FM and TV (local and network). So I worked in the mailroom but I was only 17 and going to radio school at night so cut me a break. In addition to meeting all the television celebrities I was surrounded by, I also knew most of the radio people, none more than Herb Oscar Anderson who offered this advice, "be an individualist kid". I was finally able to thank HOA for his good advice at a CBS-FM radio greats weekend. I could talk about being the PD at KQV which was owned by ABC but there's no New York connection there except for the conference call between all the Major Market ABC PD's each week . Let's see...oh, I know. I was program director of 2 (technically 3) radio stations that competed (or at least tried) with WABC. The first attempt was in 1972-73 at WOR-FM which would become WXLO when I was there and then there was WNBC in 1976-77. Of course in each case management didn't provide me with enough promotion money to get the job done. Let's face it, it was David vs. Goliath and guess which role I played ? Times up. Hey at least I gave it a shot...
Happy Birthday To...
1930] Pat Summerall...
1936] Gary ("Laugh-In") Owens...
1945] Dave Mason (Traffic and solo)...
1946] Donovan Leitch...
1955] ESPN's Chris "Boomer" Berman...
1960] Paul Hewson a.k.a. Bono...
[Today is the 130th day of 2006 with 235 days remaining in the year and 19 days until Memorial Day]...
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