10 years ago today, on the occasion of my last day working at WABC, I reminisced about the first time I walked into WABC.
The First Time I walked into WABC
Author: Sue and Frank D'Elia
WABC By The Numbers
January 29th, 2026 will mark the 10 year anniversary of my last day working at WABC. During the month of January, 2016, I wrote a series of blogs looking back at my time working in New York radio. As I’ve been doing since the beginning of January, 2026, I thought on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of my retirement, It might be fun to revisit some of those blogs. Here are links to two blogs I wrote, where I broke down my 40 years at WABC by the numbers.
My Life on the Radio
As we get closer to the January 29th 10 Year Anniversary of my last day of work at WABC Radio, I’m taking a look back at some blogs I wrote 10 years as my retirement neared. This one contains audio clips collected during my time as an Engineer in several NY Radio Stations, between my first day at 1050 WHN on April 16, 1972 and my last day at WABC, January 29, 2016!
Seven Jobs
January 29th, 2026 will mark the 10 year anniversary of my last day working at WABC. During the month of January 2016, I wrote a series of blogs looking back at my time working in New York radio. I thought on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of my retirement, It might be fun to revisit some of those blogs. Here’s one of them where I look back at the 7 jobs I’ve had in my life.
The Palace That Was the ABC Building
January 29th, 2026 will mark the 10 year anniversary of my last day working at WABC. During the month of January, 2016, I wrote a series of blogs looking back at my time working in New York radio. I thought on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of my retirement, It might be fun to revisit some of those blogs. Here’s one of them….
About a week after I submitted my request to retire from WABC on January 29th, 2016, I wrote a blog post about the original ABC Building, corporate headquarters of the American Broadcasting Company. Located on Manhattan’s Avenue of the Americas between 53rd Street and 54th Street, the 8th Floor housed the studios of WABC and WPLJ until the building was sold and we were forced to move to 2 Penn Plaza,17 floors above Penn Station.I was proud to work in that building from 1976 till the 1989 move, and after that move, life was never the same again!
Retirement
Ten years ago, on the Monday after my 66th birthday on January 2, 2016, and the first Monday after my Christmas/New Year vacation, I sent the following email to my WABC Family:
“Good Morning Folks,
Please excuse this group email, but I wanted to make sure that all my WABC Family heard this news directly from me. I just gave notice of my intention to retire from WABC and if they accept what I proposed, my last day here will be Friday, January 29, 2016.
Well over half my life has passed since that day in 1976 when I walked onto the 8th floor of the ABC Building at 1330 Avenue of the Americas. I started here as a 26 year old single guy, and over the past 40 years, I met and married my best friend, became a Dad 3 times, sent 3 kids off to college, saw my first son get married, became a Grandfather twice, and recently celebrated a 36th Wedding Anniversary with the same girl I met back in 1977 in the middle of a 5 month long NABET strike against ABC. Over the course of 40 years I have managed to work for 5 different companies without ever changing jobs! Along the way, I’ve worked with some of the best radio has to offer. From the Musicradio days, legends like Dan Ingram, George Michael, Rick Skylar, and Johnny Donovan. On the WPLJ side there were great folks like Tony Pigg, Pat St. John, Jim Kerr, Jimmy Fink, and a late night guy named Bob Marone. When WABC went talk in 1982, I was fortunate to work with great folks like Rush Limbaugh, Bob Grant, John Gambling, and again Johnny Donovan, plus some characters like Ed Koch, and Joy Behar. I’ve also worked with more Account Executives and Sales Management folks than I can count, some of them were the best in the business…and then there were the rest! I’ve appreciated every day that they do what they do so our checks don’t bounce, because if I had to do their job, they probably would!
When I started at Musicrado 77, WABC in 1976, it was the most listened to station in the nation. It was the pinnacle of radio’s number one market, the place where everyone wanted to work, and the only radio station I wanted to work at. I grew up and now have grown old in this radio station and the members of the WABC Family were, and are my family, and I feel that WABC is my radio station. Over the years I’ve been to countless weddings, even Rush Limbaugh’s very secretive and lavish one in Palm Beach, seen so many folks become parents, helped friends bury their parents as my WABC Family helped me do twice 30 years apart, and been fortunate to meet, work with, and become friends with so many great people. How could I not think of this place as my radio station?
