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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

R.I.P.: Longtime NYC WCBS-FM News Anchor Al Meredith

Al Meredith
Longtime WCBS 101.1 FM news anchor Al Meredith has died at his home in Florida.

In an age when radio news was disappearing faster than rotary-dial telephones, Al Meredith remained a radio newsman for 38 years, according to David Hinckley at The NY Daily News on the occasion of Meredith's retirement in 2008.

Meredith retired in 2008 retiring amid a shower of accolades from almost everyone he ever worked with.

Meredith  was heard on WCBS-FM for 28 years. "It was the only place I wanted to work," he says. "I hoped to retire from there. And I did. It was a great run."

 Meredith didn't start out as a newsman. His first radio gig, in 1964, was playing music on WGBB. But after four years in the Air Force, "getting C-130s in and out of Vietnam from Okinawa," he came back and found no deejay jobs open.

There was a full-time news job, though, at WGLI. He took it, liked it and over the years got deeper and deeper into it. He won numerous awards for public service specials, which he particularly enjoyed because "they always teach me something, too."




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