“I’m Wayne Cabot, and for the last time, this… is WCBS… New York.”
With those words and that chime, a beloved radio institution ended one of the greatest journeys in New York City journalism history at 12:01 a.m. Monday – 57 years after the all-news station launched and 100 years after its founding. At least on the AM dial, those iconic call letters are no more, and anyone tuning into 880 this morning should prepare for nonstop sports talk (ESPN New York), while the new call letters are WHSQ (for Hudson Square, where the studio is located).
Cabot — arguably WCBS/880 AM’s most recognizable voice as a 36-year veteran and longtime morning co-host — delivered an impassioned, if not exactly fiery, recorded address to listeners before the break. That alone was highly unusual on radio, where format changes usually happen in the middle of the night but almost always abruptly or without explanation.
During the roughly ten-minute commentary just before midnight, Cabot gave no reason for this particular ending – which shocked loyal listeners throughout the tri-state area – but he did utter something close to an admonition:
“All of us here knew that our audience was engaged and intelligent, and we knew that we had to treat our audience with the respect that a well-informed, well-educated news consumer deserves – that’s right, earnedhe said during the address, which he recorded on Friday. “Our news desert is getting bigger and drier, and just as we should seek a second medical opinion, we must increasingly seek out diverse news sources that we trust – because getting information without bias and brainwashing in one place has given way to a struggle to stay informed. With every closure of a newspaper, radio newsroom, TV newsroom, magazine and now even a digital news company, the country we love becomes weaker.”
Cabot devoted the first eight minutes of Sunday’s farewell to 57 years of WCBS time signals, musical interludes, promos, intros and jingles. In fact, there were literally dozens — almost all instantly recognizable to any listener. He then thanked some of the many anchors and reporters who have graced WCBS’s airwaves over the decades (another three or four minutes) and apologized, saying, “What I did there was a big mistake, because if I forgot you, I didn’t mean to forget you.” (WCBS 880 has — as Cabot’s morning co-anchor Paul Murnane said last week — employed “a cast of thousands” over the decades.)
Later in his remarks, Cabot said, “As we leave the news ecosystem (at WCBS) after 57 years, we implore you to find the next trusted source: use it, support it in word and deed. That is the most patriotic thing you can do, and the most satisfying.”
Finally, he explained why he dedicated his professional life to the station: “When I was 14, my father drove me to the radio station and showed me the place where I will now leave my job in 2024.” He added: “Parents, you never know what impact these spontaneous expressions of love and attention can have on your children.”
Cabot said via email that after the first recording of his speech, he had to add more names when he realized some had been left out. Then he had to “redo” everything again because “I burst out crying at the end.”
