Cousin Brucie, WABC, and the Demise of AM Radio

by Bob Bembridge in Reviews

Movin and a groovin, Big M

Movin and a groovin, Big M

Movin and a groovin, having a ball

With Cousin Bruce

How important were Cousin Brucie and WABC Radio to New York area teens in the Sixties?

Imagine the Pope, the President, and Mickey Mantle rolled into one.  Maybe throw in Roger Maris.

AM radio was where it was at in the early Sixties.  And to many of us in the New York area, AM radio meant Cousin Brucie and fellow WABC DJs Dan Ingram, Charlie Greer, Scott Muni, Chuck Leonard, and Ron Lundy.  Thanks to WABC’s 50,000-watt signal and far-reaching nighttime radio waves, Cousin Brucie’s show was carried around the country and the world.

Bruce Morrow’s 1987 autobiography, Cousin Brucie: My Life in Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio, is an entertaining read — and more.   Morrow offers intelligent insights into the rise — and demise — of innocent and upbeat early Sixties pop exemplified by the Four Seasons, Neil Sedaka, Beach Boys, and Beatles.

Morrow came to WABC in early 1961 after several producing and DJ gigs, including one at WINS, New York’s top rock station.  WINS was home to Murray the K, who in 1964 would market himself as “The Fifth Beatle.” According to Morrow, Murray the K stole his 7 to11 timeslot by undermining his popularity with advertisers.  

When Cousin Brucie came to WABC, it was the eighth or ninth station in the New York market and no competition to WINS or WMCA.  By the end of the year WABC was number one, thanks to the manic shtick of Morrow and other WABC DJs such as Charlie Greer and Dan Ingram.

Morrow indirectly disputes the notion that rock music “died” between the 1959 death of Buddy Holly and the 1964 British Invasion led by the Beatles.  Those five years produced some of America’s greatest rock and roll artists such as Neil Sedaka, the Four Seasons, Bobby Rydell, and Dion.  (If you don’t believe me, start listening to Comcast’s Solid Gold Oldies channel.)

Cousin Brucie’s shtick would sound corny today. But in the early Sixties we thought it was the epitome of cool.  Corny or not, Morrow understands why Top 40 AM stations began to lose listeners to looser formatted FM stations.  The change, according to Morrow, came about because AM stations played only top selling 45 RPM singles.   This practice ignored the reality that rock albums were increasing in popularity.  Many songs by up and coming artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Doors never made it on the singles charts, and many other popular groups without a hit single were ignored by AM radio.  Thus, popular taste and AM radio began to move in opposite directions.  FM stations could also play songs in stereo.  Morrow writes:

By the end of the Sixties, AM was hanging on to singles like a drowning man hanging on to a small lifesaver . . . The Top Forty records were no longer the pulse of the music industry.  Baby Boomers had stereo systems now. . . . The switch was on and it was the most powerful switch in all of radio, and probably broadcast, history.  The switch was from AM to FM and it heralded the death of Top Forty radio.

Next time: A forgotten Sixties gem