20 years later: Cousin Brucie recalls 'the day the music died' on WCBS-FM

On June 3, 2005, just before 4 p.m. — a cool, spring Friday afternoon in New York City — the veteran WCBS-FM DJ Bill Brown wondered aloud if his listeners ever felt the "urge to just kinda scream RESCUE ME!?"

Odd, because Brown never raised his voice, although this was not quite a "scream" as much as an anguished yowl. Listeners would find out why soon enough.

After a spin of the Fontella Bass 1965 R&B classic "Rescue Me," the nation's emblematic oldies station — "playing the greatest hits of all time, from the top of the Empire State Building ... New York's world famous, CBS FM!!!" — was no more. A couple other songs played, followed by a half-hour of sonic mash-up — fast cuts from movies, songs, TV shows — as if someone had just poured pancake batter on the studio console. The Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for your Right (to Party)" tracked at 5 p.m. which is when the anguished howls of a million loyal listeners began. The short and ugly reign of "Jack FM" was underway. New York radio would never be the same.

Twenty years later, it's almost comforting to recall a time when something as innocuous as a radio format switch could cause so much agony — except this wasn't just any "switch" or any "format" or any "station." The outraged New York tabloids proclaimed June 3 as "The Day the Music Died" — a nod to the line in "American Pie" about the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.

Fans agreed. For 33 years, WCBS/101.1 FM had tethered them to a fast-receding past where rock and roll oldies from the 1950s to the '70s reigned. To them, this cruel and unannounced format dump was one more reminder of the perfidy of contemporary culture — and of corporations.

That day, WCBS-FM fired all the station's beloved DJs with scarcely a warning. Brown got the word minutes before his "rescue me" outcry. Mike McCann, Randy Davis and Don K. Reed ("The Doo Wop Shop") were all let go too, because Jack FM had no need for DJs.

The biggest name to fall that day — Bruce Morrow — recalled in a recent phone interview that June 3 began much like any other.

"I was with [former Monkee, then WCBS-FM morning host] Micky Dolenz celebrating his 100th show for the station at some remote location in New York City. Everyone was having a great time and meanwhile, back at the ranch [station headquarters] they were erasing computers, getting rid of the music, getting rid of the logos. We didn't know anything about this, and the first time I knew was when I got home later that afternoon down in the Village, and I saw TV trucks, mobile units, and microwave antennas and cables going into my house, plus a lot of people outside my door.

"I got scared, and thought something had happened to my family, and I went ballistic — jumped out of the cab, ran into the house expecting the worst, and there was my wife, and the television [reporters] relaying what had happened.

"I called the general manager, and he said 'Bruce, you don't have to come to work tonight ...' I hung up in absolute shock."

What was "Jack?" It was basically designed to be the radio version of the iPod, shuffling through hundreds of songs, some current, some classic. Its slogan: "Playing What We Want."

CBS-FM loyalists wanted none of it. Ratings plummeted and Jack was gone on July 12, 2007, replaced by a modified oldies format. (Today's CBS-FM still plays "oldies," but mostly from the 1980s and '90s.) Morrow joined Sirius (now Sirius XM) four days after he was fired and is now back with WABC/770 AM where he hosts the "Saturday Night Rock n' Roll Party."
He says he never forgave or forgot. "This was one of the worst things of my career — it was terrible, heartbreaking and so disappointing. No one ever dreamed this would happen, no one deserved this. To this day, I've never forgiven them for what they did."

Meanwhile, Brown's last words on radio would be "rescue me." The beloved DJ — who spent 36 years at WCBS-FM, many of those serving his "Brown Bag" specials — never returned to the airwaves. He died in 2011.