1010 kHz is the frequency. Wins is WINS, for International News Service. It's an AM radio station. It's been pumping news into the cerebral cortexes of New Yorkers since 1965. And before then, it was one of the first stations in America to broadcast rock and roll, opening shop in New Jersey in 1924. It was first owned by a department store, Gimbels. And then by the yellow journalist, warmongerer, and news emperor, William Randolph Hearst. And then by a media conglomerate, Westinghouse. It's arguably the most popular radio station in the country, reaching over 2 million people a day. When I was a child, my father, driving me around in his green, 1976 Dodge Dart, religiously set his watch to the time tone that could be heard every half hour on the station. I remember when I was eight years old and he showed me how to set my watch to 1010 wins ("Hold it, wait, there it is!"). Lucky for him, 1010 was also there to broadcast his beloved Yankees games. In fact, they were the first radio station anywhere to carry all of a team's games live (Mel Allen on the play by play!).
Everyone in New York can recite the station's slogans, first used in the 1960's: "All News All the Time," and "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You the World." But what I remember most is the station's distinct teletype sound effect at the start of the broadcast. It was unmistakable, the militaristic tones of a teleprinter sending a typed message across a pair of wires during some long-forgotten battle of WWII. The French would be speaking German if it weren't for that device. The sound can still be heard on the station today. Hearing it now makes me feel at home in New York. Every morning for about forty years, it has rung out across the land, greeting the ears of millions with its slightly exhilarating, somewhat unnerving sense of urgency.
1010 wins also represents the turning of the tide against newspaper monopolists, who placed numerous restrictions on radio stations and tried to limit their foray into the news to the role of promotional tool. The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement changed all of that, and the station switched to full-time operation with power authorized at 10,000 watts. 1010 wins became an early experimental outlet for audience participation, using a Western Union wire to bring record requests to the attention of the station's DJ's in the pre-news era.
The switch to news followed a survey commissioned by Westinghouse that revealed that the most popular format for the news would be a "talking newspaper." The world in 22 minutes was here, a format that is interesting today, particularly given the fact that cable TV news has within the past five years settled into a "talking magazine" routine. The format should be patented as a business system, "a place on the dial where listeners could tune at any time of the day or night for the latest news at that very moment without having to wait for "straight up" or "straight down" or :55 or :25. " It is as regimented as the obnoxious teletype sound effects would suggest: headlines, weather, and traffic and transit on the 1's, repeating endlessly until its waves reach the darkest recesses of the universe. What makes this format special is that while it may sound like a loop of the same broadcast, the folks at 1010 wins vowed never to use a taped reading of the news or to reread the same copy:
"Every newscast will be different and up-to-the-second. If a particular story is developing rapidly, the new developments will be presented direct from the scene where possible. We will cover every important story from many angles - the reactions of important officials and the man in the street; analyses by our staff commentators; beeper phone conversations with eye witnesses. The emphasis will be on complete, continuing coverage of all the important news, all the time" - Ken Reed, Director of Programs and Operations
And so the 24-hour news cycle was born. In the 1960's. And you thought that it had something to do with CNN.
So I hop into a cab today on my way to work, and for five minutes, I'm taken back to that '76 Dodge Dart, heading off to school with my dad. Here's what I heard:
- the trademarked sound
- the slogan
- a reference to traffic and transit on the 1's with fast-paced blips in the background
- a blink ad for "The Prestigious Address of the Empire State Building"
- a headline about a home invasion last night at 16th Avenue and 54th Street in Brooklyn involving a white Yukon SUV, taking place in the middle of a Jewish high holy day
- a headline for another home invasion, this time in Nassau County. Hysterically, a victim, who was not harmed physically, says "We would leave our doors unlocked...I guess we'll be a little more cautious" (!)
- a story announced by a snippet from a man telling us "I hate cell phones" when they're used in public. "Life imitates art," says another. The story oddly ends as quickly and abruptly as it begins, with a third interviewee waxing philosophical: "People who air their dirty laundry on cell phones are just like the people that appear on reality TV"
- the weather: later in the day, "the clouds will break for sunshine." [I always loved how they phrased the weather!] "It will be breezy."
- a commercial for a local dentist: "Going to the dentist can be stressful." But Pleasant Dreams Dentists will make sure that you're "safely sedated." More importantly, "we won't lecture you." You'll leave with a "smile on your face and little to no memory of your visit" (yikes!). Of course, "this commercial is not intended as medical advice."
- a headline about a fire that caused "considerable damage"
- a headline about a "night of violence in the Bronx" - a stabbing is graphically described at 8:45 in the morning as a "knife to the groin" by an "unidentified teenage suspect."
- a headline about jury deliberations for the third racketeering trial of John Jr. Gotti ("the last line we can't repeat on the radio")
Good morning, New York! And take heart, for while some things in life are assured, like death, taxes, and Republican control of Congress, so, too, are the blissful sounds of 1010 wins.
Vaya con Dios - brooding presence