40 years of working at WABC has given me so much, taken me to so many places, and let me have experiences very few can look back on in their lives. It has provided a very good life for my wife Susie and me, and for our kids Billy, Krissi, and Kenny. It’s given me memories I will treasure for the rest of my life, and stories that I’ll probably be telling for years to come. I know that I’ve shared many of those memories and stories with you folks, be them from the Musicradio or Talkradio days. In a way, that keeps the WABC of old alive and well, even if it’s only in our minds. I’m sad that our fate in the ratings’ war has not been as kind recently (I’m being generous…this station’s rating stink!s), but I still love and am proud of those four letters. I only wish Cumulus would change them and stop dragging W A B C through the mud, turning what was a legendary radio station into a Mecca of paid programing for anyone who wants a radio show! It makes me sad that today, the radio industry is in the shape it is, and that the future of the young kids I work with today is not as bright as mine was in 1976, but for me, it’s time for Susie and I to move on to our next chapter.
I may be retiring from Cumulus, New York, but in my heart I’m saying good-bye to the WABC/WPLJ Engineering Department and the American Broadcasting Company that a 26 year old me started working at so very long ago. When I look back, all I can say is, “Thanks for the ride…it was better than anyone could expect!”
During the next month that I continued working, I wrote several blogs about my 44 years working in New York Radio, since my start in 1972 at WHN. Over the next month I’m going to share some of those looks back at may radio life that are now 10 years old! Hard to believe. Back in the day, I thought Working in Radio was “Better Than Working for a Living”, but little did I know, the BEST was yet to come!
September 29, 2025
At the C.W. Post College Interfaith Chapel on the Brookville Campus, at 4:30 in the afternoon of Saturday, September 29th, 1979, in front of friends and family, two young people promised to join their two lives together till death do they part! This is their story…..
I L Y J T W Y A
The Summer of 2025
Is it just us, or did the Summer of 2025 pass in a flash? Here we are in the middle of September already, with the Labor Day weekend practically a dim memory in our rear view mirror, and kids in school already! It seems like we were just getting ready for summer, and experiencing the first of the summer visitors to Ocean City, and now they’re gone, and our street is empty of cars with Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland license plates. Time really has a way of playing tricks with your mind, and the passing of the summer of 2025 was a big one!
It was a strange summer weatherize too, here at the shore. There were weeks when all it did was rain, and we felt sorry for the renters. There were weeks when the temperature was in the 90s from sunup till late at night. There were also days that the temperature was more spring or fall like than what one would expect from the summer. I guess it was a summer of, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait and it will change”…but you may not have liked that either!
Our Summer of 2025 started with the traditional start of summer, Memorial Day Weekend, but in our family it has an alternate meaning…Susie’s Birthday on May 28th! The festivities started on Tuesday May 27th when Kenny (representing his sister, brother, and brother-in-law) and I took Susie to Tomatoes for a great dinner with a great waitress that really made the night! Then, since her actual birthday was on Wednesday, the celebration continued at Charlie’s where the three of us were joined by our good friend Sue and her husband! Jim
Thursday, June 19th turned out to be International Martini Day, and Susie and I decided to dress appropriately for our visit that night to Angelo’s Fairmount Tavern.
June 29th was the date for Susie’s 2025 Free Table! All through the year, as we’re cleaning out things in the house that we no longer need, they are deposited in one of Susie’s Free Table boxes. Then on a day of her choice, she’s out early in the morning setting up tables in the driveway telling folks that Everything (except the tables) Are Free for their taking! Better than trashing the items and much easier than a Garage Sale!
July was our month for family visits, starting off early in the month with Kenny, Krissi and her husband Mike joining us for a long 4th of July weekend! They were with us for almost a week with Krissi and Mike working from Ocean City, but there was still time for some great family time, and the three siblings had time to enjoy things on the boardwalk they remember from being little kids in OC!
Then, about 10 days after Krissi, Mike, and Kenny left us, we had a wonderful visit from our oldest son Bill and our three Grandkids…Layla 11, Henry 9, and our baby, Annabelle 6! If you think we were busy with the 3 older kids, that ain’t nothing compared to the activity that our 3 Grandkids brought to our house! They arrived on Thursday afternoon and soon we were off to the Boardwalk for a night of food and fun! #1 on the list was dinner at Manco and Manco pizza on 9th Street, or as our family calls it, Hose Pizza! That name was coined in one of Bill’s earliest visits to Ocean City. His first summer here, he was 7 months old, and for the next 16 or 17 years, Ocean City was a part of each of his summers. Because they put the sauce on the pizza via a hose, it’s always been Hose Pizza since a very young Billy christened it with that name. Pizza done, it was time to head to Playland and some amusements, but first spend some quarters in their newly rebuilt arcade area! Stupid Grandpa, remembering what we did when our 3 were the age of our Grandkids, put a $20 bill into a coin changer and changed it into quarters. Have any idea how hard it is to grab $20 in quarters, and how heavy they are in your pockets??? Only after getting the change (and with Grandma following me and doing the same thing), did we realize that we could have put the $20 on a swipe card that could be used at all the games! After that, it was time to head out to the rides and into the crowds of people! Grandma and I found a place to sit, and doled out tickets, and a good time was had by all! Every one was tired by the time we got home that night!
