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 2005
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News and Recollections 2007
News and Recollections 2006
News, recollections, and comments from Newsradio88 staffers, ex-staffers, listeners, fans. To contribute please email: Don Swaim
- Ray Sills (technician, CBS Sports) 12/29/05. JULIUS MCLAUGHLIN DEAD.
Hi Don: I'm emailing you from a workstation over at the Broadcast Center... with the sad news that Julius McLaughlin has passed away after a bout with Leukemia. He died on Dec. 26th, and there will be a funeral from him on Friday, Dec. 30th at 10:30AM at The Riverside Church in Manhattan. Up until the onset of his illness, Julius had been working as the audio mixer for Channel 2's early morning broadcasts.
I used to see him "around the BC" now and then, and he would often join us for a pint or a dinner at the old Armstrong's Saloon (now Jake's Saloon) on the corner of 57th. We'll certainly miss one of the nicest technicians to ever work at CBS. Did anyone -- ever -- get annoyed with Julius? I don't think so. And, that's a nice legacy. 73 de Ray Sills
- Don Swaim 12/29/05.
An Art Athens Tribute Page is now posted on the WCBS Newsradio88 Appreciation Site. If you have comments, anecdotes, pictures, or audio relative to Art please let me know.
- Jeffrey Gray (WCBS listener) 12/11/05.
An interesting fact about the WCBS "News Is" jingle that played on the
hour for years: Yes, the same Steve Karmen who wrote "When You Say Bud" and "I Love New York," and dozens of other classic commercial jingles. :) Just thought you'd like to know. :)
- Albert A. Annunziata (loyal WCBS listener since the 1960s) 12/11/05. I found this wonderful site on Google, as I was trying to find the WCBS Newsradio 88 website to enter a contest I heard this morning on the air from one of your advertisers! MORE...
- Bob Lape (WCBS Dining Critic) 10/30/05. Bob's article about the murder of Emmett Till by Southern racists in 1955 has been published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Sunday Magazine of Oct. 30, 2005. A documentary about Till's murder brought back memories of Bob's scoop when he was a fledgling reporter at WCUE Radio in Akron. Go to Emmett Till and Me.
- Doug Spero (former WCBS Reporter) 10/27/05. Hello Dear Don: I hope better late than never! Your Hero, Doug Spero, checking-in from lovely Raleigh, North Carolina, where there is NEVER any news, and the old "Master of Disaster" kind of likes it like that, for a change! Still can't believe that a middle-income kid from Franklin Square, Long Island, ever made it to NYC broadcasting, no less WCBS-Radio! MORE...
- Thomas McLaughlin (WCBS listener) 10/10/05. I grew up on Long Island in the 1970s and 1980s. I had started listening to WCBS whenever I was in the car with my parents driving around on the weekends. MORE...
- Wayne Cabot (anchor, WCBS) 10/8/05. NOTE: Much of what Wayne writes here can be heard in audio with sensational aircheck material. Go to WCBS Audio Files. Not many 13 year old kids growing up in northern New Jersey tune the dial to 880 AM. This is as true today as it was in 1977 when I discovered the beacon that would call me to New York radio ten years later. MORE...
- Don Swaim (former WCBS producer, anchor, editor, writer, reporter -- you name it) 9/12/05. This is brand new. I was part of the project and it relates to my work at WCBS in the mid 1980s. A new two-DVD package of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (starring David Bowie) has JUST been released. MORE...
- Gary Maurer (former WCBS anchor/reporter) 8/31/05. Hello, my old friend and colleague. This is an awesome website & I congratulate you for putting it together. For more than 37 years, I had a front-row seat on the world as both a reporter and anchor for WCBS Newsradio 88(0), and I was involved in some of the biggest news stories, ever.
- Harvey Hauptman (former WCBS anchor/reporter/writer) 8/21/05. Hello, Don: Attached is a picture for the new website. It was taken before the station adopted the all-news format. The people pictured were the cast and characters of "Up To The Minute," broadcast Monday thru Friday from 4 to 6 PM. The format was similar to the all-news programming the station later adopted. MORE...
