Richard Neer (born c. 1949 in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

) is an American

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

and

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

personality who has been involved in, and has chronicled, key changes in both music and sports radio.

Biography

Neer began his radio career as a student at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

, from which he graduated in 1970. He worked at

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

WLIR WLIR was a radio station that played a new music/modern rock format on the frequencies 92.7 FM, 98.5 FM, and 107.1 FM from the 1980s into the 2000s. Bob Wilson, longtime WLIR employee and historian, created the website WDARE (Dare FM), which m ...

, where he was one of the early adopters of the freeform or

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. In 1971, he joined the airstaff of progressive rock radio powerhouse

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he worked as a disc jockey, doing mornings for eight years over three different eras. He was also program director for five years. For a while, Neer had a friendly relationship with

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

, who would call in to his late-night show, and played a part in bringing Springsteen's music to a wider audience. He witnessed the growth of the format and then its gradual shift into a more rigid, programmed,

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

-driven product, a transformation he described in his 2001 book ''FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio''. Concurrently, Neer began working as a sports radio talk show host at New York station WNEW-AM in 1987 and then at

WFAN WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...

in 1988. WFAN was the first and most visible of the successful all-sports format radio stations. Neer broadcast on the last day of music at WNEW-FM in 1999, then returned to that station for a bit after its switch to a "hot talk" format replacing the "Sports Guys" sports talk show hosting "Sports in the Morning—powered by the FAN" up until the time the station started stunting CHR before its flip to Blink. Neer remains at WFAN doing sports talk, working Saturday mornings and some nights. His call-in show was where

Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

fans registered disapproval of the team's decision to run ads targeted at Latinos. He hosted

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

NFL broadcasts for several years. Neer's unemotional style of speaking has prompted Bob Raissman, sports media reporter for the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', to refer to Neer as "Sir Sominex," suggesting that his delivery is soporific.Bob Raissman
"The final 'NBA Countdown': Keep Sage Steele and dump Bill Simmons, Jalen Rose and Doug Collins"
''New York Daily News'', June 14, 2014. Neer's brother Dan Neer is also a disc jockey. In 2014, Neer published his first mystery novel, entitled ''Something of the Night''. He published his second novel, ''The Master Builders'', on May 17, 2016. He released "The Last Resort" in May 2017.

Books

* Neer, Richard. ''FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio''. Villard, 2001. . * Neer, Richard. ''Something of the Night'', Amazon/Kindle eBook. 2014. * Neer, Richard. ''The Master Builders'', Amazon/Kindle eBook. 2016.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neer, Richard Living people American radio personalities People from Syracuse, New York Adelphi University alumni 1949 births

Biography

Books

References

Further reading

External links