December 11, 1992 – A sad day in the NY tri-state area, as WNEW last crossed the airwaves. WNEW was an extraordinary station and the memory resonates deeply with its listeners. For this reason, we are able to flip the sad to glad as I share with you a listener memory, sent in by Mr. Kevin Haynes.
My Mom had the kitchen radio tuned to WNEW morning, noon and night for my entire childhood, from toddlerhood in Brooklyn to getting ready for school on Long Island in the mid-1960s and beyond.
I fondly remember Klavin & Finch, William B. Williams, Ted Brown (my favorite!) and sportscaster Chip Cipolla, who once told a hilarious story about getting a piece of fan mail addressed to Gypsy Polo.
To this day, I still recall a couple of the station promos as well as the jingles for Chicken Delight and Robert Hall (“School bells ringing/children singing/It’s back to Robert Hall again…”)
I recorded WNEW’s final two hours to preserve the memories, bid adieu to a New York institution and share the fond farewell with Mom.
–End–
Mr. Haynes, Kevin, donated a digitized version of his long held cassette of the last two-hours of programming, saying,
“…I’m delighted to give it a new, loving home.”
Thank you Mr. Haynes, for your contribution.
This website cannot accommodate the size of those files, so, here are a few cuts from each of the 1 hour recordings.
If you are interested in hearing them in their entirety send your request to editor@wnew1130.com.
Cassette 1. Dec 12, 1992 Mark Simone and guests 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Lena Horne
Jim Lowe
Sinatra
Cassette 2. Dec 12, 1992 Mark Simone and guests 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Ted Brown
Tony Monte & John Pizzarelli, Jr sign off / Jingles
Jim Harlan
Final on-air words and song, including some jingles
The following interesting and nostalgic piece of information is provided by radio history viewer, Mr. Steven Didovich, via a comment through WNEW1130.com. What timing, with the recent Jock of all Trades post, 01-Oct-2024.
Thank you so much for sharing, Steven.
—MCP—
This is about radio scheduling.
Because of NY Yankees World Series game 3 Monday night at Yankee stadium, the NY Giants-Steelers game on Monday night will move from WFAN 660/101.9 to WBBR 1130.
This will be the 1st Giants game on 1130 since December 1992 when WNEW 1130 ended.
Thanks for posting your dad’s wonderful commentary*. I remember its original airing very well. I had just returned to the station after three years in the Army and 16 months with the Metromedia station in Philadelphia, WIP. One of my jobs was writing your dad’s 6:00 and 7:30 newscasts.
I was also a newlywed; my Jersey-girl wife was the daughter of a crusty old Italian-American butcher, Stanley Cozza, who rarely had anything good to say to anyone about anything. He was, however, a
Sharon Cozza Fisher and Stanley Cozza
long-running fan of WNEW, his loyalty dating back decades, and because I had gone to work for his favorite radio station, I could never do anything wrong.
Over the years, WNEW’s music policy drifted away from the American standards that had made its reputation, and Stanley drifted with it. Fortunately, he didn’t blame me for the changes, and, a decade later in 1979, when the standards returned to the station, Stanley returned with them. The radio in his grocery store in East Orange went on — tuned to WNEW — when he opened the place in the morning, and it stayed there all day. Ted Brown was a special favorite.
By then, I had left WNEW 1130 — but not the premises — to do the morning news on WNEW-FM, working in the same newsroom, if not on the same frequency. When I left at Christmastime in 1981 for NBC, where I would spend the rest of my career, WNEW 1130 had
Ann Reinking
just circulated a snazzy poster with Broadway star Ann Reinking striking a pose, and as a farewell gift, a whole bunch of staffers autographed the back of it, saluting the big fan, my father-in-law Stanley Cozza.
It’s been sitting in a box for lo these many years, but here it is. I have transcribed the autographs from the back of the poster.
Stanly Cozza WNEW signatures
Thanks again, so much, for your loyalty to the station we all loved so much and the staff who made it great.
Best regards, Andy Fisher
*Editor’s Note: The commentary to which Mr. Fisher refers was posted Feb 6, 2024, and written for broadcast on WNEW-AM February 13, 1970 by Mr. Edward C. Brown.
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INSCRIPTIONS ON WNEW 1130 POSTER FOR STANLEY COZZA
Stanley – Thank you and Merry Christmas – Tom Whalen
Stanley! We like the music here too! (Especially those of us with a little gray hair!) Keep listening – Happy Holidays! Mike Prelee, News Director
To Stanley – The young lady on the other side is Ann Reinking. I’m sending her to you on Arbor Day. Be prepared – William B.
To Stanley You were my “best” call in the past 175 years. Stay tuned — or come in and work with me!! Best, Ted Brown
Stanley – Glad you like our station, we appreciate your listening. Now what can we do about Andy? Best wishes, Bob Hagen
Stan – My man – I hear that you are cool & dig purple. Warmest regards Al Jazzbeaux Collins
Stanley – You are obviously a gentleman with cultured taste and refined judgment when you pick a station to listen to… but… have you had a hearing check-up lately? Merry Christmas John Kennelly
From one with ALL gray hair — for Stanley Steamer — Bruce Charles —
To Stanley Cozza… Thanks for listening to our hard-working WNEW news team… Best wishes, Mona Rivera
Dear Stan, In reference to the above by Mona Rivera, the true “hard work” is that of the listener. You must be a very hard worker. Best of everything from the Bald One, Charles Scott King
TO STAN – Christmas full time – the year around for you from a part-time milkman – Gordon Hammett
The recent posting by former WNEW News Director Alan R. Walden, recalling newsroom personnel during the 1960’s, inadvertently excluded some staffers. With this resubmission from ARW, the missing persons are back where they belong. ECB
Nat Hiken, creator of the hit TV shows, The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You?, died in 1968 at age 54. His widow, Amber, passed more recently. Their daughter, Dana, going through some family memorabilia, came up with a published notice of her parents wedding in 1941, adding a small but telling fragment to the newlywed’s history and the WNEW story, even though the notice got Nat’s first name wrong and miss-spelled his last name.
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How did it come to pass that we should have received the above wedding notice from Bill Diehl? Bill got it from Nat Hiken’s daughter, Dana, whose married name is Buscaglia and whose husband, Frank, is the brother of Bill’s wife, author, Lorry Diehl. That’s how. Frank was in broadcast engineering at both WNEW and ABC.
To read more about Nat Hiken, click on link below.
Gary McDowell, who was WNEW Operations Manager ( 1971-1974) sent along this photo of himself in the middle of Bill Hickock, Gene Klavan, Dick Shepherd and Julius LaRosa. He dates the photo to 1971, soon after answering the call from WNEW GM George Duncan, to give up his job as Program Director of WIP, Philadelphia (a Metromedia station) to become Big W OM.
SANTA CRUZ — Jerry Graham, former host of KRON’s “Bay Area Backroads” and Sentinel columnist, died of a heart attack Monday at his Santa Cruz home. He would have turned 79 Tuesday. Graham, a Santa Cruz resident since 1995, put himself on the Bay Area map with his award-winning TV series “Bay Area Backroads,” which featured Northern California’s hidden gems. KRON produced the series for 28 years. “The concept was that we live in this great spot, but we’re all in such a hurry, that we drive by things without looking and don’t even notice what’s around us,” Graham told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008.
