Remembering the WMCA Good Guys

In the early days of "Top 40" pop/rock music radio, the family-owned WMCA 570 AM radio ruled the city's airwaves and ratings. It was due not only to the popular music it played but to its personality-driven DJs known as the "Good Guys." 

From 1960 to 1970, the Good Guys rocked and entertained New Yorkers with their clean-cut and family friendly (and very white male) shtick. They gave the station an identity, a brand, a community who listeners who became like friends on the radio. In the 1960s, the Good Guys were NYC music radio, the be-all, end-all of what was cool in the city's culture.

The Good Guys were, mainly, Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector, Don Davis, Jim Harrison, and others.

But then WABC music radio, with a stronger signal and a better spot on the dial (770 AM) came along. As did FM radio. By 1970 WMCA's ratings had tanked. It became a talk station (it's some kind of religious station today) and faded into radio obscurity. (WABC's time as a talk station would end about a decade or so later). 

And the WMCA Good Guys faded into radio history.

Some of these guys, most notably Harry Harrison, continued in NYC radio in later years (I think Jack Spector literally died on the air in 1994). But there would never be a line-up quite like that in NYC radio ever again.