Customer Reviews

FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio

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From the hours of 6:00-10:00 a.m. on Saturdays, the tumult and the shouting pauses on New York City's sports talk station WFAN. Host Richard Neer, known to his regular callers as "The Voice of Reason," is presiding, and sanity reigns, if only for a short while.

Of course, New Yorkers have been getting up with Mr. Neer for a long time. Before his present gig as a sports talk host, the author was affiliated with the legendary aor FM station, WNEW, and it's that station's story he tells here, in his usual understated fashion.

Neer was music director, program director, overnight jock, and did two stints as the morning man in his 28 years with the station (he stayed to turn out the lights) and in that time he knew and tells us about, such legendary jocks as Jonathan Schwartz, Bill (Rosko) Mercer, Scott Muni (who he seems to admire the most), and Alison Steele ("The Nightbird"). He also knows Bruce Springsteen and devotes a chapter to him, and another to the night John Lennon died. But the heart of the book deals with dumb station managers and dumber consultants. And it deals with them better than they probably deserve: As gracious on his pages as he is on the air, Neer deals fairly even with the people who've treated him poorly.

If you've been wondering why your favorite music station doesn't seem to sound quite the same as it did the week before, you may be quite sure it's changed program directors and/or general managers. Again. And Neer tells you how and why that keeps happening. (You won't be surprised to learn that ratings and profits something to do with the constant flux.)

Although the author takes pains to discuss FM radio across the country, his emphasis, naturally, is on his own New York experiences at WNEW, and the book will have special meaning for New Yorkers (of which I am one), but you don't have to be from New York to appreciate this well done tale written by a man who's been there, done that. It's a good informative, rant-free read.

Richard Neers book FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio is a book I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in New York City's WNEW-FM and Progressive Rock Radio in general. Its a big picture story, not a discussion of minutia. If youre looking for a compendium of who worked when at WNEW-FM then this isnt the place to find it. Instead, Neers purpose is to paint a picture of what he believes built WNEW-FM, what sustained it and what ultimately destroyed it. It is a book about the forest, not a book about the trees in it.

It basically has three parts. In the first, Neer talks about getting his first job in commercial radio at WLIR on Long Island, how he became lifelong friends with Michael Harrison (now of Talkers Magazine) and how he fell in love with WNEW-FM just by listening to it. He describes the stations genesis from the remains of WOR-FMs foray into Progressive Radio and how people like Scott Muni, Bill Rosko Mercer, and Allison Steele were visionaries in creating this new format. He acknowledges listening to Top 40 radio as a young child but claims the seed for its destruction was clear by 1965. He admires people like Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie but theyre not his heroes. People like Scott Muni are.

Neer very accurately describes the musical artistry of Progressive Radio as well as the circumstances that allowed that artistry to prosper. Stations like WNEW-FM came to be in an era of political unrest (the Vietnam War) where young people were looking for an alternative to anything establishment and the decidedly leftward politics of most everyone doing Progressive Radio further endeared it to its audience. That combined with FMs infancy and the need for corporate broadcasting to find alternative formats for a slice of radio spectrum it had little use for, allowed the inmates to take over the asylum (so to speak). Neer argues that was a good thing because it allowed an art form to grow under circumstances where its founders had the freedom to make something special without worrying about real world issues of running a business to make a profit.

At the same time, Neer doesnt have rose-colored glasses on. For example, the book is very blunt in its description of how drugs played a big part in the lives of many (not all) of those doing Progressive Radio. He does not celebrate that. Instead he notes the influence of it and also points out how destructive it could be to many of those in the business.

The second part of the book describes what life at WNEW-FM was like in the seventies when the station reached its peak influence. Neer writes about the concerts, the promotions, the personalities and the perks of that era. He enthusiastically describes the experience of working with virtually no format demands and how great it was to be able to play pretty much whatever you wanted to as a disk jockey. He discusses the stewardship of Scott Muni with humor but also with admiration.

Neer speaks of his time as WNEW-FMs program director and the difficult time he had trying to steer the station toward economic reality as FM grew. He acknowledges that no longer could the station function without some kind of format. But he claims that even his most minimal efforts to focus the station were met with resistance. He writes of the difficulty he had in trying to rein in friends who now suspected him of betraying them to upper management and how that foreshadowed what would follow as outsiders came in to manage the station.

The last part of the book describes WNEW-FMs eventual downfall. Neer goes through a long list of program directors and general managers who came and went and their influence (or lack of it) as the station struggled to find its way in the new and more competive world of FM radio in the 80's and 90's.

