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Cousin Brucie Returns To 77WABC To Host Saturday Night Rock & Roll Party

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

Legendary radio personality Bruce Morrow, known by his legions of fans worldwide as Cousin Brucie, is coming home to 77WABC, the iconic radio station where he first introduced fans to The Beatles, Motown, 60s soul, surf music, and more. From 6 to 9 pm ET every Saturday night, beginning September 5, Cousin Brucie’s Saturday Night Rock & Roll Party will return to the airwaves at the station he helped build decades ago. Cousin Brucie will be heard live on 77WABC, New York, sister station WLIR-FM 107.1, Hampton Bays, NY, and streaming across the country on the WABC App and www.wabcradio.com. The debut show will also be replayed on Labor Day Monday, September 7, from noon to 3 p.m. ET.

“Cousins, this is literally one of the most exciting projects of my life,” said Morrow. “It completes a circle… a career circle. It all started at WABC, and here we are all these years later, and the magic is still here. And what magic we’re going to make!”
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https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...-wabc-to-host-saturday-night-rock-roll-party/


That is interesting to see Cousin Brucie return to his old stomping grounds. I remember saying a few years ago about WABC having oldies segments was never going to happen for demo reasons because of entire generations never heard of music on AM before.
 
This is really turning into an interesting station. Love it or hate it, it's real American radio vs. the same old song and dance everyone complains about on these boards. Classic case of having money piled up so it doesn't matter, as stated above. Decent move!
 
luperm said:
This is a classic case of having nothing to lose.
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... but a great deal to gain. Just the publicity this is generating is priceless.

Just as our RadioDiscussions participant in Buffalo who bought WECK and targeted the "forgotten demos", WABC is going after a thin but potentially profitable slice of the NYC market with attention getting programming.

The fact is that both Saturday and Sunday evenings are the absolute lowest point in radio listening and have been for many, many decades. Putting a strong name with a marvelous image on the air on Saturday gives WABC an aura it has not had for a long time... and one that spreads across the whole week.

Despite the paucity of listeners on Saturday evening, how many other stations appealing to older demos have anything fun, spontaneous and exciting on in that daypart?

I think that the owner is making a beef stifado with his own recipe, unbiased by focus groups and national PDs and cost vs. return analysis. This could be fun to watch, and I hope it works.
 
I know WABC will let Cousin Brucie use is old jingles, but I wonder if WABC will play the old station jingles that they used when he was there in the 60s?
For me, It will be interesting to hear this.
 
The current owner is doing two things with this facility.

1) Using it to heighten his image in a moribund State gop. Even with a declining AM, a 50KW is a big megaphone. It won’t matter much, but maybe in upstate and far out on L.I. it will have some influence.

2) He is a wealthy man having fun with a new toy.

LCG
 
DavidEduardo said:
... but a great deal to gain. Just the publicity this is generating is priceless.
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With who-? Deal ol' Brice Morrow sounds really old n' slow now. His satellite show was often rambling and disconnected -like a trump speech.

The publicity this may generate is more on the level of preaching to the choir. What's left of the demo for that station already knows it exists. A few more angry septuagenarian-plus types may tune in -for a while
.
It'll be fun to hear, but also, a bit depressing.

LCG
 
L Chanon Gade said:
With who-? Deal ol' Brice Morrow sounds really old n' slow now. His satellite show was often rambling and disconnected -like a trump speech.

The publicity this may generate is more on the level of preaching to the choir. What's left of the demo for that station already knows it exists. A few more angry septuagenarian-plus types may tune in -for a while
.
It'll be fun to hear, but also, a bit depressing.
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This.. Anyone who cares about Cousin Brucie, has probably already been listening to him (poorly voice-tracked) on SXM 60's on 6. Even though I applaud the station taking a risk and catering to the older demo, I don't see the show moving the needle to new listeners or advertisers that will justify the expense or effort.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
And those generations never will.
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Forgot to correct myself and say 3 generations that were either too young to understand music on AM Radio or were not even born yet when AM Radio played CHR and Hot AC. Younger half of Gen X, Millennial/GenY and Gen Z were not even born yet when AM Radio really did air top 40 hits. In the case of GenX and Gen Y they only know of FM Radio that aired CHR/HotAC at their peak before shifting to online only.
 
radioman148 said:
I know WABC will let Cousin Brucie use is old jingles, but I wonder if WABC will play the old station jingles that they used when he was there in the 60s?
For me, It will be interesting to hear this.
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Cousin Brucie mentioned jingles specifically in an interview with Variety:
Let me tell you about the jingles. One of the very first things I said to the vice president of programming, David LaBrozzi, when we signed the deal was, "David, I gotta have my old jingles back," and he said to me, "I have them." I got my old jingles back.
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Full article: Cousin Brucie Exults in His Return to AM Radio in NYC After Exiting SiriusXM: 'I Missed the Audience'
 
Hya Kelly and L Channon.

I gotta step outside the convo a bit here, even though both you folks are right.

I was never really a Cousin Brucie * fan *. Yeah, he was there on the radio every night back in NYC. , and sounded as though he was having a grand time in 1963-64 with his routine. We'd occasionally call him up and ask for dedications with ridiculous names, and he would SAY THEM on the air!

Fast forward to maybe 2015, and the wife and I were walking through the local mall here (anyone else remember shopping malls?). There were maybe three stores left in the gosh-darned place. But there was this * voice * coming over the house speakers and playing Oldies. It was Morrow, I thought. It had to be. And it turned out, it WAS he. The mall had on his satellite show.
Sure, he sounded older. But heck, at my age, even my own Folks must've suspected that their teenaged punk son was starting to sound like some rickety old coot myself. But that Morrow voice definitely registered and * counted *.

Again, as I typed, I was not a Morrow * fan *. There were too many other DJs having fun at the time. All the teens had radios and would flip back and forth between Bruce and B Mitchell Reed and Murray the K and Mad Daddy and even the distant Joey Reynolds on WKBW.

To me, it will be great to hear that 'eeeh- ahh cousins' Morrow voice again. And a lot of times, those over-fricaseed Oldies can even sound new again.
 
The few times I listened to his SiriusXM show, it seemed like all but a few of his callers were people who'd heard him during their teens in the Tri-State area, never noticed any old AM DXers or people from other parts of the country to whom his name would have meant nothing before Sirius gave him a national platform long past his glory days. Now Vito from Yonkers and Mike from Montauk and Joey from Scotch Plains and Sandy from Darien will be able to listen to their Cuzz again, while the satellite listeners to whom the bi-weekly visits from this oh-so-New-York relic were an annoyance will have something to listen to that doesn't carry with it the New York City branding.
 
Cousin Brucie coming to 770 AM

Beginning September 5th cousin Bruce Morrow will be playing Oldies on WABC 770 AM New York ,Saturday's from 6 to 9 PM. WKFB Signs Off at 7:30 and WABC reaches The Burg. In the Winter Months of the 1960's and early 70's WABC 770 New York ranked 16 in the Pittsburgh Ratings.
 
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radioman148 said:
Yes, he said "my jingles". What I'm wondering is will WABC run the stations old jingles from the 60s and 70s when Bruce was there? I guess we will find out on Sept 5.
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Those jingles were created by PAMS, and I believe they are now owned by JAM Productions in Dallas. Typically jingle packages have very limited user licenses. So someone would need to relicense the jingles.
 
I was looking all over the web, unsuccessfully for the "WABC Chime Time" bell...DING!
 
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