FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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