Earlier this afternoon I shared a link to an article from Rolling Stone magazine about the country singer Jimmy Wayne and I commented that he's "one of the good guys." That reminded me of a New York City radio station, WMCA, which was a Top-40 station when I was growing up and is now a Christian station.
WMCA called their disc jockeys "the good guys." I don't think it was a slap in the face to any other station, but their attempt at creating good will for their station. I couldn't name any of their disc jockeys, but they got out of the studio and into the community to create a good vibe wherever they went.
Cousin Brucie, Bruce Morrow, was the heavyweight at WABC, the station that dominated the Top-40 market. It wasn't a fair competition given that WABC was a 50,000 watt signal and WMCA just 5,000. WABC's reach extended far wider than WMCA's. The WMCA signal was strong enough to reach to the Jersey shore which was evident from the radios tuned into their channel and blaring out the music.
The Good Guys run was mostly over by 1968. It was a memorable chapter in NYC radio and one that will never be repeated. In New York City, FM took over music formats, AM changed to talk, news, Christian, and non-English language broadcasting, and the Good Guys branding was left for reminiscences like this one.
