WABC

by Kevin Walsh

Anyone who knows me well knows that the job I always wished I could have had was a Top 40 disk jockey in the 1960s, with the jokes, the patter, the jingles and the greatest pop music in history. In the 1960s a variety of radio stations employed the Top 40 pop format, among them WMCA, WINS and the greatest of them all, WABC, which stuck with it from 1960-1982, employing Harry Harrison, (Swing) Charlie (Swing) Greer, Ron Lundy, Herb Oscar Anderson and of course, Daaaaaaaaan Ingram.

At first WABC jocks were called “the Good Guys” but after WMCA pilfered the moniker, WABC switched to “The All-Americans.”

This painted sign from the mid to late 1970s has somehow survived on a building on St. Nicholas Avenue just south of West 145th Street.

12 comments

Adrastos November 7, 2011 - 11:23 am

OMG < I remember this radio station.

Cousin Brucie….AM radio !!!

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barb g November 7, 2011 - 12:56 pm

wmca started the goodguys in 1957. i wanted to work for b mitchel reed. went to all his public gigs. i was 12-13. radio was king in those days. i wanted to work on radio too.!!

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Mike Smutko November 7, 2011 - 2:05 pm

You forgot “Cousin Brucie” and his dance party- !

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Laura November 7, 2011 - 6:18 pm

Seventy-seven, double-u a-b-ceeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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Alec November 8, 2011 - 11:44 am

George Michael, later of Sports Machine fame, also did time at WABC. I can hear his name jingle now.

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Dave November 8, 2011 - 1:40 pm

Michael, who had a long career as a sportscaster on Washington D.C.’s NBC affiliate, WRC, died in 2009.

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John Shea November 9, 2011 - 12:29 pm

Boring fact – the jingle “seventy-seven, double – u – A – B – C” uses the same notes as the song “I’ll take Manhattan”, with a different rythm.

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dave in milwaukee November 11, 2011 - 3:07 am

Wow . . .what memories this brings back! Besides Cousin Brucie, there was Harry Harrison, Dan Ingram (when they sang his name in the jingle, it sounded like a single word: “Daningram!”), Chuck Leonard, et al.

And how about all the classic commercials: Clearasil, Stri-Dex (and various other zit products); H.I.S. pants (remember the jingle: “H.I.S. is into you,” and the one with Jay and the Americans); Coke: “Don’t Litter, Please” (sung by The Glass Bottle), etc.

And when they’d play an “oldie” (like from one or–gasp!–two years ago), the jingle was “Playback, Sixty-Eight!” (or whatever year the song was from).

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Jim November 13, 2011 - 2:13 am

That station was the soundtrack for my childhood. When we moved further out on the island, I would still listen to it through the static, even when I had an FM radio. I also had quite of few of those musical note/smiley face stickers.

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Rich November 15, 2011 - 6:47 pm

No one mentioned Murray The K and his submarine screen door. Those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end. The greatest music ever was born in the 50’s and early 60’s. Then came the Beatles and all was lost and pretty much forgotten by that Beatles generation.

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Marty August 23, 2017 - 10:32 pm

Murray The K never worked at WABC

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Doe Sherman April 16, 2020 - 9:30 am

I remember working in a bakery with Messislaw Kowalski and listening to them. I though they were saying Standing Room instead of Dan Ingram.

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