First Listen: Cousin Brucie’s Rock & Roll Party

Hearing radio legend Cousin Bruce Morrow back on WABC New York gave me one of my happiest hours of radio in 2020. It prompted one of my favorite Ross on Radio articles, spurred by the revelation that a host so iconic of ‘60s and ‘70s radio was also somebody who could negotiate the challenges of being on the radio during COVID.

Syndication had been rumored for Brucie from the start, potentially returning him to the national platform where he spent much of the ‘00s and ‘10s on SiriusXM. Last week, his Saturday night WABC show became “Cousin Brucie’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party,” syndicated by the co-owned Red Apple Music Networks.

When I last wrote about WABC, it had just become a rare example of a group-owned station sold back to a local owner, John Catsimatidis. In October, WABC was up 4.4-5.0, its best topline number since summer ’79, when the station was in its final moments as the AM “Musicradio” Top 40 powerhouse that Morrow helped build. It was WABC that seemed to benefit most from the sign-off of WCBS (Newsradio 880). 

On Saturday night, Morrow wasn’t using the WABC calls, although he did occasionally mention coming from “Musicradio New York.” He took callers from California and read letters from Edinburgh and Tokyo. Adjacent to the stopsets, there was a WABC vignette spotlighting the top 3 from this day in 1960.

Morrow also began the 8 p.m. hour with that week’s guest, Neil Sedaka, with whom Morrow has a long family friendship. (“I think we were bar mitzvahed together,” Sedaka quipped.) Sedaka is still hosting a SiriusXM show. He’s planning a farewell concert. In 1980, Sedaka had a chart duet with daughter Dara. Now, he’s appearing with his grandson on TikTok. (“I hope they don’t erase TikTok,” Sedaka said.)

Here’s the 8 p.m. ET hour of the show:

• Crystals, “Da Doo Ron Ron”
• Neil Sedaka, “Medley”—followed the Sedaka interview and contained “Laughter in the Rain,” “Bad Blood,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Oh! Carol,” “Little Devil,” “Calendar Girl,” and “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”
• Beach Boys, “Do It Again”
• Aquatones. “You”
• Bob Seger, “Old Time Rock and Roll”
• Fats Domino, “Blueberry Hill”
• Leo Sayer, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”
• Drifters, “When My Little Girl is Smiling”
• Cadillacs, “Gloria”
• Ronettes, “Be My Baby”