Richard Neer started in radio while attending Adelphi University and pioneered progressive radio on Long Island after graduation. In 1971, he joined the staff of WNEW-FM and worked there as a disc jockey and programmer for over twenty-eight years. In 1986, he became a sports talk-show host at WNEW-AM. He moved to WFAN in July of 1988, where he is currently a weekend personality and pre- and postgame host for New York Giants football. He is the sports editor for Talkers magazine and appears regularly on various syndi-cated radio and television shows. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Vicky, and their willful golden retriever, Lindsay.
FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio
Paperback
- ISBN-13: 9780812992656
- Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
- Publication date: 09/25/2001
- Pages: 384
- Sales rank: 70,166
- Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.12(d)
.
"It was all so honest, before the end of our collective innocence. Top Forty jocks screamed and yelled and sounded mightier than God on millions of transistor radios. But on FM radio it was all spun out for only you. On a golden web by a master weaver driven by fifty thousand magical watts of crystal clear power . . . before the days of trashy, hedonistic dumbspeak and disposable three-minute ditties . . . in the days where rock lived at many addresses in many cities."
–from FM
As a young man, Richard Neer dreamed of landing a job at WNEW in New York–one of the revolutionary FM stations across the country that were changing the face of radio by rejecting strict formatting and letting disc jockeys play whatever they wanted. He felt that when he got there, he’d have made the big time. Little did he know he’d have shaped rock history as well.
FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio chronicles the birth, growth, and death of free-form rock-and-roll radio through the stories of the movement’s flagship stations. In the late sixties and early seventies–at stations like KSAN in San Francisco, WBCN in Boston, WMMR in Philadelphia, KMET in Los Angeles, WNEW, and others–disc jockeys became the gatekeepers, critics, and gurus of new music. Jocks like Scott Muni, Vin Scelsa, Jonathan Schwartz, and Neer developed loyal followings and had incredible influence on their listeners and on the early careers of artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, the Cars, and many others.
Full of fascinating firsthand stories, FM documents the commodification of an iconoclastic phenomenon, revealing how counterculture was coopted and consumed by the mainstream. Richard Neer was an eyewitness to, and participant in, this history. FM is the tale of his exhilarating ride.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- The Complete David Bowie…
- by Nicholas Pegg
-
- Electric Eden: Unearthing…
- by Rob Young
-
- Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A…
- by Alice Cooper
-
- Indie Band Survival Guide: The…
- by Randy ChertkowJason Feehan
-
- Dream Boogie: The Triumph of…
- by Peter Guralnick
-
- Searching for the Sound: My…
- by Phil Lesh
-
- Commando: The Autobiography of…
- by Johnny Ramone
-
- Rolling Stone Interviews
- by Jann S. Wenner
Recently Viewed
WNEW, 102.7, was our local Temple of Solomon and somehow these stations were popping up in every major city simultaneously like a planned invasion from outer space. And with them a new generation of DJs, our generation, speaking to us. Personally. Understanding as only we understood. Inspiring us, motivating us, conjuring up images and stimulating the senses as only radio can do when it is in the hands of the righteous.
And then it was over."
from the Foreword by Steven Van Zandt
Radio veteran Richard Neer's FM is a journey through the history of rock-'n'-roll radio. As he recounts his own broadcasting career, Neer simultaneously traces the development, heyday, and eventual demise of free-form radio. He chronicles the legendary deejays at pioneering rock stations such as WNEW, KSAN, and WFMU, who brought both politics and exciting, undiscovered music to listeners across the country during the 1960s and '70s.
Neer got his start at a college station on Long Island, then moved up to the small classics station WLIR, where he and his pal Mike Harrison dreamed of working in the big city for the free-form station WNEW. Neer provides a crash course for readers in the basics of free-form radio, a unique format that encouraged deejays to choose the records they played on the air -- a concept that seems strange in the light of contemporary radio and its focus on the hits. But free-form radio was a flourishing, vital format during the late '60s and the '70s -- until the big corporations that owned the stations shut it down. Seeking increased ratings and revenue, management gradually introduced more and more rules in an attempt to tame the deejays, who were accustomed to selecting their own offbeat records for airplay. Neer describes the epic battles fought between hot-tempered deejays and hopelessly mainstream consultants brought in to raise the ratings. WNEW deejay Vin Scelsa, who got his start at the communal, wildly free-spirited college station WFMU, resigned almost weekly over limitations being placed on his music choices.
Along with Scelsa, Neer worked alongside many radio icons at WNEW -- including Scott Muni, Alison Steele, Pete Fornatale, and Dennis Elsas. Neer shares many personal anecdotes about his coworkers, but the strength of his convictions and the quality of his writing prevents FM from becoming a gossipy tell-all. Although wildly different in personal taste, all of the WNEW deejays shared a common passion for the music. Music was an integral part of the vibrant new youth culture that swept the country in the mid- to late '60s, and emerging FM stations like WNEW played a big part in bringing new musicians to the public. WABC was one of the first to heavily promote the Beatles when they first appeared in the States, and WNEW itself played a role in introducing Bruce Springsteen to a wider audience, broadcasting an early concert live from The Bottom Line in Greenwich Village.
The conflicts described in Neer's book -- individuality versus corporate culture, integrity versus ratings -- reflect such central themes in American culture that FM can be seen as an allegory for many media industries. Neer balances this aspect of FM with the personal, unique stories of the deejays, program directors, and musicians, making this the definitive book on rock radio history. (Julie Carr)