New York radio has always sounded best when the person behind the microphone seemed to belong to the city instead of merely broadcasting into it, and for more than a quarter century Race Taylor became one of those voices. Taylor said goodbye to mornings on 101.1 WCBS-FM today, bringing an end to a seven-year run at one legendary New York frequency after spending nearly two decades at another. For listeners who followed him from WPLJ to CBS-FM, this isn’t simply another lineup change. This is another reminder that personalities can survive formats, companies, studios and entire stations because listeners remember people considerably longer than they remember corporate organizational charts.
And New York remembers Race Taylor.
It has had plenty of time.
Twenty Five Years Is Not A Radio Gig
It’s a relationship.
Think about everything that happened in New York radio during Taylor’s run.
Stations disappeared.
Formats changed.
Companies merged.
Companies went bankrupt.
Companies changed names.
Morning shows came and went.
Satellite radio arrived.
Streaming exploded.
Podcasts became an industry.
Phones became radios.
Social media became another airshift nobody gets paid enough to do.
And through all of it, Race Taylor remained on New York radio.
That’s not accidental.
Audacy formally recognized Taylor’s 25th anniversary on New York airwaves when it extended his WCBS-FM contract in 2024. At that point, he had already spent nearly 20 years at WPLJ before moving across town to CBS-FM in 2019.
Twenty-five years in Market Number One.
THAT’S NOT A RESUME LINE
That’s residency.
And WPLJ Matters To This Story
You cannot tell the Race Taylor story without 95.5 PLJ.
He spent nearly two decades there.
And when WPLJ disappeared in 2019, Taylor was there for the station’s final hours before the frequency changed hands.
That alone puts him inside one of the most emotional chapters in modern New York radio history.
Then something interesting happened.
Race didn’t leave New York.
HE CROSSED THE STREET
Figuratively.
WCBS-FM hired him weeks later.
Audacy’s predecessor Entercom openly acknowledged that part of the appeal was reconnecting former WPLJ listeners with a voice they already knew. Taylor arrived for middays in July 2019 after nearly two decades at PLJ.
That’s smart radio.
A station disappears.
The audience doesn’t.
Neither does the relationship.
Then CBS FM Gave Him Mornings
And this is where the story becomes particularly interesting.
Race spent years doing middays on WCBS-FM.
Then in June 2025, Audacy moved him into the station’s morning slot from 6 to 10.
That’s a hell of an assignment on WCBS-FM in New York City.
This isn’t some morning slot nobody remembers.
This station has been home to enormous personalities.
Harry Harrison.
Dan Ingram.
Ron Lundy.
Don K Reed.
Bob Shannon.
Broadway Bill Lee.
Scott Shannon.
The history hangs over the studio whether anybody says it out loud or not.
When Audacy announced Race’s move into mornings, even the company’s own announcement framed the job around the weight of that legacy.
And Race understood what room he was walking into.
He didn’t need anybody to explain it.
Because Race Is A Radio Guy
And I mean radio guy in the best possible way.
The man has a music degree.
Piano.
Drums.
Concert band.
Jazz band.
University of Michigan.
Then teaching.
Then radio came calling and apparently ruined any chance of a normal life forever.
😂
WCBS-FM’s own biography traces that path from music education into broadcasting, along with stops in Cincinnati and Dallas before New York ultimately became home.
That music education matters.
Especially on a station like CBS-FM.
You can hear the difference when somebody doesn’t simply know the intro time but actually understands musicians.
There’s a difference between:
HERE IS BILLY JOEL
and
HERE IS WHY THIS RECORD STILL MATTERS FORTY YEARS LATER
Race has always lived closer to the second category.
And He Became Part Of The Tri State Area
That’s the local part people outside New York might miss.
Race isn’t somebody who flew into Manhattan every morning, did a show and emotionally checked out at 10:01.
He and his family live in New Jersey.
His wife Patty is part of New York radio too, heard in traffic on 1010 WINS.
