WABC 770 AM streams conservative talk radio live from New York City today, with hosts including Bernie & Sid in the Morning, Brian Kilmeade, Rudy Giuliani, and Larry Kudlow filling out weekday programming, plus classic oldies on weekends. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required, the same signal heard across the New York metro area.
New York radio's oldest station, dating back to 1921
This frequency has been on the air since October 1921, when it launched as WJZ, the first regular broadcast station in the New York area, according to Wikipedia's history of the station. It became the flagship of the NBC Blue Network in 1927 and moved to its current 770 kHz frequency in 1941, decades before anyone in the building could have imagined the format changes still ahead.
The station that owned the Beatles' first American visit
WABC's biggest cultural moment came in 1964, when it became the most listened-to station in the country by riding the Beatlemania wave as a Top 40 outlet. During the band's second New York visit, WABC rented the hotel suite directly above the Beatles at the Delmonico Hotel and turned it into a remote studio, with DJs Scott Muni and Bruce Morrow broadcasting live from upstairs using wireless microphones, according to an account of the Beatlemania years on New York radio. That access, paired with the station's Top 40 dominance, kept WABC as the most-listened station in the country well into the 1970s before it switched to an all-talk format in 1982.
Saved by a grocery and oil magnate
WABC's fortunes slid under previous owner Cumulus Media, which was weighed down by debt and losing ground to digital competition. The station's revival came through John Catsimatidis, the New York grocery and oil magnate who bought WABC and rebuilt it under his own Red Apple Media, turning himself into what one profile called New York's king of talk radio. Catsimatidis now hosts his own program on the station alongside the wider talk lineup, running the operation from Red Apple Media's Midtown Manhattan headquarters.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
WABC 770 AM streams around the clock, and Radio Shuffle carries the feed live with nothing to install and no subscription required. Press play for the station that broadcast the Beatles from a hotel room above their heads and is still talking to New York today.