Many of us in the New York Metropolitan area literally grew up listening to popular music on the superstation we knew as Musicradio WABC 770 AM.WABC Radio was the leader in Top-40 music between 1960 and 1982. While in its early days, it had its share of competition with stations such as WINS (1010 AM) and WMCA (570 AM), WABC soon became the standard (in New York as well as nationwide) by which all other Top 40 as well as music radio stations generally are (and were) judged.

Early 1960s disc jockeys included Herb Oscar Anderson, Charlie Greer, Scott Muni, Chuck Dunaway, and Bob Lewis, but the best known WABC DJs are the ones that followed them in the mid-1960s and beyond including: Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Jim Nettleton, Jim Perry, Dan Ingram, “Cousin Brucie” Bruce Morrow, Chuck Leonard, Bob Cruz, Frank Kingston Smith, Roby Yonge, George Michael, and Johnny Donovan. Also heard on WABC at the time was sportscaster Howard Cosell who hosted a special segment in his own peculiar, nasally New York drawl, called ‘Speaking of Sports’.

Especially in the afternoons and evenings, WABC was the station that teenagers could be heard listening to on transistor radios all over the New York metropolitan area.  From the beaches of Long Island to the shores of New Jersey, from the Pocono’s to the Catskills, the station could be heard over 100 miles away from midtown New York City going as far outlying areas of Philadelphia during daytime hours, due to its strong signal. After sunset, it could also be heard well into Canada and even (reportedly) in mile high Denver, Colorado well into the night and early morning hours.  This was long before the global reaches of the Internet and satellite radio.

In the 1970s, WABC was either #1 or #2 consistently, often trading places with WOR 710 AM. A few times, a station attracting an older audience (like WOR or WPAT 930 AM) would move into the top spot, but these stations were not truly WABC’s competitors. Chief competitor WMCA stopped playing top 40 music in 1970 and WOR-FM (later99X) came and went from 1968 to 1978. Other FM competitors like oldies station WCBS-FM 101.1, and album-oriented rock (AOR) stations like WPLJ (95.5 FM) and WNEW-FM (102.7 FM) all did well in the ratings, but none rivaled WABC’s consistent success. AM competitor WNBC (660 AM) also   tried sounding younger, older, and somewhere in-between, WABC remained dominant.

By February 1982, however, things had changed.  WABC officially confirmed it would be going to an all-talk format that May. The airstaff began saying goodbye with a comment here and there from February into May. Finally, on April 30, it was announced that the switch to all-talk would occur on May 10 at noon. For three days, the WABC staff said their last goodbyes, from May 7 to 9.  Music Fans were saddened and the shutdown was even referred to as, to quote Don McLean, “The Day the Music Died.”  On May 10, 1982, a 9 a.m.-noon farewell show was hosted by longtime WABC disc jockeys Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy. The very last note heard was the familiar WABC “Chime Time” jingle, then a moment of silence before the debut of the new talk format.  While TalkRadio 77 is a powerhouse and a station of great programming, the music format is greatly missed by many New Yorkers.

But as we all know, hard core rock and roll music fans do not give up without a fight.  With the rise of the Internet and lots of listeners pining for oldtime radio, fans put up tribute pages and started a groundswell lobby. Jingles, photos, radio playlists, interviews, memorabilia and logos were collected and soon a new website was born and a whole fanbase was ripe to bring back some aspect of the ‘old’ Musicradio WABC. (www.musicradio77.com)

As a result of this and, after many rumors, on a cold Saturday night in December 2005, Veteran DJ Mark Simone started to host Saturday Night Oldies (SNO) on TalkRadio WABC. Since then on each Saturday Night from 6 to 10 p.m. (pending some other interruption by a local sports team) Simone hosts the show and it sounds very much like the WABC Musicradio of old.   Simone plays old station airchecks, bumpers and station ids and even many of the old Musicradio WABC jingles. He talks about old commercials, New York history, pop culture and music.

For nostalgia fans (and for this nostalgia guy) (www.nostalgiaguymusic.com), in these tougher modern times, it is a show that I look forward to each weekend.  In my humble estimation, Mr. Simone (whom I have never met), has the World’s Greatest Job in (as DJ Ron Lundy would often say and Talk Show host Sean Hannity says today) the Greatest City in the World.   Kudos to Mark Simone and the management of WABC. Saturday Nights Oldies has some competitors, but Mark’s style, delivery, and program content win the day for great nostalgic music radio.

Listen in this Saturday night. If you are on the East Coast you are likely within the AM signal reach of the station’s 50,000 watts of power, or, thanks to modern technology, tune into your local Internet connection. You will thoroughly enjoy every minute.

 What’s in your music collection?  http://nostalgiaguymusic.com/?page_id=16

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