Mel Karamazin for some reason hated regular radio. Now it’s his son, Craig.
After trying to run Infinity Broadcasting — the former owner of CBS Radio — into the ground, Karmazin joined satellite radio. The idea was to destroy terrestrial radio. He became head of Sirius, merged it with XM, to create Sirius XM radio. Free radio waves? Why not make people pay for it?
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Now Mel’s son, Craig, is one of the people behind the demise of 60 year old WCBS Newsradio 88. The beloved, venerable radio station will become an ESPN radio outpost on August 27th. Everyone will lose their jobs, and a six decade community of radio listeners will get the heave ho.
Craig Karmazin’s company is called Good Karma, but everything here is point to bad karma being visited on him quickly. New York radio already had ESPN up the dial. It also has WFAN, aka the Fan, at 66 on dial where WNBC used to live. Sports is all over the radio. News is not. Audacy, the company that owns Newsradio 88 and WINS, their sister station, is just as much to blame. When Karmazin came calling with this unnecessary idea, Karmazin all too eager to rush in. Legacy broadcasting be damned.
There’s precedent for destruction of New York community radio. WCBS-AM for decades was the corporate cousin of WCBS-FM, the oldies station. In 2005, Infinity abruptly pulled the plug on the FM station, changing to personality free bland Jack FM.
The loss of WCBS-FM was palpable. After two years of no one listening, Infinity brought back the radio station, but in a disemboweled form. For a short time it sounded like the old channel. Still running now, WCBS-FM has been gutted of all its charm. It’s like 80s Muzak interspersed with mostly anonymous announcers.
Almost no one now remembers the nasal tones of John Cameron Swayze, the famed WCBS AM announcer. He doubled a TV spokesman for Timex watches and became famous for the phrase, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” Eventually his son, Cameron Swayze, became identified with the station.
Over the last 30 years, I’ve become accustomed to getting my news from Newsradio 88 in the car, and at home. But streaming has destroyed everything. People get their news from social media and alerts on their phones. No one remembers that when the World Trade Center was hit, we turned immediately to AM Radio. Now car makers are cutting the AM band from their radios. Broadcasting and Cable Magazine has gone out of business. The whole idea of tuning in a far away station late at night would seem foreign to a Facebook user.
My favorite WCBS newscasters were people like Harley Carnes, and Pat Farnak. I still expect to hear their names. Over time they were succeeded by Wayne Cabot and Steve Scott, Marla Diamond phoning in from somewhere in Queens. There was always Rich Lamb. I wait now for Deborah Rodriguez. And Levon Putney? I can’t live without Levon Putney! Peter Haskell had to retire last year because of throat issues, but he was the guy whose eloquent reports you waited for. The legendary Irene Cornell vividly covered the courthouses downtown. Charles Osgood faithfully contributed the Osgood Report. I look forward still to the calming voices of Brigitte Quinn, Paul Murnane, the whole gang. What will happen to Tracy Johnke at the Bloomberg business desk? Tom Kaminsky in his traffic helicopter? Craig Allen with weather? Do you think ESPN will tell us about alternate side of the street parking?
NewsRadio88 has also been a great landing place for out of work journalists. In recent years, there have been lots of fill-ins I was always happy to hear Lynda Lopez, JLo’s hard working sister. Or John Metaxas, or Bud Mishkin. I know I’m forgetting many, but it was always fun hear tony Guida or Michael Schoen.
So this whole world will be replaced by nothing, garbage. If there’s a fire in Midtown, an explosion in the Bronx, a gang in Brooklyn all of these people who trudged out there in miserable weather and wall to wall traffic will be silenced. Instead, we’ll get to hear more cheap jabber from sports fans who want to tell the Yankees or Giants who to play tomorrow night. We need that like we need another Sephora.
Dear Audacy: isn’t bad enough your stock is down to 13 cents? You were booted from the pink sheets. You’ve turned what could have been the greatest, cheap area of communication into a Twilight Zone. Congratulations.
