WMCA (570 AM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York. Founded in 1925, the station has programmed several formats over the decades; since 1989, it has offered a Christian radio format of teaching and talk programs.
The station shares its Lower Manhattan studios with WNYM (970 AM); both are owned by Salem Media Group. WMCA's transmitter sits along Belleville Turnpike in Kearny, New Jersey; its programming is simulcast on a 250-watt translator, W272DX (102.3 MHz), from a tower in Clifton, New Jersey.
In the 1960s, the station was a Top 40 outlet featuring a lineup of disc jockeys known as the "Good Guys". It is credited with having been the first New York radio station to broadcast a recording by The Beatles. During the 1970s and 1980s, WMCA was a talk radio station.
History Early years
After first testing as station 2XH, WMCA began regular transmission on February 22, 1925, broadcasting on 428.6 meters wavelength (700 kHz) with a power of 500 watts. It was the 13th radio station to begin operations in New York City and was owned by broadcasting pioneer Donald Flamm. The station's original studios and antenna were located at the Hotel McAlpin, located on Herald Square and from which the WMCA call sign derives.
In 1928 it moved to the 570 kHz frequency, sharing time for the next three years with municipally owned WNYC. On April 19, 1932, the Federal Radio Commission approved WMCA's application to broadcast full-time on 570 kHz.
In December 1940, Flamm had to surrender the station to industrialist Edward J. Noble, who had just resigned as Undersecretary of Commerce, in a transaction involving prominent political figures including Thomas Corcoran. Flamm's subsequent legal battle against Noble resulted in a congressional investigation and eventually ended in a financial settlement, though not the return of the station.
Through its early decades, WMCA had a varied programming history, playing music, hosting dramas, and broadcasting New York Giants baseball games. Beginning in the 1930s, WMCA carried the daily Morning Cheer religious program of George A. Palmer, originating in Philadelphia. In 1943, the station was acquired by the Straus family when Edward J. Noble acquired the Blue Network and its owned-and-operated stations from NBC, including WJZ in New York; the Blue Network would later be renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
WMCA broadcast the first Negro-oriented anthology series New World A'Coming, written by Roi Ottley in 1944. And in 1945, host Barry Gray began dropping music and adding talk with celebrities and later call-ins from listeners. Gray is sometimes considered "The Father of Talk Radio", and his show on WMCA lasted through several decades and format changes.
WMCA began playing hit music in the late 1950s with a Top 40 format. Among its disc jockey staff were Scott Muni, Frankie Crocker, Harry Harrison, and Murray the K.
Good Guys era
In 1960, WMCA began promoting itself by stressing its on-air personalities, who were collectively known as the Good Guys. The station was led by program director Ruth Ann Meyer, the first woman to hold the position in New York City radio. This was the era of the high-profile, fast-talking Top 40 disc jockey with an exuberant personality aimed at a youthful audience. With the advent of the Good Guys format, WMCA saw its ratings increase and become known for "playing the hits".
In the early 1960s, the top 40 format was still young, and the field was crowded in New York City. Two major 50,000-watt stations, WMGM and WINS, had battled each other, playing the top hits for several years. Then in 1960, WABC joined the fray and started featuring top 40 music. Ultimately, the competition between WMCA and WABC forced WMGM (in early 1962) and then WINS (in spring 1965) to abandon the top-40 format and find new niches.
The classic Good Guys era lineup included: Joe O'Brien, an industry veteran whose humor appealed to multiple generations. (6am–10am) Harry Harrison, whose show was aimed at housewives of that era. (10am–1pm) Jack Spector, whose closing line was "Look out street, here I come!" (1pm–4pm) Dandy Dan Daniel a lanky, smooth-talking Texan, and his daily countdown. (4pm–7pm) Gary Stevens and his "Wooleyburger" bear, aimed at teenagers listening on small transistor radios in their rooms. (7pm–11pm - First show was in April 1965) B. Mitchel Reed, "BMR, Your Leader" Reed was the evening personality on WMCA from 1963 to 1965. He was part of the team that took WMCA to the top in 1963. He left the station in the spring of 1965, to return to L.A.'s troubled KFWB, where he had worked before WMCA. His on-air hours were the same as Gary Stevens. Barry Gray, a talk show host who had been on WMCA before the Top 40 era and continued after it. (11pm–1am) Dean Anthony, "Dino on your radio" with his "Actors and Actresses" game (1am–6am). Weekends and fill-in, Ed Baer, Frank Stickle, and Bill Beamish. Owner R. Peter Straus was one of the first station owners to frequently read editorials on air, commenting on current events.
Straus was an active owner. In an on-air editorial, he endorsed John F. Kennedy for President in 1960. He also wrote and read the first broadcast editorial calling for the impeachment of Pres. Richard Nixon. In 1961, Straus and WMCA filed a lawsuit charging that the state legislature was violating the Constitution by giving rural areas disproportionate representation. That suit, combined with others, led to the Supreme Court of the United States 1964 "one man, one vote" decision. During the later talk era, Straus would sometimes go on the air to take listener questions and comments about the radio station.