They raised their family in the region.
They became involved in charities dealing with cancer, hunger and music education.
Last year, WCBS-FM’s Making Strides effort raised more than $25,000 for the American Cancer Society, with Audacy noting that Race had a deeply personal connection to the cause through Patty’s family.
That’s not a syndicated voice saying:
HELLO NEW YORK
That’s somebody who actually lives here.
There’s a difference.
And New York Needs More Of That
I keep saying this because somebody has to.
New York radio does not need to sound like Phoenix.
Phoenix does not need to sound like Chicago.
Chicago does not need to sound like Dallas.
Dallas does not need to sound like Atlanta.
Radio’s greatest remaining competitive weapon is PLACE.
Spotify has Bon Jovi.
Apple Music has Billy Joel.
YouTube has Madonna.
Every classic hit on WCBS-FM can be summoned in approximately two taps.
So why turn on 101.1?
BECAUSE NEW YORK IS THERE
Or at least it should be.
The traffic.
The weather.
The ridiculous story from Jersey.
The Yankees argument.
The Mets misery.
The concert last night.
The deli somebody loves.
The caller from Staten Island who somehow turns a twelve-second contest break into a nine-minute family history.
😂
That’s radio.
That’s what personality provides.
Race Taylor Bridged Two Completely Different New York Radio Eras
This is what fascinates me most.
WPLJ and WCBS-FM were very different radio stations.
Different histories.
Different formats.
Different audiences.
Different brands.
But Taylor managed to make the transition because the product wasn’t simply:
RACE PLAYS HOT AC
The product was Race.
That’s what companies sometimes forget.
A good personality can move.
A relationship can migrate.
Listeners will follow a human being across frequencies in a way they rarely follow a sweep positioner.
That’s what happened after PLJ.
And CBS FM Was A Perfect Place For Him
Because WCBS-FM itself understands heritage better than most stations still operating.
This is a station that literally came back from the dead.
The Oldies format disappeared in 2005 when Jack FM arrived.
Listeners revolted.
Two years later, CBS-FM returned.
That experience became part of the station’s mythology.
So putting former WPLJ personality Race Taylor on CBS-FM made emotional sense.
Both the host and the station understood what it meant to survive a format ending.
That’s a connection you can’t manufacture in a focus group.
Then Came Mornings
Let’s appreciate how strange the timing is.
Race spent decades in radio.
Decades.
Then, after all of those years, he finally became the morning host on WCBS-FM.
Not in 1998.
Not in 2006.
Not in 2014.
2025
That’s incredible.
Radio careers don’t always move in straight lines.
Sometimes the biggest opportunity comes after everybody assumes your résumé is already finished.
That’s why I loved his move into mornings.
It was a reminder that experience can still get rewarded.
Sometimes.
And Now Less Than Two Years Later The Chapter Ends
That’s the part that stings.
Race’s morning run began in June 2025.
Today he said goodbye.
That’s a relatively short stay in the daypart after such a long climb to get there.
At this point, there isn’t enough verified information for me to tell you everything behind the departure or what comes next.
So I’m not going to invent it.
No fake insider whispers.
No anonymous imaginary executives.
No dramatic:
SOURCES CLOSE TO THE SITUATION
unless somebody is actually close to the damn situation.
😂
What we know is enough.
Race Taylor said goodbye to mornings today.
The station’s own site, as of this week, was still promoting him as the 6 to 10 a.m. morning host.
What Audacy does next with morning drive will be worth watching.
Because This Is WCBS FM
And when a heritage station changes morning hosts, it matters.
Especially here.
CBS-FM isn’t simply another Classic Hits station.
It is one of the most recognized music-radio brands in America.
New York listeners have extraordinarily long memories when it comes to this frequency.
They remember voices.
They remember jingles.
They remember what the station sounded like before you were born.
😂
That creates opportunity.
It also creates pressure.
The next morning strategy has to respect that.
And Please Do Not Turn Mornings Into Wallpaper
This is my plea.
