The parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin were allowed to speak at the Democratic National Convention. When they went out to speak, the delegates started chanting “Bring them home!” which caused his mother to put her head down and cry incessantly. She later explained that she and her husband were worried about what type of reception they would receive and were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
In contrast, although there were repeated requests, no speaker from the Undeclared delegates or Palestinian American was allowed to speak. That upset many Arabs, Muslims, and progressives. The fear of pro-Palestinian rallies causing a scene outside or inside the convention was overblown. The number of protestors was much smaller than anticipated. Thus, as it relates to Israel, it was a good convention.
Now to my main topic. WCBS 880, aka Newsradio 88, is gone. It was replaced at 12:01 a.m. on August 26 by another all-sports station. In some ways, this reminded me of what happened in 2008, when the Mets abandoned Shea Stadium and moved to Citi Field. Shea had been the home of the Mets since 1964. I remember being in the stadium since the late 1960s. WCBS 880 had been a news station since August 28, 1967. I do not remember when it first switched over.
The Mets put a good face on the stadium change, telling fans that it was done in their best interest. Audacy, the owner of WCBS, is making the same argument.
I used to go to Shea with my father. In 2008, my father’s health was getting worse. He never made it to Citi Field. When I was growing up, we used to listen to WCBS 880. Now WCBS changed its format and numbers the year that I am sitting Shiva for my mother.
I was at the last game played at Shea, and I also heard the final couple of hours of 880, including the 15-minute speech by longtime anchor Wayne Cabot, which concluded the station’s run. It was taped because he said it would have been too hard emotionally to have done it live. He went through all of the music, sounds, and names from 1967 to date. I am amazed at how much I remembered. At the end, he said, “For the final time, this is WCBS New York,” and then there was the sound/music that was always played before the news on the hour. But instead of the news, there were 45 seconds of silence and then the new station came on.
The segment before was one of the broadcasters talking about a dream he had last year that the station was going to be shut down and it was going to be sudden. I listened to the program on my parents’ Panasonic Model RC-7467 clock radio from 1969. When I was growing up, this was one of the radios, and we used to listen to WCBS.
There was one significant difference between the Mets’ change and the switch at 880. Citi Field was being built, so it was clear what was going to happen. During every 2008 home game, they would count down the remaining games. This helped some people deal with the change.
Here, the change was sprung up out of the blue by Audacy on August 12. Audacy is an appropriate name since it sounds like audacity, which is what they had by making this change in such a manner. It was a shock to longtime listeners, which I think has made the change more upsetting. Even on Sunday, the station’s last day, my wife’s alarm clock was set to go on to WCBS 880 as it had been for years. It is even worse for the employees who will be out of a job and were unprepared for what happened.
Furthermore, Shea was replaced by another stadium. Here, an all-news station was replaced by a sports station. This was not a change for the better. As Wayne Cabot correctly pointed out, in these times, having unbiased news is important. We live in a world where disinformation and misinformation run rampart. We need more news stations, not less. Instead, we are stuck with another sports station. In America, sports sells; news does not.
Although the employees were trying to put a good face on the situation, having a three-hour program and other comments about how special it was, it felt like a funeral. It is shocking that where a person spent years employed can be gone so quickly. Some of the employees who have been there for 40 years, I remember when they first came. As you get older, these changes hit harder than when you were young. You feel like you lost an old friend. Moreover, it is a reminder of our own mortality, that nothing lasts forever.
Although Audacy (the owners) deserve blame for this debacle, it never should have come to this. WCBS used to be owned by CBS. The Federal Communications Commission did not oppose the sale to Audacy, which already owned WINS. It was a bad idea to have one company controlling the only two news station in one market. First, it could cause both stations to have a similar political view. Secondly, as happened here, it could lead to the company deciding that they do not need two all-news outlets and wanting to eliminate one of them.
The question is what made WCBS 880 so special for so many in the tri-state area. Whether it was during the day or at night, the news was done in a matter that gave you the facts without spin. What made WCBS better than WINS is that WCBS, as being part of CBS, had the hourly three- or eight-minute news summary at the beginning of the hour. There was interaction and sometimes some banter between the personalities. Also, WCBS would discuss a story or have an interview on an important topic or person for a few minutes, which was not done on WINS.
In the station’s final segment, Cabot used music from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” I will close with the last song played at Shea Stadium, when Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza closed the bullpen gate forever. They played the Beatles’ song “In My Life,” which begins, “There are places I’ll remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remain. All these places had their moments…”
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
