Dave Thomson was also great on WMYQ/Miami and Q107 in DC.
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'OR-FM"!
- Thread starter Wimmmex
- Start date
J
JoeLouis
Guest
My favorite time listening to WOR-FM/WXLO was when Jay Thomas was D.J. now a well known actor in sitcoms, I still have a double vinyl album (2 discs) WOR-FM 98.7 with 50 various oldies on them.
Just for historical accuracy, he is the late Jay Thomas. He died in August 2017 at age 69, reportedly from cancer. And yes, he was very good on WXLO (in AM drive, IIRC), but he was also a really good comedic actor in a number of television shows (Mork & Mindy, Murphy Brown, Cheers, etc.), but unfortunately it was usually as a guest star, or as a recurring character in an occasional or limited story arc. I can't recall him ever landing a starring role in anything successful.
I think his greatest TV success was, ironically, as a recurring guest on David Letterman's annual "last Late Show before Christmas", weaving his tale of jocking at Big WAYS in Charlotte and his Clayton Moore/Lone Ranger incident, and being the lead-in to Darlene Love performing Christmas Baby (Please Come Home).
When I was at Sirius we used to chat quite often. Talking about his and my days at WXLO. He also had a recurring role in Showtimes Ray Donovan. He obviously was quite ill in his last year on the show.
J
JoeLouis
Guest
He was a great personality at 99X he would have me laughing my a** off, was he on the short lived sitcom "Married People"? (which was one funny show)
When 99X was hitting on all cylinders, it was the best FM station in NYC. Loved it growing up.
J
JoeLouis
Guest
Does anyone remember that after midnight in the early 70s that WABC-FM (95.5) simulcasted 77 WABC from midnight to 6:AM and the sound quality of those 77 WABC jingles were amazing. "brought to you by Dennison's mens clothiers, Route 22, Union, New Jersey"
I didn't hear that first hand as I did not live in New York, but I remember hearing an AM and fm ID. One aircheck exists somewhere online recorded from the FM, which did not have the AM's reverb in the air chain, but the reverb still came through via the jock's headphones.
J
JoeLouis
Guest
Yes that has to be one the most famous I.D.s WABC AM & FM, New York, there was no reverb on the FM, just a nice crisp version of the greatest top 40 station of all time.
Jay Thomas was also on "Cheers" and probably was on his way to being a regular on the show until THIS happened: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertai...lting-another-cast-mate-outside-filming.html/
That's interesting. I've never heard that tape. But it fits with what we know about what was happening at WOR-FM, and what we know happened to Rosko. He & Muni left for WNEW-FM. They played the music they wanted to play. Rosko was able to play artists he loved, like Elmore James and Ritchie Havens. He stayed at WNEW for about 5 years, until the same exact thing happened. A new consultant came into WNEW and all of Metromedia, they hired a music director who tightened the playlists, and once again Rosko left a radio station. This time he went to WQIV, the upstart rock station. That lasted about a year. After that, he went to WKTU.
J
JoeLouis
Guest
Wasn't it Roscoe? (not sure)
Roscoe was his middle name, but the name that he used on the air was Rosko.
William (Rosko) Mercer (Wikipedia)
You might be interested in this. It was an interview a friend and I did for our high school newspaper just after all this drama happened, part 2 of a pair. (Part 1 was with Sebastian Stone, the PD at "Drake" WOR-FM, just weeks after the format change.) Originally it was supposed to be with Scott Muni, but he stood us up after we had traipsed into midtown Manhattan from our Long Island suburb on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Then we heard back from WNEW-FM and they made Rosko available a couple of weeks later. (In retrospect, Muni was likely in negotiations with Metromedia and didn't want to tip his hand prematurely, but we got Rosko as our "consolation prize.")
This interview has appeared on that other board (with my permission) for a number of years, but rather than link to it there, here it is directly. It's not exactly hard-hitting, New Yorker-level journalism, but re-reading it just now, it wasn't bad for a couple of clueless 16-year-olds.
J
JoeLouis
Guest
Those were the days at WNEW FM 102.7, Rosko and the raspy voice of Scott Muni, I personally don't think radio got any better than that, I sort of remember the KTU Rosko but it wasn't the same, it was frustrating to me where I lived because WDRC FM at 102.9 was a lot stronger, I put up an expensive directional antenna just to pick up 102.7 (worked great)
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