The NY Radio Archive

WINS 1010



WINS 1010


AIRCHECK: Alan Freed

circa March, 1954

"The Moondog Show!"

This aircheck is actually from about six months before Freed joined WINS. The interesting thing about Freed's airchecks is that you don't hear a lot of tracks that we now consider to be part of the basic rock & roll canon. And even though he's yelling a bit, without jingles and formatics, his sound is far more progressive than what came to be known as top-40. Note that he always credited the record label when back announcing the tracks.

mp3
Alan Freed

AIRCHECK: Alan Freed [mono]

Saturday, Feburary 12, 1955 (24:59)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud.

"The King of Rock 'n Rollers with a Cold"

On this day in 1955, President Eisenhower sent the first advisors to Vietnam, a decision that would have political and cultural impact for decades.

Meanwhile, Alan Freed was playing some very cool and largely now forgotten R&B records in very conservative 1955, a world away from the top-40 pop pap that would dominate the dial just a few years later. The teens who listened to this show are 79 to 84 years old today (as of 2022).


TRADE AD: Alan Freed's Dance Party

Billboard circa 1955

A great ad that appeared in Billboard in 1955 promoting Freed's WINS show as well as his live dance parties.

Alan Freed Dane Party

MARKETING: Alan Freed's Dance Party

circa 1955-1958

An ad that appeared in NYC newspapers promoting Freed's show. Back when teens actually read newspapers.

Alan Freed Schedule

AIRCHECK: Alan Freed [mono]

Wednesday, March 23, 1955 (58:36)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud.

"The Home of the Big Beat and Rock 'N Roll Music"

Freed's on-air style had become pretty intense by this point. We hear lots of dedications (including many sent by telegram), some news (with an editorial about poor NYC teacher salaries) as well as B.B. King, the Casonovas, Otis Blackwell, Pee Wee Creighton, The Charms, Roy Hamilton and others, but it's mostly not the tracks that we associate today with the 1950's rock canon as most of these tracks have been long forgotten.

Freed's show was originally broadcast just from 7-8pm and then from 11pm to 2am, but sometime in 1955, his shift changed to 6:15 to 9pm.

Freed also criticizes the promotion for the movie "Blackboard Jungle" which denigrated teenagers.


AIRCHECK: Alan Freed's Rock & Roll Party [mono]

circa 1956 (24:01)

This is an aircheck of a live show with live acts, featuring Clyde McPhatter, Sugar and Spice and The Platters with Sam "the Man" Taylor leading the orchestra to a wildly enthusiastic crowd.

We don't know for sure that this was actually broadcast on WINS, but we think it was. This version of the show comes from an Armed Forces Radio broadcast and you'll note that any references to the original sponsor, Camel cigarettes, have been edited out.

Judging fron the songs performed, this is either from 1956 or early 1957. It's kind of magical. While during the AOR Progressive Rock era we'd occassionally hear a live concert broadcast, like WNEW-FM's concerts from the Bottom Line, this is a live performance completely hosted by the DJ. Amazing that they could do that in 1956, but won't do it today.

mp3
Alan freed

PRESS: Alan Freed leaves WINS

New York Times: May 8, 1958

I had always thought that Alan Freed left WINS due to the payola scandals. But this article claims that Freed resigned because the station didn't support him after a riot took place in Boston at one of Freed's shows.

Freed quits

SURVEY: May 9, 1958

contributed by Richard Kaufman

Some rock, some pop, some MOR, some R&B. Not a bad playlist. It could have been listened to by teens AND their parents.

Survey May 9, 1958

PRESS: Alan Freed leaves WINS

Billboard: May 12, 1958

Here's Billboard's take on the same story that the New York Times reported on above.

Freed quits

SURVEY: Murray the K's Golden Gassers

1956-1962

contributed by Mark Katz

A list of what WINS probably considered to be the best oldies for each year. The list is from 1956 to 1962 even though Murray didn't join the station until 1958

Golden Gassers 1 Golden Gassers 1

AIRCHECK VIDEO: Bruce Morrow live in Coney Island [scoped-mono]

Saturday, July 30, 1960 7pm (16:41)

contributed by Ellis B. Feaster on YouTube

A young Cousin Bruce live from Raven Hall Pool in Coney Island. Note that it's "Bruce" and not yet "Brucie". And a Palisades Park commercial, but not with the "Come on Over" theme. The kids in the hall sound really young, but in spite of that, there's also a commercial for Schlitz Beer. And a commercial for the very adult film, "Sons and Lovers". Guess they thought Bruce's show would appeal to everyone in those days. We even get a news broadcast.

