View source for WABC (AM)

{{short description|Clear-channel talk radio station licensed to New York City}}
{{About|the radio station currently using the call letters WABC|other uses of this call sign|WABC (disambiguation){{!}}WABC}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name = WABC
| city = [[New York, New York]]
| country = US
| area = [[New York metropolitan area]]
| logo = WABC Radio logo 2021.png
| logo_upright = .8
| frequency = 770 [[kHz]]
| branding = ''Talkradio 77 WABC''
| languages = [[American English|English]]
| format = {{ubl|[[Conservative talk radio]]|[[oldies]] (Saturday nights)}}
| affiliations = {{ubl|[[Fox News Radio]]|[[NBC News Radio]]|[[Salem Radio Network]]|[[Westwood One]]|[[WNYW]]}}
| owner = [[John Catsimatidis]]<ref name=nypost-catsimatidis>{{cite news |title=John Catsimatidis acquires 77 WABC radio for $12.5 million |url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/27/john-catsimatidis-acquires-77-wabc-radio-for-12-5-million/ |access-date=June 28, 2019 |newspaper=New York Post |date=June 27, 2019 }}</ref><ref name=amny02032020>{{cite web |url=https://www.amny.com/entertainment/new-york-city-radio-station-talkradio-77-wabc-under-new-ownership/ |title=New York City radio station TALKRADIO 77 WABC under new ownership |last=Davenport |first=Emily |date=March 2, 2020 |website=amny.com |access-date=March 2, 2020 }}</ref>
| licensee = Red Apple Media, Inc.
| sister_stations = {{hlist|[[WLIR-FM]]|[[WRCR]]}}
| airdate = {{Start date|1921|10|1}}
| former_callsigns = WJZ (1921–1953)
| former_frequencies = {{ubl|833&nbsp;kHz (1921–1923)|660&nbsp;kHz (1923–1928)|760&nbsp;kHz (1928–1941)}}
| callsign_meaning = formerly owned by the [[American Broadcasting Company]]
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| facility_id = 70658
| class = A ([[Clear-channel station|Clear channel]])
| power = {{val|50000|u=watts|fmt=commas}}
| coordinates = {{ubl|{{coord|40|52|50.3|N|74|4|9.1|W|type:landmark_region:US-NY_source:FCC|display=inline,title}} (main)|{{coord|40|52|50.6|N|74|4|4.6|W|type:landmark_region:US-NY_source:FCC|name=WABC (auxiliary)}} (auxiliary)}}
| repeaters = {{ubl|{{Radio Relay|107.1|WLIR-FM|[[Hampton Bays]]}}|{{Radio Relay|1700|WRCR|[[Haverstraw]]}}}}
| webcast = {{iHeartRadio|5349}}
| website = {{URL|https://www.wabcradio.com}}
}}
'''WABC''' (770 [[AM broadcasting|AM]]) is a commercial radio station licensed to [[New York, New York]], carrying a [[conservative talk radio]] format known as "Talkradio 77". The station is the flagship of [[John Catsimatidis]]' Red Apple Media. Its studios are located in Red Apple Media headquarters on Third Avenue in [[Midtown Manhattan]] and its transmitter is in [[Lodi, New Jersey]]. Its 50,000-watt [[omnidirectional antenna|non-directional]] [[Clear-channel station|clear channel]] signal can be heard at night throughout much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada. It is the primary entry point for the [[Emergency Alert System]] in the [[New York metropolitan area]] and [[New Jersey]]. WABC simulcasts on [[WLIR-FM]] in [[Hampton Bays, New York]], on [[eastern Long Island]].<ref>{{cite web |title=WABC Simulcast on WLIR-FM Begins |url=https://wabcradio.com/2020/07/01/wabc-simulcast-on-wlir-begins/ |website=wabcradio.com |access-date=October 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702022950/https://wabcradio.com/2020/07/01/wabc-simulcast-on-wlir-begins/ |archive-date=July 2, 2020 }}</ref>

Owned and operated by the [[American Broadcasting Company]] for much of its history, it is one of the country's oldest radio stations. WABC began broadcasting in early October 1921, originally as WJZ in [[Newark, New Jersey]]. From 1943 through 2007, the station served as the [[flagship (broadcasting)|flagship]] for [[Cumulus Media Networks|the original ABC Radio Network]] (and its direct predecessor, the [[Blue Network]]) and ABC's [[ABC News Radio|radio news service]]. While WABC has been a [[talk radio]] station since 1982, the station broadcast a [[Top 40]] music format from 1960 to 1982. Starting in the 1960s to 1978, WABC was not only the dominant contemporary music station in New York City, but was also among the most listened-to radio stations in North America, serving as a template for many other Top 40 stations around the country.

==History==
===WJZ Newark (1921–1923)===
[[File:1922 WJZ Newark radio studio.JPEG|thumb|Original WJZ Newark studio. The microphone is the horizontal cylinder located at the upper right.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924106559754&view=1up&seq=191 "The Birthday of WJZ"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225102233/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924106559754&view=1up&seq=191 |date=February 25, 2021 }}, ''Literary Digest'', July 15, 1922, page 27.</ref>]]
In November 1920, the [[Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company]] had established its first broadcasting station, [[KDKA (AM)|KDKA]], located in its plant at [[East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], to promote the sale of [[radio receiver]]s. This initial station proved successful, so the next year the company developed plans to set up additional stations in major population centers, including, in addition to the New York City area, [[WBZ (AM)|WBZ]], originally in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], and [[KYW (AM)|KYW]], originally in Chicago, Illinois.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008420257&view=1up&seq=331 "List of stations broadcasting market reports (485 meters) and music. concerts, lectures, etc. (360 meters), (March 10, 1922)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524201708/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008420257&view=1up&seq=331 |date=May 24, 2022 }}, ''Radio Service Bulletin'', March 1, 1922, pages 13-14.</ref>

On September 30, 1921, Westinghouse was issued a broadcasting authorization for a station with the randomly assigned call letters WJZ,<ref>It has been speculated that the call letters might have signified New Jersey; however, this appears to be a case of [[folk etymology]], as there are no contemporary references to support this.</ref> located at the company's meter factory at Orange and Plane streets in [[Newark, New Jersey]], and transmitting on a wavelength of 360 meters (833&nbsp;kHz).<ref>Limited Commercial license, serial No. 230, issued September 30, 1921, for a one-year term. The station had previously been issued a license in May 1921, but was not used for broadcasting at that time.</ref>

WJZ's studio and transmitter were initially housed in a shack located on a factory roof that was only accessible by ladder. The station later expanded to a larger studio on the factory's ground floor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barnouw |first=Erik |title=A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States Volume 1 - to 1933 |year=1966 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0195004744 |page=87 }}</ref> The station began test transmissions around October 1, 1921, followed, beginning October 5, by broadcasts of the [[1921 World Series]] baseball games. Announcer [[Thomas Cowan (broadcaster)|Thomas H. Cowan]] in Newark simply relayed the description phoned in from the [[Polo Grounds]] baseball field by ''[[Newark Sunday Call]]'' sportswriter [[Sanford Hunt|Sandy Hunt]].<ref name="Douglas1987a">{{cite book |last=Douglas |first=George |title=The Early Days of Radio Broadcasting |year=1987 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina and London |isbn=0-89950-285-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/earlydaysofradio0000doug/page/118 118] |url=https://archive.org/details/earlydaysofradio0000doug/page/118 }}</ref> (At first station announcers were identified only by initials; in Cowan's case as "ACN", for "Announcer-Cowan-Newark".)<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3566875&view=1up&seq=69 "I looked and I listened"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715123738/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3566875&view=1up&seq=69 |date=July 15, 2021 }} by Ben Cross, 1954, page 57.</ref>

[[File:1922 Man in the Moon bedtime story poster.JPEG|thumb|The nightly "Man in the Moon" bedtime stories were a popular early feature.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/radiodealer02unse/page/n89/mode/2up |title=Advertisement for Clark and Tilson Company |magazine=The Radio Dealer |issue=1 |date=October 1922 |volume=2 |pages=84–85 |access-date=March 14, 2018 }}</ref>]]
The station soon expanded to feature a wide variety of live programming. A popular early feature was the "Man in the Moon" bedtime stories, written by [[Josephine Lawrence]] and read over the air by Bill McNeary (both were ''Newark Sunday Call'' employees). Beginning on November 27, 1921, a weekly 90-minute show presented by the [[Vincent Lopez]] band was aired.<ref>Pat Browne,''The guide to United States popular culture''. Popular Press, 2001, p.611. {{ISBN|0-87972-821-3 }}</ref>

