Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor and activist, who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s. Belafonte is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category. He earned his career breakthrough with the album Calypso (1956), which was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.[1]

Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final screen appearance in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018).

Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson a mentor, and he was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. Belafonte acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.[2]

Belafonte won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award,[3] and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards[4] and in 2022 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category.[5]

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Gerald Norman Springer (February 13, 1944 – April 27, 2023) was an American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, lawyer, and politician.[1] Born in London, England, during World War II to refugees escaping the Holocaust, Springer was raised in Queens, New York City. He attended Northwestern University School of Law, qualified as a lawyer, and first became actively involved in politics working for the campaign of Robert Kennedy in 1968.

A Cincinnati City Council member, Springer served as the 56th Mayor of Cincinnati from 1977 to 1978. He then worked as a local news anchor in Cincinnati where he won several Regional Emmy Awards for commentary. Springer was best known for hosting the sometimes controversial tabloid talk show Jerry Springer from 1991 to 2018. He also debuted the Jerry Springer Podcast in 2015. From 2007 to 2008, he hosted America's Got Talent, and from 2019 until 2022, Springer hosted the courtroom show Judge Jerry. He was noted as a pioneer in the emergence of 'trash TV', his eponymous show was a "commercial smash and certifiable cultural phenomenon" in the 1990s.[2]

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WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, NEW 102.7) is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan. Its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

WNEW-FM is best remembered for one of its previous incarnations, a progressive rock radio format that began in 1967 and lasted into the 1990s. That station became very influential in the development of rock music during the 1970s and 1980s.

Between 1958 and 1986, the station shared the WNEW call sign with former sister AM station WNEW (1130 kHz) and television station WNEW-TV (channel 5), with all being owned by Metromedia. After WNEW-TV was sold to the News Corporation in 1986 and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992, 102.7 FM retained the WNEW-FM call sign until it was changed in 2007; the call letters returned to 102.7 on March 15, 2016.

WNEW-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format.

WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, NEW 102.7) is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan. Its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

WNEW-FM is best remembered for one of its previous incarnations, a progressive rock radio format that began in 1967 and lasted into the 1990s. That station became very influential in the development of rock music during the 1970s and 1980s.

Between 1958 and 1986, the station shared the WNEW call sign with former sister AM station WNEW (1130 kHz) and television station WNEW-TV (channel 5), with all being owned by Metromedia. After WNEW-TV was sold to the News Corporation in 1986 and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992, 102.7 FM retained the WNEW-FM call sign until it was changed in 2007; the call letters returned to 102.7 on March 15, 2016.

WNEW-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format.

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In the 1960s, WMCA's great competition was with rival WABC. Radio historians have tended to treat WMCA as a radio stepchild, the proverbial David going up against the Goliath that was corporate-owned, stronger-signaled WABC.

For four consecutive years (1963 through 1966) WMCA had the highest ratings share of all radio stations in New York City, according to Arbitron, in spite of its directional, 5,000-watt signal which could not cover the same geographic region as non-directional, 50,000-watt WABC. However, WMCA's directional signal is aimed toward Manhattan from just over the river in New Jersey, and its low frequency (570 kHz) results in strong Midtown Manhattan coverage. At the time, Arbitron was the newer and lesser quoted ratings source compared to the more established Pulse and Hooper Ratings. During this time frame, Pulse and Hooper usually placed adult full-service WOR as the overall number-one station, with WMCA generally but not always leading WABC and WINS as the Top 40 leader. WMCA's ratings strength was concentrated within New York City itself. However, WABC proved more popular in suburban areas where WMCA's signal didn't come in as well on standard 1960s-era AM radio receivers. The areas where WMCA did not have a strong signal were southwest, west, and northwest of its transmitter. By 1967 and 1968, WMCA ratings had started to decline significantly but still demonstrated a strong showing in the five boroughs (although not the suburbs), and as late as February 1969, Pulse ratings surveys indicated that WMCA beat WABC in New York City itself, although not in the full market. From 1967 forward, WABC had become the leading top 40 station in the total market.

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WMCA (570 AM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York. Owned by Salem Media Group, the station programs a Christian radio format consisting of teaching and talk programs. The station's studios are in lower Manhattan and are shared with co-owned WNYM (970 AM). WMCA's transmitter is located along Belleville Turnpike in Kearny, New Jersey. WMCA's programming is simulcast on a 250 watt translator, W272DX (102.3 MHz), from a tower in Clifton, New Jersey.

Prior to switching to its current programming in 1989, WMCA was a talk radio station during the 1970s and 1980s, and earlier a Top 40 outlet featuring a lineup of disc jockeys known as the "Good Guys". WMCA is credited with having been the first New York radio station to broadcast a recording by The Beatles.[1]

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Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, which was the first late-night television talk show.

Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After he hosted The Tonight Show, he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, and The New Steve Allen Show. He was a regular panel member on CBS's What's My Line? and, from 1977 until 1981, he wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show Meeting of Minds, a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format.

Allen was a pianist[1] and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs,[2] some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for "Gravy Waltz," for which he wrote the lyrics. He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children's books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio (2001).

In 1996, Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP).[3] He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor.[4]

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WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan; its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

PICTURE:  By WLTW - WLTW, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57157346

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John Hamilton Davidson (born December 13, 1941) is an American actor, singer, and game-show host known for hosting That's Incredible!, Time Machine, and Hollywood Squares in the 1980s, and a revival of The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991.

PICTURE:  By Spacemountainmike - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86194257

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