R.I.P. Gary Stevens First Show on WMCA Intro: If You Wanna Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life

From My Radio Restoration Project In Stereo - R.I.P. Gary Stevens First Show on WMCA Intro: If You Wanna Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life.

Gary Stevens, the last surviving member of the famed WMCA radio "Good Guys" — later in his career one of the radio industry's most influential brokers — died Monday February 17, 2025, in Delray Beach, Florida. His family, who announced his death in the radio trade publications, said he was 84.

A Buffalo native, Stevens joined WMCA in April 1965, as one of the "Good Guys," a promotional handle that the rest of the on-air crew adopted to distinguish themselves from the more prominent "All-Americans" at WABC. Along with Stevens — just 24 when he started — the other "Good Guys" included major New York radio figures such as Harry Harrison (who died in 2020) and Jack Spector (who died in 1994, when he was on the air at WHLI in Hempstead). Together they formed a mighty front at a tiny radio station — just 5,000 watts compared to WABC's 50,000 watts. (The other "Good Guys" during WMCA's glory days were Joe O'Brien, "Dandy Dan" Daniel, Dean Anthony and Ed Baer.)