The Beatlemania Years on New York Radio
[This article is, in most part, reproduced from a piece I wrote for Beatlefan magazine several years ago. Also included are quotes by Beatles fans as they appear in my book, “We’re Going to See the Beatles!”]
It’s easy to forget, after several decades, the true power AM Top 40 radio wielded in the early and mid-1960s, especially at the time the Beatles invaded America — and specifically New York City. Without the kind of radio airplay and promotion the first Beatles songs received on New York stations in the early weeks of 1964, Beatlemania might never have happened the way it did.
New York was the center of the action for all things Beatles in America; their arrival and departure for their first U.S. tour in February of ’64, their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and their legendary Shea Stadium concert all took place in the Big Apple. Radio played a huge and invaluable role in the hype accompanying their visits and activites.
There were three major New York AM stations that found themselves salivating at the opportunity to promote themselves on the backs of the Beatles in 1964: WINS, WMCA, and WABC. Much has been written and discussed about where and when specific Beatles songs first made it onto the airwaves in America, and under which circumstances. But it is equally interesting to see, as the first year of Beatlemania progressed, how each New York station found itself able to cozy up to the Fab Four (both figuratively and literally) and promote itself as the Beatles station in the city. The competition among the three stations became red hot, and it’s difficult to proclaim an ultimate winner. Each of them had its moments, but it soon became necessary to do more than just play the newest Beatles songs as they became available.
WMCA was an independently owned 5,000-watt station that listeners could barely pick up outside of the immediate New York City area, but it had a loyal following for its DJs, known collectively as The Good Guys. The station snagged the first Beatles scoop in the city when Joe O’Brien played “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the day it was released, December 26, 1963.
By being the first station in New York to play that historic hit single, WMCA and the Good Guys may have gotten a jump on their competitors even before the Beatles’ first arrival in the city, but WINS and the irascible Murray ‘the K’ Kaufman scored a bigger coup when the Fab Four stepped off their plane on February 7, 1964.
While all three stations covered the group’s movements throughout the city — from their landing at Kennedy airport, to their stay at the Plaza Hotel, to their appearance on the Sullivan show — it was Murray who treated WINS listeners to on-air phone chats with the Beatles as they lounged in their hotel suite. They had been listening to him on their transistor radios since their arrival, and found him amusing, if a bit odd, with his hipster expressions and habit of calling everyone “babe.” He, in turn, was determined to ingratiate himself with the group, and proclaimed his own ascension to the rank of “Fifth Beatle” by the end of that week. He arrived at their suite in the Plaza to chat with them, using the telephone to send their conversation over the air. At one point (as seen in the Maysles brothers’ documentary film), John gleefully called Murray a “whacker” on the air — not exactly a compliment in British parlance, but the expression was unknown to Murray and to most Americans at the time. Murray happily declared, “I’m a whacker!” as John flashed a naughty smile. The other Beatles chimed in with a new nickname, “Whacker the K.”
As Peter Kanze, co-author of the book The Airwaves of New York explains, “WINS was a weak third of the rock stations. But Murray the K was the jock that everybody thought was hip and cool. And when the Beatles came to America, Murray, being a showman/extrovert, started cashing in on the Beatles’ thunder, and the Beatles thought this old guy was hilarious. They enjoyed the vaudeville of it all. And Murray didn’t put on any airs. He was Murray. And he knew everybody, and was able to get them into the clubs, and took them around New York. He knew a good thing when he saw it. It was more of a Murray the K thing than it was a WINS thing.”
Kanze also notes that several of the rock disk jockeys at the time were well into middle-age. “It was old men playing rock ’n’ roll for kids. But it worked because it was a family concept. The successful ‘old men’ acted like they knew you, and you could act like you knew them.”
Hence the nickname “Cousin Brucie” on WABC. More about him shortly.
It was natural for the Beatles’ young fans in the New York area to choose their favorite stations. “I was listening to 1010 WINS,” recalls Barbara Boggiano. “Murray the K had his show — of course at that time there was Cousin Brucie, but my sister and I mostly listened to Murray the K.”
Valerie Volponi also enjoyed following Murray. “We listened to the radio every night, and listened to Murray the K. He would always have interesting stories about the Beatles. So he was very exciting to listen to, with the new songs coming out.”