When it began its broadcast service, WJZ was the only station in the [[Tri-State Region|New York City area]] transmitting on 360 meters. In mid-December 1921 station [[WDY]], operated by the [[Radio Corporation of America]] (RCA) from [[Roselle Park]], New Jersey, began sharing the wavelength, with WJZ now broadcasting on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and WDY operating on the other three nights. This soon ended when WDY ceased operations in mid-February 1922 and was merged with WJZ, with RCA now assuming half of WJZ's expenses. However, within a few months a large number of additional broadcasting stations began operating on 360 meters, and WJZ was stubborn about having to share "its" wavelength. In May 1922 a proposed time-sharing agreement among 15 local stations assigned more than half of the available airtime to WJZ, but the station did not feel this was sufficient, which in turn led the Radio Broadcasting Society of America to petition that WJZ's license be canceled for being uncooperative.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013717361&view=1up&seq=471 "War Between Broadcasting Stations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224163520/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013717361&view=1up&seq=471 |date=February 24, 2021 }}, ''Radio Broadcast'', October 1922, pages 457-458.</ref>

There were no formal standards in the United States defining broadcasting stations until December 1, 1921, when the [[Department of Commerce]]—which regulated radio at this time—issued a regulation specifying that stations making broadcasts intended for the general public now had to hold a Limited Commercial license that authorized operation on 360 or 485 meters.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066705633&view=1up&seq=200 |title=Amendments to Regulations |magazine=[[Bureau of Navigation]] [[Department of Commerce]] Radio Service Bulletin |page=10 |date=January 3, 1922 |access-date=March 14, 2018 |archive-date=October 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011110035/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066705633&view=1up&seq=200 |url-status=live }}</ref> WJZ was one of a small number of stations that already met this standard at the time of its adoption. It was also the second-oldest of the two licenses previously issued for the state of New Jersey, preceded by [[RCA Corporation|RCA]]'s WDY grant. However, WJZ was the first to go on the air, as WDY did not begin operations until 2{{frac|1|2}} months after WJZ's debut.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002666587&view=1up&seq=260 ''History of Radio to 1926''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715124808/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002666587&view=1up&seq=260 |date=July 15, 2021 }} by Gleason L. Archer, 1938, page 220.</ref>

WJZ had difficulty convincing New York City performers – who were not paid – to make the trek to Newark, so on February 5, 1922, a more convenient remote studio was opened at the [[Waldorf-Astoria (New York, 1893)|Waldorf-Astoria]], located on [[Fifth Avenue]] and [[34th Street (Manhattan)|34th Street]].<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112061168321&view=1up&seq=260 "WJZ Opens New Studio"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008073352/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112061168321&view=1up&seq=260 |date=October 8, 2023 }}, ''National Electragist (Radio Service Supplement)'', March 1923, page 4.</ref> The [[American Telephone & Telegraph Company]] (AT&T) was unwilling to provide a telephone line to connect the Waldorf-Astoria studio to the Newark transmitter, so the link was instead made using specially prepared [[telegraph]] wires provided by [[Western Union]]. However, this expedient only provided marginal audio quality, and "the line was so noisy that when Newcomb Carleton, the president of Western Union, broadcast over it, his voice was completely drowned out".<ref>''Sarnoff: An American Success'' by [[Carl Dreher]], 1977, page 73.</ref>

On March 15, 1922, WJZ broadcast a studio performance of [[The Impresario|Mozart's Impresario]], probably the first full-length opera broadcast in the New York City area. In October 1922, the station aired its second [[1922 World Series|World Series]], this time also feeding it to [[WGY (AM)|WGY]] in [[Schenectady, New York]]. Shortly after midnight on December 9, 1922, WJZ became the first broadcasting station confirmed to have been heard in Europe, consisting of a short program featuring greetings from the British consul in New York to British listeners and [[Oliver Twist (Vaughn De Leath song)|Vaughn De Leath singing her "Oliver Twist" song]].<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050612020&view=1up&seq=329 "Vaughn De Leath"], interview by T. J. Dunham, ''Wireless Age'', February 1923, page 27.</ref>

===WJZ New York City (1923—1953)===
====Takeover by RCA====
[[File:Aeolian Hall (1923).jpg|thumb|Beginning in May 1923 the WJZ studios and towers were located (along with WJY) at [[Aeolian Hall (Manhattan)|Aeolian Hall]] in New York City.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441048&view=1up&seq=468 "Aeolian Hall, New York"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812211212/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441048&view=1up&seq=468 |date=August 12, 2022 }}, ''Radio Broadcast'', April 1923, page 442.</ref>]]
May 15, 1923, saw a number of simultaneous major changes. Most notably, on this day the station moved from Newark to New York City, and the ownership was changed from joint Westinghouse-RCA responsibility to full control by RCA. WJZ moved to studios on the sixth floor of the building where the [[Aeolian Hall (New York)|Aeolian Hall]] was located, and station publicity heralded the upgrade: "Located in the heart of the city's musical and theatrical district, where entertainment of the highest order is ever available, this station will offer to the American public the most elaborate radio programs yet attempted and with a degree of faithfulness in reproduction that marks the beginning of a new era in radio broadcasting."<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112061168321&view=1up&seq=344 "New York's Super Station"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725075228/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112061168321&view=1up&seq=344 |date=July 25, 2022 }}, ''National Electragist'', June 1923, pages 44, 46.</ref> This was also the day that the Department of Commerce implemented an expansion of the broadcast band, which now consisted of a range of transmitting frequencies from 550 to 1350, with WJZ assigned the sole use of 660. Finally, a sister station with the call letters of [[WJY (New York City)|WJY]] operating on 740, was established, which shared the "Broadcast Central" Aeolian Hall studios, with WJZ providing more serious programming, and WJY's offerings considered more informal.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050612020&view=1up&seq=692 "Radio Broadcast Central"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816151342/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050612020&view=1up&seq=692 |date=August 16, 2022 }}, ''Wireless Age'', July 1923, pages 40-41.</ref>

Program logs from May 15 to December 31, 1923, show WJZ aired 3,426 programs, including 723 talks, 67 church services, 205 bedtime stories and 21 sports events.<ref>[https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-Decade-of-Radio-Advertising-Hettinger-1933.pdf#page=227 ''A Decade of Radio Advertising''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715142132/https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-Decade-of-Radio-Advertising-Hettinger-1933.pdf#page=227 |date=July 15, 2021 }} by Herman S. Hettinger, 1933, page 216.</ref> Many of the broadcasts were musical and ranged from [[Carnegie Hall]] and Aeolian Hall recitals to harmonica and banjo solos.<ref>[https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/This-Thing-Called-Broadcasting-Alfred-Goldsmith.pdf#page=119 ''This Thing Called Broadcasting''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926100643/https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/This-Thing-Called-Broadcasting-Alfred-Goldsmith.pdf#page=119 |date=September 26, 2021 }} by Alfred N. Goldsmith and Austin C. Lescarboura, 1930, pages 99-101.</ref>

As part of the move to Aeolian Hall, WJZ's transmitting antenna was constructed atop the building, but the location in the middle of New York City proved to be a poor choice. At the end of 1925, the station began operations from a new transmitter site located at [[Bound Brook, New Jersey]]. WJZ did not operate regularly at 50,000 watts until 1935.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=John |title=A Virtual Tour of WJZ at Bound Brook, NJ, 1927 |url=http://www.theradiohistorian.org/wjz/wjz.html |website=The Radio Historian |access-date=March 26, 2024 |archive-date=March 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240326201902/http://www.theradiohistorian.org/wjz/wjz.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Initial network operations====
[[File:WEAF and WJZ Chains.jpg|thumb|right|Early broadcast chains for WJZ and [[WFAN (AM)|WEAF]], 1926]]
Westinghouse and RCA's original financing plan envisioned that profits from receiver sales would provide the funds for broadcast station operations, but this revenue soon became insufficient. In 1922, AT&T adopted a more practical approach, of selling airtime, which it called "toll broadcasting", in addition to connecting stations together using telephone lines to form a radio network that could broadcast programs simultaneously to multiple sites. This first radio network was called the "WEAF chain", named after the flagship AT&T station (later [[WFAN (AM)|WNBC]]), located in New York City.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b78643&view=1up&seq=17 "Early History of Network Broadcasting (1923–1926)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715131948/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b78643&view=1up&seq=17 |date=July 15, 2021 }}, ''Report on Chain Broadcasting'', Federal Communications Commission, May 1941, pages 5-6.</ref>

RCA, along with its "radio group" allies of Westinghouse and General Electric, responded by creating a small network of its own, centered on WJZ. Due to AT&T's interpretation of a patent-rights cross-licensing agreement, the telephone company claimed the sole right to sell airtime, so WJZ was not able to charge for advertising, and again there were technical limitations, since the network had to use inferior telegraph lines to interconnect its stations.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/radiobroadcast09gardrich/page/n316/mode/1up |title=How Much It Costs to Broadcast |magazine=Radio Broadcast |volume=IX |issue=5 |last=Lescarboura |first=Austin C. |date=September 1926 |pages=367–371 |access-date=March 14, 2018 }}</ref>

