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WNEW-AM 1130 20 Years Ago.

K

kevinsealy

WNEW has disappeared from the New York airwaves 20 years on December 11. But I would like to make this thread mainly about a radio station that's an institution in New York. A radio station that no other station has the history to match. WNEW was in a class by itself.

I'm a 51 year old second generation WNEW listener. My most foundest memories of WNEW was in the late 70s (1978) when WNEW launched a weekend special in April of that year called the "Million Dollar Weekend". Every Friday after school I looked forward to tuning my radio to 1130AM at 4PM which was when the "Million Dollar Weekend" began with William "Bill" St. James kicking it off. In a given hour you'll hear Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and the Glenn Miller Big Bands mixed in with Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, Dianna Ross and other AC acts.

Although Adult Contemporary was gone for the most part in 1980 and the station went back to playing mostly Pop Standards and Big Bands, WNEW had their biggest surge in the ratings. The "Make Believe Ballroom" was reinstituted with William B. Williams hosting.

WNEW had some of New York's top personalities, William B. Williams, Ted Brown, Gene Klavan, Jim Lowe and Jonthan Schwartz.

WNEW will always be known as the station with the Sounds That Swing, Where the Melody Lingered On and was Blessed With America's Best Music Ever Made.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
What great memories.

Wouldn't it have been Bob Fitzsimmons kicking it off? IIRC, Bill St. James was on from 1-4 followed by Fitz from 4-8 in that time frame after Jay Lawrence left.
 
Kevin L. Sealy said:
WNEW will always be known as the station with the Sounds That Swing, Where the Melody Lingered On and was Blessed With America's Best Music Ever Made.
Click to expand...

You may have already seen it, but...

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Station-Albums.htm

has a WNEW commorative book called "The Memory Lingers On" (4th line, 3rd from the left) with a history of the station and profiles of some its famous hosts and announcers.
 
I missed that station very much. This station was the home of Ted Brown, Willam B Williams, Gene Klavan and a couple of others who has been part of the station for many years. It was then owned by Metromedia at the time. Remember when that station went to AC in the 70's? That lasted until the early 80's when it became a standards station until 1992. After WNEW-AM pulled the plug, WQXR dropped its simulcast of classical music and went to standards as WQEW, and it lasted for 7 years until 1998 when it becomes "Radio Disney".

Many fans of the old WNEW-AM would try to find a standards station that you don't get in NYC. Thanks to stations like WHLI in Long Island, WHUC in Hudson and WROW'S "Magic 590" in Albany as well as Sirius/XM including "40's on 4" and a few others who get their former WNEW-AM and WQEW's audience.

I found this one is from the "Rock Radio Scrapbook" site is the final minutes of the station that happened 20 years ago this week. It features Mark Simeone before he usually did the "Saturday Night Oldies" show on WABC which is now "Saturday Night" interviewing Ted Brown.

As you know the last song played on WNEW-AM when it was a standards station was "We'll Meet Again" by Frank Sinatra, a remake of a classic by Verna Lynn. Prior to that, you'll hear a few jingle montage and that was it. Here it is.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/wnew-simone-dec11-92.ram
 
DavidEduardo said:
You may have already seen it, but...

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Station-Albums.htm

has a WNEW commorative book called "The Memory Lingers On" (4th line, 3rd from the left) with a history of the station and profiles of some its famous hosts and announcers.
Click to expand...

David --

The station albums are another impressive addition to your website. I wasn't aware of this feature until your post and I thank you very much.

There was a 45th anniversary book for WOR in 1967 called "A Few Bright Candles on the Cake". I've searched repeatedly for it in my collection of stuff but it evidently got lost somewhere along the way in travels of a nomadic radio guy. Unlike the the 60th anniversary book from 1982 when WOR started its decline, evidenced by the handwritten notation on page 65, WOR was still near its zenith in the 60's.

So, New Yorkers and fellow enthusiasts of Radio 710, does anyone have that "A Few Bright Candles on the Cake" book? If for no other reason, the 1967 book encompassed the era of Jean Shepherd, and it sure would be worth preserving. I'd surmise that David could be persuaded to add it to his already considerable treasure trove.
 
