WMCA - Talk Era

Talk Era

The station finally adopted a full-time talk radio format labelled "Dial-Log Radio" in 1970 and the "Good Guys" music era was over, however the "Good Guy" theme eventually did make a comeback in a promotional marketing effort. Jack Spector stayed on to host a sports talk show, while Bob Grant debuted in New York radio as the house conservative and "Long John" Nebel was a fixture on overnights.

Later in the 1970s, John Sterling hosted one of the first confrontational sports talks shows, as well as doing play-by-play for the New York Islanders and New York Nets/New Jersey Nets games that were carried on WMCA. It was there that his knowledgeable but bombastic and over-the-top broadcasting style would first be heard in the New York area. WMCA also carried New York Yankees games for much of the 1970s, with the classic Yankees broadcasting crew of Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto, and Bill White. The station introduced a new morning news-talk program, hosted by Ralph Howard, Bill Ryan (journalist) and a team of reporters who were all referred to as the "Good Guys," as seen in this ad for the Ralph & Ryan show. During the 1970s, ratings were healthy for WMCA as a talk station. Most surveys showed the station in the top 10. This was before WOR became exclusively talk, and also before WABC changed to talk in the early 1980s.

The Straus family sold the station in the late 1980s; it was the last family-owned radio station in New York. New owner Federal Broadcasting kept the talk format, however switched to a financial news format on weekdays between 5 am and 7 pm, just prior to selling the station in 1988 to Salem Communications, which immediately implemented a format that focused on religion and leased time programming. At that time, all WMCA staffers were invited to apply for positions with the new WMCA. Federal Broadcasting eventually sold off their other stations and left the broadcasting business.