Apollo 50: Go for the Moon
In response to the July 20, 2024 post, MAN on the MOON, I felt this comment (and video) was better communicated as a post rather than a comment.
-MCP-
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Thank you, Marianne.
This is also wonderful.
2019 Apollo 50: Go for the Moon
Feel free to share this ( … ).
Thank you for keeping this going.
Mike Moss
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The National Air Space Museum shared this beautiful video of the entire “Apollo 50: Go for the Moon” show that was projected onto the Washington Monument in July of 2019.
COURTESY: “Apollo 50: Go for the Moon” was commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and produced by 59 Productions. The Museum’s Apollo 50 programs were made possible by the support of Boeing with additional support from Raytheon.
Editors note: Earlier this year, I received this lovely note from Mike Moss who is not only a fan of WNEW1130.com, but a radio colleague.
My name is Mike Moss. Your dad visited St. Anthony’s HS on a career day and from that moment I wanted to be a broadcast journalist. I had a great career and even had the pleasure of working with your dad at NBC. He was a great guy and I wanted you to know he holds a special place in my heart.
WNEW was the best. So was the great Edward Brown.
Mike
MAN on the MOON
Four simple words sum up this story: “MAN ON THE MOON!”
Depending upon where you lived in these United States 55 years ago late last night or early this morning earthlings by the name of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first known humans to set foot on the lunar surface. Yes, it was another case of virtually the whole world was watching and that includes Group W Aerospace.
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon, 20-Jul-1969.
Correspondent Jim Slade who was aided and abetted by Beach Rogers of Westinghouse station, KFWB, Los Angeles. There were a multitude of places on the radio and TV dials to have followed this unforgettable story but Group W always figures in my accounts for two simple reasons: I was at the time, the morning news broadcaster at Westinghouse station KDKA, Pittsburgh, and Jim Slade’s work with words and explanations, impressed me to no end! That’s not to say that Mr. Rogers was an after-thought. Definitely not! What all started with JFK’s declaration on September 12, 1962 that “We choose to go to the moon,” included a promise to make this out-of-this-world journey before the end of the 1960s. So, less than 7 years later, President Kennedy’s vision became reality as Apollo 11 roared into the heavens carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins into history. Four days after the blast-off from Cape Kennedy, Armstrong and Aldrin were prancing about on the moon’s surface looking and observing in total wonderment as they went about conducting various experiments.
To be sure, it was a trip for the ages and featured a message left on the lunar surface that “We came in peace,” and then that memorable quote from Armstrong, Wapakoneta’s pride and joy, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” That may be in the history books just a collection of meaningful words, but for the many millions across the Earth who were listening to their radios and watching the dramatic events unfold on television, that phrase truly packed a wallop! More than 8 days after lift-off in Florida the trio of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins made a safe splashdown in the Pacific about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii and a dozen miles from the recovery ship, the U.S.S. Hornet.
In looking back, this was another giant page in the annals of NASA’s outstanding work and an event chock-full of memories and history for skyward-watching Earthlings!
-Bob Gibson-
Bob Gibson – https://www.wnew1130.com/news/staff/e-f-g-i/bob-gibson/
Below is a reprise of the July 15, 2019 post by Edward Brown.
Click on links below for the Apollo 11 production, a profile of George Engle by Alan Walden, Executive Producer Mike Stein; and a National Geographic feature on the Future of Space Flight.
Apollo 11 – WNEW- George Engle
Future of Space Flight: National Geographic
Independence Day USA
Independence Day
On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary
Carol M Highsmith, photographer
Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.”
On July 4th, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence , which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.
Did you know? John Adams believed that July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence, and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest. Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Happy Independence to one and all.
