NorthEast Radio Watch 10/31/2022: Shannon’s Farewell (For Now)

In this week’s issue… CBS-FM loses Shannon – WINS-FM launches – WHAV returns home – FCC picks new noncomm FM permittees – New Ottawa mayor comes from radio

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*As late as last Friday morning, we were pretty sure we knew what the biggest news out of Audacy’s NEW YORK radio cluster all year was going to be. But after several weeks of hype over all-news radio arriving on the FM dial, it was one of Audacy’s FM music stations where the bombshell dropped with no warning Friday morning: Scott Shannon, a fixture in New York radio for almost 40 years, will do his last morning show on WCBS-FM (101.1) on December 16, as will his longtime radio partner Patty Steele.

Shannon’s legendary career almost doesn’t need the recap – after making a name for himself in Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Washington and Tampa, he came to New York in 1983 as the face and voice of the “Morning Zoo” that led the new Z100 (WHTZ) from “worst to first.” After a brief Los Angeles interlude at the end of the 1980s, he returned to New York in 1991 to resurrect the flagging WPLJ (95.5), holding down mornings there until his move to WCBS-FM in 2014.

“My alarm has gone off at 3:15 for eight and a half years now, and I believe it’s time to take a break from morning radio and just kind of chill for a while before I decide what I want to do next in my life and my career,” Shannon told listeners in his surprise announcement. For Steele, who’s worked alongside Shannon at each of his New York stops as well as her own gigs at WOR, WCBS(AM) and WINS, she said the decision to follow Shannon out the door is “just a transition for me to the next block. It also allows me to expand my podcasting as well as a new business venture and as always back on the radio sooner rather than later.”

About that “sooner rather than later” – as our colleague Lance Venta correctly noted over at RadioInsight, the announcements didn’t carry much of a note of finality to them, allowing speculation to begin about where both talents might land next. Having worked through most of the obvious terrestrial options in New York, there’s still John Catsimatidis’ WABC (770) as a possibility, adding to a weekend music lineup that already includes another New York legend, Cousin Brucie.

Shannon won’t disappear from WCBS-FM completely: his “America’s Greatest Hits” syndicated countdown will stay on the Sunday morning schedule and his True Oldies Channel will remain on WCBS-FM’s HD3.

And who’ll replace him in mornings in the new year? We’ll be waiting to see what Audacy decides, whether it’s someone internal like middayer Race Taylor (a fellow WPLJ veteran) or any of the many out-of-work and out-of-market talents out there.