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WCBS-FM 101.1


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WCBS-FM 101.1


PRESS: The "Young Sound" Syndication Service

Broadcasting: July 31, 1967

An article describing the original "The Young Sound" service, which was 180 hours a month of instrumental versions of rock songs. It was quite lame, but typical of FM at the time with the exception of WOR-FM. When WOR-FM promoted that it was going rock in June of 1966, I thought it was also going to be a soft rock instrumentals station because at the time, it was difficult to imagine real rock on a commercial FM station.

Young Sound

PROMOTION: Early promos

FM Guide: November, 1967

These are a series of early promotions for WCBS-FM's Young Sound format

Young Sound Young Sound Young Sound

PRESS: The "Young Sound" Gets A Voice

Billboard: Dec 9, 1967

An article describing the evolving CBS-FM.

Young Sound

PROMOTION: Let Me Entertain You

circa 1968

CBS-FM wasn't always a oldies station. They tried various permutations of free-form and progressive rock before finding the format that would last them for years. Here's another example of one of their earliest promotions, which you'll have to admit is a bit freaky, but who exactly were they trying to appeal to?

AM/FM Split

AIRCHECK: The Young Sound [stereo]

March 1, 1969

A somewhat progressive, somewhat light format on WCBS-FM that lasted froom October 1967 to October 1969, although it continued in overnights until late '71.


PRESS: End of "The Young Sound"

FM Guide: December 1969

“...too many pop music stations insult the intelligence of the listener in his twenties--what's more they are not even entertaining.”

One of many format change announcements. Everyone was still trying to find their way in this new world of FM. The format change to live jocks actually took place October 20th. And it was Tom Clay, not Tom Cloy.

The New Sound

PROMOTION: WCBS-FM Is Into It

circa 1970

Another psychedelic ad approach. It was produced by the Berstein & Bernstein agency.

CBS-FM Is Into It

AIRCHECK: The Lewis & Clark Expedition [mono]

Wednesday, February 18, 1970 (61:42)

Contributed by Charlie Menut and Rob Frankel via Rob Frankel's postings on Mixcloud

Thanks to Rob Frankel's postings on Mixcloud, this is a restored aircheck of the supposed first edition of the Lewis & Clark expedition with Bob Lewis (and Steve Clark). It's amazing how different Lewis sounded on FM (aside from the fact that he had a bad throat during this show). Lewis and Clark didn't do the show together - Bob generally did 5-9pm and Steve did 9pm-1am, but Lewis mentions in this edition that Steve will be in about 9:30pm and they gave the 8 hour timespan one title.

This was pretty good radio: far more mature, interesting and diverse than Top-40 radio, but not as edgy and progressive as WNEW-FM or WABC-FM.

One interesting thing about this aircheck is that it still works 40 years later. There's nothing about it, including the jingles, that sounds outdated or corny,

But because it had that competition from WNEW-FM and WABC-FM as well as competition from WOR-FM, it couldn't last and by July of 1972, WCBS-FM switched to an Oldies format.


PROMOTION: The Lewis & Clark Expedition

FM Guide: April 1970

I had forgotten about this one. If you wanted listeners to believe that CBS-FM was not part of a large corporation, this ad worked quite well. On the other hand, it looked sorta like something your friends doodled in high school. Did they really work an eight hour on-air shift together or was it two four-hour shifts?

Lewis and Clark

AIRCHECK: Gus Gossert [stereo]

Sunday, April 5, 1970 (68:48)

Contributed by Gus Gossert to Rob Frankel and posted via Rob's RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Gus opens with Ray Charles and plays a lot of 50's Doo-Wop, which is almost impossible to find on the radio anymore. This is a really terrific sounding aircheck. Gossert's show was generally broadcast on Sunday evenings, a perfect time for this nostalgia.


AIRCHECK: Steve Clarke, Gus Gossert [stereo]

Sunday, April 5, 1970 (77:52)

Contributed by Gus Gossert to Rob Frankel and posted via Rob's RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

We hear Bob Lewis closing his show and then Steve Clark followed by Gus Gossert playing a mix of old and new pop and rock.