The next day after breakfast, it was beach time! Chairs, toys and our Cool Cabana were packed into the beach wagon, and the D’Elia Family headed to Pennlyn Beach! After a great day at the beach, it was time for an early dinner at Charlie’s, and then some front porch games and relaxation.
Saturday dawned a bit crummy with some scattered showers, but as soon as the rain stopped, Billy, Layla, and Henry decided to walk the boardwalk. Annabelle voted to stay with Grandma and me at home, and Grandma dug out one of her old stand by rainy day at the beach activities, Painting Shells! Annabelle and Grandma had a great time and later in the day we joined the rest of the group on the boardwalk! This was the day that the kids had to get some Ocean City Merch (as they called it), and then they all wanted to play Mini Golf! No matter how many shots she took, when asked what she got on a hole, 6 year old Annabelle always said “One,” which didn’t go over great with the 9 and 11 year olds. As we approached the 15th hole, I told Billy, “Now I remember why I hated playing mini golf with you and your sister and brother when you three were little!” After golf, it was a required visit to the Surf Mall and some more Merch purchases, before Grandma and I called it quits and headed home! That night, some Chinese take-out that the kids wanted for dinner, then Billy and the kids headed to Playland for their last night in town!
They left early on Sunday as they headed back to North Carolina and Grandma and I went into rehab mode!
To Be Continued…..
Our Weekend in North Carolina
Having Grandkids is a wonderful thing, and we dearly love spending time with our 3. The problem is that when our 3 kids were little, their Grandparents lived minutes away on Long Island, and were in their lives multiple times a month. Things are different today, and our three Grandkids live in North Carolina, while we live in New Jersey, so the time we get to spend with them is precious to us! The good thing is that no matter how long between visits, as soon as we are with Layla (10 going on 16), Henry (9), and Annabelle (5), we all immediately fall into a comfortable Grandparent/Grandkid vibe.
The plan this time was to get to their place at 4:00 after they got home from school. We were going to hang out with them for a bit, stay with Henry and Annabelle while our son took oldest Granddaughter Layla to Drama, and then take off for dinner. That was the plan at least, but the plan didn’t take into consideration that it was about 6:00 on a Friday night, and lots of people had the same idea. Our first stop was a favorite Italian place of the kids, but the wait there was at least 30 minutes, and probably more. Next we were off to a Mexican place, but we couldn’t even find a parking place there. Billy had to pick up Layla at 8:30, and we’d used up a lot of that time driving around trying other places. We tried an Applebees near her Drama class, and although there were lots of empty tables, they had no staff to wait on these tables, so it was at least 45 minutes to wait! The last resort was a Chili’s near our hotel, and after a short wait to clean a table, they sat us down! Adults were getting hungry, kids were getting hangry, and it was almost time to get Layla, but all worked out and the evening was saved!
The plan for the start on Saturday was to attend one of Henry’s hockey practices. This 9 year old kid is a wonder on ice skates, and eats, sleeps, and breaths ice hockey. This year he’s transitioned to the goalie position, and is a stand-out! Our son Bill is a coach and they have some really great shared Dad/Son times with hockey! Our youngest Annabelle decided she’d join Grandma and Grandpa at the hockey rink, and we made sure to bundle her up. Susie and I have learned, and now have a designated hockey bag that comes with us to NC full of all manner of warming things!
After the practice, we had some time and the two of us headed to Aldi to buy some Aldi wine that we like to bring home, then it was off to a local Brewery with the kids and some neighbors and hockey friends that we really like! Adam and Courtney are two great people, and along with their kids Violet and Crosby, we were so glad to get to spend some time with them. Adam’s folks were there too. and it was great to meet them! Billy and Adam coached a team last year, and they are on an adult team that plays weekly. Crosby and Henry are fast friends, and Violet and Layla have played soccer together. We met some new friends too and it was great couple of hours!