The strength of this book is Richard Neers true passion for what he loved about Progressive Rock Radio. At the end of the book you truly feel sad that its gone. The weakness is perspective. For all that was good about this kind of radio, the reality is that it existed in a vacuum of economic reality. Neer alludes to that but I dont think he truly puts it into context. For all its success as artistry, it was a failure in appealing to a mass audience. Those who loved it really did have a home -- but there were too few of them.

There are a couple of minor factual errors concerning WNEW-FM's chief competitor, WPLJ, but the negatives are minor if youre reading the book to get a feel for how it felt to get a job and then work at WNEW-FM. Whether youre a fan of this kind of radio or not, you come away with an understanding of what made it great to those who loved and worked in it. You also get a feel for what brought it down and how the station might have succeeded into the future had it been more willing to reinvent itself.

This is not a book for those looking for radio trivia. Its a book for those looking for some insight and understanding of the big picture of what made WNEW-FM work -- and then what made it fail.

I enjoyed this book about the history of FM rock radio. I live in the New York metro area and grew up listening to WNEW (Richard Neer's station) and WPLJ (the biggest competitor). So many of the characters (mostly the DJs) were familiar to me. Richard Neer does a good job of intertwining his story with the larger story of the FM radio and rock music industries. He does tell us about many of the people of the industry and sometimes it is a little much to keep track of all. All-in-all recommended for anyone with any interest in rock music or the NYC radio scene.

I lived through the era recalled by Mr. Neer in this book. As such, I especially enjoyed his asides regarding Zacherle (a personal favorite), Alison Steele, and Scott Muni. His thoughtful, low-key manner (which these days provides a welcome respite from the styles of most of his all-sports WFAN colleagues) translates well to book form. For a 350-plus page volume, this provided a surprisingly breezy and easy read. That said, I wouldn't recommend this tome to those who didn't live in the NYC area during the 70's, or are too young to recall the players involved here. But for those who lived it, this is an informative and welcome trip back to a time when most FM radio stations were infinitely more enjoyable (for the thoughtful music lover) than the unmitigated garbage that resides on that band today.

The most important thing to know before starting this book is that it is not meant to be a historical document of the free-form radio era. A lot of the book has the feel of a man setting his memories to paper before they fade. Fortunately Neer has more interesting memories than most.

All in all, FM is a clear window into the workings of WNEW in New York during the formative years of rock radio. Of particular interest to listeners during that time, Neer brings you into the restricted access world of radio, devulging the conflicts and hijinks that result on the battlefront between air personality and management.

Although his stories of internal WNEW stife and rock stars in their formative years are facinating, any time the subject strays to other subjects, such as other free-form stations of the era, the narrative loses alot of the viceral energy of his personal experiences. Also, Neer will often follow stories to thier conclusion, jumping decades at a time and then back, leaving one very confused as to when a perticular event is happening.

Despite the flaws, FM is still an interesting read and while it fails to give a comprehensive view of free-form radio, the warm and often humorous radio recolections are well worth the purchace price.

Richard Neer's fabulous new book "FM" works on a number of different levels: as a story of one man's rise from small town radio to the Big Apple; a history of how FM replaced AM bubbble gum radio in the late sixties, only to wind up in the 90's as a haven for morning zoos and Howard Stern wannabees; and as an insider's look at WNEW-FM--the beacon of progressive rock radio in New York.

Neer hangs out enough dirty laundry to keep a dry cleaner busy for weeks (According to Scott Muni, the affluent Jonathan Schwartz used to scoff other jock's lunches out of the refrigerator and fish through garbage cans for discarded pizza).

The commercial prospects of "FM" seem limited, but for a ex-broadcaster, reading it is like spending a few hours with an old friend.

A memoir of a bygone era, FM tells the story of the successful career of it's author, Richard Neer, a one-time champion of free form rock radio. Focusing predominately on his rock and roll heyday, Neer concentrates on what he lived first hand, the rise and fall of New York's premier rock station; WNEW FM.

Reading much like an interesting biography, FM's flaw seems to be its limited regional appeal. Luckily for the reader, Neer's nice-guy personality outshines any minor foibles. For a fan of WNEW in the 70's & 80's, FM is joy to read.

Like its obvious predecessor, ROCKING AMERICA by Rick Sklar, FM's target audience would seem to be New York area radio listeners and professional radio broadcasters. If you are either, open it up and see what falls out of Neer's closet. You won't be disappointed.

If you grew up like I did in the 1970s greater New York metro area, you will want to read Richard Neer's memoir of life at WNEW-FM during its hard-rock heyday just for the blasts of nostalgic recognition. Radio handles like "Rosko", "Scottso", and "The Nightbird" become vivid personalities, and you are reconnected to a time when people anxiously awaited the latest Moody Blues LP. But even without such attachments going in, you will find "FM" a pretty absorbing read on many levels.