Bruce joined WINS along with Murray the K in the Summer or Fall of 1958. But Murray allegedly pushed Bruce out by the Fall of 1960 and Murrow wound up at WABC in January of 1962 after doing a stint in Florida. Murrow was angry at Kaufman for years, but if Kaufman did have anything to do with Bruce leaving WINS, he did him a big favor because WINS went all-news in 1965 and Murrow was on WABC for almost 13 years until August of 1974.


AIRCHECK: Murray the K's Swingin' Soiree [mono]

Friday, March 17, 1961 (23:36)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and sourced from Mark Young

Murray joined WINS around the Fall of 1958 at the age of 36, and stayed until late February 1965, a few months before it went all-News in mid-April 1965.

The show opens with a Frank Sinatra track which Murray always did in those days. Murray's voice seems higher than it would later become. Murray does one of his story bits when introducing the second oldie he plays. There's a lot of personality here - there's no question who you're listening to. And then we hear "Ahh Be" which became a mantra in its time. Also interesting is the show's opening jingle, which refers not to Murray the K, but to Murray Kaufman. He'd lose the Kaufman sometime later.


PROMOTION: Submarine Race Watching Shirt

circa 1962

Submarine Race Watching was Murray the K's codeword for couples parking. It was a lot more fun and classier when these kinds of things were coded and not explicit. But these shirts were never as prolific as the WMCA Good Guy sweatshirts

Submarine Race Watching

PRESS: WINS Rocks

Billboard: July 2, 1962

The WINS Top-40 format. Note Murray the K's 25.9 rating. It was a lot of fun when everyone was listening to the same thing.

WINS Rocks

AIRCHECK: Mad Daddy [mono]

Saturday, August 31, 1963 (27:39)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and sourced from Bob Carle.

Mad Daddy (Pete Myers) was said to have an IQ of 172 (genius level). He first appeared on WHK, Cleveland in 1958. He joined WNEW in June of 1959, where the Mad Daddy character was tried once, but the station received numerous complaints and it was dropped. But the character was wonderful simply because it was a character. He was on WINS in the early 60's, but later returned to WNEW, but as Pete Myers playing MOR music, not as Mad Daddy playing Top-40 rock.

But Mad Daddy is why we listened to the radio back then. We loved the craziness of Dan Ingram's jokes, Cousin Brucie's squealing and Mad Daddy's crazy verse, like "roopity doopity skippity flop". Myers wanted to host a horror movie show and he certainly could have become a character like Zacherley. Unfortunately, Myers took his own life in October of 1968.


AIRCHECK: Mad Daddy [mono]

Friday, November 29, 1963 (27:33)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and sourced from Bob Carle.

Here's another wild 1010 WINS Mad Daddy aircheck.

According to an article on NostalgiaCentral.com, "During a stint in the US Army, he convinced the North Korean enemy that they were about to be attacked by a giant sea monster with a frighteningly convincing 'Mayday!' transmission." Also according to this article, he joined WNEW in June of '59 (not WINS) and that's where the station received complaints about the character - although according to an article on the Metromediaradio.net website, the character was only tried once on WNEW and was stopped by the complaints.

He joined WINS in the early 60's, but was gone by late 1964 and by 1967 was back at WNEW being smooth, straight Pete Myers, holding down the 1-4 pm slot between William B. Williams and Ted Brown. And when he did try to break into TV with a horror show, it never came to fruition because he insisted on being filmed upside down, like a bat hanging from the ceiling. It's too bad he never found the right station where his creative genius could be recognized and properly exploited.


Murray the K

Summer 1964

It's well known that Murray the K took over hosting Alan Freed's shows at the Brooklyn Paramount, later moving to the Brooklyn Fox, but he later ingratiated himself with the Beatles and promoted many rock and roll shows, like this one in Connecticut, an early concert with the Rolling Stones and another two days later at Carnegie Hall.

