WNBC (AM) - WNBC Local Programming - 1970s

1970s

Don Imus was hired in December 1971, giving New York its first exposure to the shock jock genre. Imus stayed with the station for most of the next two decades, except for a couple of years in the late 1970s when there was a general purge of the air staff and a short-term format flip to current-based based Top 40.

Despite somewhat different formats, WNBC saw itself as a mostly unsuccessful competitor to New York Top 40 powerhouse WABC. Thus they brought in Murray "the K" Kaufman in 1972, and Wolfman Jack opposite WABC's Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow in 1973. This did not improve ratings much.

By 1973, WNBC was an Adult Contemporary radio station featuring the Carpenters, Paul Simon, Carole King, the Stylistics, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, and other artists of that era. They also began to play more 1960s-era rock and roll oldies, including the Motown artists, Beatles, Beach Boys, and Rolling Stones, at that point.

Ted Brown would leave in the early 1970s and return to WNEW. In 1974, NBC Radio's new president, Jack G. Thayer, formerly of WGAR in Cleveland, hired John Lund from WNEW to be program director. Then WNBC hired Bruce Morrow away from WABC. In addition to Imus in the morning and Cousin Brucie midday, Lund hired Bob Vernon for afternoons, Oogie Pringle for early evenings, and Dick Summer for late night. Other new DJs included Norm N. Nite who arrived from WCBS-FM in 1975. Lund departed in 1976. Joe McCoy was hired in 1976. Mel Phillips was program director at the time of Joe McCoy's hiring.

By 1975, WNBC was playing an Adult Top 40 format and while trying to compete with WABC they were also competing with a musically closer station, WXLO. They featured hits from 1964 to then-current product. By this time, artists such as the Eagles, Billy Joel, Steve Miller, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and disco acts, among others, were mixed in. Unfortunately, while the mix may have been good, (and the station got decent ratings and made money), WNBC was still perceived as everyone's second favorite station behind WABC, 99X, or to a lesser extent, WNEW.

In 1977, Bob Pittman was hired as WNBC's new Program Director, replacing Mel Phillips. His first decision was to lay-off all of the station's personalities, some of which were veterans (including Don Imus, Cousin Brucie, Norm N. Nite and Joe McCoy), replacing them with younger-sounding disc jockeys from medium markets. He also shifted the format to from Adult Top 40 or Hot AC to a more aggressively current-based Top 40 format, with occasional nods to FM radio (such as commercial-free hours). As a result of this tweaking, the station was now playing artists such as Andy Gibb, KC & the Sunshine Band, Boston, Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, among others. However, listenership did not go up, but actually went down, and while some of the new air personalities would find success (Johnny Dark, Frank Reed, Michael Sarzynksi, Buzz Brindle and Allen Beebe would be heard on the station well into the 1980s), others would not (Ellie Dylan, who replaced Imus in morning drive, would be gone within months). By 1979, Pittman would leave WNBC (he would soon become the founder of MTV). John Lund was hired back as program director (from KHOW in Denver), and Don Imus returned to the morning show. Under program director John Lund, WNBC's playlist was tweaked back to an Adult top 40 format, and ratings increased by 50% to surpass WABC by the summer of 1980.