For Carol Moore, her memories of that time were of listening to WABC. “Back then, every week WABC would have the ‘Pick Hit of the Week.’ We were all very much into listening to the radio, and had been for a few years, so we were very aware of bands coming up.”
Barbara Allen, who grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, sums up the symbiotic relationship between the fans and the radio stations at the time: “Of course, we had the radio on all the time because there were stations out of New York that played this music all the time: Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, and they were playing the music and they’d always say, ‘Oh, we talked to Ringo on the phone last week…’ or ‘I just got a letter from Paul,’ and they would try to fuel the flames, because the girls wanted to know everything. You couldn’t hear enough about the Beatles…and these guys kept the hype going.”
The Beatles themselves quickly became aware of not only WINS, but of all the competing New York stations. However, having been raised listening to the BBC, the boys were at first unfamiliar with the commercial competitiveness of American radio, so whenever they were asked during an on-air interview to drop a line for that given station, they did so without a second thought.
“Everybody’s trying to get an exclusive, everybody’s trying to be the station for the Beatles,” explains Allan Sniffen, creator/webmaster of the site www.musicradio77.com, dedicated to WABC and WMCA. “And any time you could get a competitive edge, you’d try for it.” This would include WMCA DJ Joe O’Brien asking permission during one of the Beatles’ first press conferences to snip off a lock of Ringo’s hair for use as a winning prize in one of that station’s contests.
WMCA produced several promos, bits of which were recorded during interviews in which a Beatle would be asked to read a line or two plugging the station, or a particular Good Guy. Naturally, airing a promo with John himself thanking the station “for introducing Beatlemania to America” was a sizable feather in WMCA’s cap. Many of the Beatles’ plugs for the stations were inadvertent, but the stations exploited all opportunities anyway.
“The stations would go to the press conferences,” says Sniffen, “and the Beatles might be talking about a station or saying something and they would get this on tape, and come back and chop up the tape and make it sound like it was a promo for the radio station. It was more like taking advantage of things that got said. Some of it was true, but some of the endorsements were exaggerated.”
As Beatles author Bruce Spizer points out in his book The Beatles Are Coming, Brian Epstein reprimanded the group for their undisciplined practice of giving away such on-air promotional boosts for free. Thus, in most of their subsequent radio interviews, they were noticeably more cautious, and would audibly catch themselves in mid-sentence before blurting out a station’s call letters.
Over at WINS, after the Beatles’ first appearance on the Sullivan show, Murray the K packed his suitcase to accompany the group to Washington, D.C., for their first American concert on February 11. The next day, back in New York, he shared emcee duties with the WMCA Good Guys for the group’s Carnegie Hall concert. He then accompanied the group to Miami for their second Sullivan show appearance, where he continued to report whatever small talk they were willing to offer. And, although the Beatles kept up appearances (and their patience) with his almost constant — and some might say fawning — presence, they also seemed quietly relieved to see Kaufman go when he finally headed back to New York.
Sniffen assesses Kaufman this way: “One thing about Murray Kaufman, he was a very able promoter for himself and for whatever radio station he was working for. And I think to this credit, he correctly identified this as a big thing, and got in on it as fast as he could, as soon as he saw it coming. He kind of tried to do the same thing with the Rolling Stones, and I don’t think it worked quite as well as it did with the Beatles. Certainly, he was in the right place at the right rime when the Beatles came to the United States.”
In the meantime. WABC, a powerhouse 50,000-watt station that, with favorable weather conditions, could be heard in two-thirds of the country, stepped up its own promotional barrage of Beatles contests and giveaways. The station’s DJs called themselves the All-Americans, and the station nicknamed itself “WABeatleC” throughout 1964, using the moniker in its station promos and on-air chatter by the DJs. Take a listen:
https://musicradio77.com/images/misc64.mp3
The station jingles had also taken on a decidedly Beatlesque sound. Even public service announcements and commercial ads began using instrumental versions of Beatles hits as background behind their voiceovers — including those messages that had no connection to the group at all — so they could fit in more smoothly with the rest of the program material.