====NBC-Blue network flagship years====
[[File:George Olsen at WJZ with double button microphone 1926.jpg|thumb|Bandleader [[George Olsen]] (right) being interviewed at WJZ in 1926]]
[[File:Dennis King 1934.JPG|thumb|Actor and vocalist [[Dennis King (actor)|Dennis King]] had a weekly network radio program on WJZ in 1934]]
In the summer of 1926, AT&T decided to withdraw from the broadcasting field, and sold its stations and network operations to RCA. Included with this sale was the right to sell advertising time, and access to telephone lines for radio network connections.<ref>''A Tower in Babel'' by Erik Barnouw, 1966, page 285.</ref>
The earlier network operations were reorganized as the [[National Broadcasting Company]] (NBC), with the primary network, now known as the [[NBC Red Network]], originating from WEAF. A second network, known as the [[NBC Blue Network]], with WJZ as the originating station, debuted on January 1, 1927. (The WJY sister station was quietly discontinued at this time.) In October 1927, WJZ moved into NBC studios still under construction at 711 Fifth Avenue. A month later, WEAF joined WJZ, and both were together under one roof. On November 11, 1928, as part of a general station reassignment produced by the [[Federal Radio Commission]]'s [[General Order 40]], WJZ moved to 760&nbsp;kHz.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c021003683&view=1up&seq=238 "Revised list of broadcasting stations, by frequencies, effective 3 a. m., November 11, 1928, eastern standard time"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715133304/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c021003683&view=1up&seq=238 |date=July 15, 2021 }}, ''Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission'' (June 30, 1928), page 202.</ref>

On March 24, 1932, WJZ claimed to be the first radio station to broadcast a program from aboard a moving train; the station aired a variety show produced aboard a [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] passenger train travelling through Maryland.<ref>Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society, ''[http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm This Month in Railroad History: March] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930160929/http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm |date=September 30, 2007 }}''. Retrieved March 24, 2006.</ref> In November 1933, WJZ, WEAF plus the NBC and RCA corporate headquarters moved to [[30 Rockefeller Plaza]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Studios Opened in Radio City, World is Told |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/418060954/ |access-date=October 3, 2021 |work=[[New York Daily News|Daily News]] |date=November 12, 1933 |page=69 |archive-date=October 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211003061232/https://www.newspapers.com/image/418060954/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 1941, under the provisions of the [[North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement]], stations assigned to 760&nbsp;kHz were shifted to 770&nbsp;kHz, with WJZ designated as a [[List of North American broadcast station classes|Class I-A]] [[clear-channel station]], thus the only station allowed to operate at night on this frequency.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32437010939748&view=1up&seq=568 "United States Assignments"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229214529/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32437010939748&view=1up&seq=568 |date=December 29, 2022 }}, ''Arrangement between the United States of America, Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico, comprising recommendations of the North American Regional Radio-Engineering Meeting (supplemental to North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement'', Habana, 1937.</ref> However, the following November the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) moved [[KKOB (AM)|KOB]] in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], which prior to the 1941 reassignment had also been a clear channel station, from 1030&nbsp;kHz to 770&nbsp;kHz, after it was found that there was too much nighttime interference between it and [[WBZ (AM)|WBZ]] in [[Boston]] on their shared frequency. WJZ soon complained about the interference KOB was causing to its distant nighttime coverage, starting a dispute that would last for 38 years. In 1958 the FCC attempted to rectify the matter by designating the now-WABC and KOB as co-equal occupants of 770&nbsp;kHz, with both stations required to protect each other's coverage as "Class I-B" stations. WABC appealed this decision, and through a series of legal battles was ultimately successful in maintaining its status as an unrestricted Class I-A station. In 1976 the FCC designated KOB as a Class II-A, station, requiring it to operate with a directional antenna at night to protect WABC's coverage.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4434597&view=1up&seq=64 "In the Matter of Clear Channel Broadcasting in the Standard Broadcast Band (KOB/WABC)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727102056/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4434597&view=1up&seq=64 |date=July 27, 2020 }} (Docket No. 6741, adopted April 21, 1976), ''Federal Communications Commission Reports: May 14, 1976, to July 16, 1976'', (volume 59, second series, 1976), pages 32-47.</ref> KOB unsuccessfully appealed this on the grounds that it should have been assigned the frequency's Class I-A assignment, and the case was finally settled in 1980, with the courts siding with the FCC decision.<ref>{{Cite web |access-date=July 7, 2020 |title=Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., Appellant, v. Federal Communications Commission, Appellee, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., Intervenor, 663 F.2d 220 (D.C. Cir. 1980) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/663/220/147190/ |archive-date=July 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707205712/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/663/220/147190/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, that same year as part of a general review of clear channel operations, the FCC also reduced nighttime protected coverage for clear channel stations from unlimited to 750 miles (1,207&nbsp;km) from their transmitters, opening up the band to nighttime operation by additional distant stations.<ref>{{Cite web |access-date=July 7, 2020 |title=The Clear-Channel Matter: Part 6 |author=Mark Durenberger, Minneapolis, Minnesota |url=https://www.oldradio.com/archives/general/clears6.htm }}</ref>

WJZ and the Blue Network presented many of America's most popular programs, such as ''[[Lowell Thomas|Lowell Thomas and the News]]'', ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'', ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', ''[[America's Town Meeting of the Air]]'', and ''[[Death Valley Days]]''. Each midday, ''[[The National Farm and Home Hour]]'' brought news and entertainment to rural listeners. [[Ted Malone]] read poetry and [[Milton Cross]] conveyed children "Coast To Coast on a Bus", as well as bringing opera lovers the Saturday matinée [[Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts]]. Cross would continue to host the Met on NBC, ABC, CBS and NPR until his passing at the beginning of 1975.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Occasionally, a show would premiere on NBC Blue, which had a weaker lineup of stations nationwide, and be shifted to the Red Network if it grew in popularity. ''[[Fibber McGee and Molly]]'' is one example.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

When the FCC limited broadcast stations to 50&nbsp;kW, a 500&nbsp;kW transmitter built by RCA for WJZ was no longer allowed. The transmitter was sold by RCA to Britain and used for wartime [[Black Propaganda]]; broadcasting as ''[[Soldatensender Calais]]'' a purported German military station.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

===Birth of ABC===
In 1942, the FCC ruled that no broadcaster could own more than one AM, one FM and one television station in a single market. On January 23, 1942, the FCC approved the transfer of WJZ's operating license from Radio Corporation of America to the Blue Network, Inc.<ref>{{cite news |title=FCC Okays Transfer of WJZ, KGO, WENR |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 |page=6 |access-date=October 30, 2014 |agency=Billboard |date=January 31, 1942 }}</ref> A year later, on October 12, 1943, WJZ and the NBC Blue Network were sold to [[Edward J. Noble]], then the owner of [[WMCA (AM)|WMCA]]. This spun off network was simply called "The Blue Network" for little over a year.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}
[[File:WJZ now WABC advertisement (1953).jpg|thumb|1953 advertisement announcing the call letter change from WJZ to WABC.<ref name="callchange">{{cite magazine |title=WABC and WABC-TV ad |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele44unse/page/n904/mode/1up |access-date=March 14, 2018 |magazine=Broadcasting Telecasting |issue=9 |date=March 2, 1953 |volume=44 |page=37 }}</ref>]]
On June 15, 1945, "The Blue Network" was officially rechristened the [[American Broadcasting Company]], when negotiations were completed with [[Storer Broadcasting|George B. Storer]], who had owned the defunct American Broadcasting System and still owned the name. In November 1948, WJZ and the ABC network finally got a home of their own when studios were moved to a renovated building at 7 West 66th Street.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

On March 1, 1953, WJZ changed its call letters to WABC, after the FCC approved ABC's merger with [[United Paramount Theatres]], the movie theater chain owned by [[Paramount Pictures]] which, like the Blue Network, was divested under government order.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Ambitious ABC Planning Initiated Under New Merged Ownership |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele44unse/page/n658/mode/1up |access-date=July 29, 2017 |magazine=Broadcasting Telecasting |issue=7 |date=February 16, 1953 |volume=44 |pages=27–29 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=It's now WABC-AM-FM-TV; ABC also changes slides |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele44unse/page/n937/mode/1up |access-date=July 29, 2017 |magazine=Broadcasting Telecasting |issue=9 |date=March 2, 1953 |volume=44 |page=70 }}</ref><ref name="callchange" /> The WABC call letters were previously used on [[CBS Radio]]'s New York City AM and FM outlets, reflecting an earlier owner, the Atlantic Broadcasting Company. On November 1, 1946, WABC (AM) changed its call sign to [[WHSQ|WCBS]],<ref>[https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=51055 FCC History Cards for WCBS (AM)]  (FCC.gov)</ref> and the FM station became [[WCBS-FM]].<ref>[https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=80346 FCC History Cards for WCBS-FM]  (FCC.gov)</ref>

In 1957, several years after WJZ's callsign change to WABC, Westinghouse Broadcasting acquired WAAM-TV in [[Baltimore]], Maryland, and applied to change the calls to [[WJZ-TV]], in honor of its former pioneer radio station.<ref>{{cite web |title=WBC's WAAM (TV) buy: $4.4 million. |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele52unse_0/page/n991/mode/1up |periodical=Broadcasting – Telecasting |page=112 |date=May 13, 1957 }}</ref> The FCC waived existing rules and granted this request to restore a three-letter callsign years after being retired on an unrelated station in a different market, albeit with a "-TV" suffix (perhaps because Westinghouse was highly regarded as a licensee by both the industry and the FCC at that time),<ref>{{cite web |title=WAAM (TV) becomes WJZ-TV as FCC waives call rule. |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele53unse/page/n667/mode/1up |periodical=Broadcasting – Telecasting |page=92 |date=August 5, 1957 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stations (continued, top of page). |url=https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele53unse/page/n801/mode/1up |periodical=Broadcasting – Telecasting |page=94 |date=August 12, 1957 }}</ref> and the Baltimore TV station, now owned and operated by [[CBS]], retains the call letters to this day.

