WVOX (1460 AM) is a radio station in New Rochelle, New York. It is operated as a regional community station heard mainly in suburban Westchester County, the Bronx, Queens, the North Shore of Long Island, southern Connecticut and northern New Jersey. The station president is William O'Shaughnessy, and its current owner is Whitney Broadcasting, Inc. Together with its former counterpart, WRTN 93.5 FM (now WVIP), it claimed more than five million live listeners as of 2005.
WVOX reaches many more listeners, worldwide, by streaming live, online. As of July 12, 2010, WVOX can also be heard on the HD4 subchannel of its FM sister station, WVIP.
Programming is primarily locally produced information and talk, including programs presented by local citizens and interest groups. O'Shaughnessy hosted a daily talk show on the station for more than 50 years, featuring interviews with many major U.S. politicians, authors, and entertainers. O'Shaughnessy, who has been called "the voice of Westchester", is fond of calling WVOX the "quintessential community radio station in America", a label first applied to the station by the Wall Street Journal. Referring to the station's citizen-produced content, a New York Daily News critic described WVOX as a "glorious hodgepodge, much of which even O'Shaughnessy can't get excited about."
In 2005, O'Shaughnessy was one of the first 25 people to be inducted into the new New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame by the New York State Broadcasters Association. He was honored for his long record as a champion of free speech under the First Amendment. A history of the broadcasters' association published in 2005 described O'Shaughnessy as "happily turn[ing] over the airwaves to their rightful owners, the residents of the influential community he serves."
WVOX airs a diverse lineup of talk, music, sports, and religious programming. Among its various offerings are:
Good Morning, Westchester! - The series airs weekdays from 6–9 AM and offers news, interviews, listener call-ins, and entertainment reports.Music From the Forum - Nick Sarames plays MOR music, primarily from the 1960s and '70s (although other decades are featured) every afternoon at varying times between 3–6 PM.The Fred Dicker Show - Airing weekday afternoons from 4–5 PM, this political talk show hosted by the longtime New York Post columnist had been a ratings draw for several years on originating station WGDJ in Albany, and was added to the WVOX lineup in December 2011. The series regularly features well-known state politicians as guests, including Governor Andrew Cuomo.Mondays:
The Z Travel and Leisure Show - Airing alternate Monday nights at 8 PM, the husband-and-wife team of Art and Susan Zuckerman discuss noteworthy places in the New York metropolitan area, as well as interviewing noteworthy people, both locally and elsewhere.Tuesdays:
The State of the City - Airing Tuesdays at 9 AM, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Branson and City Manager Chuck Strome discuss various issues concerning the city.Wednesdays:
Don't Worry Murray - Airing Wednesdays at 2 PM, Hosted by notable criminal defense lawyer, Murray Richman.Thursdays:
Conversations with Ernie Davis - Airing Thursday at 9 AM, the former Mayor of nearby Mount Vernon hosts this discussion show.The Smoothie Lounge - Airing Thursdays at 8 PM, Chuck Donegan hosts an hour of past and present smooth jazz music, meant for those who have been having a "rough day" or need to unwind, according to Donegan.Fridays:
Say Hey! with Mark Lungariello - Airing Fridays at 11 AM, hosted by WAG magazine columnist and Westchester County Business Journal contributing editor Mark Lungariello.Saturdays:
The Metro Golf Show - Airing Saturday mornings at 8:30 AM, co-hosts Bill Meth and Tom Mariam preside over this half-hour program, called the "Best Local Radio Show Covering Golf" by the NY Daily News; among its noteworthy guests have been Arnold Palmer, Annika Sorenstam, Jack Nicklaus, and celebrities such as Derek Jeter and Donald Trump.Radio Chuck - Airing Saturday nights at 10 PM, Chuck Donegan spins the tunes on this 3-hour music program, which features a variety of songs whose titles and/or artists all tie into a different theme each week (the 10 PM show is a "best of" rerun from the year before, the 11 PM show is a new one, and 12 AM brings the commercial-free Midnight Hour, devoted to "smooth music perfect for the weekend").Sundays:
Remember Then? - Airing Sundays at 11 AM, the team of Dennis Nardone and Tonny Guido preside over this 3-hour music show devoted to oldies, "the greatest music ever recorded" (Nardone and Guido also host Harrison Live, a Thursday afternoon talk/call-in show, and Nardone also co-hosted a revived version of What's Goin' On? with actor Vincent Pastore, which aired briefly on WVOX in early 2012).Additional weekend programmingIn addition, WVOX airs religious services from local churches on weekends, with the syndicated Music of Your Life service rounding out the overnight and weekend schedule. The station also airs hourly news updates from Fox News Radio, with additional 1-minute updates also running at the half-hour and/or :45 marks for many shows.