AIRCHECK: Gus Gossert [stereo]

Tuesday, April 28, 1970 (72:58)

Sourced from the Gus Gossert archive to Matt Seinberg and Rob Frankel and posted via Rob's RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Gossert during the "light" progressive era of CBS-FM. So he plays a bit of Philly Soul and the next record is Joe Cocker. It works for those who thought WNEW-FM and WPLJ were "too heavy".


AIRCHECK: Composite: Roby Yonge - Steve Clark - Gus Gossert - Steve O'Shea [stereo]

April-May 1970 (77:06)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

A composite of WCBS-FM from their hybird singles/AOR rock days. This aircheck has really terrific fidelity -- why doesn't broadcast radio sound this good anymore? No wonder we don't listen the same way.

But CBS-FM was having problems finding a niche and competing against WABC-FM, WNEW-FM and WOR-FM and they changed DJ lineups often. In this era, WABC-FM was largely automated, but also featured Dave Herman and Jimmy Rabbit. WOR-FM was still being programmed by Bill Drake and featured Jimmy King, Sebastian Stone, Tommy Edwards, Sean Casey, Al Brady, Bob Evans and Johnny Donovan. WNEW-FM had their classic lineup of Johnny Michaels, Jonathan Schwartz, Scott Muni, Rosko, Zacherely and Alison Steele.

A little over two years later WCBS-FM would become an Oldies station.


PRESS: 1970 CBS-FM Jocks

FM Guide: May, 1970

A nice article featuring the CBS-FM jocks. CBS-FM of that era was a fairly light station compared with WNEW-FM and WABC-FM. You can perceive this in their musical choices, which is exactly what I remember CBS-FM playing at this time. It was geared for listeners who weren't into AM radio anymore, but weren't into the heavier sounds of the progressive stations either. CBS-FM liked horn bands, so they played a lot of Gary Puckett, Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears, similar to WOR-FM.

AM/FM Split AM/FM Split

PROMOTION: The WCBS-FM Rock Jocks: Bobby Wayne

circa 1970

A photo of Bob "the Wizard" Wayne from contributor Kimbal Brandner.

Bobby Wayne

AIRCHECK: WCBS-FM AOR/Top-40 Hybrid Format Compilation [restored - stereo)

1970-72

Contributed by Rob Frankel

Thanks to RadioMaven77's postings on Mixcloud, here a five-part, five-hour restored compilation of WCBS-FM before it became an oldies station. During that era, the jocks included Bobby Wayne, Bill Brown, Steve O'Shea, K.O. Bailey, Roby Yonge, Tom Clay, Bob Lewis, Steve Clark, Dick Burch, Les Turpin and Johnny Michaels, many of whom are heard on this aircheck.

Part One (72:45):



Part Two (69:50):



Part Three (62:58):



Part Four (69:27):



Part Five (31:21):


AIRCHECK: Bob Lewis & Steve Clark

June, 1970 (23:59)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

A bit of Bob Lewis and Steve Clark from WCBS-FM's "sort of progressive" days.


AIRCHECK: Rocky G, Bill Brown, Steve Clark (Restored & Scoped)

Summer, 1970 (26:29)

Contributed by Rob Frankel

It's hard to believe that this aircheck is from 40 years ago. It features DJs Rocky G, Bill Brown and Steve Clark from the semi-progressive days of CBS-FM. It didn't sound free-form, but it did sound low key. And the playlist was a strange mix of just about every genre of rock music.

Rob Frankel relates that Rocky G (Groce) was a former WWRL jock who was doing fill-in work at CBS-FM on that particular night.

Featured in this aircheck are many vintage Coca-Cola commercials sung by the big artists of the day. In fact, there aren't too many spots aside from Coke. It's not a big wonder that the format didn't last all that long, but if it did, we never would have wound up with an oldies station.

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AIRCHECK: Bobby Wayne [stereo]

Tuesday, July 14, 1970 (32;40)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Bob "The Wizard" Wayne from pre-Oldies WCBS-FM. We hear Issac Hayes, 3 Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad and other hits of the era.


PROMOTION: More Music

circa August 1970

Contributed by Myles Putman

This is a rare promotion contributed by Myles Putman. Of course, it was easy for WCBS-FM to play "more music" because in 1970, they still probably didn't have very many spots.