===WABC's first era (1953–1960)===
{{Expand section|date=May 2008}}
Although WABC continued to air ABC programming during this time, ABC Radio – like the other major radio networks of that era – began to drop significant amounts of long-form comedy and dramatic programming, many of which migrated over to television. In response, WABC began using deejays playing recorded music in greater frequency. Some programs featured [[middle of the road music]], including Broadway and Hollywood showtunes and popular music, while other portions of the schedule included ABC Radio's remaining long–form newscasts and dramatic program lineup, in tandem with CBS Radio's WCBS and NBC Radio's [[WNBC (AM)|WNBC]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

(This would continue until 1960, as the Musicradio 77 era formally began, but WABC was still required to carry several of ABC Radio's non–music and entertainment shows, including the long–running ''[[Don McNeill's Breakfast Club]]'' during the 10:00&nbsp;am hour, and a long–form news block in the afternoon–drive period. While this was not an issue prior to 1960, such commitments created a programming clash with the Top 40 format up until the network was dissected into four sub–networks in 1968.){{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 1958–1959, legendary rock'n'roll disk jockey [[Alan Freed]] hosted a daily evening show on WABC, which was similar in format and musical policy to the early rock shows he had gained fame with on [[WKNR|WJW]] in Cleveland, and later [[WINS (AM)#Rock and roll|WINS]] in New York. Freed's time at WABC ended when he was caught up in the investigation of the "[[payola]]" scandals of the era; he was terminated in November 1959. Although payola was not illegal at the time, the termination occurred because Freed had refused to sign a statement admitting that he had accepted bribes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dailynews.com/2019/12/23/radio-how-a-disgraced-dj-made-his-way-to-southern-california-airwaves/ |title=Radio: How a disgraced DJ made his way to KDAY |date=December 23, 2019 |work=LA Daily News |access-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-date=March 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320132009/https://www.dailynews.com/2019/12/23/radio-how-a-disgraced-dj-made-his-way-to-southern-california-airwaves/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Curtis, p. 37.</ref>

At different times in the pre-top-40 era, famed comedian [[Ernie Kovacs]] and dean of early disc jockeys [[Martin Block]] were heard on the station.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.erniekovacs.net/images/radio.jpg |title=Mayhem in the A.M.; WABC ad for The Ernie Kovacs Show |date=May 30, 1955 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=January 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928150426/http://www.erniekovacs.net/images/radio.jpg |archive-date=September 28, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tLs_AAAAIBAJ&pg=994,218743&dq=martin+block&hl=en |title=Disk Jockey, ABC Sign Big Contract |date=March 17, 1953 |publisher=Youngstown Vindicator |access-date=January 26, 2012 }}</ref>

===The Musicradio 77 era (1960–1982)===
====Early years====
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}
When Harold L. Neal, Jr. was named general manager of WABC, he was charged with making WABC successful in terms of both audience and profits. Neal had been at [[WXYT (AM)|WXYZ]] in Detroit. By 1960, WABC was committed to a nearly full-time schedule of [[top-40]] songs played by upbeat personalities. Still, WABC played popular non-rock and roll songs as well, provided they scored well on the Top 40 charts. WABC's early days as a [[Top 40]] station were humble ones.

[[WINS (AM)|WINS]] was the No. 1 hit music station and [[WMCA (AM)|WMCA]], which did a similar rock leaning top 40 format, was also a formidable competitor, while WABC barely ranked in the Top Ten. Fortunately for WABC, the other Top 40 outlets could not be heard as well in more distant New York and [[New Jersey]] suburbs, since WINS, [[WEPN (AM)|WMGM]], and WMCA were all directional stations. WABC, with its 50,000-watt non-directional signal, had the advantage of being heard in places west, south, and northwest of New York City, a huge chunk of the growing suburban population and this is where the station began to draw ratings. Early in 1962, WMGM, owned by Loew's, which then owned [[MGM]], was sold to [[Storer Broadcasting]]. Upon its sale, WMGM reverted to its original [[WEPN (AM)#WHN|WHN]] call letters and switched to a middle of the road music format playing mostly non-rock artists such as [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Nat King Cole]] and [[Andy Williams]].

Sam Holman was the first WABC program director of this era. Under Holman, WABC achieved No. 1 ratings during much of 1962, after WMGM reverted to WHN. By the summer of 1963, WMCA led the pack among contemporary stations, with WABC at No. 2 and WINS slipping to third place. It has been said, but is difficult to verify, that WMCA dominated in the city proper, while WABC owned the suburbs. This would be consistent with WMCA's 5,000-watt directional signal.

====Dominant years====
Hal Neal hired [[Rick Sklar]] as WABC's program director. He would go on to become a member of the [[National Radio Hall of Fame]] and be credited as one of the pioneering architects of the Top 40 format. Under Sklar, the station went to the shortest playlist of any contemporary music station in history. The number one song was heard about every hour during the day and every 75 minutes or so at night. The other top 5 songs were heard nearly as often. Other current songs averaged once to twice per airshift. The station played about 9 current hits per hour and several non-current songs. The non-currents were no more than 5 years old and the station played about 70 of them in total. In his book ''Rockin' America'', Sklar said he was sensitive to [[payola]] concerns and advanced airplay. Through the years, WABC was known by various slogans, "Channel 77 WABC" and later "Musicradio 77 WABC". Due to the high number of commercials each hour, WABC played no more than two songs in a row and there was frequent DJ talk and personality between every song. The station averaged 6 commercial breaks per hour but they were no more than 3 ads in a row. Often the air personalities delivered live commercials in their own humorous style, so that listeners would consider the spot part of the entertainment.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}
In addition, between songs, disc jockeys were required to provide so-called program matter. Program matter could include a time check, a weather report or simply some disc jockey banter, which enabled the disc jockeys to inject their personalities and humor into their shows.

Early 1960s disc jockeys included [[Dan Ingram]], Herb Oscar Anderson, Charlie Greer, [[Scott Muni]], Chuck Dunaway, Jack Carney, [[Bruce Morrow|Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow]] and Bob "Bobaloo" Lewis. But some of the best known WABC DJs are the ones that followed them in the mid-1960s and 1970s: [[Harry Harrison (DJ)|Harry Harrison]], [[Ron Lundy]], [[Chuck Leonard]] (one of the earliest African-American DJs to be on the staff of a major mainstream radio station), [[Johnny Donovan]], Bob Cruz (a Dan Ingram sound alike), [[Frank Kingston Smith]], [[Roby Yonge]], [[George Michael (sportscaster)|George Michael]], Jim Nettleton, [[Jim Perry (television personality)|Jim Perry]] and Steve O'Brien. Meanwhile, "Radio Hall of Fame" member Dan Ingram, perhaps WABC's best known DJ, was held over from the early staff, being heard in the afternoon for much of WABC's Top 40 history. Noted sportscaster [[Howard Cosell]] did a brief weekday evening sportscast on WABC, as well as hosting a late Sunday night interview show called "Speaking of Everything".{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Especially in the afternoons and evenings, WABC was the station that [[teenagers]] could be heard listening to on [[transistor radio]]s all over the [[New York metropolitan area]]. Due to its strong signal, the station could be heard easily over 100 miles away, including the [[Catskill Mountains|Catskill]] and [[Pocono Mountains]], and through much of [[Connecticut]] and [[Rhode Island]]. After sunset, when AM radio waves travel farther, WABC's signal could be picked up around much of the Eastern U.S. and Canada. Bruce Morrow often spoke about how he felt an almost psychic bond to his young listeners.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

