To my listeners…
I’ve officially hosted The Grooveyard since May 3, 2012–along with filling in for the previous host for a few months before that–and a part of WCWP Radio since doing a one-minute newscast on June 1, 1976. That ends this month as I leave the New York metropolitan area.
My reasons for the move are simple. Housing costs in the area have shown ridiculous increases, while the quality of life has gone downhill. It’s gotten to the point where the cost of living here is no longer worth the problems. I woke up on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago to a report of two shootings a few blocks from my home by one gunman, and went out two hours later to see a tow truck driver hooking up a car by my door supervised by a police officer who told me it was the get-away car for the crime. There were three other separate incidents in my neighborhood that week. In a lifetime of living in New York City, I had a gun pulled on me in a subway car on a Saturday afternoon and witnessed a double homicide on a sunny day in Jackson Heights, Queens, and continued supporting the city. The four incidents in a week were my breaking point.
I have a wonderful relationship with Pete Bellotti, the station’s new manager, and LIU. In fact, Pete was mistaken for being my son on multiple occasions when we attended LIU Alumni Association events on behalf of the station over the years. Therefore, I could have continued hosting the show from my new home in the Midwest, but chose not to do that for two reasons. Most important, I am not comfortable with my ability to deal with technical issues on my own, and it would be difficult for anyone at WCWP to assist in the event of glitches or breakdowns. Rather than take a chance and leave unexpectedly, it’s better to do it this way. At the same time, I’m simply tired. Hosting The Grooveyard requires choosing 300 songs to play within themes, and Top Tens, and other reasons in a normal month, much more than any other live show on the station. Add to that managing the website and the annual surveys on top of working to get a paycheck and recovering from three bouts of Covid, and it’s time for a break.
Thanks to a fortunate quirk in the calendar, I will get to do two farewell shows on the station. This Saturday will be my last time hosting The Grooveyard, a time for me to look back and share memories. The following weekend will be the station’s annual 60-hours of special Homecoming Weekend programming, where we bring back hosts bringing back their old shows. My edition of “Seltzer with a Twist”, on Friday the 14th at 8 PM, will be an on-air going away party as I offer a final farewell to WCWP and New York City. Hope you will join me for both.
Moving forward, you will hear repeat broadcasts of The Grooveyard on Saturday nights until a replacement host or show is found. The Great 88 will continue online only, with first-round voting continuing here. And I’m not shutting the door on radio entirely for the future, whether it be a show like The Grooveyard or another program. The door is open for a return to WCWP, I could check out a public station in Columbus with a similar format, or the show could come back online. There’s no timetable or specific plan here. We’ll see what happens.
There’s many people to thank here. Pete Bellotti has been a friend for years, since he oversaw the station’s Alumni Association many years ago. He is the right person to guide the station into the future. The previous station manager, Dan Cox, gave me the freedom to do the best oldies show possible, with no restrictions over 10 years ago. If you enjoyed something new or different on the show over the years, he deserves credit for allowing the creativity. Beyond that, I’ve built lifelong friendships with many of the voices you’ve heard on the station, both past and present. I look forward to continuing those friendships. Retro Dee has been an important part of this website for the last few years, offering her insights on aspects of life in the fifties, helping us to offer more diverse content here than is available on most radio show websites. I am thankful to all of you.
And finally, to everyone who has listened to the show, cast a vote or 10 (or 100) on one of our annual surveys, shared a tweet or posted an article from this website, or called me in the studio…
You have no idea how much your participation has meant to me over the years. Your participation with The Grooveyard was greater than what I experienced on any other show, and way beyond what I ever could have imagined. You have shown that a no-budget show on a small radio station can reach people on a large scale, both on technical and emotional levels. For that, I am eternally grateful.
I’ll hopefully see you Saturday night at 7PM. Thanks for listening. Without you, I would have been talking to myself.
The Grooveyard 