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, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

) 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 nightclubs or music fes ...

and

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

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

Biography

One of four children born to Frank O. Neer and Frances Lapenta, Neer began his radio career as a student at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York, United States. Adelphi also has centers in Downtown Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County in addition to a virtual, online campus for remote students. As of 2019, it had ...

, from which he graduated in 1970. He worked at

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

's WLIR, where he was one of the early adopters of the freeform or

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

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 broadcasting, FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary-Radio format, formatted radio station, City of license, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy faci ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 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 Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

, 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 radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

-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 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 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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

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 ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'', 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.

Selected 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 1949 births Adelphi University alumni American radio DJs American sports radio personalities Living people People from Syracuse, New York Radio personalities from New York City

Biography

Selected books

References

Further reading

External links