An [[aircheck]] of WABC from August 1964, features some of the DJs speaking from a window of [[The Beatles]]' hotel room at the [[Hotel Delmonico]] during their second visit to New York City, while Dan Ingram, back in the studio, played WABC [[jingle]]s to thousands of teenagers in the streets below, who enthusiastically sang along with them. Ingram later noted that this was actually illegal under FCC rules, but said that they did not know it at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Musicradio WABC Beatles Page |url=http://www.musicradio77.com/beatles.html |work=Musicradio 77 WABC Information Page |access-date=May 28, 2013 |archive-date=July 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726132839/http://www.musicradio77.com/beatles.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the wake of the success of "W-A-Beatle-C" (as it was briefly called around the time of the Beatles' U.S. visit), competitor [[WINS (AM)|WINS]] finally dropped out of the Top 40 battle in 1965, adopting an all-news format. The ABC television network also called itself "A-Beatles-C" whenever it promoted airings of Beatles-related films.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/14/business/media-business-advertising-beatlemania-95-it-s-not-real-thing-but-incredible.htm |first1=Stuart |last1=Elliott |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING;Beatlemania '95: It's not the real thing, but an incredible simulation |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 14, 1995 }}</ref>

Just before the famous [[Northeast blackout of 1965]], Dan Ingram noted that the studio's electric power was fluctuating and he began having fun with the slowed-down music. After playing "[[Everyone's Gone to the Moon]]" by [[Jonathan King]], he quipped it was played "in the key of R". Ingram then proceeded to run some recorded commercials and a portion of [[Si Zentner]]'s "Up a Lazy River", backtimed to the news, while commenting on how everything seemed to be running slower than normal. During the 6&nbsp;pm newscast, WABC left the air as the outage settled in for real.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.musicradio77.com/images/ing11-9-65blackout.mp3 |title=1965 Blackout |access-date=July 21, 2023 |archive-date=July 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721183156/https://www.musicradio77.com/images/ing11-9-65blackout.mp3 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ingram later drove out to the transmitter site in Lodi, New Jersey, with a box of records, and continued his show from the backup studio housed there.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In the 1970s, WABC was either No. 1 or No. 2 consistently, often trading places with [[WOR (AM)|WOR]]. Once in a while, a station attracting an older audience (like [[WOR (AM)|WOR]] or [[WPAT (AM)|WPAT]]) would move into the top spot. These stations were not truly WABC's direct competitors because they targeted a much older audience. Chief competitor [[WMCA (AM)|WMCA]] began running evening talk by 1968 and stopped playing top 40 music altogether in the fall of 1970. Then in 1971, Country Music station WJRZ abruptly flipped to a Top 40 format and became known as [[WNYM|WWDJ]]. That lasted until April 1974. [[WOR-FM]] evolved from progressive rock to Adult Top 40 playing the hits of 1955 to current product by 1968. They dropped most pre-1964 oldies in 1972 and became known as WXLO 99X. That station evolved into more on an Adult Contemporary format in 1979 and a Rhythmic Top 40 format in 1980. Other [[Frequency modulation|FM]] competitors like oldies station [[WCBS-FM]], [[soul music|soul]] station [[WBLS]], and [[album-oriented rock]] stations like [[WPLJ]] and [[WNEW-FM]] all did well in the ratings, but none rivalled WABC's success. [[Amplitude modulation|AM]] competitor [[WNBC (AM)|WNBC]] also never came close to WABC's audience during this period. WNBC then had a format similar to 99X playing Adult Top 40. In 1977, WNBC tried sounding younger and moved its format musically closer to WABC. Then by 1979 they tried sounding older and somewhere in-between. Until 1978, WABC remained dominant.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

WABC's ratings strength came from its cumulative audience, what the radio industry calls "cume". Most listeners did not stay with WABC for long periods of time, as the station had some of the shortest "time spent listening" (or TSL) spans in the history of music radio—an average listener spent about 10 minutes listening to WABC. It was the price paid for a short playlist, and numerous commercials between songs (the large number of [[Radio advertisement|ads]] being due to WABC's large audience), but what WABC lacked in TSL it more than made up for with its sheer number of listeners. By 1975, WABC tried becoming more music-intensive, reducing commercial breaks to three per hour. It began playing 3 to 5 songs in a row, still mixed with talk and personality, but done in a tighter manner.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Fed up with the short playlist, Cousin Brucie left in August 1974 to defect to rival WNBC. Rick Sklar was promoted in 1976 to vice president of programming for [[Cumulus Media Networks|ABC Radio]], and his assistant program director Glenn Morgan became WABC's program director. The station's influence could be found in odd places: [[Philip Glass]]' 1976 opera, ''[[Einstein on the Beach]]'', has as part of the background a recitation of WABC's DJ schedule in the 1960s.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

===="Disco" era====
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}
The end of the 1970s found FM radio beginning to overtake AM music stations in most markets. In June 1975, an FM station on 92.3, owned by the San Juan (Puerto Rico) Racing Association flipped to Soft Rock and became known as Mellow 92 WKTU. That station had very low ratings and had no effect on WABC. On July 24, 1978, at 6&nbsp;pm, WKTU abruptly dropped its Soft Rock format in favor of a [[disco]]-based top 40 format known as "Disco 92". By December of that year, WABC was unseated, as WKTU became the No. 1 station in New York City. The first "disco" ratings saw WKTU with 11 percent of the listening audience—a huge number anywhere, let alone in a market the size of New York City—and WABC dropping from 4.1&nbsp;million listeners to 3&nbsp;million, losing 25 percent of its audience practically overnight. In February 1979, WABC began broadcasting in [[AM stereo]] using the [[AM stereo#Kahn-Hazeltine|Kahn-Hazeltine]] [[C-QUAM]] system.<ref>{{cite web|title=Offenders of the Faith|url=http://users.hfx.eastlink.ca:80/~amstereo/offenders.htmwebsite=eastlink.ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010109103400/http://users.hfx.eastlink.ca:80/~amstereo/offenders.htm|archive-date=January 9, 2001}}</ref>

After this initial ratings tumble, WABC panicked and began mixing in several extended disco mixes per hour and sometimes played two back-to-back. Some of the disco songs ran in excess of eight minutes. What regular listeners heard was a major change in sound. While the station continued playing non-disco and rock songs about a third of the time, the station's familiar format had seemed to disappear and as a result, WABC began to lose its identity. In late spring 1979, ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine reported that Rick Sklar had demoted program director Glenn Morgan to "moving carts" instead of making programming decisions. WABC's numbers dropped for four consecutive ratings periods.

On August 2, 1979, the [[Donna Summer]] disco hit "[[MacArthur Park (song)|MacArthur Park]]" was playing during [[Dan Ingram]]'s afternoon drive program. During the song, DJ [[George Michael (sportscaster)|George Michael]] (who also was a sports reporter) interrupted to break the news that [[New York Yankees]] catcher and team captain [[Thurman Munson]] had died in a plane crash. In late summer, WABC moved, temporarily, back to its tight playlists.

That fall, Al Brady took over as programming director of WABC. He had come from [[WEEI (AM)|WHDH]] [[Boston]], where he evolved that station from [[Middle of the road (music)|MOR]] to more of an [[adult contemporary music]] format. At WABC, he added a huge amount of music and went as far back as 1964. He added [[The Beatles]], [[Motown]] 1960s hits, 1970s rock hits, a few album rock cuts, and basically deepened WABC's music. The same amount of current hits still got played but less often and about 40%. That November, he let [[Harry Harrison (DJ)|Harry Harrison]], George Michael, and [[Chuck Leonard]] go. He made a couple shifts longer, moved [[Dan Ingram]] to mornings, moved Bob Cruz from overnights to afternoons, and hired [[Howard Hoffman]] for evenings. For overnights he hired Sturgis Griffin and eliminated the late night shift merging that with evenings and overnights. In the first six months of 1980, ratings were slightly up and stable. Also, Brady made a deal for WABC to air [[New York Yankees]] baseball beginning the next year in 1981, though the station carried a few Yankee games from 1010 [[WINS (AM)|WINS]] during Republican Convention week in 1980. It was the first sign of the beginning of the end for the music format of WABC.

===="77 WABC, New York's Radio Station" and the transition to talk====
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}Brady left WABC in July 1980 and soon became general manager of [[WQHT|WYNY]], which by then had a similar format to its sister station WNBC, as well as WABC. That fall, Jay Clark took over as program director at WABC, and Jeff Mazzei arrived as assistant program director from WNEW (which was moving from adult contemporary to big bands and standards).

Under Clark, the station played current music leaning toward a more Adult Contemporary sound, trying to appeal to a slightly older audience, as most younger listeners were listening to FM stations. Part of the reason was the top 40 chart was leaning that way at that point as well. WABC still played rock and soul crossovers in moderation, but began to move away from album cuts and more toward 1960s and 1970s oldies. In September 1980, they also dropped the "Musicradio WABC" slogan and became "77 WABC, New York's Radio Station" (though they called themselves New York's radio station at times as Musicradio), the apparent implication being that the station was more than just music.

