WAAF Rocks Off After 50 Years
Fittingly, WAAF’s final days were expertly piloted by two of its longest serving and best loved personalities, Mistress Carrie and Mike Hsu, who anchored the station from 10am-7pm on Thursday and 10am-midnight on Friday. During that time they shared their thoughts — and thanks — and fielded calls from many former WAAF staffers, like “Bob & Zip” (Bob Rivers & Peter Zipfel), Greg Hill, Danielle Murr, Lyndon (LB) Byers, Spaz & Kevin Barbare from the 30-year Hill-Man Morning Show, Anthony Cumia (Opie & Anthony) Liz Wilde, Mark Razz and Ozone.
One of those former staffers is our longtime friend and RAMP co-founder-turned-executive headhunter Rob Barnett, whose own storied history with WAAF dates back 40 years — he was on-air, MD and PD of WAAF for what he describes as “Five perfect years, from the night before Lennon was murdered in 1980 until 1985.” Barnett was on air for more than 15 minutes with Mike and Carrie on their last show, reminiscing about a variety of subjects, including that now-legendary top-secret Rolling Stones show at Sir Morgan’s Cove, and “50 years of fearless rock.” Barnett later related to RAMP, “My heart was filled with love, breaking a little, but realizing the worst we can all do is weep, and the best we can all do is turn radio deaths as a call to arms to rise up and make great magic happen — with or without a major broadcasting company in our way.”
In these exclusive photos, PD Joe Calgaro, Carrie and Mike listened silently, and, as the song ended, Carrie & Mike embraced and WAAF ended its storied broadcast history. Afterward, the entire staff gathered outside for the awesome souvenir photo at the top. [Staff photo by 13Photography; photos of Hamilton, Calgaro, Carrie and Hsu by Greg Caparell]