New York City Radio

"Radio is purely the announcer's medium. Accordingly, most of the best sports broadcasting has been done not on television, but on radio. David Halberstam writes from the knowledgeable and nuanced perspective of one who practices, respects, and understands the craft and its history." --Bob Costas NBC Sports "Some of my friends and associates do not believe there was civilization before television, but I assure them that listening to Red Barber on radio from Ebbets Field or to Marty Glickman from Madison Square Garden was better than watching television. It was magic. "Sports on New York Radio" brings back memories of that magic. Reading about the many gifted radio voices who covered the Dodgers, Yankees, Giants, Rangers, Jets, the fights, and so much more reinforces my early conviction that I would never be a broadcaster. How I made it to even the brink of such company still baffles me." --Dick Schaap ABC News "The Sports Reporters," ESPN "I grew up with Red Barber, Mel Allen, and Marty Glickman. They were warm, friendly, great voices. Through the radio they brilliantly linked the fan with the game. David Halberstam captures the colorful history and many great memories of sports on the radio." --Robert Merrill #1-1/2 New York Yankees New York Metropolitan Opera "The next best thing to sports on radio is reading about the perfect marriage of sports and radio. Halberstam takes us there. The information is riveting, the anecdotes hilarious. Radio lives in these pages." --Vic Ziegel Columnist "New York Daily News" "Sports radio in New York has spawned many broadcast legends, and David Halberstam has captured them in his thoughtful book." --David W. Checketts President and CEO Madison SquareGarden

New York City's extraordinary radio history, much like the story of the city itself, is a tale of strivers, dreamers, and ingenious risk takers. New York City Radio presents an unprecedented visual history featuring many of these timeless characters, including radio inventors Lee De Forest and Maj. Edwin Armstrong; entrepreneurs and trailblazers David Sarnoff, William Paley, Bernice Judis, and Hal Jackson; beloved heroes Dan Ingram, Frankie Crocker, and Alison Steele; controversial antiheroes Don Imus, Bob Grant, and Howard Stern; and many others. New York City Radio tells the story of the invention and perfection of the art of big-time, big-city radio broadcasting and the life and times of the most competitive, important, and exciting radio market in the country.

In 1973, conventional industry wisdom was that a country music station could not be sucessful in the New York market. WHN ignored that wisdom and announced that it was switching from a middle-of-the-road format to country, billing itself as "Easy Lovin' Country." The actual changeover took place at 5:45 am on February 26th when Jack Spector, calling himself "The Kosher Cowboy From Coney Island," introduced the George Jones classic "The Race Is On." And the rest is history.

For ten years, Norma has been the on-air voice of consolation and hope for the Indians in the mountains and the poor from the barrios—a people broken by war's violence. As the host of Lost City Radio, she reads the names of those who have disappeared—those whom the furiously expanding city has swallowed. Through her efforts lovers are reunited and the lost are found. But in the aftermath of the decadelong bloody civil conflict, her own life is about to forever change—thanks to the arrival of a young boy from the jungle who provides a cryptic clue to the fate of Norma's vanished husband.