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She'd play great progressive rock late at night, while most were sleeping.
Some jazz, some whale vocalizations, too.
Steele began her show by reciting poetry over Andean flute music, before introducing her show in her well-known sultry, smoky voice with,
“The flutter of wings, the shadow across the moon, the sounds of the night, as the Nightbird spreads her wings and soars, above the earth, into another level of comprehension, where we exist only to feel. Come, fly with me, Alison Steele, the Nightbird, at WNEW-FM, until dawn.”
She had the sexiest voice of anyone I have ever heard.
There is no actress who I've ever heard to top her.
Most of her audience were men, needless to say.
I remember Alison Steele. Hard to believe she'd be in her mid-70's if she was still with us. I took a few minutes to look up the Wikipedia page on her. I had to laugh out loud when it mentioned that she did the voiceover work on the Howward Stern bit "Larry Fine at Woodstock". That was an awesome bit!
I remember that show very well. I always looked forward to her interviews with the various artists in the 1970's. And yea, that voice!
I have a few of those Nightbird and Co. interview sets in my collection. For the most part they were two lp sets, about 25 minutes each side, showcasing a different artist on each album side. For the most part the interviews were classic rockers but singer songwriters were released as well (David Bromberg, Michael Martin Murphy, etc.) Unlike the King Bisquit Flower Hour, Westwood One, and the other various radio shows, those comp sets did not come with any script sheets. These weren't live concerts either. They were just a discussion on the artists music, their careers, and a little info regarding the artists past. The sets I have always had her speaking in a relaxed manner and the end result was always good info wise. Man, I loved those shows!
Yeah, I was in high school & college during the time of Alison Steele's WNEW tenure, so I spent many a late night with her show in the background. Lots of "space music". Those were the days when the disc jockey picked whatever they wanted to play, and she picked some obscure ones like Kraftwerk, Lothar and the Hand People, Tangerine Dream, and Hawkwind. Too many nights, I listened to the very end, when she'd always finish with the Beatles "Flying" song.
Makes me feel old whenever I hear one of the WNEW jocks has died. Alison in 1995, Rosko in 2000, Scott Muni in 2004, and Pete Fornatele just this past April 2012.
Richard Neer wrote a book remembering the progressivive days of radio: FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio. Well worth the time to seek it out and read, if you listened to NYC radio in the 70s.
She was the best. I could have just listened to her talk all night. Personally, I 'd like to see her inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, she belongs there.
Know this is an old thread but Allison Steele was a fav of mine. That is when I developed my bad habit of going to sleep with the radio on. Also, interesting tidbit. MY high school English teachers were Pete Fornatale, Dennis Elsas and John Valente all FUV folks although John never made it big.
The "real Steele" is, of course, long gone, but I can recall hearing what can only be described as a "plagarized", or artificial version marketed to radio stations on a tight budget back around the turn of the Millennium. It brought out mixed emotions -- couldn't even begin to approach the quality of the original, and the tactic could only diminish the quality of what was, in some cases, a pretty good playlist. But it was gratifying to see her remembered.
Her voice was so haunting. I can almost hear it now.
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