CBS 880 AM’s signoff is a loss to us all
The last thing any of us needs is the loss of a respected, straight ahead, no axe-grinding, no swollento-the-point-of-bursting egos, news organization.
So, the fact that WCBS Radio 880 AM will shut down on Aug. 26 is sad. The station has been bought by the parent company of ESPN, the sports giant, and will be known after the 26th as WHSQ-AM, pending FCC approval.
For many people in Connecticut, since it went on the air in 1967, WCBS Radio 880 AM was a presence. Sometimes it was in the foreground — when cataclysmic events in New York City such as 9/11, or the Son of Sam, or Client 9 occurred — or in the background, in the kitchen or the car, with traffic and weather reports, tabloidesque tales of the grim and grisly from the scattered neighborhoods of the city.
It also provided interesting little sidelights, such as Anthony Dias Blue’s delightful wine reviews and a slew of commercials — though, at the end of the day, maybe not enough commercials — including the jaunty Kars4Kids, with the earworm line of the kid chorus singing, “Donate your car tuhday!”
The station hosted interviews with politicians of all stripes — the governors, the mayors: Lindsay, Beame, Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio and Adams. The interviews were probing and fair. The station’s reporting was matter-of-fact. No snickering. No dramatic, snide asides. And though I can’t be sure because it is, after all, radio, I will confidently assume no eye-rolling and winking.
WCBS covered not only the city, but the New York metro area, including Connecticut. A long-time Connecticut bureau chief was a wonderful woman named Fran Schneidau, who worked at Bridgeport’s radio station WICC, 600 on the AM dial, before moving to CBS.
(One vivid memory from my working days was flying from Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford to Long Island for a lunch meeting with then New York Gov. Hugh Carey, U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-NY, and an array of other politicians arranged to discuss a proposed bridge across Long Island Sound. The plane was a little four-seater. Fran sat in one of the back seats alongside then-Bridgeport Mayor John C. Mandanici, an invitee. I sat in the copilot’s seat. The plane flew very low, I thought. The water seemed very close. I carefully watched the pilot’s feet as they worked two pedals and the plane responded.
Two identical pedals were in front of me, too. Installed there so that should the pilot experience, say, a coronary event, the person in the co-pilot’s seat would be responsible for assuming control of the aircraft. I paid very, very close attention to his movements, even though he appeared perfectly healthy.)
Fran, of course, was not the only familiar and trusted voice. Over the years, the trusted voices of people such as Rich Lamb, Paul Murnane, Deborah Rodriguez, Steve Scott, Wayne Cabot, not to mention journalism Hall of Famers such as Ed Bradley, Charles Kuralt and Charles Osgood.
Today, anyone with a phone and a grudge — or a conspiracy theory — is a “news” outlet. Your email box is flooded with a daily barrage of unsolicited announcements, proclamations, allegations of “breaking news,” from an ever increasing array of outfits with names like Blabber Buzz.
And in a time when a one-time president of the United States did his best to make the American people view the media as “the enemy of the people,” the loss of an outlet such as WCBS is the slip of another few inches down the rabbit hole where the election deniers gather.
Of course that former president also has done his best to undermine public confidence not only in news organizations, but also in the FBI, the U.S. Justice Department, the American court system, the American jury system, the American electoral process, in pictures that show the number of people at inaugurations or campaign rallies.
The departure of an all-news outlet will make room for crazies, but it will leave room for new and established ventures to grow. Outfits such as Connecticut Public, which bills itself as “media for the curious,” and its Accountability Project and Civility Initiative can fill some of the space. The company has recently expanded into space in Fairfield University and is bolstering its presence in Fairfield County,
There is any number of fine news outlets in Connecticut, including this newspaper. This newspaper can continue to give people information they’ll get nowhere else.
As it should be, the press is the enemy of certain types of people.
On a wholly unrelated note, I’ll tack this humble suggestion on here: President Joe Biden, in what would be a beautiful grace note on his way out of office, should award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, to Cindy McCain, the widow of U.S. Sen. John McCain, RAriz., for her work as executive director of the United Nations World Food Program. She has worked tirelessly to address the issue of food shortage in, among other places, Gaza and Africa. It would be a fitting gesture.
Michael J. Daly