Category Archives: Obituary

Obituary

Remembering Gary Stevens

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Gary Stevens, a New York Radio DJ Who Spun the British Invasion, Dies at 84

The following is an excerpt from an article in the WSJ. –MCP-

By Chris Kornelis
March 7, 2025 10:00 am ET

New York City. Photo: Stevens family

In May of 1967, Gary Stevens told his listeners that he’d gotten his hands on new music from the Beatles that none of them had heard yet. This is what his listeners tuned in for. Decades before the internet, social media, Napster, Spotify and MTV, radio was where you first heard new releases from the Rolling Stones, the Supremes and the Righteous Brothers.

Stevens was one of the WMCA “Good Guys,” the New York station’s roster of DJs at the height of the British Invasion and the halcyon days of Motown. The Beatles had already released “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” earlier in the year, but Stevens didn’t just have a new single. He had an entire album: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” He claimed that his sidekick—a bear named Wooly Burger—had smuggled it out of England.

“People were not just tuning in to hear music and call letters and news, they tuned in for a friend, a familiar voice that made you feel good,” said Bruce Morrow, aka “Cousin Brucie,” who competed directly against Stevens in the night slot at WABC, where he still hosts a show He added: “If you were successful, you knew the secret: how to talk right directly to an audience. Gary had that secret.”

Write to Chris Kornelis at chris.kornelis@wsj.com

Editor’s Note: Although Mr. Stevens was not a WNEW alumni, he worked with many at WMCA who later landed at WNEW, including, Edward Brown.

Obituary, Personal, Staff

Remembering Edward Brown

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Today is a hard day as it reminds us all that it’s been a year since we lost you.   A year?   How is that even possible, when each day without you can feel like an eternity. I hope you know how much you are loved and dearly missed.

Edward Brown
Ed & Jean

 

 

 

 

 


Edward C. Brown, of Sun City Center, FL, and formerly of New York, NY, passed away on September 15th, 2023 at his home with his family by his side, a week before his 90th birthday.

Dad’s heart overflowed with kindness, gentleness, caring, giving, love, and humility.
The Family of Edward Brown

I share with you now, a favorite song of Dad’s.

Marianne (Brown) Palmer
-30-

Remembering This Site’s Founding Father!!

The ever-pensive and always fair Edward Brown is more than a little deserving of some meaningful ink at this juncture! Though not one to ever call attention to himself, it’s now been exactly one year since we lost this accomplished broadcast journalist, news analyst and friend on September 15, 2023, a week before his 90th birthday.

©ECB Family archives

When it came to getting it said, Ed was a master storyteller, respected by his colleagues, and his listeners and viewers in a nearly half-century career that took him from suburban radio stations on Long Island before he stepped up to New York’s WMCA for a half dozen years and a full decade at WNEW. His tenure at the latter was punctuated by AP and UPI awards, particularly for his commentaries on Watergate. In addition, he made appearances on WNEW Television’s “Ten O’clock News” as an analyst. His superb writing and commanding voice also led to Edward winning a network position as an analyst for NBC’s News and Information Service, a news broadcaster on NBC Radio and an important contributor to NBC Radio’s 1976 election coverage.

Before he and wife, Jean, moved to Florida, Ed did his final news anchoring and on-air writing at WCHL Radio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Ed’s retirement years were spent in Sun City Center, Florida and it was there, at home, where the spotlight on his labor of love focused on WNEW1130.com. Yes, that is this very site where you are seeing this remembrance and a wholesome outpouring of stories tied to that once-prestigious New York Radio Station.

I am delighted to be among a small group of gifted, retired broadcasters who are privileged to write for this web site and can only hope this flashback would have passed muster with Ed and his daughter, Marianne, who is our Editor!

Bob Gibson

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History, Obituary

Kid In The Kitchen “How I Got This Way”

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TV legend Regis Philbin, a household name during his ever-present, six-decade career on the small screen, died Friday of natural causes. He was 88.

Philbin, embraced by millions for a not-overly-polished familiarity and brisk speaking style that seemed more neighborhood than Hollywood, was a dominant TV force in daytime for more than two decades, co-hosting “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee” and “Live With Regis and Kelly.” He briefly became the king of prime time, too, as host of game-show phenomenon “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.”

Philbin’s family confirmed the news to USA TODAY in a statement sent Saturday by his representative, Lewis Kay.

“We are deeply saddened to share that our beloved Regis Philbin passed away last night of natural causes, one month shy of his 89th birthday,” his family wrote.        USA TODAY

KID IN THE KITCHEN

 EDIT

“How I Got This Way”  by Regis Philbin

Chapter I  Bing Crosby

Young Regis PhilbinIt all began with Bing Crosby during the Depression of the thirties. I must have been six or seven years old at the time. My family lived on the bottom floor of a two-story house on Cruger Avenue in the Bronx, and every night at 9:30, I sat by my little radio in our kitchen and listened to a half hour of Bing’s records regularly spilling out over WNEW. His voice was so clear, so pure and so warm that after awhile I thought of him as my good friend. Even though he was out in faraway, glamorous Hollywood and I was in the humble old Bronx, in my mind we truly were friends and would always spend that special half hour together, just the two of us.

I listened to those songs of the Depression era and, even as a kid, I understoodBing Crosby that the songwriters were trying to give hope to a struggling and downtrodden public. I grew to love those lyrics and what they said to me. I swear to you that those same songs have stayed with me for the rest of my life, and during various dark periods when I hit those inevitable bumps along the way, I would actually sing them to myself. Like “When skies are cloudy and gray, they’re only gray for a day. So wrap your troubles in dreams, and dream your troubles away.”

Thanks to Bill Diehl for reminding us of the excerpt above from the Regis Philbin autobiography “How I Got This Way,” Doubleday Book Club. Photos added by WNEW1130 editors.