Posted on 09/03/2020 7:19:24 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
American radio icon “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, who catapulted to national fame playing rock n’ roll hits for teenagers on New York’s “Music Radio 77” WABC (770) from 1961 to 1974 during AM top 40’s heyday, is ready for another turn at the venerable station — and he’s eager to recapture the magic of a bygone era.
The 84-year-old Morrow — born Bruce Meyerowitz in Brooklyn — will debut “Cousin Brucie’s Saturday Night Rock & Roll Party” on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Although 46 years have passed since Morrow left WABC, and many of his listeners are now retired, he tells Inside Radio his mission remains largely unchanged. “This audience wants exactly to re-live the moments they had during the Sixties, during the great days of ‘Music Radio’ on WABC,” he says.
The concept of “oldies,” as it turns out, doesn’t just encompass the music. Several sonic components of Morrow’s original WABC broadcasts — at the behest of fans who have taken to Facebook — will also play a role in the updated broadcast.
“They want the music, number one, but they also want the jingles — the original WABC Music Radio jingles. And that’s very important because that’s part of the sound. And I wasn’t going to do this, but they want the reverb. On WABC in the Sixties we had this little reverb. It wasn’t like anything we have today digitally, but it added a little wetness and a little warmth to what I was doing. They want the telephones and the dedications. In other words, they want to make the connection with the romance of Sixties. And that’s what we’re going to give them.”
Morrow’s return to his WABC roots follows a successful 15-year run at SiriusXM, where he hosted several oldies-focused programs before amicably signing off in late August. The move to WABC was made possible by billionaire John Catsimatidis, a longtime fan of Cousin Brucie’s who still remembers listening to his shows via a small transistor radio he carried around in the 1960s. Catsimatidis acquired WABC last year for a reported $12.5 million.
“I bought WABC sight unseen,” says Catsimatidis, who made his fortune via Gristedes Foods, a supermarket chain with more than 30 locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “I just wrote a personal check and just did it. I re-live the Fifties and Sixties, where I grew up. I loved those years. They were great years. I think the music from those years told a story that we don’t have in today’s music. And I think the people that listen to that music remember where they were when that song is playing.”
Cousin Brucie’s eventual journey back to WABC began when Catsimatidis and his wife, Margo — who had been following Brucie’s SiriusXM broadcasts in recent years — began regularly calling in on Saturday nights with requests. (“John loves Elvis, and he loves the Everly Brothers,” Brucie says.) Things progressed naturally from there.
“I got friendly with John,” Brucie recalls, “and yet I really didn’t know who John was. He was one of my listeners and he was absolutely delightful on the phone, and we’d play the music and he enjoyed the show. Then one day I read a story that somebody bought WABC. And I said, ‘What? How can a person buy WABC?’ … Well, he and I talked, and it was pretty obvious to both of us that eventually we were gonna have to get together because this has been my dream, to come back to the home that started my major career — and started rock n’ roll.”
Morrow is also excited about the expanded reach he’ll have via an array of digital platforms.
“When I was on WABC [originally] we reached a huge audience in the tri-state area,” he recalls. “Then at night when the ionosphere went up we were reaching 39 states. Today that’s no longer necessary. Today, with the technology, with what is happening with the internet and now our 77 WABC Radio app, you can hear us anywhere in the world… It’s an international sport, what’s happening with this radio station!”
It’s fair to say that Cousin Brucie, at least in a professional sense, has come full circle with his return to WABC. You won’t hear him disparage his tenure at SiriusXM, but he says returning to the place where he first made his name “feels like coming home.”
“I learned a long time ago that I talk to people,” he says, “never ever at them. When I’m on that air, with that WABC microphone, I will be communicating directly with that person that’s shopping, taking a shower, driving in the car… I can feel this. I can feel that audience as sure as you’re listening to me right now. I’m back home. I’m back on radio.”
I wondered why he seemed to have disappeared from SiriusXM.
There was a jingle on 77 in late 62 that was done to Chubby Checker’s Limbo Rock. It named all the DJs and ended with ,” hey Sam Holman , Charlie Greer, all the Real Good Guys are here.” At the time WMCA had instituted an FTC suit against WABC for using Good Guys as WMCA had been first with the likes of Joe O’Brien, Harry Harrison, Dan Daniels and B Mitchell Reade. Rather than risk losing, WABC dropped Good Guys and became The All Americans.
I use to listen to him on WABC in the late 60s. Lived in Lebanon, PA and could only pick up WABC at night.
You know, you’re right about that.
Where are Dan Ingrham, Chuck Leonard and Harry Harrison?
I grew up listening to 93 KHJ in Los Angeles with the Boss Jocks: Real Don Steele, Humble Harve, Machine Gun Kelly, Gary Owens and so many more — these guys built Rock ‘n Roll.
He has a channel on Sirius XM radio
Machine Gun Tom Kelly has apparently taken over Cousin Brucie’s old slot on SiriusXM 60’s on 6.
>>Machine Gun Tom Kelly has apparently taken over Cousin Brucie’s old slot on SiriusXM 60’s on 6.<<
Good Lord. What is he, 100?
I do remember Humble Harve’s high speed chase from cops way back when. I think it was HH.
bump
Here in Pittsburgh my earliest memories of Rock-n-Roll radio are of the Groovie Q-vie, KQV. Where Rush Limbaugh once worked under the name Jeff Christie.
A competitor flipped formats to compete with them and billed themselves as “13Q”. They had this fiendishly successful promotion, “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!” They would randomly call people and if you answered your phone “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!” instead of hello you’d win fifty or a hundred bucks, which was still substantial money at the time.
It wasn’t long before nearly EVERYONE in Pittsburgh was answering their phone “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!”. Businesses, dentists offices, 911... I remember my dad, a stickler for telephone etiquette, gathering us all in the living room and reading us the riot act.
“If I EVER hear any of you kids answering MY telephone “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!”...
Years after the promotion had ended you’d still occasionally call someone in Pittsburgh and have them answer the phone “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!”
>> “I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q!”<<
Sounds brilliant :)
In 1965 I worked in the mailroom at WABC and would take my breaks by going to the tenth floor where the studios were and they let me watch the live shows through the soundproof windows. My favorite was Big Dan Ingrahm, but I ran into Cousin Brucie one day in the office and managed to get an autographed photo. These guys were great!
I left NY in 1974.
“Jeff Christie” also worked for WIXZ.
“Thirteen-Sixty-WICKS-ZEE!”
KQV used to have a street-level studio in the Chamber of Commerce Building in downtown Pittsburgh with a window facing the street. Large crowds of teens used to gather outside to do likewise.
“Skip the bother and skip the fuss,
take a public service bus.
Public service sure is great,
it takes you right up to the gate.”
Yup. Laura's dad.
You, me and thousands of others. At Connecticut lakes and LI sound beaches!
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