CBS-FM: More Music

AIRCHECK: Gus Gossert [Stereo]

October 6, 1970 (43:10)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloudd

Thanks to Rob Frankel, we have this fine aircheck of a mellow Gus Gossert doing the CBS-FM pre-oldies thing, which was a combination of pop, light rock and some R&B.

This aircheck also features some interesting jingles, news and spots.


AIRCHECK: Bobby Wayne (Restored & Scoped)

July 12, 1971 (13:10)

Contributed by Rob Frankel

This is an aircheck from radio pro and historian, Rob Frankel. Rob restored the aircheck using his production magic, but we had to scope it again so as not to violate copyright law and to make it easier to listen to.

This stereo aircheck from the CBS-FM hybrid hit singles/AOL days (I call it "progressive light"), complete with formatics and jingles, features DJ Bobby "Wizard" Wayne. Note the diversity of the music which combined music that you might hear on AM along with select album tracks, not completely unlike what you might hear on CBS-FM today, but with more non-single album tracks: Bob Dylan, The Carpenters, Al Kooper, the Grateful Dead, Carol King, James Taylor, the Rolling Stones, Donovan, Carly Simon, the Beatles, Joe Cocker, the Doors, etc.

One other surprise for me was the promotion for the DJs appearing later that night: Ed Williams and Rosko (Bill Mercer). I didn't even remember Rosko ever working for CBS-FM and Ed Williams had previously appeared on WLIB. That's quite a diverse and interesting group of nighttime jocks. Note: Rob Frankel has since advised us that the Rosko show was a syndicated show produced from Rosko's then home in France.

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Link to aircheck

PRESS: Bob Cole tries to turn-around CBS-FM Group

Broadcasting - Aug. 23, 1971

“In turn he delegates considerable authority to his station people; believes the guy on the scene, who knows the market, should make decisions, particularly programming ones.”

An article detailing how Bob Cole has been promoted to VP of CBS' FM radio group and is mandated to make the stations profitable.

Bob Cole - CBS-FM

PROMOTION: The WCBS-FM Rock Jocks

circa late 1971-early 1972

A great photo of the CBS-FM jocks from contributor Kimbal Brandner.

CBS-FM jocks

AIRCHECK: Bobby "the Wizard" Wayne [stereo-scoped]

December 13, 1972 (48:48)

Contributed by Michael Weiss

This aircheck is from about six months after CBS-FM moved from a quasi-progressive rock format to an oldies format. Lots of oldies that we never hear anymore but weren't actually all that old back then.

mp3Pt.1(30:02) mp3Pt.2(18:46)

AD: Richard Nader Concerts

September, 1973

Contributed by Elliot Tayman

Some concert promotion from the station.

Concert Ad

AIRCHECK: Dick Heatherton [stereo]

Friday, January 25, 1974 (79:57)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Dick Heatherton was on CBS-FM from September 1972 through March 1986, mostly doing the 2-6pm shift. His sister, Joey Heatherton, was featured on the Hullabaloo TV show and was famous for kissing Sammy Davis, Jr., which was quite controversial at the time. Dick's father, Ray Heatherton, portrayed "The Merry Mailman" on NYC local television.

This was when CBS-FM was a true Oldies station and we hear such tracks as Blue Moon by the Marcels and Where or When by Dion and the Belmonts. But we also hear a then-new track by Cher.


AIRCHECK: Jack Spector [stereo]

Saturday, March 4, 1978 (66:09)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Jack Spector doing the "Saturday Night Sock Hop". This was still in the days when CBS-FM would play Little Richard and early Doo-Wop records.


AIRCHECK: Harry Harrison's First CBS-FM Morning Show [stereo]

Monday, March 24, 1980 (93:54)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Harry's first day at WCBS-FM. Harry was the mid-morning DJ on WMCA from November 1959 until September 1968 and he did the drive-time shift on WABC-AM from late September '68 until late November 1979 when Dan Ingram took over the morning shift for a year. Harry stayed with WCBS-FM until March of 2003, so he had a 44-year run on these three major NYC pop music stations. He was known as the 'Morning Mayor'. Harry passed in January of 2020 at 89 years old.

Listening to this 40 year old show today, it's amazingly listenable. On a decent station, aside from the specific news articles, it could have aired today.


