Rating: 
Summary: For Real Rock/Radio Fans Only
Review: If you're a fan of New York Radio and the music it played in the 60's and 70's, this is the book for you. Richard Neer is very well respected in the city's radio establishment and he still does a great job on WFAN. Neer intertwines his own personal story, that of a struggling young DJ/music director making his way through the jungle of small market and college radio with a history of FM and rock radio. Finally, he reaches his dream of working at WNEW-FM, the Big Apple's famous free form rock station. The book is slow in the beginning, only interesting if you're a serious radio buff. As the story moves on, it becomes more intriguing and accessible. The drama becomes more human as personalities begin to clash in the high pressure environment of such a popular media outlet. The book may be worthy of a look just for the Scott (Scottso) Muni stories alone. If you long for the old nostalgic days of radio before it was taken over by Arbitron and rigid format, this is a wonderful book. If you want a more casual history of radio and WNEW's format style, you may want to look elsewhere, or just skip the first 100 pages or so.
Rating: 
Summary: Noble Topic, Wrong Author
Review: It's amazing that a book mourning the loss of FM Rock Radio comes from someone who did little or nothing to save it during its decline. Richard Neer for years seemed happy playing a narrower and narrower playlist at his NYC station. Unlike some jocks that stood up for the format by leaving for other stations where they could remain true to the early rock radio ideals, Neer just kept collecting paychecks at WNEW-FM as they became more and more what he is now writing against. And now, Neer is a talk announcer at an all-sports station, making his credibility even less for this topic. My point is this topic would be better served by someone who actually took some career chances to defend the FM format that is praised here.
Rating:
Summary: For Lovers of FM Radio
Review: Neer's book covers his lifetime in radio - 40 years or so. A good 1/3 of the book deals with FM radio outside the NYC area. Another sizeable hunk covers Neer's college and pre-WNEW FM days. I skimmed about 40% of the book. The rest was great. Neer tells wonderful stories of Bruce Springsteen calling in to the station in the middle of the night; Chrissie Hynde showing up for a studio interview bombed; etc. It's not a tell-all exactly. Neer describes format and management changes at WNEW which are fascinating. If you grew up in the NYC area and loved Scottso and the Nightbird BUY THIS BOOK. If this isn't your gig... pass.
Rating:
Summary: For Lovers of FM Radio
Review: Neer's book covers his lifetime in radio - 40 years or so. A good 1/3 of the book deals with FM radio outside the NYC area. Another sizeable hunk covers Neer's college and pre-WNEW FM days. I skimmed about 40% of the book. The rest was great. Neer tells wonderful stories of Bruce Springsteen calling in to the station in the middle of the night; Chrissie Hynde showing up for a studio interview bombed; etc. It's not a tell-all exactly. Neer describes format and management changes at WNEW which are fascinating. If you grew up in the NYC area and loved Scottso and the Nightbird BUY THIS BOOK. If this isn't your gig... pass.
Rating:
Summary: Long live rock, George Harrison, and WNEW-FM
Review: Over Thanksgiving weekend, 2001, I read Richard Neer's book F.M.: THE RISE AND FALL OF ROCK RADIO. Among the many anecdotes, Mr. Neer tells of George Harrison's friendship with New York City radio station WNEW-FM personality Dave Herman. As I write this the morning of November 30, 2001, the news of George Harrison's death saddens music fans worldwide. Harrison had been musically inactive for most of the 1990s. In the past several years, only his biggest Beatles and solo career hits had been heard in public. And WNEW-FM, a radio station that would have been keeping George's sound alive, had turned its back on rock music to air poor Howard Stern imitations all day in a talk-radio format. Beyond the great rock star stories, F.M.: THE RISE AND FALL OF ROCK RADIO is a must-have for those who tuned in WNEW-FM in its 1960s-1980s heyday. Mr. Neer's behind-the-scenes stories renewed my respect for mainstay personalities Scott Muni and the aforementioned Dave Herman. And the author is not afraid to name names when discussing the jerks. Oddly, FM: THE RISE AND FALL OF ROCK RADIO has no pictures. Long live rock, George Harrison, and WNEW-FM. Read Richard Neer's FM: THE RISE AND FALL OF ROCK RADIO.
