Alison Steele (born Ceil Loman on January 26, 1937; died September 27, 1995) was a pioneering American disc jockey in Manhattan at what would become the archetypal progressive rock radio station in the United States, WNEW-FM. She was commonly known as "The Nightbird".
I used to work the afternoon shift at the record factory and arrived home past mid-night. As I didn't have a TV set I used to turn on the radio and listen to Alison Steele on WNEW-FM. She was cool. I liked her smooth voice that was so different from those guys at WABC that shouted non-stop.
The Night Bird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZOFiz9EpQ (WOR 25th September 1971)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzUkykfCMUQ (WOR 17th January 1972)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzUkykfCMUQ (WOR 17th January 1972)
WABC was the New York area most popular radio station even though it was fast losing ground to the FM stations like WOR-FM, WPLJ-FM and WPIX-for the good of New York ... that played Top-40 at a better-quality sound.
Dan Ingram was the most popular DJ in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. He did the afternoon slot.
It is a candid that the WABC's Chief Engineer took of Ingram in the early Fall of 1971.
WABC was #1 in 1966. The disclaimer says: (The data used herein are estimates from the Pulse New York 18 County Area Reports based upon cumulative homes reached per week, available January through September 1966... and the average homes per quarter hour for the calendar years 1964 and 1965. Any figures quoted are estimates only and are not accurate to any precise mathematical degree.) Represented nationally by Blair Radio.
I used to listen to all Top-40 stations... so sometimes I tuned to 97 WWDJ an AM station in Hackensack, N.J.
Peter ("Pete") Fornatale was born 23 August 1945. Died 26 April 2012 in New York City. He had suffered a brain hemorrhage April 15, 2012 and had been in ICU.
He was the first DJ to host a rock music show on New York City's FM band, starting in 21 November 1964 on WFUV. By broadcasting progressive rock and long album tracks, he was noted for introducing a musical alternative to Top 40 AM radio in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He gave early exposure to country-rock bands like Buffalo Springfield and Poco, and did one of the first American interviews with Elton John.
Starting with WOR-FM in 1966, FM was demonstrating a large rift from AM broadcasting.
Fornatale was a key figure in this trend with his weekly program, "Campus Caravan," which was heard on Fordham University's WFUV from 1964 to 1970. He began professionally in 1969 at WNEW-FM and also worked at WXRK.
He was a native of the Belmont section of the Bronx and attended Fordham Preparatory School and Fordham University, where he received a B.A. in Communication Arts in 1967.
J I N G L E S
I got this message from someone at YouTube concerning a jingle at Dan Ingram's daily afternoon show on WABC:
'When I was little, I thought they were singing 'all the dancing from shore' instead of
'on the Dan Ingram Show'.
"May You Always / Auld Lang Syne"
As the holiday bells ring out the old year, and sweethearts kiss,
And cold hands touch and warm each other against the year ahead,
May I wish you not the biggest and best of life,
But the small pleasures that make living worthwhile.
Sometime during the New Year, to keep your heart in practice,
May you do someone a secret good deed and not get caught at it.
May you find a little island of time to read that book and write that letter
And to visit that lonely friend on the other side of town.
May your next do-it-yourself project not look like you did it yourself.
May the poor relatives you helped support remember you when they win the lottery.
May your best card tricks win admiring gasps and your worst puns, admiring groans.
May all those who told you so, refrain from saying, “I told you so.”
May all the predictions you’ve made for your first-born’s future come true.
May just half of those optimistic predictions that your high school annual made for you come true.
In a time of sink or swim, may you find you can walk to shore before you call the lifeguard.
May you keep at least one ideal you can pass along to your kids.
For a change, some rainy day, when you’re a few minutes late,
May your train or bus be waiting for you.
May you accidentally overhear someone saying something nice about you.
If you run into an old school chum,
May you both remember each other’s names for introductions.
If you order your steak medium rare, may it be so.
And, if you’re on a diet,
May someone tell you, “You’ve lost a little weight”, without knowing you’re on a diet.
May that long and lonely night be brightened by the telephone call that you’ve been waiting for.
When you reach into the coin slot, may you find the coin that you lost on your last wrong number.
When you trip and fall, may there be no one watching to laugh at you or feel sorry for you.
And sometime soon, may you be waved to by a celebrity,
Wagged at by a puppy,
Run to by a happy child,
And counted on by someone you love.
More than this, no one can wish you.
Happy Holidays!
DJ Harry Harrison recorded 'May you always' while still working at WMCA. Then he moved to WABC and kept his tradition of reciting this paen written by Larry Marks & Dick Charles.
Harry Harrison at WMCA.
R. Peter Straus at WMCA.
Ronald Peter Straus, who almost never used his first name, was born in Manhattan on Feb. 15, 1923, the son of Nathan Straus Jr. and Helen Sachs Straus. His father, who became director of the United States Housing Authority under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a New York State senator, bought WMCA in 1943. The company, Straus Communications, later owned many radio stations and newspapers in the Hudson Valley and New Jersey.
WMCA, 570 on the AM dial, was founded in 1925, broadcasting from the McAlpin Hotel, from which the call letters were derived. It was bought by Nathan Straus Jr. in 1943. Its programming included popular music, dramas, New York Giants baseball games and, in the postwar years, a remarkable run of music and talk featuring Barry Gray, sometimes called “the father of talk radio,” and disc jockeys like Scott Muni and Murray Kaufman, a k a Murray the K.
WMCA pioneered public service radio in New York. It was the first station in the country to run editorials on political and civic issues, with Mr. Straus himself reading opinions on the air, and the first to endorse a presidential candidate, backing John F. Kennedy in 1960.
In December 1963, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” wailed out over WMCA, and Beatlemania, with a big boost from the station, soon engulfed the region.
It was hardly a surprise. WMCA had been playing rock ’n’ roll since the 1950s, and WMCA’s Top 40 format, along with that of its fierce rival WABC, dominated the New York airwaves through the 1960s.
WMCA’s disc jockeys, known as the Good Guys, became almost as well known as the stars whose records they played.
Chuck Leonard has been with WABC 77 Radio since Labor Day 1965. And he's built a bigger audience than any other radio personality from 10:30 PM to midnight, from Monday through Friday.
'I try to be good company', says Chuck.'I treat the mike like I treat my next door neighbour.'
'So I tell the truth. I wouldn't lie to a friend, and I don't lie to my audience. If I'm reading a commercial and I throw in a little editorial comment like 'No kidding, this stuff is really terrific,' my listeners know it's really terrific stuff.'
'Listeners in the New York area are special. They can spot a phony a mile away. And they're fast. If you start a joke, it better be one they haven't heard or they'll turn you off. You have to stay ahead of the game.'
Chuck honestly likes his audience. 'They're night people, and that's my favourite kind. I relate to them better than day people - we just have more in common, that's all.'
They like him, too. Not just as an entertainer, but as a friend. 'I get a lot of letters. Almost all of them sound like they're from somebody I've known for years.' Chuck says.
It's that kind of loyalty that's made him the number one man in his time slot. And ABC the number one station all the time.
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