Don’t.
Please.
CBS-FM should not become four hours of:
THAT WAS JOURNEY NOW HERE IS FLEETWOOD MAC
followed by seventeen minutes of spots.
You are in New York City.
Talk to people.
Make something happen.
Make them laugh.
Let somebody have an opinion.
Let somebody screw up.
Let somebody tell a New York story.
Let somebody sound alive.
The music library alone is not enough.
It hasn’t been enough for decades.
Race Understood Artist Connection Too
Look at the interviews Taylor did for CBS-FM.
Billy Idol.
Rob Thomas.
Sting.
Shaggy.
Sarah McLachlan.
Artists who fit into the world of the station but also provide stories.
Audacy’s own archive shows Race repeatedly being used for significant artist conversations.
That’s another thing radio should protect.
You don’t beat streaming merely by playing artists.
You beat streaming by talking to them.
Ask questions.
Tell stories.
Create moments.
That’s still radio’s advantage.
And Somewhere WPLJ Listeners Are Feeling This One Too
That’s the weird part.
For some listeners, Race wasn’t really a CBS-FM personality first.
He was their PLJ guy who happened to wind up on CBS-FM.
Seven years later, that distinction probably blurred considerably.
But New York radio people remember.
WPLJ disappeared in 2019.
Race survived.
That made him a little piece of PLJ history still walking around inside another legendary frequency.
Now he’s leaving that microphone too.
There is something emotional about that.
On The Dial Perspective
Radio talks endlessly about heritage.
Sometimes I wonder whether we understand what the word actually means.
Heritage isn’t the call letters.
It isn’t the frequency.
It isn’t the logo.
It isn’t even the jingles.
HERITAGE IS PEOPLE REMEMBERING
Remembering where they were.
Remembering who was on.
Remembering who made them laugh.
Remembering the voice that got them through a horrible commute.
Remembering who introduced the song.
Remembering who was there when the city was celebrating.
Remembering who was there when the city was hurting.
Race Taylor has accumulated a lot of those memories in New York.
Twenty-five plus years worth.
That’s heritage.
And Here Is What I Hope Happens Next
I hope Race stays on the radio.
Somewhere.
Because this industry has thrown away too many experienced broadcasters and then wondered why everything sounds inexperienced.
Race understands music.
He understands clocks.
He understands listeners.
He understands New York.
He understands what happens when a station signs off forever because he’s already lived through that once.
That’s knowledge.
Use it.
New York Radio Keeps Losing Voices
And every time it happens, we should ask the same question.
Who’s next?
Not who’s next to leave.
WHO IS NEXT TO BECOME PART OF THE CITY
Where is the next Race Taylor?
Where is the next Scott Shannon?
Where is the next Broadway Bill Lee?
Where is the next person who can spend 20 years here and still sound like they’re having fun?
Are we developing them?
Are we giving them weekends?
Are we giving them nights?
Are we letting them make mistakes?
Or are we going to eliminate every training ground and eventually wonder why nobody sounds legendary anymore?
That’s the part the industry needs to think about.
Today Race Taylor Said Goodbye
And New York radio got a little quieter.
Not because a transmitter shut down.
Not because 101.1 disappeared.
Not because somebody turned off the music.
Because one familiar human voice is no longer there tomorrow morning.
That’s the thing radio executives sometimes underestimate.
LISTENERS DO NOT HAVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH FREQUENCIES
They have relationships with people.
Race Taylor spent more than a quarter century proving that in New York.
WPLJ.
WCBS-FM.
Middays.
Mornings.
Artist interviews.
Fundraisers.
Commuters.
New Jersey.
Manhattan.
The entire messy Tri-State thing.
That is a hell of a run.
And wherever Race goes next, somebody should remember one thing before they put him behind a microphone:
NEW YORK ALREADY KNOWS HIS VOICE
You can’t buy that.
You have to earn it.
Race Taylor spent twenty-five years doing exactly that.
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