Every St. Patrick's Day since 1960, WVOX has pre-empted its regular programming in favor of an all-day live remote from the holiday celebration at Dudley's Parkview, a bar/restaurant in New Rochelle. This yearly event features appearances by many of the station's on-air personalities, interviews with local residents, and an assortment of traditional Irish music.
On Sep. 14, 2009, WVOX celebrated its 50th anniversary with on-air festivities running all day from 9 AM to 6 PM. Station head William O'Shaughnessy presided as both current and former on-air personalities, local politicians, and other well-known figures offered their thoughts and congratulations, both in-studio and via telephone. In addition, vintage airchecks of memorable moments in the station's history were featured throughout the day.
Bill Mazer - Following his departure from WEVD in 2001, the sportscaster known as the "A-Maz-In" Bill Mazer launched an afternoon interview program on WVOX, which aired from 3–6 PM ET (and streamed from WVOX's website), with his son Arnie serving as producer. Mazer's last show was aired August 3, 2009, ending his tenure at the station and marking his retirement from broadcasting.Emergency Preparedness & Safety Tips On Air and Online - Host/Producer Lisa Tolliver (a volunteer/media partner with Westchester Emergency Volunteer Reserves-Medical Reserve Corps and winner of multiple media awards) and WEVR-MRC Manager Marianne Partridge earned kudos from United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona for regularly publicizing emergency preparedness and safety tips on Tolliver's WVOX radio shows, and for extending their outreach by publishing articles online in an "Emergency Preparedness & Safety Tips" blog and in Tolliver's Blogcritics Magazine articles. Tolliver and Partridge often featured interviews with emergency management professionals (such as New Rochelle Fire Captain Bobby Benz) and celebrities (such as Flavor Flav). They typically targeted their messages to coincide with current events and holidays, such as fireworks safety on Independence Day and hurricane safety during the June–November hurricane season, or guest-specific issues, such as earthquake safety, when interviewing West Coast resident, Flavor Flav. Tolliver and Partridge's partnership ended in 2007, when Partridge changed careers. Tolliver discontinued the series later in 2008, after collaborating for a short time with Partridge's replacement at WEVR-MRC.Environmentally Sound - Environmentalist and "Renaissance Man" Bob Lebensold hosts this talk show every two weeks, addressing a variety of topics with guests from various arenas, ranging from Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Lynn Margulis and Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and discussing such topics as the arts, politics, science, environmental affairs, and current events.MoneyTalk - The team of Charlie Massimi, Brad Silverman and Michael Braithwaite presided over this long-running financial discussion show, which began on WVOX in the mid-80s, later moved over to sister station WRTN (now WVIP), and moved back to WVOX in March 2011 before leaving both stations altogether in December of that year.SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business - SCORE Chapter 306 in White Plains/Westchester County, New York broadcast a long-running show that addressed issues associated with starting, financing, and running a small business and that sometimes featured SCORE Success Stories and case studies involving local clients. The show was produced and hosted by a rotating team of volunteer business experts, such as former SCORE-Westchester chairman Robert D'Agostino and SCORE volunteers Chuck Auerbach, Murray Maizner, and Lisa Tolliver.T3: Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living - appealing to technophobes and technophiles, alike, Lisa Tolliver and a rotating panel of co-hosts and guests profiled and critiqued high-tech as well as low-tech resources; shared do's and don'ts (e.g., for safely shopping online and using wireless hotspots); evaluated trends (such the proliferation of distance learning courses and social media tools); addressed lifestyle topics (such as e-cards and useful tools for making Thanksgiving dinner); and weighed the benefits of well-designed/well-implemented resources versus challenges created by poorly designed/poorly implemented ones. For example, in August 2007 media futurist Gerd Leonhard discussed the opportunities and challenges associated with launching Sonific: Soundtracks For Your Digital Life and with T3's team evaluated such music services from multiple perspectives. (Leonhard "pulled Sonific's plug" in May 2008).What's Goin' On - After his character, Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, was "whacked" in The Sopranos episode "Funhouse", actor Vincent Pastore launched, and briefly hosted, a talk radio show featuring celebrities and celebrity news. Days before his show's 2004 launch, Pastore "guested" on Dennis Nardone's golden oldies show, at which time he met fellow talk show host, Lisa Tolliver. Pastore and Tolliver shared a photo op and cheek kiss, and on the eve of her next broadcast, Tolliver received an email from the station brass indicating that Pastore's new show had preempted the time slots of her back-to-back shows (SCORE Radio, The Lisa Tolliver Show, and T3: Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living), which would be rescheduled. Tolliver quipped about this development on air, and her comments were quoted in CelebSafari (now known as PopSafari): "Beware of kisses from "made" men. [...My] shows got whacked to new time slots. But we're not sleeping with the fishes; Vinny's short run as a radio host benefitted everyone at Whitney Radio."Your Business Matters - talk show spun off from the SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business radio show, produced and hosted by Lisa Tolliver and featuring interviews with business experts and business owners, and discussions with guests regarding business issues.
