NorthEast Radio Watch 11/25/2024: Retirements of Note in NYC

In this week’s issue… NY TV anchor, radio historian both retiring – XPN PD to retire – More Cumulus cuts – Rogers sells FMs as Corus makes big talent cuts

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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*There aren’t many radio stations with their own historians, and one of the most prominent is retiring. Andy Lanset has been with NEW YORK‘s WNYC since 2000 as the founding director of the station’s archives, and what a career he’s had there, following up on an already fascinating life in which he was a news reporter for WBAI and a freelance audio producer working on ventures that included the “Yiddish Radio Project” in the 1990s.

When we first met Andy, he was just a few years into the job, making sense of a chaotic collection of discs, tapes, wires and paperwork that was jammed into the attic of the old Municipal Building, and he’s done a magnificent job making sense of it all, moving to a spacious archival facility in WNYC’s current Hudson Square digs. Along the way, he added curatorial duties for WQXR when WNYC bought the classical station, and he did much of the work that went into WNYC’s centennial celebration this year.

(photo: Christine Butler/WNYC)

Lanset also put out a weekly WNYC history newsletter for more than two decades, announcing his retirement in this past week’s edition.

*Most New Yorkers didn’t know Andy Lanset, but they all knew Chuck Scarborough, who came to WNBC-TV (Channel 4) in 1974 after two years helping to drag Boston’s WNAC-TV (Channel 7) out of the ratings basement.

At WNBC, Scarborough became the first anchor of the new 5 PM newscast, which evolved into “Live at Five” and paired him with his longtime co-anchor Sue Simmons, then propelled him into the lead role anchoring the news at 6 and 11.

After retiring from the 11 PM show in 2017, Scarborough has remained on the 6, but at 81, he announced last week that he’ll leave the anchor desk on Dec. 12, though he’ll keep a finger in as a special projects anchor for channel 4.