UPDATED...R.I.P.: Tony Pigg, Longtime Iconic NYC Personality

Richard Quinn aka Tony Pigg (1939-2024)

UPDATED: 5/1/24: Tony Pigg, a beloved figure in New York City’s broadcasting community, has passed away Friday, April 26 at the age of 85. Known for his work as the announcer on “Live with Regis & Kathy Lee” and his 15-year tenure at WPLJ, Tony Pigg left an indelible mark on the radio industry.

His voice was well-known to New Yorkers, and he brought laughter and charm to the airwaves. As a jock, he was genuine and unaffected, endearing himself to listeners. Tony’s signature sign-off, “Nothing but thanks,” reflected his appreciation for the audience.

His talent contributed significantly to WPLJ’s success in the 1970s, making it the most listened-to FM station in America.

In early 1983, WPLJ began a transition from AOR to Top 40/Contemporary hit radio (CHR). With word that a top 40 format was coming to WVNJ-FM (100.3 FM), WPLJ moved further in a CHR direction. Though the station began playing artists like Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, then-program directort Larry Berger stated that he did not make the decision to move to a CHR format until the last week of June; WPLJ adopted a rock-leaning CHR format on June 30, 1983. 

At that point, the station played predominantly AOR and new wave rock cuts, and mixed in two or three rhythmic pop cuts like "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara, "Time (Clock of the Heart)" by Culture Club, "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer, and others. 

The station maintained its "New York's Best Rock" slogan, even though the station moved away from playing predominantly rock songs. 

WPLJ's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, gradually changed, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known disc jockeys such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein remained with the station through the end of the decade.) Jimmy Fink, Tony Pigg, and Marc Coppola eventually moved to Infinity Broadcasting's WXRK when it debuted a couple of years later.

Pigg died of natural causes at his home in New York City, his wife of 37 years, Lucinda Scala Quinn, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Pigg also served as the staff announcer of the New York-based live morning show co-hosted by Regis Philbin and, after his retirement, Kelly Ripa. Pigg held that job for 30-plus years through 2019.

Richard Quinn was born in Sacramento on April 11, 1939. He studied art with painter Wayne Thiebaud at Sacramento State and served with the U.S. Army before beginning his radio career at an AM station in Winslow, Arizona, and then at KROY-AM in his hometown.

He called himself Tony Bigg, named for a favorite uncle and the fact that he was 6-foot-4. But when someone mispronounced “Bigg” as “Pig,” he switched to a different spelling of that after arriving at San Francisco’s KSAN-FM circa 1966.

Tony Pigg

“We were a bunch of hippies — long-haired freaks — who started the radio station KSAN and a free-form, underground progressive sound, which eventually evolved into what you hear today,” he told the New York Daily News in 1989.

Pigg came to prominence during the Haight-Ashbury scene, and as KSAN music director and a good friend of the Grateful Dead’s first manager, Owsley “Bear” Stanley, he is thought to have been the first jock to put that band on the FM airwaves.

Pigg joined WABC-FM in New York in 1970, with the station becoming WPLJ with a format change in 1971, and he worked there for more than a decade, followed by stints at WXRK-FM (known as K-Rock) and WNEW-FM. (Howard Stern, Pigg’s onetime colleague at K-Rock, recently said on his SiriusXM show that Pigg helped inspire his radio career.)

“The warmth and wit of Tony Pigg entertained an entire generation of New York radio listeners,” Jim Kerr, another famed DJ at WPLJ, said in a statement. “His talent was a major reason why in the 1970s, WPLJ became the most-listened-to FM station in America and is so fondly remembered today. Tony loved his audience. At the end of each show he delivered his signature line, ‘Nothing but thanks’ and he meant it.”

Philbin cold-called Pigg when launching his Live! morning show in New York after hearing him on the radio, his wife said. He also voiced commercials during his career.