The end of WNEW "eleven-three-oh", was probably the nail in the coffin for AM Stereo, also.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
What memories indeed!

Thanks for sharing.

Growing up in Bayside my folks always had the radio tuned into WNEW. I guess you could say, I grew up with to the voice of William B Williams and Gene Klavan. Wasn't there a 'Finch' thrown in there too? (Klavan and Finch in the morning).

And lets not forget the FM side with some late-greats like Scott Muni, Pete Fornatele, and the Nightbird herself, Alison Steele.

(no disrespect to any misspelling of names)
 
HippieGuy said:
What memories indeed!

Thanks for sharing.

Growing up in Bayside my folks always had the radio tuned into WNEW. I guess you could say, I grew up with to the voice of William B Williams and Gene Klavan. Wasn't there a 'Finch' thrown in there too? (Klavan and Finch in the morning).

And lets not forget the FM side with some late-greats like Scott Muni, Pete Fornatele, and the Nightbird herself, Alison Steele.

(no disrespect to any misspelling of names)
Click to expand...

WNEW was home to a lot of famous names.

For example, before there was a "Klaven and Finch", there was a "Rayburn and Finch", as in Game Show host Gene Rayburn.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
Actually WNEW was a standard popular music station back in the 1950's and had played softer rock and roll mixed in with standards (which were also new back then) like any full service station. They did play an occasional Big band but mostly their core artists were Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Mathis, Bing, etc. In the early 60's when the Adult Contemporary chyart began (known as the Easy Listening Chart till 1970) WNEW played current hits charting there aling with a few lighter Top 40 hits that should have been crossing over to Easy Listening but did not. By 1966 WNEW was half standards and half baby boomer pop (artists like Ray Charles and Bobby Darin and Connie Francis overlapped both genres). Still they made room for an occasional big Band. By 1971, WNEW was a fairly typical AC station for that time. They basically played 2 standards per hour. They stayed this way till the late 70's when they began Million Dollar Weekends focusing on a mix of rock and roll Oldies, AC cuts, and a moderate amount of standards. They also began a big band show overnights called Milkman's Matinee in 1976.

The true transition to Big Bands happened October of 1979 when William B Williams was allowed to resurrect the Make Believe Ball Room middays. In 1980, WNEW began mixing in more standards to regular rotation...NOT CLEAR on exact proportions of AC and Standards. My guess is by Fall of 1980 they were half and half. They reported to R & R as an AC till December of 1980 and their last number one song was lady by Kenny Rogers. They last reported as AC second week of December and their hottest songs included Starting Over by John Lennon and Shining Star by Manhattans. The rest of the month under WNEW's reporting it noted WNEW did not report a playlist. Then the first week of January R & R noted on their AC page that WNEW New York was no longer an AC reporter. I recall by March of 1981 they were wall to wall standards with NO AC cuts with only an occasional exception all the way till 1989.

They did do a Contemporary Jazz format on overnights at one point in the 80's though. In 1989, WNEW mixed in Soft AC cuts and Baby Boomer Pop oldies about 1/3 of the time. At the end of 1991, they pulled back on that.

Also in the 60's when they played tons of standards they focused on the hits and well known songs that were charting. Songs like Spanish Eyes, Games Lovers Play, We'll Sing In The Sunshine, Java/Al Hirt, Strangers In The Night, music by the Lettermen. In the 80's their standards format was very deep with thousands of cuts and very few repeats within several days. They played tons of versions of songs that did not chart, tons of big bands, as well as Showtunes. WNEW was a very deep music station in the 80's, far deeper than they ever were in the 60's or before. They played more big bands in 1981 than they did in 1955. The early 80's was the most traditional era of WNEW with the exception of the actual big band era maybe.

In 1992, WNEW was pure standards but still focused on vocalists and less on big bands (though they played a couple an hour -- far more than Westwood One's AM Only). They were not nearly as deep as they were in the 80's but stayed away from most baby boomer pop.