WABC perhaps topped its on-air competitors most decisively at the end of that summer. In the wee hours of August 28, the Beatles flew into New York from a Cincinnati concert and arrived at the Delmonico Hotel on Park Avenue (they were to play at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens the following day). During their sprint from the limo to the hotel entrance, well-intentioned but excited fans fairly attacked the group in the customary fashion, and ripped Ringo’s St. Christopher’s medallion from his neck, tearing his shirt in the process. Word about this reached WABC, which immediately put out a news flash on the air that Ringo was upset about losing the medal and would like it back. Dozens of calls came in to the station from fans offering to give Ringo a new medal, but finally 16-year-old Angie McGowan came forward with the real thing. The station decided to milk the situation for all it was worth and arranged for a meeting between McGowan and Ringo for later that day, so it could occur on the air at a peak listening hour.
But that was not the most remarkable thing about the events of August 28. As thousands of fans gathered outside the Delmonico on Park Avenue to keep the Beatles company, and to scream at every noticeable flutter of a hotel room window shade, WABC set up a remote studio on the 8th floor. DJs Scott Muni and “Cousin” Bruce Morrow (one of the most energetic and fastest talkers on radio), along with news director Jim Gordon, enjoyed experimenting with new state-of-the-art wireless remote microphones, allowing them greater mobility as they reported back to on-air DJ Dan Ingram in the studio.
“WABC rented out a suite of rooms,” explains Kanze, “and prior to that, program director Rick Sklar made it a point to make friends with the hotel staff — security, the maid service, porters. And he told me years later, ‘It’s amazing how far a bottle of scotch would go in 1964.’ Plus, the fact that WABC was indeed a very important radio station — they could get things and exclusives that no other radio station could get, including WMCA.”
Later in the morning, as the DJs looked out the window to survey the crowds below, they began an unforgettable give-and-take dialogue with the fans over the air. No megaphones or loudspeakers were necessary. With so many teenage girls clasping onto their ever-present transistor radios tuned to the station, all the DJs needed to do was acknowledge them, chat with them, and announce that Ringo would soon arrive in the suite to retrieve his medallion. This produced a chorus of screams and cheers that blasted upward from the street to virtually envelop the hotel.
Then the DJs decided to have some real fun, first encouraging the teenagers to sing a belated “Happy Birthday” to President Lyndon Johnson, followed by whipping the crowd into a frenzy with still more on-air updates about the Beatles’ activities. In perhaps the most important moment of all for the station’s leapfrogging jump in the competition for Beatles-related publicity, Ingram played a few WABC jingles as Muni asked the crowd to sing along, which the girls did with great energy. It was an almost surreal but inevitable coup for WABC. And, of course, every Beatles song Ingram played on the air got a rousing reception from the crowd. The overall effect of this demonstration of radio’s power, and of the strong connection between the fans and the DJs, was nothing short of breathtaking. The DJs themselves sounded like kids in a candy shop, as they scrambled to try new ways of getting vocal feedback from the crowd. Here is a nearly 27-minute aircheck of that unprecedented live broadcast:
https://musicradio77.com/images/wabcbeatleslive8-28-64.mp3
As Sniffen points out, “Those small little radios weren’t something that people were as familiar with as they are now, particularly people who were a little older. So all the kids had transistor radios and the adults kind of knew of it, but weren’t that familiar with it, and all of a sudden there were ten thousand kids singing along to WABC jingles. And to those who didn’t know what was going on, it was ‘what’s happening here?’ But it shows how many people were listening, at least that afternoon, to WABC.”
Later, Ringo and Paul arrived in the broadcast suite as Angie McGowan somewhat sheepishly returned the “lost” medallion to Ringo. Bruce Morrow wedged his way in to offer play-by-play of the awkward moment, while also squeezing the WABC call letters into the conversation more often than one would think was humanly possible. Newspaper photographers and an ABC-TV camera crew recorded it for history. Brucie also spoke with Paul and Ringo individually for a few moments, but the real excitement had already taken place eight floors below outside.