AIRCHECK: First Radio Greats Weekend: Jack Spector - Harry Harrison - Joe O'Brien [stereo]

Saturday, August 18, 1984 (185:59)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and recorded by Joe Persek

A terrific sounding aircheck when radio was still willing to be creative, great and not afraid to examine its own history and when the DJ was still important. And we even hear news.


AIRCHECK: First Radio Greats Weekend: Bob Lewis [stereo]

Sunday, August 19, 1984 (239:06)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud.

Another terrific sounding aircheck with the great Bob Lewis who could and did do any format. Note the great inside joke at the beginning. Bob interviews Rick Sklar who was the program director at both WINS and WABC-AM. Rick talks about Alan Freed, Murray the K and Jack Lacy and plays some great tapes bits from them.


AIRCHECK: Zacherley on Halloween [stereo]

Wednesday, October 31, 1984 (239:06)

Zacherley, doing his annual Halloween guest spot on WCBS-FM back when radio was still an awful lot of fun. Most radio stations would never do this today because they would consider it "breaking format".

Part 1(90:30)

Part 2 (69:49)


AIRCHECK: Bob Lewis sitting in for Cousin Brucie [stereo]

Saturday, September 13, 1986 (136:03)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud.

Yet still another terrific sounding aircheck with the great Bob Lewis who could and did great in any format. Most recently, Bob had been doing low-key progressive rock radio, but here he exhbits the full enthusiasm for top-40 style radio (albeit Oldies, but these are REAL oldies). It takes less than 60 seconds for Lewis to demonstrate more personality than one hears on radio today in a week.

Unfortunately, Lewis passed away just a few months after this show was broadcast.


AIRCHECK: John Zacherley on Halloween [stereo-scoped]

Oct 31, 1987 (89:38)

Contributed by Ken Tullipano

Once again, Ken Tullipano strikes gold!

This is a great aircheck of John Zacherley returning to CBS-FM when it was still a true oldies station to play a bunch of crazy tracks for Halloween and it sounds great. Check out the spot for the lengendary Downstairs Records in part 1 and a spot for all the old CBS-FM jocks in part 2.

(And scroll down to find where Zach does it again 20 years later and still sounds as great.)

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AIRCHECK: Norm N. Night Says "Goodbye"

Feb 20th, 1988

Contributed by Myles Putman

Here's a short aircheck from the end of Norm N. Night's last show on WCBS-FM.


mp3Listen

AIRCHECK: Ron Lundy with Dan Ingram [stereo]

Friday, April 29, 1988 (27:19)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via RadioMaven77 on Mixcloud

Dan sits in with Ron Lundy and they have some fun together, including making fun of Bruce Morrow. When was the last time you heard music DJs who sounded like they were having fun?


AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Alan Freed Tribute [scoped-stereo]

circa June 1989

Contributed by Ken Tullipano

Alan Freed

Joe McCoy hosts a tribute to Alan Freed. Based on some spots in the show (which we removed), we believe this is from June of 1989. It may have been repeated in 1991. There are excerpts from his WINS and WABC-AM shows as well as from a few recordings that he made, including a novelty record that anticipates what Dickie Goodman would do just a few years later. There's also a phone interview with his daughter Alana.

While Freed and rock 'n roll music in general was highly controversial in the 1950s, Freed himself was very low-key, spoke in conversational tones on the air (unlike the screamers and speed-talkers of the time) and dressed in conservative suits. He also looked far older than he was.

Freed was brought down by the payola scandal. Many historians believe that he became the scapegoat for the scandal largely because he promoted R&B music more than other DJs of the time, even though politicians of the era hated rock music in general and tried to stop it. (In 1957, Freed's ABC-TV show was cancelled after Frankie Lyman danced with a white girl and ABC affiliates in the south objected.) While they failed, their efforts led to the invention of the playlist and the end of disc jockey freedom until free-form radio stations brought it back some years later. It also resulted in radio stations of the day largely abandoning the patriarchs of rock, like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins and others. It would take the Beatles to get them heard again.

Dick Clark, who had ownership of far more recording and music publishing companies than Freed, who was small-time in comparison, was smart enough to dump his holdings before testifying before Congress. It should be noted that payola was not illegal before Congress made it so in 1960 (as long as you reported the income on your taxes, which Freed was accused of not doing).