Saturday night it was family time and time to finally celebrate Christmas with our kids! The kids had Billy leave the tree up, and there were lots of presents surrounding it. The kids always get money in their College Funds from us, but when you’re a kid, nobody cares about college money, so there are always presents too! We’d brought a bucket of Wings from Charlie’s in Somers Point, Billy ordered pizza and a great time was had by all! The hit of the night was this floating ball that Susie picked up for Henry at Sam’s Club. We went home happy that we’d finally had Christmas with the kids and ready for sleep because Sunday was starting early!
And by early, I mean the alarm going off at 5:30 AM in our room because at 6:30 Henry had a hockey game! We dragged ourselves out of bed, and by 6:30 we were sitting the in bleachers ready to cheer on Henry’s team. They needed a few extra players, so Crosby was playing with Henry and Adam was there to cheer the boys on. No other grandchildren attended with us!
Henry’s team won the game by a 3-2 score and Henry got a lot of great saves. After waiting to see Bill and Henry after the game, we headed back to our hotel to “relax!” After several hours of watching some TV and taking a long shower, we were ready to head to another ice rink, and another practice to watch Henry and Bill in action! This time the girls were along, because after the practice, it was time for us to have some alone time with the girls!
(pics)
Both Layla and Annabelle had gotten Target gift cards for Christmas, and were anxious to do some shopping, so that was our first stop. I got Annabelle to pronounce it “Targeé” and she got a kick out of that. Layla is quite a good shopper and she got a lot for her money, while Annabelle is a 5 year old and had some trouble making a decision, but she was happy ultimately with her purchases! Then it was off to the hotel for some fun! Dinner was at McDonald’s and it was successful with Annabelle eating everything she ordered!
Sunday was a school night, so after Mickey D’s, it was home and time to get into PJs and wait for Dad and Henry to get home! A lot of activity in a jam packed weekend with our North Carolina Family! Till next time.
Anniversaries
Miriam Webster defines the word anniversary as follows:
Anniversary
noun
the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event
Well in the D’Elia Household this week we think we have 2 recurrences of what we think are notable events.
Today is January 28th, 2025, and on January 28th, 2005, we became the owners of the first floor of 854 Pennlyn Place! If you read the story about our recent trip to Las Vegas, you know that we owned a house there, made a large profit on that house when we sold it, and that profit was the down payment for our Ocean City home! Having sold the Las Vegas house in the fall of 2004, when we came down to Ocean City for the week between Christmas and New Year, we were prepared to house hunt.
It was only when we started house hunting on our summer vacation in August of 2004 that we discovered the North End of Ocean City, having never really been aware of the island north of 9th Street. Perhaps it was Kismet, but when we came down that winter, we rented on Pennlyn Place. Our Realtor, Ray, showed us several properties up and down the island, but we fell in love with 854 Pennlyn. We saw the place on December 28th, decided shortly after that it was the one for us, made an offer that was accepted, and off we went.
The closing was scheduled for Friday, January 28th, so we drove down the night before and stayed in Atlantic City. The next morning we drove to the house and unloaded some things we’d brought, and at 10 AM we met at the title company on West Avenue. Before noon, all the papers were signed and notarized and when we returned to 854, it was as the new owners of the first floor. A dream we thought just months before was out of our grasp was now reality. We owned a house in Ocean City, New Jersey!
Our original intent was to keep the place for a couple of years, and as prices escalated, to flip to a better property and then another better property, but we got to know Pennlyn Place, and that plan went out the window The very next morning, I was on the front porch and met our next door neighbor, Doc Anderson. Over the years we’ve met so many neighbors and so many of them have become friends. There’s been 20 years of nights out to dinner, 20 years of parties, and 20 years of nights on the front porch with friends. The truth is that we’d be hard pressed to leave 854 Pennlyn. Yes, over the 20 years people have come and gone, but they’ve been replaced by new people. Susie is very sure that this is our forever home, and it would be hard to argue her point!
The second of “the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event” that we celebrate this week is tomorrow, Wednesday, January 29th. You see, it was the morning of Friday, January 29th, 2016 that I last stood on the Mineola Long Island Rail Road platform and waited for the train to take me to Penn Station. I started at ABC as a member of the WABC/WPLJ Engineering Department in 1976, and 40 years later, on January 29th, 2016, I retired. 9 years ago I joined Susie in the wonderful world of retirement, and she’s still putting up with me!
So one anniversary of a beginning this week, and one of an end….
R New Adventures 