Well, I woke up on my birthday. Sorry to disappoint the person who continues to text me with threats for legal actions.
So it may not be all that surprising to you that when I did wake up, after yet another sleepless night filled with stomach issues that thank goodness I am finally on a path to getting affordable treatment on, my pillow was damp with tears. I believe I was clear in how I detailed how my life has been going of late yesterday, but I suppose a majority of you didn’t get the message. I do appreciate the nice wishes, and I very very much appreciate the handful of folks who were indeed generous, but let’s just say it’s nowhere near enough to satiate my harasser, let alone other more deserving folks that I’m still indebted to. Then again, if I stack up the effectiveness of my messaging against, say, the likes of efforts to move the needle for linear TV premieres that don’t involve Olympic sports, I’m likely at least in the same ballpark.
I was reminded of how I cried myself to sleep at night as a kid after a more physical kind of abuse of torture, where I found at least some comfort once I was gifted a transistor radio for one of my birthdays. I don’t recall which birthday specifically; it’s been a while, ya know. But I do remember the radio; indeed I at least found an image of it. Alas, it’s sold out, so any chance I might have to recapture that specific comfort out of nostalgia has gone by the wayside. Besides, even an opening bid is out of my price range these days. I slept with it , or one very similar to it, under my pillow for years.
And what I listened to for that needed comfort and solace was all-night news. Yeah, even then I was a true outlier to the demo that typically consumed content. It was right around the time when there were two such stations in New York. I defaulted to 1010-WINS (at the time, it was referenced by the individual call letters rather than the one-word nomenclature it adopted during the era where the Klein brothers figured out those call letters spell out a word indicating victory) because it was the only one with such a format on the infamous night of the first blackout in my lifetime, the one depicted in that syrupy theatrical comedy “Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?”. My mom and I were worried sick because my dad apparently had been trapped in an elevator in his office building when said lights went out, and he had to walk nearly 25 miles home in the pitch black. Our battery-operated radio was a larger one and we sat up until he finally got home, well after my usual bedtime. Right after that, I know she got one of her own for her own pillow; mine came later.
But what I eventually discovered was that WINS’ all night operation at the time was on a loop, and if I was awake for more than an hour the repetition drove me to distraction. So in times of true desperation I tuned down the dial to its then-competitor, WCBS Newsradio 88. WCBS also broadcast on a far stronger, less weather-impacted signal, one that I later found out carried much farther outside the New York metropolitan area at night. When we’d go on our rare vacations, and especially when I started driving back and forth to my college in upstate New York, WCBS became an audio beacon to our destination or a connection to what we had just left.
So on top of all else that’s been going on, the stories that broke yesterday similar to this one from AM NY’s Joe Pantorno didn’t help my current mindset one bit:
WCBS 880 AM will end its 57-year run as an all-news radio staple in New York City, its parent company Audacy announced on Monday, and will be rebranded as ESPN New York radio beginning on Aug. 26.
New York has always been proudly unique in supporting two all-news radio brands, but the news business has gone through significant changes,” a statement from Audacy’s New York market president, Chris Oliviero, read. “The headwinds facing local journalism nationwide made it essential to strategically reimagine how we deliver the news for the most impact. WCBS 880 has been one of the most respected radio stations in history with a legacy cemented by hundreds of world-class journalists, on and off the air, who willed it into existence over the decades. If it happened in New York or the world, you heard about it on WCBS.880.”
THE ATHLETIC’s prolific Andrew Marchand provided the perspective and reality check that, emotions aside, justified this upsetting but all too predictable move:
WFAN’s parent, Audacy, is licensing its 880 AM signal to ESPN New York starting this fall in a local marketing agreement. The two sides have feuded for years, dating back to WFAN’s “Mike & the Mad Dog” and ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show” remarking about each other’s programs on and off the air.