By early 1981, WABC's cumulative audience was down to 2.5&nbsp;million—rival WNBC, a perennial also-ran, was by this time beating them with 3&nbsp;million.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Fewer people were tuning into WABC, listeners who had switched to FM were not coming back, and, while still moderately successful, the ship was sinking. Like Brady, Clark tried to improve the time-spent-listening. In March 1981, Cruz departed, Ingram went back to afternoon [[drive time]], and the team of Ross Brittain and Brian Wilson from [[Atlanta]] moved into morning drive. ''Ross and Wilson'', as the show was known, was very information-oriented, playing exactly four songs in an hour except on Saturdays when they played the usual 12 or so songs an hour. A week later, the station also began airing a weeknight sports-talk show with [[Art Rust, Jr.]] from 7:00{{nbsp}}p.m. to 9:00{{nbsp}}p.m. WABC's ratings by this point were mediocre and they were still going down.

Also, that March, WABC became the full-time flagship radio outlet for Yankees baseball games, a distinction the station carried through the end of the 2001 season. This would be the longest continuous relationship the team would have with any flagship station (to date). Clark reasoned that Yankee baseball would bring back some listeners to the station and that they would recycle back into the music format, but not even the "Bronx Bombers" could save music on WABC.

In the fall of 1981, WABC dropped the remaining heavy-rock cuts and non-crossover urban hits, and began playing more oldies, as well as songs from the adult contemporary chart, and added an "advice" talk show with Dr. Judy Kuriansky from 9:00{{nbsp}}p.m. to midnight on weeknights. Hoffman and Griffin exited at this point. By then, WABC was almost unrecognizable as a Top 40 station, the ratings were languishing, and rumors, which began as far back as 1979 were rampant that the station would be changing its format to talk and news sooner or later. By early 1982 it looked sooner than later. The management at ABC denied the rumors but did state that plans were to modify WABC into a full service AC format with music by day and talk evenings and overnights like [[KDKA (AM)|KDKA]] in [[Pittsburgh]] was doing. Once a week beginning in February, WABC was auditioning prospective talk shows for the Midnight to 2:00{{nbsp}}a.m. time slot.

In February 1982, WABC officially confirmed it would be going to an all-talk format that May and stated that there would be ample notice before the switch happened. At that point the once-a-week overnight auditions for talk shows ended and WABC continued playing music overnights until the switch. The airstaff began saying goodbye with a comment here and there. Finally, on April 30, it was announced that the switch to all-talk would occur on May 10 at noon. From May 7 to 9, the departing air-staffers said their goodbyes one last time. The official music format ended 10:45 p.m. on May 9, 1982. The station aired a Yankee game that day at [[Seattle Mariners|Seattle]]. From 2:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. they ran the normal Sunday evening public affairs programs preempted due to the Yankee game. Ross & Wilson played their usual 4 songs. Staffers that departed included Lundy, Ingram, Marc Sommers and Peter Bush. Mazzei left for a similar position at WCBS-FM where he would stay for well over 25 years. Sommers also went to WCBS-FM and eventually Lundy and Ingram would join him there. Donovan and Mike McKay remained at WABC as staff announcers and producers. McKay left WABC in 1984 for [[RKO Radio Network]] and Donovan stayed at WABC until his retirement in 2015.

On Monday, May 10, 1982, WABC stopped playing music, ending its 22–year run as a music station with a 9:00{{nbsp}}a.m.–noon farewell show hosted by Ingram and Lundy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sutton |first1=Larry |title=At noon, the beat goes off |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/490157324 |access-date=May 10, 2021 |work=Daily News |date=May 10, 1982 |page=4 |archive-date=May 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512233440/http://www.newspapers.com/image/490157324/ |url-status=live }}{{subscription required }}</ref> The last song played on WABC before the format change was "[[Imagine (John Lennon song)|Imagine]]" by [[John Lennon]], followed by the familiar WABC "Chime Time" jingle, then a few seconds of silence followed by a minute jingle for talk radio before the debut of the new talk format.

===The NewsTalkRadio 77 era (1982–present)===
====Early years and success====
[[File:Gary Ackerman with Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.jpg|thumb|US Representative [[Gary Ackerman]] (sitting) with [[Curtis Sliwa]] (right) and [[Ron Kuby]] (left) in 2005]]
Initially after the format change, the station ran satellite talk shows from corporate ABC's "Talk Radio" network. Initially, WABC's lineup consisted of Ross and Wilson until 10&nbsp;am, Owen Spann from Satellite until noon, Art Athens and News until 1&nbsp;pm, Money Management talk until 2&nbsp;pm, Los Angeles-based host [[Michael Jackson (radio commentator)|Michael Jackson]] (no relation to [[Michael Jackson|the pop star]]) from satellite until 4&nbsp;pm, another advice show with Dr. Toni Grant from satellite until 6&nbsp;pm, and ending with a half-hour of news at 6. Sports Talk began at 6:30&nbsp;p.m. and remained on until 9&nbsp;pm. Doctor Judy remained in her time slot. Overnights were hosted by [[Alan Colmes]], who played some music initially, but stopped doing so by mid-1983. At that time, Colmes was less politically based and more entertainment-based. Weekends had Child Psychology advice shows (Dr. Lawrance Balter), Home and Garden shows, talk about religion (''Religion on the Line''), and of course, the Yankees.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Ross and Wilson stayed on and continued to play 4 songs per hour (mostly 1960s and 1970s hits but also some currents) throughout 1982. In 1983, they stopped playing music as well. Ross and Wilson split up in 1983 when Ross went over to [[WHTZ]]. While the station's final ratings as a music station were mediocre, its talk ratings initially were even lower. Jay Clark was terminated and replaced with then assistant program director, Mark Mason.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Still, the station stuck with the new format. After Brian Wilson left in 1984, Alan Colmes moved to mornings. Mark Mason left for a similar post at All-News WINS. He was replaced by John Mainelli and at that point they dropped satellite programming. They added more issues-oriented talk shows, with an increasing number of conservative talk show hosts, although several liberals, including Colmes and Lynn Samuels, also hosted shows. The ratings grew and by the late 1980s, they were a very successful talk station.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

From 1984 to 1996 WABC broadcast the popular [[Bob Grant (radio host)|Bob Grant]], a controversial, early "right-wing" talk radio host. After years of what many considered inflammatory remarks, he was fired in 1996 for a controversial comment regarding the death of United States Secretary of Commerce [[Ron Brown]]. After a number of years at competitor station WOR, Grant returned as a host as of July 2007, was removed again in December 2008, and returned again as a weekend host in September 2009. Alan Colmes would leave in 1985 and by 1987 he emerged at WNBC on overnights, where he played moderate amounts of music. He would move to afternoons on WNBC and eventually drop music there as well. He was on the air at WNBC's sign off in 1988. Colmes eventually returned to WABC.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Within its first years, the revamped WABC brought in [[Rush Limbaugh]], who would go on to be the anchor program of the local station for two decades, and soon after the giant of talk syndication, the model for countless other conservative radio shows to follow. In the early 1990s [[Phil Boyce]] took over as program director.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Starting in 1997, [[civil rights]] attorney [[Ron Kuby]] and [[Guardian Angels]]' founder [[Curtis Sliwa]] co-hosted a WABC radio show on Monday through Friday from 6 to 7 p.m, and on Saturdays from 6 to 10&nbsp;am.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/475671869/ |title=Daily News from New York, New York on April 29, 1997 · 545 |via=Newspapers.com |date=April 29, 1997 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=October 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008161149/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/475671869/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/nyregion/public-lives-leftist-lawyer-reaches-right-for-audience.html |title=PUBLIC LIVES; Leftist Lawyer Reaches Right for Audience |first=Joyce |last=Wadler |date=January 15, 1998 |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714004615/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/nyregion/public-lives-leftist-lawyer-reaches-right-for-audience.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QpumCQAAQBAJ&dq=sliwa+kuby+wabc+%221997%22&pg=PA185 |title=The More You Watch the Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures |first=Danny |last=Schechter |date=2011 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=9781609802639 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 21, 2021 |archive-date=October 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006023943/https://books.google.com/books?id=QpumCQAAQBAJ&dq=sliwa+kuby+wabc+%221997%22&pg=PA185 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On Saturday, September 8, 2001, John Batchelor presented a four-hour program on the attack on the USS ''Cole'', identifying Osama bin Laden as the probable perpetrator. On September 12, Batchelor was invited to broadcast on WABC "until bin Laden is captured". The day bin Laden was caught, Batchelor and his executive producer were in Cracow; they continued on air and, with a hiatus in 2006, have been on air ever since, covering national and international security.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 2004, the station earned the distinction of being a news/talk radio station even longer than it had been a Top 40 station, by marking 22 years in its present format.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