<History.com>
<National Archives.com>
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Happy Birthday, Mike Eisgrau
A very Happy Birthday Mike (June 28)
Mike Eisgrau
WNEW 1967-1991
Mike Eisgrau is no stranger to the media or to public relations. For over ten years, Mike was the director of public affairs for the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York. He was responsible for all public relations and print and broadcast media contact, including acting as the spokesman for the premier, world-class convention facility and as the PR contact with major government, trade show management and convention center officials from around the world.From the other side of the news desk, Mike has a career’s worth of experience as a reporter, editor and news director in both radio and television. As broadcast news editor for WWOR-TV in New Jersey, Mike was responsible for “Magazine” or “Enterprise” news stories produced by a staff of more than a dozen reporters. As news and copy editor for “Good Day New York” for WNYW-TV, Mike was responsible for writing and editing hourly and half-hourly newscasts on Fox TV’s New York morning show. For over twenty years, Mike served as a reporter, editor and news director for WNEW Radio News in New York, one of the nation’s premier local broadcast newsrooms of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. He covered major local and national stories, including the funerals of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Democratic and Republican conventions; state gubernatorial and presidential candidates on the campaign trail; and the 1969 Woodstock music festival. Mike holds a BA in Literature and Speech and Drama from Cornell University and an MSJ in broadcast news from the Medill from Northwestern University.
..Bio from the WNEW1130.com archives.
Saluting the Big Fan – Stanley Cozza
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
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
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.
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
Happy Birthday Guy Lombardo June 19, 1902
I found this photo of Guy Lombardo at the WNEW mic in the July 1986 issue of Good Old Days magazine. Lombardo and his Royal Canadiens was billed as “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”
Starting in 1929 Lombardo broadcast live from the Roosevelt Hotel Grill until 1959 when he switched to the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, <where he played until 1976.>
I’m thinking this photo was at the Roosevelt. –Bill Diehl–
Guy Lombardo orchestras were heard on WNEW beginning in the station’s earliest days when Martin Black’s “Make Believe Ballroom” featured Lombardo orchestra recordings. Lombardo also headlined many live big band specials on WNEW including the live 1967 New Years Eve show featuring the orchestras of Duke Ellington and Count Basie and MCd by Ted Brown. –ECB–
The Ballad Of The Long Island Railroad
The Ballad Of The Long Island Railroad Gene Klavan
Ballad Of The Long Island Railroad – Gene Klavan (1:11)
Gene Klavan’s “Ballad Of The Long Island Railroad” was first published here in 2013.
-ECB-
Memorial Day
This poem, by Valerie Ward, is a call from the past, whispering the duty of peace into the present, urging us to live in a way that makes their sacrifices a foundation for a better tomorrow. Remembering the sacrifice with a depth of gratitude and solemnity-honoring those who laid down their lives.
…The common soldier, in his silent grave,
Speaks through the ages, his story we keep.
His sacrifice, a nation’s soul to save,
In our hearts’ vault, where memories sleep deep.
Our words, a bridge from past to present tense,
A tapestry of valor, pain, and grace.
Through verse, we offer homage, reverence,
To those who rest in time’s eternal embrace.
So let our sonnets soar, our stories weave,
In honor of the ones who rest, we grieve…
Columbia University Anti-War Demonstrations
Columbia University students taking over the campus in pro-Palestinian demonstrations regarding Gaza reminds me of another time on the same campus 56 years ago.
In 1968 students again took over the campus—that time actually barricading themselves in buildings—even taking over the President’s office—to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Print and broadcast reporters had been on the scene for a couple of days. I had just returned from vacation in my first year working for WNEW Radio News. No sooner had I entered my apartment in Forest Hills than the phone rang. It was the desk. “Get over to Columbia U. —the students have taken over the buildings”. So, late at night, I raced to the campus and, sure enough, some students had taken over President Grayson Kirk’s office and several other buildings. The NYPD was outside the gates.
About 1:30AM I was inside when a guy I knew named Jacques Nevard slammed me against a building. Jacques was the DCPI (Deputy Commissioner for Public Information). He was trying to protect me for, seconds later, a phalanx of cops swarmed through the gates and across the campus, grabbing and sometimes beating students and working to clear out those buildings.
The next day student protest leader Mark Rudd held a news conference. I and other radio, TV and print reporters were there. (picture—I’m second from right—note the WNEW flag).
Jacques is gone now, but I won’t forget that night I reported for WNEW News on an Ivy League campus—especially since, just six years before, I had graduated from Cornell and had gone to get my Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Medill at Northwestern in Chicago. The experience that night taught me stuff I’d never learned in the classroom.
Mike Eisgrau
< Image courtesy of the archives of Bill Diehl>