Rating: 
Summary: FM: A Book For Progressive Rock Music and Radio Lovers
Review: Richard Neer's book 'FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio' is a book I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in New York City's WNEW-FM and Progressive Rock Radio in general. It's a big picture story, not a discussion of minutia. If you're looking for a compendium of who worked when at WNEW-FM then this isn't the place to find it. Instead, Neer's purpose is to paint a picture of what he believes built WNEW-FM, what sustained it and what ultimately destroyed it. It is a book about the forest, not a book about the trees in it. It basically has three parts. In the first, Neer talks about getting his first job in commercial radio at WLIR on Long Island, how he became lifelong friends with Michael Harrison (now of Talkers Magazine) and how he fell in love with WNEW-FM just by listening to it. He describes the station's genesis from the remains of WOR-FM's foray into Progressive Radio and how people like Scott Muni, Bill 'Rosko' Mercer, and Allison Steele were visionaries in creating this new format. He acknowledges listening to Top 40 radio as a young child but claims the seed for its destruction was clear by 1965. He admires people like Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie but they're not his heroes. People like Scott Muni are. Neer very accurately describes the musical artistry of Progressive Radio as well as the circumstances that allowed that artistry to prosper. Stations like WNEW-FM came to be in an era of political unrest (the Vietnam War) where young people were looking for an alternative to anything 'establishment' and the decidedly leftward politics of most everyone doing Progressive Radio further endeared it to its audience. That combined with FM's infancy and the need for corporate broadcasting to find alternative formats for a slice of radio spectrum it had little use for, allowed the inmates to take over the asylum (so to speak). Neer argues that was a good thing because it allowed an art form to grow under circumstances where its founders had the freedom to make something special without worrying about real world issues of running a business to make a profit. At the same time, Neer doesn't have rose-colored glasses on. For example, the book is very blunt in its description of how drugs played a big part in the lives of many (not all) of those doing Progressive Radio. He does not celebrate that. Instead he notes the influence of it and also points out how destructive it could be to many of those in the business. The second part of the book describes what life at WNEW-FM was like in the seventies when the station reached its peak influence. Neer writes about the concerts, the promotions, the personalities and the perks of that era. He enthusiastically describes the experience of working with virtually no format demands and how great it was to be able to play pretty much whatever you wanted to as a disk jockey. He discusses the stewardship of Scott Muni with humor but also with admiration. Neer speaks of his time as WNEW-FM's program director and the difficult time he had trying to steer the station toward economic reality as FM grew. He acknowledges that no longer could the station function without some kind of format. But he claims that even his most minimal efforts to focus the station were met with resistance. He writes of the difficulty he had in trying to rein in friends who now suspected him of betraying them to upper management and how that foreshadowed what would follow as outsiders came in to manage the station. The last part of the book describes WNEW-FM's eventual downfall. Neer goes through a long list of program directors and general managers who came and went and their influence (or lack of it) as the station struggled to find its way in the new and more competive world of FM radio in the 80's and 90's. The strength of this book is Richard Neer's true passion for what he loved about Progressive Rock Radio. At the end of the book you truly feel sad that it's gone. The weakness is perspective. For all that was good about this kind of radio, the reality is that it existed in a vacuum of economic reality. Neer alludes to that but I don't think he truly puts it into context. For all its success as artistry, it was a failure in appealing to a mass audience. Those who loved it really did have a home -- but there were too few of them. There are a couple of minor factual errors concerning WNEW-FM's chief competitor, WPLJ, but the negatives are minor if you're reading the book to get a feel for how it felt to get a job and then work at WNEW-FM. Whether you're a fan of this kind of radio or not, you come away with an understanding of what made it great to those who loved and worked in it. You also get a feel for what brought it down and how the station might have succeeded into the future had it been more willing to reinvent itself. This is not a book for those looking for radio trivia. It's a book for those looking for some insight and understanding of the big picture of what made WNEW-FM work -- and then what made it fail.
Rating: 
Summary: "An Insider's Delight"
Review: Richard Neer's fabulous new book "FM" works on a number of different levels: as a story of one man's rise from small town radio to the Big Apple; a history of how FM replaced AM bubbble gum radio in the late sixties, only to wind up in the 90's as a haven for morning zoos and Howard Stern wannabees; and as an insider's look at WNEW-FM--the beacon of progressive rock radio in New York. Neer hangs out enough dirty laundry to keep a dry cleaner busy for weeks (According to Scott Muni, the affluent Jonathan Schwartz used to scoff other jock's lunches out of the refrigerator and fish through garbage cans for discarded pizza). The commercial prospects of "FM" seem limited, but for a ex-broadcaster, reading it is like spending a few hours with an old friend.
Rating:
Summary: An Insider's Delight
Review: Richard Neer's fabulous new book, "FM" works well on a number of different levels: the story of one man's rise from small time radio to the Big City; a history of how FM adult rock radio replaced the bubble gum sound of AM in the late 60's(only to descend in the 90's to become a haven for innocuous morning zoos and Howard Stern wannabees)and an insider's look at the heyday of WNEW-FM in New York. For those who us who grew up with NEW-FM, Neer hangs out enough dirty laundry to keep a dry cleaner busy for months (the wealthy and sophisticated Jonathan Schwartz scoffed other jock's lunches out of the refrigerator!!). The book is an interesting mixture of radio history, personal anecdotes (some of which are absolutely hilarious) and out and out gossip. The commercial prospects of "FM" seem limited but for ex-broadcasters like myself, reading the book is like spending a few hours with an old friend. Foreward is by Steve Van Zandt of E Street Band and 'Sopranos' fame.
Rating:
Summary: It's been written, but...
Review: The book is "Radio Waves: Life and revolution on the Fm dial" by Jim Ladd. Change a few call letters and it's a very similar book. If you lived in NYC and listened to fm radio there in the 1970s and enjoyed it, then this book is for you. If you really are a radio nut, then this book may be for you. It's a good read. However, if you've read Ladd's book, save your money and more importantly, your time. Life and time are short and there are a lot of other stories (books) to read.
Rating:
Summary: It's been written, but...
Review: The book is "Radio Waves: Life and revolution on the Fm dial" by Jim Ladd. Change a few call letters and it's a very similar book. If you lived in NYC and listened to fm radio there in the 1970s and enjoyed it, then this book is for you. If you really are a radio nut, then this book may be for you. It's a good read. However, if you've read Ladd's book, save your money and more importantly, your time. Life and time are short and there are a lot of other stories (books) to read.
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