====Under Citadel and Cumulus====
[[File:77 WABC word logo 2000s.png|thumb|77 WABC logo prior to 2011]]
On February 6, 2006, the Walt Disney Company announced that it would sell WABC and other radio properties not affiliated with either [[Radio Disney]] or [[ESPN Radio]], along with ABC Radio's [[ABC News & Talk|News & Talk]] and FM networks, to [[Citadel Broadcasting]] for $2.7&nbsp;billion. The transaction became final on June 12, 2007. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.<ref name=abj-citadelcumulus>{{cite news |title=Cumulus now owns Citadel Broadcasting |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2011/09/16/cumulus-now-owns-citadel-broadcasting.html |access-date=September 16, 2011 |newspaper=Atlanta Business Journal |date=September 16, 2011 |archive-date=September 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924082952/http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2011/09/16/cumulus-now-owns-citadel-broadcasting.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In December 2007, Don Imus moved his program ''[[Imus in the Morning]]'' to WABC after 19 years at WFAN. Imus was fired from WFAN in April for controversial comments about [[Rutgers University]]'s women's basketball team. [[Connell McShane]] (who had replaced [[Charles McCord]] following his retirement on May 5, 2011) served as sidekick and newscaster for the program, which was also simulcast on the [[Fox Business network]]. The Imus show aired for the final time on March 29, 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sblendorio |first1=Peter |title=Don Imus announces date of his radio show's final episode |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/don-imus-announces-date-radio-show-final-episode-article-1.3771803 |access-date=August 30, 2022 |work=Daily News |location=New York |date=January 22, 2018 |archive-date=August 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830231743/https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/don-imus-announces-date-radio-show-final-episode-article-1.3771803 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In February 2010, WABC added Rabbi [[Shmuley Boteach]] and ''The Shmuley Show'' as a weekend program.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://patch.com/connecticut/westport/ev--kosher-love-shmuley-boteach |title=Kosher Love - Shmuley Boteach |date=March 29, 2011 |website=Westport, CT Patch |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=October 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006023206/https://patch.com/connecticut/westport/ev--kosher-love-shmuley-boteach |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web |url=https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/71375/wabc-adds-rabbi-shmuley-boteach-for-weekend-show |title=WABC Adds Rabbi Shmuley Boteach For Weekend Show |website=All Access |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202042259/https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/71375/wabc-adds-rabbi-shmuley-boteach-for-weekend-show |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Geraldo Rivera]] became host of WABC's 10 a.m. to noon slot beginning January 3, 2012, replacing Joe Crummey. He was replaced with [[Fox News Radio]]'s [[Brian Kilmeade]] in 2019.

On January 1, 2013, the traffic reports on WABC switched from Clear Channel's Total Traffic to Radiate Media's Right Now Traffic.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Limbaugh and Hannity departed WABC at the end of 2013.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/rush-hannity-leaving-cumulus-wor-article-1.1411314 |title=Rush Limbaugh rushing out of Cumulus Media to WOR, with Sean Hannity in tow |work=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]] |location=New York |last=Hinckley |first=David |date=July 28, 2013 |access-date=July 29, 2017 |archive-date=July 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709061822/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/rush-hannity-leaving-cumulus-wor-article-1.1411314 |url-status=live }}</ref> To fill Limbaugh's spot, WABC revived ''Curtis and Kuby''. [[Curtis Sliwa]] had been hosting the morning show at [[WNYM]] since his departure from WABC, while Ron Kuby had for the most part been a commentator on various news shows since his show on [[Air America Radio]] was cancelled.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/business/media/talk-radio-on-wabc-shifts-focus-to-the-local.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Ben |last=Sisario |title=Talk Radio on WABC Shifts Focus to the Local |date=January 2, 2014 |access-date=February 28, 2017 |archive-date=August 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808050609/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/business/media/talk-radio-on-wabc-shifts-focus-to-the-local.html?_r=0/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Kuby was laid off in 2017; Sliwa would subsequently be paired on-air with [[Rita Cosby]], followed by current co-host [[Juliet Huddy]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

===Acquisition by Red Apple Media===
[[File:77 WABC word logo 2011 gold.png|thumb|77 WABC logo prior to 2020]]
On June 27, 2019, Red Apple Media, which is owned by [[John Catsimatidis]], bought WABC from Cumulus Media for $12.5&nbsp;million in cash.<ref name=nypost-catsimatidis /> The sale closed on March 2, 2020.<ref name=amny02032020/> On July 1, 2020, Red Apple Media took over [[WLIR-FM]] in [[Long Island]] under a [[local marketing agreement]], and converted it to a simulcast of WABC. As it is already cleared by [[WRCN-FM]], [[Brian Kilmeade]]'s program is substituted by a local program hosted by [[Frank Morano]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 1, 2020 |title=WABC Adds Long Island Simulcast |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/189939/wabc-adds-long-island-simulcast/ |access-date=July 5, 2020 |website=RadioInsight |language=en-US |archive-date=July 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701231727/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/189939/wabc-adds-long-island-simulcast/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2020 |title=Frank Morano To Host Midday Show On 107.1 WLIR-FM |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/190038/frank-morano-to-host-midday-show-on-107-1-wlir-fm/ |access-date=July 5, 2020 |website=RadioInsight |language=en-US |archive-date=July 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703184532/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/190038/frank-morano-to-host-midday-show-on-107-1-wlir-fm/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Morano also become part of WABC's main lineup on Sunday nights, and began hosting an overnight show, ''The Other Side of Midnight'', in October 2020 (replacing ''[[Red Eye Radio]]'').<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=https://news.radio-online.com/articles/c40865/Frank-Morano-Joins-WABC-New-York-Starting-Sunday-July-12 |title=Frank Morano joins WABC New York starting Sunday, July 12 |work=Radio-Online.com |date=July 8, 2020 |access-date=July 12, 2020 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=July 8, 2020 |title=Frank Morano To Host Overnights At WABC |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/190454/frank-morano-to-host-overnights-at-wabc/ |access-date=September 16, 2020 |website=RadioInsight |language=en-US |archive-date=July 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715031205/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/190454/frank-morano-to-host-overnights-at-wabc/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |title=WABC Brings Frank Morano To The Other Side Of Midnight |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/199275/wabc-brings-frank-morano-to-the-other-side-of-midnight/ |access-date=October 9, 2020 |website=RadioInsight |date=October 8, 2020 |language=en-US }}</ref>

==Previous programs==
[[File:Talkradio 77 WABC new logo 2020.png|thumb|77 WABC logo used from 2020 to 2021]]
WABC was where the nationally syndicated programs hosted by [[Rush Limbaugh]] and [[Sean Hannity]] got their start, although those programs are now heard on WABC's talk radio rival in New York, [[WOR (AM)|WOR]]. Limbaugh's show was produced at WABC from 1988 until the early 2000s, when he started doing the program from [[Premiere Radio Networks]] and a studio in his home in [[South Florida]] (even then, until WABC dropped the program, substitute hosts for Limbaugh still used the WABC studios, and Limbaugh on occasion had hosted from WABC).{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}. The station also served as the flagship for ''[[Imus in the Morning]]'' with [[Don Imus]] from 2007 to 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Ruth |title='Imus in the Morning' is going off the air |url=https://nypost.com/2018/01/22/imus-in-the-morning-is-going-off-the-air/ |newspaper=New York Post |publisher=NYP Holdings, inc. |access-date=May 17, 2025}}</ref> Imus' producer, [[Bernard McGuirk]], co-hosted the WABC morning show following Imus's retirement until his own death in October 2022.<ref>{{cite web |title=WABC's Bernie McGuirk Dies From Prostate Cancer |url=https://radioink.com/2022/10/06/wabcs-bernie-mcguirk-dies-from-brain-cancer/ |website=radioink.com |publisher=Streamline Publishing, Inc |access-date=October 6, 2022 |date=October 6, 2022 |archive-date=October 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006112246/https://radioink.com/2022/10/06/wabcs-bernie-mcguirk-dies-from-brain-cancer/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although the station had good ratings, it underperformed in terms of total revenue, an example being WABC billing $21.3&nbsp;million in 2008,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/04/13/2009-04-13_for_ads_wltws_at_the_top_of_the_bill.html |location=New York |work=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]] |title=On the radio: For ads, WLTW's at the top of the bill |first=David |last=Hinckley |date=April 12, 2009 |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-date=April 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416124919/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/04/13/2009-04-13_for_ads_wltws_at_the_top_of_the_bill.html |url-status=live }}</ref> not even close to industry giant [[KFI]] in Los Angeles at $54.4&nbsp;million.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Phil Boyce departed as program director in October 2008, eventually replaced in February 2009 by former [[XM Satellite Radio]] programmer Laurie Cantillo. Laurie Cantillo resigned on October 31, 2011. Chuck Armstrong was named interim program director in November 2011. Craig Schwalb was named program director in January 2014.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