It's hard to believe that Freed was only 43 when he died from uremia (or a broken heart, depending upon what you believe). It's also hard to believe that it was a year into Beatlemania and only 18 months after his death that WOR-FM joined the airwaves. In retrospect, they seem like completely different eras. Had Freed lived, I believe he could have resurrected his career, if not on the air, then producing and promoting shows, especially when appreciating doo-wop music became a fad again with the emergence of oldies shows and Sha-Na-Na in the late 1960s.

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Freed(34:21)

AIRCHECK: Bob Shannon [stereo]

Friday, March 2, 1990 (42:09)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via RadioMaven77 on Mixcloud

The very personable Bob Shannon (with Dennis O'Mara) on WCBS-FM back when it was still a real Oldies station. We even hear some Doo-Wop.


AIRCHECK: Harry Harrison - Dan Ingram [stereo]

Thursday, January 31, 1991 (46:16)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via RadioMaven77 on Mixcloud

A bit of Harry and then a news broadcast about the Gulf War and then Dan Ingram sitting in for Ron Lundy playing the usual oldies.


AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Reunion Weekend: Murray the K

June 1991

Murray the K

Back when CBS-FM was more than just a "play the hit oldies" station, they had special weekends dedicated to the radio greats of the past. One of the great things about these broadcasts is that they included jocks who had never appeared on CBS-FM and sometimes even included air personalities who competed with them.

This is an excerpt from the 1991 broadcast featuring some rarely heard airchecks of Murray from his WINS days as well as interviews with his son Peter and several performers, including Ronnie Spector, who talks about the attention to detail that Murray put into his live shows. Murray always had a reputation of being hard to work with, but maybe he was really the Steve Jobs of radio: he knew exactly what he wanted and his genius made him a bit arrogant.

There's also a bit where Murray does a pulp fiction comic book intro to Ernie K Doe's "Mother In Law". Murray repeated this bit many times, even on free-form WOR-FM, but it demonstrates how much trouble he would go to just to make his show a little different.

The segment does have one error: near the end, it's said that Murray moved to WOR-FM in 1965. His first WOR-FM show was on October 8, 1966. For more about Murray, check out the WINS, WOR-FM and General Radio History pages. We also have WNEW-FM's tribute to Murray on the WNEW-FM page (scroll down to February of 1982).

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AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Dan Ingram [stereo-scoped]

Saturday, June 8, 1991

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Here are segments from Dan Ingram's show from the Radio Greats Reunion Weekend of June, 1991. Whether you think Ingram's jokes were lame or very funny, there is no doubt that he adds a tremendous amount of personality and fun to the show.

A large portion of the aircheck is dedicated to the "hit" songs of 1960 and most are quite awful. Even Ingram calls 1960 the "year of the dog in music". It wasn't that good music wasn't released in 1960, but it didn't make the top of the pop charts. They would have been better off taking a curated approach rather than a charts approach and/or they should have selected songs from the R&B charts.

Note: The audio quality is inconsistent. If you hit a bad patch, wait it out - it gets better. But it's also instructive: when the signal is bright and clean, it has far more impact and it's a far better listen. Demonstrates once again why AM radio can't play music.

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AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Chuck Leonard [stereo]

Saturday, June 8, 1991 (102:23)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via RadioMaven77 on Mixcloud

Chuck Leonard on the third Radio Greats Reunion weekend. Chuck is quite modest and claims he wasn't "great", but that other jocks he names were. But in our opinion he was great and was unfortunately underused in his WABC years. Herb Oscar Anderson and Dan Ingram sneaks in just after "Brown Eyed Girl". Dan claims he listened to Chuck on WWRL and recommended him to WABC management.


AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Jocko Henderson [stereo]

Sunday, June 9, 1991 (177:08)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Jocko Henderson rides his rocketship and continues the greatness on the Radio Greats Weekend


AIRCHECK: Dan Ingram - Bobby Jay [stereo]

Sunday, March 22, 1992 (46:42)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Dan Ingram and Bobby Jay on a Fabulous Fifties very cold weekend.


AIRCHECK: Cousin Brucie (On and Off Mic) [stereo]

May, 1993 (59:10)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

This is something quite unique. We hear Cousin Brucie doing his show along with chatter from the studio from Rob Frankel and Lee Speigel, who had just interviewed Murrow. (The show begins with the last few minutes of Bob Shannon's show.)