Murray the K


Murray the K

PROMOTION: Murray the K Promotional Items

circa early 1960's

Some of the many promotional items used by Murray the K. Interesting that only the button includes the WINS call letters.

Murray the K Ephemera

PRESS: WINS at the New York World's Fair

Billboard: October 24, 1964

Back when stations actually cared about big events in the community, air personalities made appearances like this one at the New York World's Fair

WINS Fair

AIRCHECK: Mad Daddy (Pete Myers) [mono]

Saturday, October 24, 1964 (34:05)

sourced from YouTube's ManFromYesterday

This is Mad Daddy (Pete Myers) from just before he left WINS and eventually moved to WNEW-AM playing MOR music as Pete Myers.


AIRCHECK: Mad Daddy (Pete Myers) [scoped-mono]

Friday, October 30, 1964

contributed by Rich Barbato

While the audio quality is pretty poor, this ia a great historical document of how some top-40 radio used to be. This is Mad Daddy (Pete Myers) doing his speed-talking thing, with lots of echo, Monster Mash type bubble sound effects, a lot of bad rhyming raps and some long jingles, but also some pretty good music. This one came to us pre-scoped.

This was exactly three years before WNEW-FM started playing rock.


mp3
Mad Daddy (12:40)

SURVEYS: January 16, 30th, 1965

Contributed by Larry Fox

A bunch of great singles. But WMCA and WABC were playing the same songs.

WINS Survey January 16, 1965 WINS Survey January 30, 1965

PRESS: Murray the K leaving WINS

Murray the K leaves WINS months before it goes all-news

New York Times: January 30, 1965

Murray the K

Billboard: February 6, 1965

Murray the K

SURVEYS: February 6th, 13th, 20th, 1965

Contributed by Larry Fox

The Beatles re-enter the charts.

WINS Survey February 6, 1965 WINS Survey February 13, 1965 WINS Survey February 20, 1965

SURVEYS: March 6th, 20th, 27th, 1965

Contributed by Larry Fox

Interestingly, "Every Little Thing" on the March 27th survey was not a single.

WINS Survey March 6, 1965 WINS Survey March 20, 1965 WINS Survey March 27, 1965

AIRCHECK: Composite: Murray the K - Mad Daddy - Other WINS Final Music Shows [mono] (55:02)

February 1965, November 1964, April 17-19, 1965

Contributed and restored by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and sourced from Bob Carle

The final music shows on 1010 WINS before they flipped to all-news. Mad Daddy left earlier, in November of 1964 and Murray the K's last show was February 27, 1965.

In Murray's aircheck, he says he's going to reveal where people can find his show, but the aircheck cuts off before we find out. We know he didn't show up on NYC radio again until the advent of WOR-FM in October of 1966, but this raises questions on whether he thought he had another deal that somehow fell apart.

Murray is a "screamer" in this show and it really demonstrates the contrast with his show on WOR-FM, which was still the "Swingin' Soirée", but a much calmer one.

The final music DJ lineup on WINS was Ken Garland, Jack Lacy, Joel Sebastian, Johnny Holliday, Stan Z. Burns, Steve Woodman and Mickey O'Hara.


Murray the K: The Fifth Beatle

June 1965

"Does anybody out there realy understand what it means that Murray the K is the Fifth Beatle?"

Tom Wolfe's "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" was originally published in June of 1965, four months after Murray left WINS. A collection of essays on modern culture, one essay was about Murray the K. Who knows - maybe having a high culture icon like Tom Wolfe write about a pop culture self-promoted icon like Murray the K is what brought Murray to the attention of the executives at WOR-FM a year later.

Wolfe writes that Murray was 38 when this was written, but Murray was born in 1922 and this had to be written sometime between 1964 and 1965, so Murray was actually 42 to 44. (Displayed is just the first page of the essay. You'll have to buy the book to read the rest.)

Murray the K Murray the K

PROMOTION: 1010 WINS

The National Lampoon: August, 1970

Contributed by Myles Putnam

Interesting that WINS was trying to go after the presumably young audience who read the National Lampoon.

WINS Ad



1010 WINS Schedules


WINS Schedule

1957-1965

These schedules are sourced from newspapers, 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, obviously incomplete, shows how WINS evolved as a music station before turning to all-News. Thanks to Stewart Tick for some updates.

Schedule1