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Anyone miss the old WNEW-FM?

V

ventura highway

I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse, but NYC radio is so bad--and has been for so long--I miss Scott Muni and the rest of that crew. The only saving grace is Q104.3, with some of the WNEW alumni.....I guess I'm getting old and yearn for my younger days.
 
ventura highway said:
... I miss Scott Muni and the rest of that crew. The only saving grace is Q104.3, with some of the WNEW alumni...
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I guess there's WNEW.com to satisfy your need for a fix for "where rock lives"... incidentally, I read elsewhere (perhaps this board) that CBS is replacing it with some new sort of station in about a week or so.

I agree, though, WNEW in its prime was good; most of the 90's is forgettable, but it was the start of that decade that I became connected with WNEW.
 
I think WFUV rather than Q-104.3 is the closest thing to the old WNEW-FM on the New York radio dial today. In radio jargon its format can be called AAA, but it is very close to a free form station with the DJs picking the music. Former WNEW-FM personalities Vin Scelsa and Pete Fornatale have Saturday gigs on the station. Check it out sometime.

Bruce
 
WNEW was basically the greatest rock station throughout the 70's to mid to late 80's in this country (KMET In LA was also good). NYC radio is very boring these days, and WNEW along with "Scott Muni, close personal friends with Yoko Ono" are greatly missed..
 
BruceS8852 said:
I think WFUV rather than Q-104.3 is the closest thing to the old WNEW-FM on the New York radio dial today... Former WNEW-FM personalities Vin Scelsa and Pete Fornatale have Saturday gigs on the station...
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I should point out that some former WNEW jocks, including Dave Herman, can be found on Facebook!
 
frozenfiresb said:
Satellite radio- Deep Tracks and Classic Vinyl are the closest you'll get to the old 'NEW.
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Totaly agree. But it's a shame that there is no official tribute WNEW livestream.
 
they ignored glitter/glam rockin the early 70s, and punk in the late 70s....
they played boring old hippie records by joni mitchell and cat stevens;
wimp o rama pete fornatle gushing through his dentures over the beatles,and jonathan schwartz playing frank sinatra records...
they never played Wayne County or Cherry Vanilla!...
(well, Alison Steele The Nightbird played 'Max's Kansas City 1976" by Wayne County ONCE!)...
good riddance sez me...
 
In my research, it seems that this was a station that evolved and changed through the years. That may be why it's hard to do a real "tribute" site for it, that is consistent, and that all fans of the stations will like.

Certainly the first few years, the progressive Rosko years, were very different from what the station became in the 70s. The changing sound of New York radio, changing competitors from WABC-FM, evolving into PLJ, and then the arrival of WQIV and WAPP. The progressive period, with the wider playlist, gave way quickly to a station that was solidly AOR, except for Muni's "Things From London." That was always a mixed bag, and changed as punk began to become popular. Contrary to one comment, they didn't "ingore" punk in the late 70s. They embraced it. Especially the CBGB brand of punk, such as The Ramones and Patty Smith. But also the British form, from The Clash to Graham Parker. Power pop, like Elvis Costello and Squeeze in the 80s. I think where the station started to fall apart was with grunge at the end of the 80s. By then, the station was getting tired, the music wasn't as interesting, the staff didn't seem to know how to handle the splintering of the format. Then again, it was the same problem that was baffling MTV, which was how to incorporate all these new types of music, with rap, grunge, and even pop. There was no unified lifestyle for them to build a station around any more. This was a station that was built around a generation, their lifestyle, and their music. As that generation aged, the station struggled with redefinition. In its last ten years, a lot of the original listeners went away. I really think it was a combination of the aging of the audience, the confused state of music, and the inability of the station to figure out what it wanted to be.

So which era of WNEW would a tribute site focus on?
 
A tribute site and stream with music from the glory days of WNEW. Music when Dave Herman, Scott Muni and Alison Steele where there.
 
TheBigA said:
Contrary to one comment, they didn't "ingore" punk in the late 70s. They embraced it. Especially the CBGB brand of punk, such as The Ramones and Patty Smith. But also the British form, from The Clash to Graham Parker. Power pop, like Elvis Costello and Squeeze in the 80s.
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in other words, they embraced "New Wave" as opposed to punk. And they did that only after jocks like Scelsa and Meg Griffin forced them to -- Fornatale was perfectly happy playing some incarnation of Richie Furay once an hour, and still does on 'FUV today. They were fun during that late-'70s/early-'80s period when they did live broadcasts from the Bottom Line of whatever New Wave Flavor-of-the-Week band the record companies were selling (The Jags! The Sports! etc etc). but they were not exactly falling over themselves to play the Sex Pistols and X-Ray Spex in '77.
 
Mike said:
in other words, they embraced "New Wave" as opposed to punk.
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No, as I said they played The Clash, lots and lots of Talking Heads, Mink DeVille, Patty Smith, and some Sex Pistols. Muni played more of the British stuff, but the station was very loyal to New York based punk. I agree with what you say about Pete, but the rest of the day, including Muni, Elsas, and Griffin, were into punk.

But it was pre-grunge punk. The station mostly ignored grunge, not punk. Even Meg was unsure of grunge.
 
TheBigA said:
Mike said:
in other words, they embraced "New Wave" as opposed to punk.
Click to expand...

No, as I said they played The Clash, lots and lots of Talking Heads, Mink DeVille, Patty Smith, and some Sex Pistols. Muni played more of the British stuff, but the station was very loyal to New York based punk. I agree with what you say about Pete, but the rest of the day, including Muni, Elsas, and Griffin, were into punk.

But it was pre-grunge punk. The station mostly ignored grunge, not punk. Even Meg was unsure of grunge.
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*sigh* I'll leave it to Mr Lalumia to give a dissertation on the diff between punk and New Wave. ;)
 
I'm surprised that in this discussion of punk and new wave on the radio and the lack thereof on WNEW-FM, no one has mentioned the short-lived New Wave format on WPIX circa 1979...Great jocks...Meg Griffin...Joe from Chicago..Mark Simone...Jim Kerr and even though they didn't hang around very long, they gave airplay to a ton of bands that WNEW-FM never touched.
 
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