Executives who run ESPN New York, which is currently on WEPN-FM 98.7, have long said they would not renew the lease for that signal, which concludes at the end of August. The plan was to focus on digital deliverance. Good Karma Brands owns WEPN-AM 1050, but 880 AM is a much stronger signal.
The financial parameters of the arrangement between Audacy and Good Karma are not yet known. The arrangement will go into effect on Aug. 26. The leasing arrangement is for three years, according to sources briefed on the agreement.
The length of the deal indicates ESPN will stay committed to local programming on the station as 880 AM will be the home to Kay’s show, as well as the morning program “DiPietro & Rothenberg” and “Bart & Hahn” mid-days. The station’s call letters, pending FCC approval, will switch from WCBS to WHSQ-AM.
Look, it’s been decades since I listened to WCBS; for one thing, since WFAN’s creation a 24-hour all-sports station was always more appealing to me. And since the advent of satellite radio, the whole concept of a “clear channel” signal has essentially become a moot point. I don’t think I’ve listened to terrestrial radio more than a couple of times in at least 10 years, and when I do, the signal quality even to someone as unsophisticated as moi is noticeably poorer.
And even my more traditional-conscious and somewhat older friends who filled my social media feed with lament and upset yesterday won’t have to worry about the availability of what they REALLY care about on the WCBS signal, as Marchand assured:
The Mets’ broadcast, which is owned by Audacy, will continue on 880 AM. Audacy will retain all the rights to the games.
It’s a somewhat better fate than was suffered by WINS’ one-time sister station in the middle of the dial in Los Angeles, KFWB “News 98”. That station signed off its own version of “You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world” in 2009, and then went through an odyssey (as opposed to an Audacy) of its own over the next seven years before finally settling on a regional Mexican music format that is now referenced as “La Mera Mera 980”. Ironically, it is WCBS’ counterpart, KNX, that has continued in the Los Angeles market as the sole all-news format. But, again, I can’t tell you the last time I listened, and I’m aware an awful lot of people in the target radio demo have NEVER heard it.
Sure, I’m not thrilled by this news; it’s yet again another sobering reminder of another connection to my childhood going away forever, and how far removed from it I actually am. And I absolutely detest the fact that, yet again, some really competent journalists and broadcasters will inevitably join the umeployment ranks by Labor Day. A couple of them have accounts on Threads to which I offered them my professional condolences ; a couple actually reached out to me to personally thank me. Let’s just say they were among the nicer interactions of any kind I had yesterday.
But, honestly, this was inevitable and, to be brutally honest, I’ve got far bigger things to worry about of late. I just got another threatening text and a couple of large bills were just autopaid, so I’m no better now than when I woke up. Hence, I’m repeating the link I posted yesterday for those of you who might have missed it.
That may not be news to you. But someone’s gotta at least to pick up the slack when the likes of Newsradio 88 go away, no?
Until next time…
1 thought on “Tears On My Pillow. Still.”
I was also a NY radio junkie, but my station was 77 -WABC! (yes, I still know the jingle) Met “cousin Brucie” who is still alive and well with great memories of Ellenville. I knew ALL the DJ’s and, later in life became one (as Julie Russel) on WELV, BEST job ever which also became the source of my first novel “Red Wine for Breakfast” (as Raven West).
Back then, the station would have news at the top of the hour, for about 5 minutes. I recall the morning of June 5 1968 when the news DIDN’T stop – no music at all… when I was fully awake I knew why and wanted to go back to bed to wake up from the nightmare.
Radio was my life (got my degree in Communications from Syracuse U) but sooo much has changed. Now there are POD casts everywhere and the music? Whatever they call it today, is NOT the anti-war, peace/love of Neil Diamond, the Associations, Three Dog Night and Blood Sweat and Tears… it was MUCH better being in my 20’s in the 70’s than beint in my 70’s in the 20’s!
But that’s another story.
Oh yes, I was GLUED to the radio in the school library when the “Miracle” METS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!