Every Sunday night for the past 43 years, Rich Conaty has kept the music of the 1920s and 1930s alive on The Big Broadcast. Rich’s first show was December 31, 1972 when he was an 18-year-old Freshman at Fordham University in the Bronx. Until then, Rich had been the co-host of a big band program called In the Mood, but on that particular New Year’s Eve “none of the other announcers showed up.” The Big Broadcast was born.
Aside from brief and notable sojourns at WNEW and WQEW, Fordham’s WFUV-FM has been Rich Conaty’s radio home ever since. Early shows featured the music of Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, the Boswell Sisters, the Mills Brothers, and Paul Whiteman—and they are still favorites.
Each program (themed according to the birthday anniversaries of performers and composers of the given week) is lovingly assembled from Rich Conaty’s collection of mint-condition shellac originals and a vast array of reissue CDs. Each year, Rich issues a CD compilation of beautifully restored rarities. The Rivermont Big Broadcast CDs are offered as a membership gifts for those supporting WFUV.
The Big Broadcast is heard Sunday evenings from 8 until midnight ET on 90.7 FM in NYC and beyond, and the program streams over wfuv.org.