From its first day as a News/Talk station until the end of 2014, WABC aired top-of-the-hour news from [[ABC News Radio]]. For the next 5 years after that, WABC affiliated with [[Westwood One News]] for hourly headlines.<ref>[https://radioinsight.com/headlines/197034/fox-news-radio-adds-56-former-westwood-one-news-affiliates/ Fox News Radio Adds 56 Former Westwood One News Affiliates] - RadioInsight (published September 3, 2020)</ref>

==Programming==
===Weekdays===
The station features a lineup of [[conservative talk]] shows, including WABC personalities [[Sid Rosenberg]], [[Rita Cosby]], [[Dominic Carter (journalist)|Dominic Carter]], [[Bo Snerdley]], [[Anthony Cumia]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Venta |first1=Lance |title=Bo Snerdley To Host Daily Afternoon Show At WABC |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/211946/bo-snerdley-to-host-daily-afternoon-show-at-wabc/ |website=radioinsight.com |date=August 20, 2021 |access-date=August 22, 2021 |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821032424/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/211946/bo-snerdley-to-host-daily-afternoon-show-at-wabc/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and station owner [[John Catsimatidis]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Venta |first1=Lance |title=WABC Revamps Daily Lineup |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/204037/wabc-revamps-daily-lineup/ |website=radioinsight.com |date=January 14, 2021 |access-date=August 22, 2021 |archive-date=August 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822230150/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/204037/wabc-revamps-daily-lineup/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Frank Morano began hosting a syndicated overnight show, ''The Other Side of Midnight'', in October 2020, replacing ''[[Red Eye Radio]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Morano departed the program after being elected to [[New York City Council]]; in June 2025, he was succeeded by  [[Lionel (radio personality)|Lionel]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 12, 2025 |title=After Winning Election, Frank Morano Departs The Other Side Of Midnight |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/300309/after-winning-election-frank-morano-departs-the-other-side-of-midnight/ |access-date=June 4, 2025 |website=RadioInsight |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=June 2, 2025 |title=Lionel To Host The Other Side Of Midnight |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/301492/lionel-to-host-the-other-side-of-midnight/ |access-date=June 4, 2025 |website=RadioInsight |language=en-US}}</ref>

The station also airs [[Brian Kilmeade]], [[Greg Kelly]], [[Curtis Sliwa]], [[Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)|Bill O'Reilly]] and ''[[The Mark Levin Show]]''. Local top-of-the-hour newscasts are also heard.

===Sports programming===
WABC currently does not carry any sports programming. The station's most recent sports contract, with the [[United States Military Academy]] for [[Army football]] games,<ref>{{cite web |title=WABC CONTINUES AS ARMY FOOTBALL FLAGSHIP STATION; TWENTY AFFILIATES WILL ALSO CARRY ARMY FOOTBALL |url=https://www.learfield.com/2013/08/wabc-continues-as-army-football-flagship-station-twenty-affiliates-will-also-carry-army-football/ |website=learfield.com |date=August 22, 2013 |publisher=Learfield |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> expired at the end of the [[2015 Army Black Knights football team|2015 season]]. In addition to the aforementioned Yankees coverage, the station served two separate stints as the flagship for the [[New York Jets]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pokrass |first1=Brandyn |title=NY Jets leaving longtime radio station home |url=https://jetsxfactor.com/2024/02/28/ny-jets-leaving-longtime-radio-station-home/ |website=jetsxfactor.com |date=February 28, 2024 |publisher=Jets X-Factor |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> and was also the home of the [[New Jersey Devils]] beginning in 1988. WABC also previously carried [[Seton Hall University]] [[Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball|men's basketball]].

Early in its Top 40 incarnation, WABC served as the original radio flagship of the [[New York Mets]] upon their establishment in 1962. A notable aspect of WABC's Mets coverage was [[Howard Cosell]] and former [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] pitcher [[Ralph Branca]] handling the pre- and post-game shows.<ref>{{cite web |title=Howard Cosell to Host Pre- and Post-Game Shows on WABC Radio (Press Release) |url=https://www.realtime1960s.com/post/howard-cosell-to-host-pre-and-post-game-shows-on-wabc-radio |website=realtime1960s.com |date=March 7, 2022 |publisher=Joe Rubenstein |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> The station lost those rights to [[WEPN (AM)|WHN]] following the 1963 season.

The Jets first called WABC home in the 1980s, but left toward the end of the decade for WCBS.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Evolution of Musicradio WABC |url=https://www.musicradio77.com/evolution.html |website=musicradio77.com |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> The team would return to the station in 2000 after spending the previous seven seasons on [[WFAN (AM)|WFAN]]. After then-sister station [[WEPN (AM)|WEPN]] became the Jets' flagship, WABC began simulcasting the games over its airwaves due to its stronger signal. The arrangement ended in 2008 as WEPN began simulcasting all its programming on two other stations.

In December 2001, broadcast rights to the Yankees were lost after 21 years to WCBS.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yankees Move Radio Broadcasts to WCBS AM |url=http://www.ctdata.com/articles/2001/12/28/0911238.html |website=ctdata.com |agency=Associated Press |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> WABC also lost the radio rights to the Devils in 2005, as New Jersey's hockey team moved to WFAN to substitute for the station's loss of the [[New York Rangers]] to WEPN. WABC served as an overflow station for the Rangers from 2005 through 2009, and also served the same purpose for the [[New York Knicks]] when their games moved from WFAN to WEPN, but those rights moved to [[WNYM]] in 2009. The loss of evening sports programming has forced WABC to attempt to solidify its evening talk lineup.

In April 2025, the station signed longtime New York Yankees radio broadcaster [[John Sterling (sportscaster)|John Sterling]] to host a one-hour sports talk show on Saturday afternoons, marking a return to sports-themed programming after a 16-year hiatus.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Caldera |first1=Pete |title=John Sterling returning to the air with one-hour talk show on WABC radio |url=https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/mlb/yankees/2025/04/22/john-sterling-returning-radio-talk-show-wabc-yankees/83216479007/ |website=northjersey.com |access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref>

===Music programming===
WABC announced on August 11, 2020, that it would be breaking with its all-talk format with an [[oldies]] music program, ''Cousin Brucie's Saturday Night Rock & Roll Party'', beginning September 5, 2020. The weekly program features music from the 1950s—1960s with a splash from the 1970s, and is hosted by [[Bruce Morrow]] aka "Cousin Brucie", who was a WABC disc jockey from 1961 to 1974.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jacobs |first1=Julia |title=Cue Up the Shirelles: Cousin Brucie Is Back at WABC-AM Radio |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/arts/music/cousin-brucie-wabc.html |access-date=August 11, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=August 11, 2020 |archive-date=August 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811161007/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/arts/music/cousin-brucie-wabc.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In late October 2020, the station announced that it would add an additional two hours of pop/jazz/soul music after Morrow's program, hosted by TV personality and singer [[Tony Orlando]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/200566/tony-orlando-joins-wabc/ |title=Tony Orlando joins WABC |first=Lance |last=Venta |work=Radio Insight |date=October 29, 2020 |access-date=October 30, 2020 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101144155/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/200566/tony-orlando-joins-wabc/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In December 2020, an additional music block was added on Sunday nights, this one featuring [[adult standards]]; [[Joe Piscopo]] hosts ''Sundays with [[Sinatra]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Venta |first1=Lance |title=WABC Adds Sunday Nights With Sinatra Hosted By Joe Piscopo |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/202753/wabc-adds-sunday-nights-with-sinatra-hosted-by-joe-piscopo/ |website=radioinsight.com |date=December 14, 2020 |access-date=December 15, 2020 |archive-date=December 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201214233201/https://radioinsight.com/headlines/202753/wabc-adds-sunday-nights-with-sinatra-hosted-by-joe-piscopo/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of initial AM-band station grants in the United States]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{Official website}}
{{AM station data|70658|WABC}}
* {{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=46284 |title= History Cards for WABC|publisher=[[Federal Communications Commission]]}} (covering 1927–1981) ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/History Cards|Guide to reading History Cards]])<!--Converted from {{FCC letter}}-->

==Further reading==
* {{URL|https://www.musicradio77.com/|Musicradio 77 WABC (1960 to 1982) tribute site}}
* {{URL|https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/602|Norman Sweetser papers}}, at the [[University of Maryland Libraries]]. Sweetser was a WJZ announcer starting in 1927. The collection contains sketches and photographs of announcers and crew members done by Sweetser while working at WJZ.
* {{URL|www.nyradionews.com/wabc/|WABC News Historical Profile & Interviews (1978)}}

{{New York Radio}}
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in New York}}
{{WABC (AM)|state=collapsed}}
{{Clear Channel AM}}
{{New York Mets broadcasters}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1921 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:2006 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:2019 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:ABC Radio Networks]]
[[Category:Clear-channel radio stations]]
[[Category:Conservative talk radio]]
[[Category:News and talk radio stations in the United States]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1921]]
[[Category:Radio stations in New York City|ABC]]
[[Category:Westinghouse Broadcasting]]