First, there's the gossipy behind-the-scenes aspect, of discovering who didn't get along with whom among a group of high-profile radio disc jockeys to whom the big shots of the day, like Led Zeppelin and Elton John, came a-calling. They called WNEW the place "where rock lives" for a reason.

Then there's the aspect of WNEW-FM's place as an oasis of free-form radio while the medium was changing all around them, a period that ran roughly from just before Neer's arrival as a weekend jock in 1971 to the murder of John Lennon in 1980. The money still came in for a while after that, but as Neer writes, the dream was over.

Finally, there's the fact Neer is a sensible, candid observer of all around him, who can describe lovingly and at some length everything from his first broadcasting experience on college radio to his initial trepidation when cornered by Jonathan Schwartz, a velvet-throated rock-jock mainstay at the time. With a voice like that, Neer thought, Schwartz had to be gay.

"I would learn later that my fears were completely unfounded, and that Jonno went through women like [fellow WNEW legend Scott] Muni went through scotch."

I suspect Neer and Schwartz aren't on speaking terms today, not for that so much as a hilarious anecdote he shares about Schwartz, two willing bedmates, and Schwartz's idea of mood music, his own pre-recorded voice on the radio. But Neer's loss of a Christmas card is our gain.

It's like that the whole way through, Neer explaining the unsavory as well as the heroic aspects of WNEW's rise to fame. Sex and drugs, yes, though more the former than the latter, unless ego counts as a drug. That the jocks had in spades. When Alison Steele a.k.a. "The Nightbird", sensed a new female jock WNEW had hired was a threat to her domain, she got the woman fired. Schwartz eschewed the disk jockey term for one he coined himself: "Jocque du disques". For a lot of jocks, the term "free-form" meant playing whatever they wanted to, and sneering anytime the word "Arbitron" came up.

They're a great bunch all the same. Neer makes clear his overall admiration for their varying personalities and what they did. It's hard not to envy Neer his "Almost-Famous" style proximity to the entire gang and the world they represented, a world that arose greenfield-like in the late 1960s from the underused hinterlands of the FM dial just as rock music became polytonal, expansive and willfully reckless. Neer even fills in the details of the wider rock/FM scene without losing his focus on WNEW.

He takes sidetrips to California, where free-form programming was taken even more seriously and crashed even more spectacularly than in New York. The last 100 pages deal with WNEW after free-form's heyday ended, and are far less vital reading than the 1971-81 section, as new wave and grunge began pushing hard rock into the oldies circuit.

Draggy or not, Neer finds a way to bring it all together, not in such a way as to draw in the uninitiated (his prose is solid but never immersive) but to reward the curious. Radio lovers will enjoy this deep dive into a world, still a part of many living memories, that feels a million miles away.

Recommended Reading: FM - The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio - by Richard Neer

I finally got around to this one seven years after the initial publication.

Anyone who was around in the late '60s/early '70s in the New York area and fondly remembers the jump from Top 40 AM (WABC 77) to progressive/album oriented/free form rock pioneered by WNEW-FM (102.7) will want to read this one. Not that it has a happy ending. Or middle one for that fact.

Richard Neer (who now lives on as a sports talk host via an audience call in format on NYC's WFAN - 66) joined WNEW-FM in '71 and was there for the good (great), the bad and the ugly.

Much of what I retain in vinyl and much of what I retain in my head musically has a direct correlation to what Neer, Scott Muni, Roscoe, Jonathan Schwartz, Alison Steele, Dave Herman, Dennis Elsas, Pete Fornatale, Zacherle, Vin Scelsa and the others in the glory days of NEW were playing.

But in hindsight, it was a relatively short life span. Format changes along with a revolving door of corporate and program managers eventually put the whole concept and later the whole station in deep freeze.

Even though Neer interweaves correlating progress (or lack of) at stations in major markets like Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angles, and San Francisco, his focus naturally is on the New York City market. As such, much of the impact (IMO) would be lost on anyone who didn't live through these times in NY.

While not one of those tell-all slam books, there are some interesting stories and some surprising conflicts in personality revealed. The most moving moment revolves around the events at the station the night John Lennon was murdered.

Overall, an important book to revisit for the music and characters and finally the sad realization of something which is nevermore.

Paul Pearson

The title of this book really says it all. Rock radio's place in major markets these days is about as stable as Anne Heche. But, as Richard Neer chronicles in his book, it was once very much alive and well. To quote Spinal Tap film-biographer Marti DeBergi, Neer captures, "the sights, the sounds, and the smells", of hard working rock radio stations and personalities. I enjoyed the book from start to finish. My only regret is that Neer did not do more on the role rock radio played in the rise of rock's loudest band, Spinal Tap.