About a decade later, Dan Ingram and Brucie reminisced on the air about that day:
https://musicradio77.com/images/btls1pcm.mp3
More promotional giveaways from the New York stations followed. As the Beatles’ first U.S. concert tour neared its end in late September, WABC held a write-in contest with the prize being two tickets — worth $100 each — to the final Beatles concert of the tour, a benefit show at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square for cerebral palsy. Scott Muni informed the contest winner of her good fortune on the air:
https://musicradio77.com/images/winnerscottso.mp3
“The advertisers started to pay more attention to the baby boomers,” notes Sniffen. “I think all of that created an environment where the baby boomers suddenly weren’t just kids with lollipops, these were teenage girls you could sell stuff to. This was the first big thing the baby boomers grabbed a hold of. The radio stations were riding the wave.”
The following year, 1965, brought continued excitement in New York for the Beatles, with the major stations maintaining their battle for scoops. However, on April 19, WINS not only dropped out of the competition, but dropped its Top 40 format completely, becoming a 24-hour news station (which it remains today).
The day before the Shea Stadium concert, WABC again gained access to their hotel suite — this time at the Warwick — as Cousin Brucie presented each Beatle with a medallion called “The Order of the All-Americans.” The station had sponsored a contest for the best medal design, and Cartier jewelers created the finished product from the winning entry. However, following Brian Epstein’s instructions, as each Beatle read aloud the inscription on the medal, he deliberately mumbled and/or mis-pronounced the station’s call letters, no doubt much to Brucie’s frustration.
The Shea concert itself on August 15 allowed for Brucie to share emcee duties with Murray the K (who was now at WOR) as Murray continued his efforts to keep his name as closely associated with the Beatles as possible — although it became increasingly difficult for him to do so after leaving WINS. Neither DJ could be heard above the unprecedented decibel level of more than 55,000 screaming fans, but both could still claim their role in music history for keeping the proceedings moving smoothly amidst the chaos.
With the group’s last-ever American concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966, the Beatlemania era pretty much came to a close, and American radio stations, while continuing to play Beatles music heavily, began to ease up on the frenetic pace of their Beatles-inspired station promotions and jingles. Ironically, by leading the way for so many other British Invasion groups, the Beatles nearly became victims of their own success. The Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, the Hollies, the Kinks, and harder edged groups like the Rolling Stones and the Who had already begun to attract the attention of American teenagers, thus diluting the concentrated energy that had originally been directed almost exclusively toward the Beatles. Naturally, radio stations needed to pick up on that and use it to their advantage. In addition, the controversies that plagued the Beatles’ final tour — especially the furor over John’s often mis-quoted and mis-interpreted “we’re more popular than Jesus” comment — somewhat dampened the heat the group had generated throughout the previous two years.
Lastly, by late 1966, with the Beatles confining their work to the studio, the original teenage fans were beginning to grow up, socialize, go out on dates, get jobs, and leave for college. The Beatles grew with them, and vice-versa, as the psychedelic era began to bloom both in music and other aspects of pop culture. But the simple, carefree, screaming fun of Beatlemania, both created and reflected by New York’s Top 40 stations, had run its course. And, lest we forget, FM was on the verge of shaking up the landscape of American radio in major ways.
Nevertheless, those who were a part of the Beatlemania era agree that it was fun while it lasted.
Until next time…
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You can order my book We’re Going to See the Beatles! and read reviews at this link on my website:
We’re Going to See the Beatles! by Garry Berman
My other articles related to the Beatles:
“The Man Who Filmed the Beatles” https://garryberman.medium.com/the-man-who-filmed-the-beatles-d674eed00bd6
“Remembering When the Beatles Appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show” https://garryberman.medium.com/when-the-beatles-appeared-on-the-ed-sullivan-show-b45b30c00a46
“For the Last Time: ‘Let It Be’ Was NOT the Beatles’ Break-up Album” https://garryberman.medium.com/for-the-last-time-let-it-be-was-not-the-beatles-break-up-album-10ec71cc387c
“The Night John Lennon Died” https://garryberman.medium.com/the-night-john-lennon-died-55b215bf0c8d
“Sgt. Pepper vs. Sgt. Friday — How “Dragnet” Battled the Counterculture” | by Garry Berman | Medium
Retro Review: George Harrison’s “Gone Troppo” | by Garry Berman | Medium
Was the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” Really a Failure? | by Garry Berman | Medium
A (fictional)Beatles Story (sort of) For You | by Garry Berman | Medium
