WCBS/880 AM signs off: 'Our news desert is getting bigger and drier'

"I'm Wayne Cabot, and for the final time, this ... is WCBS ... New York."

With those words, and those chimes, a beloved radio institution wrapped one of the great rides of New York journalism history Monday at 12:01 a.m. — 57 years since its all-news launch, and 100 years since founding. At least on the AM dial, those iconic call letters are no more, and for those tuning in to 880 this morning, get ready for all-sports-talk-all-the-time (ESPN New York), while the new call letters are WHSQ (for Hudson Square, where the studio is located).

Cabot — arguably the most-recognized voice of WCBS/880 AM, as a 36-year veteran and longtime morning co-host — offered an impassioned, if not quite fiery, prerecorded address to listeners leading into the shutdown. That alone was highly unusual in radio, where format changes typically do happen in the dead of night but almost always abruptly or without explanation.

During 10 or so minutes of commentary just before midnight, Cabot offered no reason for this particular ending — which has shocked loyal listeners across the tristate area — but he did offer something that approached admonition:

"All of us here knew our audience is engaged and smart and we knew to treat our audience with the respect that a well-informed, well-educated news consumer deserves — that's right, deserves," he said during the remarks, which he had taped on Friday. "Our news desert is getting bigger and drier, and just as we should get a second medical opinion, we need to seek out more and more varied news sources that we trust — because getting your information, without the bias and brainwashing, in one place has given way to a fight to stay informed. With each closing newspaper, radio newsroom, TV news room, magazine and now, even digital news operations, the country we love is diminished."

Beginning at a quarter to midnight, Cabot devoted the first eight minutes of Sunday's farewell to 57 years of WCBS time-signals, musical bumpers, promos, intros and jingles. There were literally dozens, in fact — almost all instantly recognizable to any listener. He then thanked some of the many anchors and reporters who have graced WCBS' air over the decades (another three or four minutes) then apologized by saying, "What I did there was a huge mistake [because] if I forgot you, I didn't [mean to] forget you." (WCBS 880 has employed — as Cabot's morning co-anchor, Paul Murnane, said last week — "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 that next trusted source: Use it, support it in word and in deed. It is the most patriotic thing you can do, and the most satisfying."

He closed by saying why he had devoted his professional life to the station — "When I was 14, my dad drove me to the radio station and he introduced me to the place I'm now signing off in 2024." He added, "Parents, you never know what impact these random acts of love and attention may have on your children."

Reached by email, Cabot said that after he had recorded the first take of his remarks, he had to go back to add even more names when he realized some had been left off. Then, he had to "redo" it all over again because "I was in tears at the end."