This time I will discuss my experiences with a defunct radio station. Again, this is not to be an exhaustive history of WYNY. When I returned to New York in late 1978 after two years in New London, CT my favorite radio station was WYNY. Back then it played a good mix of oldies and current hits. At that time popular music was still mainstream. The station featured some classic personalities including Dan Daniel, Randy Davis, Bill St. James, Bruce Bradley, Steve O'Brien and Mike McCann.Who could forget Sexually Speaking with Dr. Ruth Westheimer? My favorite show was the syndicated Soundtrack of the Sixties with Gary Owens heard on Sunday mornings. Sadly, two program directors brought the station down in the mid 1980s. Dan Daniel was replaced in morning drive by a couple of clowns called Harris and Harris. At that point I switched to WCBS-FM. Anyway, WYNY was facing competition from WLTW and changed their music mix. Only July 1, 1987 the station changed its Adult Contemporary format to country music. In a complicated transaction the station was sold and moved to 103.5 FM in October 1988. It stayed as a country station until February 1996 when it became WKTU with a rhythmic format. Country music has not been on a regular New Yorkl City FM station since then. The WYNY call letters were resurrected for a few years on 107.1 FM which was heard in the suburbs. Since I have an HD radio, I can get country music on WKTU-HD2. The only WYNY personalities still active in New York radio are Steve O'Brien who is heard ocassionally on WCBS-FM and Mike McCann who does sports updates on WFAN.
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2 comments:
Bruce, I know you posted this many years ago. Hope you still maintain this journal. My question is was Cousin Brucie on WYNY is 1980? I just heard a voice check from Ellis Feaster on Youtube in Cousin Brucie from July, 1980. I have no recall of him being on that station and I finf it quite surprising as WYNY was a mellow staion and his style, as great as he is, would seem to conflict with their format.
Thanks,
Tony
Tony - I still maintain this blog after 17+ years. I vaguely remember Cousin Brucie made one guest appearance on a Saturday night on WYNY. From 1974-84 he was not active as a DJ since he owned several stations in small markets. He started at WCBS-FM c. 1984 once a week on Saturday nights. After Jack Spector left CBS-FM, he appeared every Saturday night and then also on Wednesday nights.
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