WQEW signed on as a Standards station prior to WNEW leaving. They signed on with their standards format Wednesday December 2, 1992. They played several baby boomer pop songs an hour - they were musically like WNEW late in 1991. When WNEW signed off December 11 at 8 PM they continued running evening talk and weekend sports but simulcast WYNY in their former standards hours. They simulcast YBY Saturday the 12th, Sunday the 13th, and Monday the 14th during the day. Tuesday the 15th, WNEW broke away around 3 PM for the Perry Como Christmas special, followed by Talknet at 7 PM. They ran the first hour of Larry King at 11 PM. At Midnight right in the middle of the show WNEW signed off for one last time saying "WNEW New York 1130 leaves the ari forever, thanks for your support over the years - this is WNEW New York". Then a couple seconds later 1130 plays the station ID "WBBR New York" and simulcasts WQEW. They simulcast WQEW from December 16 at 12:01 AM till 6 AM January 4, 1993. They break away from WQEW for Giants' Football Games and other sports committments but other than that the new WBBR finished 1992 simulcasting WQEW. On top of every hour the station ID "WBBR New York" was played. WBBR signed on its business news format 6 AM January 4, 1993.
 
larkin,

Thanks for the correction. Up until February 1979, Jay Lawrence did kick off the "Million Dollar Weekend" at 4PM. Bob Fitzsimmons was on 1-4PM. When Lawerence left, St. James took over the 1-4PM timeslot and Fitzsimmons was on from 4-8PM







Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy
 
Whether it's the fact New York is the biggest market, or something in the Big Apple"'s drinking water, the fact is that several of the nation's most iconic radio stations (WNEW-1130 through 1992, WABC-770 during both their Top-40 days and their early years as all-talk, WINS-1010, WOR-710, WCBS-101.1, the old WNEW-102.7) call or called New York their home.

The aforementioned stations have to rank as among the leaders in their formats.
 
Without singling out one of their myriad personalities here ......
Well, okay. I *am* singling him out.

How the devil did that delightful anarchist Klavan wind up doing mornings for so many years on this careful, stately, cultivated, traditional, somewhat conservative Sinatra citadel?

He certainly was a mold-breaking, prototype Shock Jock, and seemed to've done his most prolific work in that vein after Dee Finch retired. Klavan was never dirty, or even overtly ethnic (for the sake of being pejorative), or controversial. He was this relentless, mischievous, harmless, hysterical goofball -- never repeating himself, either. What a bottomless pit of humor. In effect, his was an 'anti' radio show.

Throw in the timing, too. IIrc, he had to hit the news at the beep at the exact top and bottom of the hour because the news went to the FM side, too.

Klavan did all of this impromptu, too. And he did this prototype Morning Zoo all by himself. He did not have a staff of writers and caddies. He didn't need them.

Additionally, how about the notion that his show accounted for a disproportionate amount of the station's revenue without playing contemporary pop music?

If he had one flaw -- and might it have been on purpose? -- he could not talk up a vocal very well. Yet on a few occasions he even lampooned THAT inability, often to hysterical limits.

My Folks used to wake up to Klavan and Finch. Into my early adulthood, I had to hear Klavan every morning. I would wait impatiently for whatever song he was playing to end, just to hear some more morning wakeup entertainment. I have not heard that talent matched since. Klavan might have been the funniest human being ever to speak into a microphone. His impromptu lines and bits could fill up an entire tribute site.

Thanks for the memories, Gene and Kevin!
 
What I remember was that WNEW was the "compromise" station in my father's car. He didn't have FM so and he hated WABC and WMCA because of all of the "Teeny Bopper" music. I could stand WPAT and WVNJ with the wall to wall violin versions of classic and contemporary music. WNEW 1130 was the place we could both be somewhat happy and not constantly fight about what station to listen to. I remember summer nights listening to Jim Lowe and hearing great music, one after another after another. Even their jingles were incredible..."Aren't you glad you live in the kind of a town where there's so much for you to enjoy when the sun goes down...Like WNEW etc." It was like 2 minutes long and was as good as any record they were playing. Great memories.
 
In its heyday from the late 40's to the late '70's WNEW was possibly the most innovative station of all time. If it tidn't singlehandedly invent the disc-jockey it proved the concept could work in the majors. Likewise with the full-service News/Music/Sports format. The presentation was in a class of its own.... a roster of DJ's that was radio's version of the 1927 Yankees, a first-class news operation, and those iconic Sande & Greene jingles. It was a class act from start to finish.
 
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