- Bob Porrazzo (WCBS listener) 8/15/05. Don: I've been a listener to WCBS for many years. I am 31 years old and for many of those years, WCBS would be the only station I'd put on - other than my local station for news and info. And a great website dedicated to a great station deserves to be recognized. Now as a Yankees fan I listen more often since it's the team's flagship. But I also tune in for the easy going syle of news as opposed to 1010 WINS more city-like, if not stiff beat. Again, WHAT A SITE -- happened to have found it while traveling along the net. Bob Porrazzo, Longtime WCBS Listener,
Cos Cob, CT.
- Ed Salvas (former Shadow/WCBS traffic reporter) 8/9/05. Greetings Don -- I checked out the WCBS appreciation site again and was delighted to see you've posted a picture of (John) Cameron Swayze at the Gibson Lunch. John and I worked together as disc jockeys at WBRK in Pittsfield, Mass. in the Berkshires in 1963 -- I believe it was his first job and the second or third in my brief career at the time. In fact I replaced him when he left 'BRK and wound up I believe at WVIP in Mount Kisco. And a few months later I was drafted into the Army and would you believe in 1989 we were working together again -- he at 'CBS and me at Shadow. I did speak to him once on the phone and I think he "retired" at some point and was then coaxed back on the air and still sounds great in 2005. Ed Salvas
- Mitch Lebe (Bloomberg Radio, former WCBS anchor/reporter) 7/31/05. I have been in on the air in New York City for 47 years. Ten of the best were spent at WCBS, Newsradio 88. I worked as both an anchor and a reporter from December, 1990 to October, 2000. My most vivid reporting memory occurred in the first month of my time there. I covered a subway crash in Union Square. MORE...
- Sherman Kaplan (anchor WBBM, Chicago) 7/27/05. Hello, Don..and from one dinosaur to another.... I kind of stumbled on your tribute page this morning by accident. I don't think we have ever met, though I have been an anchor reporter here in Chicago at Newsradio 780 since February, 1969. I certainly recognize your byline. FWIW, I went into semi-retirement last September and would have left for good. But, it was not the work I was trying to escape, just five hours of anchoring every day. Now, I am on per diem status and co-anchor 11a-2p, including the centerpiece of the day, The WBBM Noon Business Hour. Anyway, enough about me...:-). I really did write to say congrats on the web page. It's looks and sounds great. Sherman Kaplan
- Bill Dumage (The Bill Dumage Radio-TV Archive) 7/14/05. It is about time that this great station had a tribute site. I am a regular listener at night and tune in from time to time on the net...a long-time fan. I have had a quick look at the site and will go back and view it in more detail later. Thanks for the links. I will put up a link for your site when I do an update. Sorry my WCBS schedules/line-ups aren't as detailed as I would like. Simply didn't keep all the info that I used to collect. Again, thanks for letting me know! Bill
- Edward Schwartz (former technical supervisor WCBS) 7/11/05. How can you ever forget, "Don't let them tell you what they said, hear them say it." To be followed by, "Hear it now," followed by ... whatever. MORE...
- Palmer Payne (former anchor WCBS) 7/8/05. Remember the Saturday morning the place filled with smoke? [early 1970s] FDNY arrived and ordered the place evacuated but three of us stayed; me on the air, a tech in the control room and the producer in the newsroom. MORE...
- Barry Siegfried (technical supervisor WCBS-AM) 7/8/05 Don, thank you for giving us all the opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane and pause to reflect about WCBS Newsradio 880's rich and colorful history throughout the years. MORE...
- John Lancellotti (former writer-producer WCBS-AM, WCBS-TV) 7/6/05. The following may clear up a long-standing mystery for Lou Adler, our former news director [at Newsradio 88]. On weekends I'd bring my great Siberian/wolf-dog Togo to the station while I worked my
shift. MORE...
- Ray Sills (technician, CBS Sports) 7/6/05. Bob Maickel forwarded to me the address of your WCBS site. Nicely done! I looked through many of the pages, and it was great to see the names of so many of my colleagues from WCBS radio. MORE...