AIRCHECK: Cousin Brucie - Bobby Jay [stereo]

Saturday, November 26, 1997 (77:34)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

We first hear Brucie closing out his show and what's remarkable is that in those 60-odd seconds, Bruce displays more personality than today's DJ's are allowed to exhibit in a month.

Bruce is followed by Bobby Jay's "Soul of the City" show that begins with a great James Brown track. What??!!!! They broke format to only play Soul and R&B? You mean they respected their listeners with specialty show? What a bunch of amateurs trying to do something interesting. And then Bobby comes on and entertains us with even more of a distinctive personality. This WAS radio.


AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Scott Muni [stereo-scoped]

June 13, 1998

Contributed by Ken Tullipano

Here's a great aircheck of a portion of Scott Muni's shift from the Radio Greats Reunion Weekend of June 1998. Scott sounds like he's having a great time. This was just five months before he'd be fired from WNEW-FM,

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Muni (36:50)

AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Jocko Henderson

June 14, 1998 (72:50)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Here's a great aircheck of Jocko Henderson from the sixth Radio Greats Reunion Weekend of June 1998. This was back when WCBS-FM was still a true Oldies station, at least for the Radio Greats Weekends. While Jocko was probably out of his prime, he still exhibits more personality in 60 seconds than today's jocks are allowed to exhibit in entire shows.


AIRCHECK: Radio Greats Weekend: Bob Lewis Remembered [stereo-scoped]

date unknown

Contributed by Ken Tullipano

Here's CBS-FM's remembrance of Bob Lewis from one of the Radio Great Weekends, probably in the early 90's. Bob was a DJ on many NYC stations including WMGM, WINS, WABC-FM, WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM. Bob was a highly creative air personality who could work any format. His progressive rock montages can be heard elsewhere on this site.

Bob was born April 3, 1937 putting him at the center of early top-40 radio. We all remember "Bob-a-Loo". When FM radio split from AM radio simulcasting in 1966, Bob saw the potential of working in a freer creative environment and started doing the only weekday live show on WABC-FM in April of 1967. Formats were changing quickly, but by October of 1967, he was doing a one-hour show on Saturday nights called, "Some Trust In Chariots" with music producer Tom Wilson doing a show before him and Chuck Leonard and Dan Ingram each doing one hour shows after him. From mid-1968 to early 1969, he did a weekday show called "Radio Free New York".

By September of 1970, he was doing 5-9pm weekdays on CBS-FM when the station had an AOR format. And later in 1970, he was doing weekends on WNEW-FM.

Bob Lewis died on January 23, 1987 at the young age of 49.

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Bob Lewis (12:46)

AIRCHECK: Bob Shannon [stereo]

Wednesday, October 1, 1997 (77:57)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

The great Bob Shannon doing the Oldies thing.


AIRCHECK: Halloween with Zacherley & Bruce Morrow [stereo]

Wednesday, October 31, 2001 (180:02)

Contributed by Charlie Meneut

Three hours of the great John Zacherley doing the Halloween thing with Brucie. Zach had just turned 83 when this aired and he still sounded fantastic!

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Zach

AIRCHECK: Dan Ingram [stereo]

Sunday, January 27, 2002 (66:35)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Dan Ingram playing the hits of the 50's-80's on "all New York artists weekend". We even hear Ernie Maresca. Dan would leave CBS-FM 18 months later.


AIRCHECK: Harry Harrison's Final Morning Show [stereo]

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 (302:02)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

The morning mayor doing his final show from the Museum of TV & Radio.


PRESS: New York Daily News: Ingram Out at CBS-FM

by David Hinckley

July 20, 2003

Dan Ingram last appeared on CBS-FM on Sunday, June 8, 2003. The following week, Dan Daniel took over on Saturday and Pat St. John "sat in" for Ingram on Sunday, but Ingram never returned.

To save money, CBS-FM wanted to cut Ingram back to one day a week from two (with a commensurate cut in salary) and Ingram refused.


