Whn: When New York City Went Country

In 1973, conventional industry wisdom was that a country music station could not be sucessful in the New York market. WHN ignored that wisdom and announced that it was switching from a middle-of-the-road format to country, billing itself as "Easy Lovin' Country". The actual changeover took place at 5:45 am on February 26th when Jack Spector, calling himself "The Kosher Cowboy From Coney Island," introduced the George Jones classic "The Race Is On". And the rest is history.

Ed Salamon was program director of WHN radio from 1975-1981, the period when it held a #2 ranking in the New York market and became the most listened to country music station of all time. He was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2006. Salamon left WHN to form the United Stations, a radio syndication company, with Dick Clark and others. He was head of programming for that and its successor companies for more than twenty years, ultimately serving as president/programming for the Westwood One radio network. Salamon has been an adjunct professor at Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State University. He is also the author of ＂Pittsburgh’s Golden Age of Radio＂ (Arcadia Publishing).