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Date Posted: Wednesday, February 22, 11:14:17am
Author: Frank D.
Subject: Daily News article keeps djs visible

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/393453p-333641c.html

Ex-'CBS jocks resurface, but for Euro ears only
February 22, 2006

By DAVID HINCKLEY

Pretty soon you'll be able to hear former WCBS-FM oldies jocks Bob Shannon and Bobby Jay on the radio - if you move to Europe and subscribe to the new satellite network VIP.
Both Shannon and Jay are in the starting lineup for that new service. But almost nine months after WCBS-FM switched from oldies to a Jack format, neither they nor any other WCBS-FM jocks have regular daily shows in New York.

Cousin Bruce Morrow is on Sirius Satellite, where Norm N. Nite does a daily afternoon show. Mike Fitzgerald works part-time at WLTW (106.7 FM), Mike McCann is part-time at WFAN (660 AM), Holly Levis is music director at Jack, and Randy Davis is part-time at WNEW (102.7 FM).

But for others, like Shannon, Jay and Don K. Reed, pickings have been slim.

First, there are more deejays than jobs. Second, many stations have moved away from the personality radio with which jocks like Jay came up. Third, every station wants to go young, and, to be blunt, the deejays most associated with an oldies format are seen as old.

It's a difficult situation.
"I don't know that I will ever be back on terrestrial radio in any full-time context," says Shannon.

"I'm still as good as ever," says Jay. "But the radio I've done is not the kind most stations today want."

So what the jocks do is keep plugging. They look for emceeing jobs, voice-over work, guest spots and opportunities through new technology. They try to stay visible.

On VIP, Shannon and Jay will play soul and R&B, which are big in Europe - particularly the hybrid '60s sound called Northern Soul.

"They love it over there - and not just the adults," says Shannon. "It's kids, too. You'll have Northern Soul dances with a thousand people in the room."

That's good, but he also finds it frustrating, because he thinks similar enthusiasm for older music could be awakened in the States if someone or something - like, say, a radio station - would expose it. He points to the beach music scene in the Carolinas as a similar situation, where once kids heard the music, including "old" music, they loved it.

"You hear 'old' music all the time on commercials," notes Jay. "You see how the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney do on tour. Yet radio says there's no market for 'oldies.' Something doesn't compute."

Around here, Shannon has been a guest with Mark Simone on WABC's Saturday oldies show and does Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., on WLNG (92.1 FM).

He and his wife, Connie T. Empress, are on radiomaxmusic.com. They work shows and dances, some with The Golden Gup, midday host on oldies WMTR (1250 AM) in Morristown, N.J.

"I'd like to stay around New York," says Shannon, "and I'm having fun, because I can do more of the things I could do on 'CBS-FM until the last few years."

But as other veteran deejays can attest, at some point you also need a paycheck.

"I'm hanging in," says Jay. "But it's humbling. I don't like to think that when I signed off 'CBS-FM June 2, it was goodbye for good. I still hope it wasn't."

Originally published on February 22, 2006

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