Requiem for a Rock Legend

Monday, September 13, 1999

"...forget what happened yesterday,
I know that better things are on the way..."

    With a fitting medley of Led Zeppelin`s "Thank You", the Kinks` "Better Things", and the Beatles` "The End", WNEW (102.7) drew to a close its weekday rock programming more than 30 years after the place "Where Rock Lives" first arrived on New York`s airwaves on October 30, 1967.

    Carol Miller, the station`s lone survivor of the `NEW airstaff which kept New York rocking through the 70`s and 80`s, spent Friday evening (9/10) playing listener requests and reminiscing, aptly closing out her final broadcast with Billy Joel`s Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) and Hendrix`s Star Spangled Banner. Veteran New York jocks Tony Pigg, Richard Neer, and Harris Allen spent their last Sunday shows (9/12) spinning their favorites and briefly returning the station to the wide-ranging "progressive rock" sound that was once its hallmark.  Late morning DJ Matt DeVoti said farewell on Monday morning (9/13), playing some of his favorite cuts from his 8-year tenure with the station.

    The distinction of hosting the last music shift fell to relative newcomer Ralph Tortora, who asked listeners to request songs associated with the station`s history, paid tribute to WNEW`s many legendary air personalities, and took a call from Billy Joel, who talked about the station`s influence on him when he was growing up on Long Island. At 3 PM, it was all over, as the station followed the Beatles with...a commercial break.

    The station`s new talk format is being described as "Talk You Can`t Ignore", and its slogan is "FM Talk@102.7".

Return to Archives Index