On Friday nights, Gary Stevens ended at 10:30 and WMCA's locally produced, half-hour news show The World Tonite aired. (This was a local recap of the week's news, and should not be confused with Garner Ted Armstrong's The World Tomorrow religious program, which was heard on WMCA after the Good Guys era ended.)
Dan Daniel's countdown changed each week and consisted of the station's top 25 records. It also included a "Sure Shot" and "Long Shot" of records not yet on the chart. He also gave away his "Hit Kit" every day to a listener who had been chosen from postcards sent to the station. The "Hit Kit" consisted of a copy of each of the Top 25 records of the week. To claim this prize, listeners had to call in when they heard their name read on the air.
The Beatles On December 26, 1963, WMCA, with Jack Spector as the DJ, earned the distinction of being the first New York City radio station to play the Beatles' Capitol Records' single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". (Outside New York, the song's broadcast debut in America is widely accepted to have occurred earlier at WWDC in Washington, D.C.) There is no evidence that any New York City radio station played the Beatles before December 1963 despite the fact that the band's first singles had been released earlier, without fanfare, by smaller, resource-challenged labels (Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records). However, according to one account, rival Top 40 outlet WINS "reportedly" played the band's Swan Records single "She Loves You" on September 28, 1963, as part of a listener's poll. After the song finished last (third place), it was quickly dropped from the station's playlist. WMCA was keen on playing new songs and breaking new hits and, consequently, it became the radio station most credited for introducing Beatlemania, and the subsequent "British Invasion" musical movement to New Yorkers.
While network-owned WABC was busy broadcasting New York Mets baseball games in the summer of 1963, family-owned WMCA was the music-intensive station that one would hear coming out of transistor radios at pools and beaches. Starting in 1963, the WMCA's Good Guys soared to the top of New York City's Arbitron ratings. WMCA also was known for its on-air production and promotions. Each hour, WMCA presented its music, jingles, promotions, contests, stagers, and commercials in a tight, upbeat fast-paced style. Some radio industry veterans attribute WABC's "stodgy sound" to standards applied by its corporate ownership and to its staff of longtime (and older) studio engineers. This fueled speculation that independently owned WMCA had younger, more "hip" board-operators with a better understanding of the top 40 format aimed at younger adults. Whatever the reason, the "sparkling sound" presented on-air by WMCA also contributed to its ratings success in New York City, the largest radio market in the United States.
WMCA's most famous promotions and contests involved the Beatles. Shortly after the band's arrival in the United States on February 7, 1964, WMCA secured the Beatles' cooperation, recording several commercials promoting the station's "Good Guys". Many believe this cooperation was directly linked to the band's awareness of WMCA being the first radio station in New York City to play "I Want to Hold Your Hand" weeks earlier. According to industry observers, WMCA's success getting John Lennon and Ringo Starr to record several spots on behalf of WMCA convinced listeners that the station (along with WINS personality Murray the K, who called himself "The Fifth Beatle") had direct access to the group. This was despite the fact that during their first New York visit the band's movements were restricted to the Plaza Hotel, Central Park, CBS Studio 50 (where they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show), the 21 Club, the Peppermint Lounge, and Carnegie Hall.
In February 1964, WMCA held a contest for a chance to win a lock of hair belonging to Ringo Starr. It received nearly 90,000 entries. The lock of hair, and a runner-up prize of a photograph on a fan club card signed by all four the Beatles, were obtained directly from the group during marathon "one-on-one" meetings and a reception held with print and broadcast personnel at Plaza Hotel on February 10. Other runner-up prizes distributed by WMCA that were not directly handled by the Beatles included 1,000 specially made WMCA paper record sleeves picturing the Good Guys, containing the band's single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", as well as $57.00 in cash, reminding listeners of WMCA's spot on the radio dial.
Contrary to some accounts, the enormous number of entries received by WMCA, an estimated 86,000 cards, letters, and packages, were from Beatle fans seeking only to obtain the lock of Starr's hair. For this "Good Guy-Ringo Starr Contest" (better known today as the "Beatles' Wig Contest") WMCA's listeners were encouraged to send in a drawing or picture of a person wearing a Beatles' wig. The winning entry from Roberta Corrigan (who won the lock of hair) featured a huge image of Queen Elizabeth II with a Beatles wig on her head, along with several other images including one of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wearing the same, all submitted in a book with captions for each. Runner-up winner Stella Scuotto of Brooklyn won the photograph of the Beatles on a fan club card signed by all four members of the band at the Plaza Hotel. According to Beatles' historian Bruce Spizer, Kay Smith was also a runner-up winner, winning $57 and the rare record sleeve for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", featuring a picture of WMCA's Good Guys. WMCA continued to beat other radio stations on many Beatles' promotions, scoring firsts, causing headaches in particular for rival WABC, most notably when Capitol Records printed a photograph of the "Good Guys" lineup on the back of a limited edition record sleeve for the single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Side 2: "I Saw Her Standing There"). WMCA's Good Guys were also featured at both of the Beatles' concerts at Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965, and August 23, 1966.