Old pals return to toast WCBS' 40 years of news |
New York Daily News - New York, NY, USA - WCBS-AM (880) will spend today celebrating its 40th anniversary as an all-news station, with a returning parade of reporters and anchors from over those years.
Steve Porter, now a newspaper columnist in Myrtle Beach, was the first on-air anchor at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1967. Other original anchors included Charles Osgood and Lou Adler, while the six-person reporting staff included Ed Bradley.
The sportscaster was Pat Summerall.
Howard Stringer, later the president of CBS News, worked at WCBS-AM. So have Jim Donnelly, Rita Sands, Steve Flanders, Art Athens and many more.
WCBS-AM became an all-news station for the classic radio reason: It wasn't making money with its old format of chat and music.
But it didn't go all-news all at once. At first, the news ran 5:30 a.m.-8:10 p.m. Monday-Friday, with a two-hour break for the Arthur Godfrey show.
On Dec. 4, 1967, WCBS-AM expanded news to evenings and weekends, but it wasn't until Jan. 1, 1970, that it dropped the overnight "Music Til Dawn."
Radio trivia buffs may also argue that technically, WCBS-AM has only been a news station since early September 1967.
By happenstance, recalls news director Tim Scheld, a private plane crashed into the WCBS-AM tower on Aug. 27, 1967, hours before the new format was to begin.
The tower was knocked out of commission. But since the news format had already been promoted and advertised, it had to begin anyway. So the first few days of all-news were carried on WCBS-FM.
Many of the principal characters will discuss these and other memories today - right up until the Yankees take over the air this evening for their showdown with the Boston Red Sox, who Yankee fans are hoping will not reprise the 1967 baseball season and win the pennant again.
RETURN OF DON K.: One of the best things about WCBS-FM (101.1) returning to a greatest hits format is that it has let some of the veteran jocks come back.
Sunday night was Don K. Reed's turn, in the 7-10 p.m. weekly slot the station calls "Radio Greats." In future weeks, says the station, jocks from a whole range of city stations - not just WCBS-FM, but WABC, WPLJ and WHTZ and others - will take the slot. The guest next Sunday, for instance, will be Ross Brittain.
They will play the music with which they were associated, says program director Brian Thomas, which is why Reed was mixing music from WCBS-FM's current rotation with earlier songs he played for years on the "Doo-Wop Shop."
He sounded like he was having a great time, and right after playing a promotion for WCBS-FM's new "Win Genesis Tickets" contest, he signed off with the Spaniels' "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight."
AROUND THE DIAL: Afternoon hosts Lynn White and Ellis Henican of WOR (710 AM) will broadcast live tomorrow from New Orleans, 4-6 p.m., for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Henican is a New Orleans native. ... Linkin Park plays the tunes this afternoon on WXRK (92.3 FM), 3-7.
Steve Porter, now a newspaper columnist in Myrtle Beach, was the first on-air anchor at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1967. Other original anchors included Charles Osgood and Lou Adler, while the six-person reporting staff included Ed Bradley.
The sportscaster was Pat Summerall.
Howard Stringer, later the president of CBS News, worked at WCBS-AM. So have Jim Donnelly, Rita Sands, Steve Flanders, Art Athens and many more.
WCBS-AM became an all-news station for the classic radio reason: It wasn't making money with its old format of chat and music.
But it didn't go all-news all at once. At first, the news ran 5:30 a.m.-8:10 p.m. Monday-Friday, with a two-hour break for the Arthur Godfrey show.
On Dec. 4, 1967, WCBS-AM expanded news to evenings and weekends, but it wasn't until Jan. 1, 1970, that it dropped the overnight "Music Til Dawn."
Radio trivia buffs may also argue that technically, WCBS-AM has only been a news station since early September 1967.
By happenstance, recalls news director Tim Scheld, a private plane crashed into the WCBS-AM tower on Aug. 27, 1967, hours before the new format was to begin.
The tower was knocked out of commission. But since the news format had already been promoted and advertised, it had to begin anyway. So the first few days of all-news were carried on WCBS-FM.
Many of the principal characters will discuss these and other memories today - right up until the Yankees take over the air this evening for their showdown with the Boston Red Sox, who Yankee fans are hoping will not reprise the 1967 baseball season and win the pennant again.
RETURN OF DON K.: One of the best things about WCBS-FM (101.1) returning to a greatest hits format is that it has let some of the veteran jocks come back.
Sunday night was Don K. Reed's turn, in the 7-10 p.m. weekly slot the station calls "Radio Greats." In future weeks, says the station, jocks from a whole range of city stations - not just WCBS-FM, but WABC, WPLJ and WHTZ and others - will take the slot. The guest next Sunday, for instance, will be Ross Brittain.
They will play the music with which they were associated, says program director Brian Thomas, which is why Reed was mixing music from WCBS-FM's current rotation with earlier songs he played for years on the "Doo-Wop Shop."
He sounded like he was having a great time, and right after playing a promotion for WCBS-FM's new "Win Genesis Tickets" contest, he signed off with the Spaniels' "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight."
AROUND THE DIAL: Afternoon hosts Lynn White and Ellis Henican of WOR (710 AM) will broadcast live tomorrow from New Orleans, 4-6 p.m., for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Henican is a New Orleans native. ... Linkin Park plays the tunes this afternoon on WXRK (92.3 FM), 3-7.
Categories : News Commentators / Journalists
Posted 8/28/2007 04:08:24 AM | Permalink
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