1010 WINS ALL NEWS. ALL THE TIME, a studio tour, in the late 80's

[alok]

Back in the late 80's I got to talking via E-mail with Lee Harris the morning anchor at 1010 WINS.
We talked about broadcasting in general, his end of it, as an announcer . . . and my end, TV broadcast maintenance, studio & transmitter. I told him I'd be back east in afew weeks and could I get a tour of WINS . . . in the morning after he got off the air . . . he said yes !
We set up the date & time.

I took the train from Bay Head, NJ to Penn Station ( New Jersey Transit ) . . . that was fun too because I like trains !

As I've said before . . . I am "hooked on 1010 WINS " because it was NYC's first RnR station ( Sept. 1954 ), when they hired Alan Freed at the time and played RnR for NYC until April, 1965 . . . when they went ALL-NEWS.
WINS has such a rich history during its RnR period.

I still like them to this day as an ALL-NEWS station.

I have been to their transmitter site ( over in Jersey ) many times over the years, including during the new tower build in the mid-90's. Their engineering people at the site were always nice too me.

So that morning I took a cab from Penn Station to 888 Seventh Av. ( the WINS studios at the time ) . . . getting off the elevator on the floor they were located on was cool . . . there was across the wall near the receptionist that big - 1010 WINS ALL-NEWS. ALL THE TIME logo that Westinghouse ( they owned WINS at the time ) made famous, the one where the zeros in 1010 were the earth ( map ). The receptionist called Lee and he came out and greeted me.

He showed me all parts of the operation . . . the newsroom, the on air control room, the talent ran their own board, the production rooms . . . a room called MCR ( Master Control Room ) where an engineer was assigned to monitor the transmitter & air signal . . . this engineer also had the duty of transferring outside commercials to audio carts . . . and the engineering maintenance shop . . . as well as the offices for GM, PD, traffic, etc.
It was a "class operation" smooth as could be" and THE TELETYPE SOUND behind the newscaster - made it MORE FUN.

Lee was very nice and did not rush the tour. I thanked him and headed out to tour the city the rest of the day.

In cabs in NYC I always ask the driver to put on 1010 WINS, often they already have it on . . . it is fun to hear that station pushing most of its signal over NYC . . . good old 1010 WINS. When I was growing up in NJ in the 50's / 60's WINS signal wasn't too great over northern NJ but over NYC they were LOUD !!!
When they put up new towers in the mid 90's the signal over northern NJ improved a good amount.

In the days WINS played RnR, they called the NYC area . . . WINSLAND !
WINSLAND temperature
WINSLAND weather
it's 59 deg in WINSLAND
check out your nearest Robert Hall Clothing Store in WINSLAND at . . .
WINSLAND time, etc., etc., etc.

by the way . . .they did away with that teletype sound afew years ago . . . DARN !

I WANT THE TELETYPE SOUND BACK !!!! yes it is old - fashion BUT it was cool !!!

Al

 

[Kemosabe]

Art Vuolo's video aircheck of Lee Harris on 4 August 2016:

 

[alok]

Thanks for the video link of Lee, Lee also at the time I visited WINS had some type of broadcast related consultant business.

Like I said, everybody there I talked with, at the studio & transmitter were really nice, willing to talk, show you and explain things as well as answer questions and tell stories about WINS over the years.

Naturally at the transmitter if they were dealing with a problem they'd tell me and I would not stay, just a quick hello and I'd be on my way. I knew what that was about when your trying to fix a problem.
There was only somebody at the transmitter during the day on occasions, unless there was a problem, day or night, then
they were there.
The transmitter was remote controlled.

Al

 

[pjc1961]

Note: Lee Harris became one of the morning anchors at 1010 WINS in 1995.
In the late 1980s-early 1990s, mornings featured Paul Smith.
Paul retired from WINS IN 1995; he was doing afternoon drive at the time.

 

[alok]

OK,PJC,

I guess I got it wrong ( old age ! ), I remember meeting Lee between 9 and 10 AM, from what I recall he said he just got off the air . . . but that was about 34 years ago, maybe Lee was doing mornings at the time while Paul was on vacation?
I did not live in the NY area, I was living on the west coast, so I did not know the line-up at the station.

Oh well . . . Lee gave me the tour, he and everyone else I met at 1010 WINS were nice and it was fun.

Al