Ingram Out

AIRCHECK: Back from JACK Format Flip [scoped]

Thursday, July 12, 2007

On June 3, 2005 WCBS-FM flipped from an Oldies format to JACK. JACK was a snarky format that was marketed as a more personalized approach with music chosen by a DJ named "Jack", rather than a corporation. The playlist was wider than most typical radio stations, but it was also far more current. One of the tag lines for the format was "Playing What We Want". The format was largely a jukebox or iPod playlist interspersed with snarky tag lines voiced by Howard Cogan.

Because CBS-FM was such a heritage station, the format didn't go over well in NYC. Even Mayor Bloomberg decried the format change. And the ratings never matched what CBS-FM had achieved.

Just two years later, on July 6, 2007, WCBS-FM, under the aegis of new CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason, announced a return to the former CBS-FM with a start date of July 12th. In reality, CBS-FM didn't quite return to an oldies format, but to a 'greatest hits' format and in the intervening years has stopped playing all 50's and most 60's music. While CBS-FM now achieves pretty good overall ratings, its audience is primarily elderly and it's just a matter of time before the format is going to have to change again.

This aircheck is of the flip back from JACK to Greatest Hits CBS-FM. It's a pretty good montage of CBS-FM over the years along with a lot of formatics and jingles. If CBS-FM was as creative as this every day, it would be a much better radio station.


Scoped version (24:46)

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CBS-FM


Expanded version (71:13)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 posts on Mixcloud:


AIRCHECK: John Zacherley on Halloween [scoped]

Oct 31, 2007

This is a great scoped aircheck of John Zacherley sitting in on Halloween at CBS-FM in 2007. Zach was 90 when this was recorded and it's amazing how strong, vibrant and ageless he sounds. You can tell that he doesn't know a lot of the music and he relies upon his old shtick, but he's still very impressive. Note also how he doesn't accept the role of a guest who's supposed to be quiet most of the time - he really takes over the show.


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AIRCHECK: Don K. Reed [stereo]

Saturday, July 8, 2012 (117:51)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Don K. Reed was best known for his Doo-Wop Shop that aired on Sunday nights on WCBS-FM. He was one of the few people in NYC radio who kept the spirit of doo-wop music alove through the decades. This is from his last appearace on CBS-FM, during the station's 40th anniversary celebration.

Don passed way in July of 2022. He first appeared on CBS-FM around July of 1972. The Doo-Wop Shop started on Sunday nights in May of 1975 and it aired through 2002. In the late 90's, he did overnights.


AIRCHECK: Pat St. John announces his retirement from WCBS-FM

March 29, 2015

Pat St. John, who's been on New York radio since the 1970s, has announced that he's leaving CBS-FM, where he's been holding down the Sunday 11-3pm airshift, in order to spend more time with his west-coast based family.
Originally from Detroit, Pat joined WPLJ in 1973, held a regular shift from 1974 and stayed until about 1987. From 1988 to 1993, he did 10am-2pm at WNEW-FM after Dave Herman moved to drive-time and he held other shifts on the station through 1998. He also spent time as Program Director. He has also frequently appeared on CBS-FM from at least 2003 and is heard on several different shows on Sirius/XM. His Sirius/XM shows will continue.

Pat is still a big fan of rock and roll and has terrific insights into the artists and music. He's known for being informative on the air and for playing that rare but great track that you didn't know existed.

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Pat St.John

AIRCHECK: Pat St. John's Last Show WCBS-FM [scoped-stereo]

April 22, 2015

This is a great aircheck of Pat St. John's last show on WCBS-FM. He pretty much ignores the playlist and he breaks formats and that makes it a fantastic show. If CBS-FM always sounded like this, it would be a spectacular station. At about 21:45 minutes of Part 2, Pat plays the long music montage he created at WPLJ.

So as to preserve everyone's sanity, we cut out the long stop sets on this one.

mp3Pt1(59:55) mp3Pt1(52:24)

WCBS-FM 101.1 Schedules


WCBS-FM Schedule

1967-1981

These schedules are sourced from newspapers, FM Guide (which was usually a few months behind changes), Radio Guide, Richard Neer's book on FM radio, personal recollections of myself and DJs and various postings on the web, especially those of Vince Santarelli. Corrections welcomed. In some cases, the same dates are posted twice due to conflicting information from different sources. This one shows the schedule from 1967 to 1981 as CBS-FM evolved from various flavors of AOR to Oldies.

Schedule1

WCBS-FM Schedule

1981-2005

Schedule2