- Don Blair (former WCBS anchor-reporter) 7/2/05. My two-year tenure at NewsRadio 88 was supported by week-end anchoring and several days of outside reporting during the week as determined by the various desk producers such as Ted Feury, Lou Freizer and others. One day as I sat around the newsroom looking and hoping for some way to make a buck that day, Lou called me over to his desk and assigned me to head up to the Central Park Zoo where a very pregnant lady ape (gorilla) was due any minute. MORE...
- Bob Vaughn (former WCBS anchor) 7/1/05. As I thought back over 21 years at Black Rock, I realized I could probably write a book about the myriad incidents I recall....but...who would read it?! In the '60s and '70s I, like
several of the anchors, did a lot of street work, with many very long
days because of a strange AFTRA contract. MORE...
- Jim George (Radio-History.com) 6/30/05.
Don: Site looks pretty good ...It may be interesting to note, in regards to Pat Parson, that while he may have "retired" in 1990 from the station, he started a company called Seaira Inc., and attempted to start up his own radio station down here at the Jersey Shore at around that time ... The station, originally intended to be a smooth jazz station, did eventually go on the air in 1993, but by that time, it was being operated in conjunction with an Adult Contemporary station in Asbury Park ...
Pat did do morning newscasts on the station between 1993 and 1996, before the station was sold ...I had the pleasure of talking to him a couple of times - nice guy - and I was saddened by his passing last year ... --Pirate Jim
- Wes Vernon (former Washington correspondent) 6/27/05. My mentor in broadcasting told me years ago that in the news business, you'll never have a dull day in your life. That may not be universally true, but it surely applied to the years of the CBS Radio RSNS operation in Washington. Whether it was Watergate, two wars, six presidencies -- the biggest history-making events of the last quarter of the 20th Century--we were there until CBS--by then under new ownership pulled the plug in 1997. MORE...
- John Grimes (former WCBS anchor) 6/27/05. Dear Don, I enjoyed going through the Newsradio Website and seeing the names of so many of the anchors, reporters, editors, engineers, et al. Each
prompted a memory or an image that brought a smile, a laugh, or a tear. MORE...
- Ed Salvas (former Shadow/WCBS traffic reporter) 6/26/05. Hello Don, and congratulations on putting together a most interesting web site about WCBS. I was a traffic reporter for Shadow from 1989-92 and did many reports on the "8s" in the evening and on weekends and also remember the Book Beat reports you did. I will keep my eye on in the site, and think it's a great job. Ed Salvas
- Bob Vaughn (former WCBS anchor) 6/25/05. A great idea for the website and I am glad someone (Don) had the
expertise to put it together. I read thru the offerings
today....brought back a lot of memories: One was the shock of arriving
for my AM shift with Donnelly to learn that Steve Flanders had died. I
am sure it was obvious on the air how shaken I was. Another, of course,
the plane hitting the tower: That was my first day at work for WCBS and
I had (I felt) some good stuff on the air once we got going on FM.
Anyway...congrats to Don and thanks for the site! Best to all. Bob V.
- Bill Diehl (ABC News) 6/25/05. Bob Gibson sent me the info on the 'newsradio 88' website and it's terrific. Love that picture of Harvey and Rita Sands. I remember Rita from the ABC Radio Network, back in the early 70's
when our studios were at 1926 Broadway...she was the lone female engineer at the station...
I think I've even got some film (transferred to video) of her when she was there. I mentioned 'NEW and my former colleague there and close friend Ed Brown has recently started a website devoted just to the station. It's still a work in progress at www.wnew1130.com.
All the best, Bill Diehl
- Walt Wheeler (former WCBS reporter) 6/24/05. Looks great, Don... keep on pluggin'. Think the skyline postcard, front page, is "late 80's" -- before I left in early '89. cheers... and more later. walt
- Wayne Cabot (WCBS anchor) 6/24/05.
I think of you often, my friend. I was going to message you the news that WCBS has asked me to follow in your footsteps and prepare some obits! Not sure I can fill your shoes, but I welcome the assignment. Your WCBS dedication site is a great idea. It warms the heart of this listener-turned-employee. And you are perfect for the task It marries your appreciation of WCBS with your skill as a writer and experience with computers.
News and Recollections 2007
News and Recollections 2006
News and Recollections 2005
WCBS NEWSRADIO88 APPRECIATION SITE
