- Shadow Traffic
Shadow Broadcast Services is a traffic reporting service owned by
Westwood One .The company had its start in
Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania in 1975 as an informal service provided overcitizens' band radio and took its name from the "handle", or nickname, of its originator,Michael Lenet . He called himself the "Silver Shadow" and soon began providing the traffic information he gathered to radio stations in Philadelphia.In 1978, the company's first expansion was to
Chicago, Illinois where its operations were headed by Gary Lee. OnDecember 3 ,1979 , it went on the air inNew York City , the nation's largest broadcast market. The general manager of the New York office (which was actually located in Union, New Jersey) was Fred Feldman, a 16-year veteran helicopter traffic reporter on WOR.Among the original air staff in New York were
Donna Fiducia ,George W. Forman ,Susan Murphy , Joe Nolan andBernie Wagenblast . Murphy also served as program director andJoe Biermann was the operations manager.Most New York City stations subscribed to Shadow's services, including WCBS and WOR, who both continued to fly traffic-reporting helicopters. Shadow's New York office also service numerous suburban stations in
New Jersey ,Connecticut ,Long Island and theHudson Valley . In addition to on-air reporters, information was also provided via a teletype to stations which preferred to use their own staff to read the reports. Shadow's business model was based on providing the traffic information to the stations at little or no cost in return for commercial time which the company then sold to advertisers.In 1996, Shadow was acquired by Westwood One and in 1999 was joined by
Metro Networks which was purchased by Westwood One in that year. The combined Shadow/Metro operations have offices in over 70 cities around theUnited States and serve over 100 markets.* WNEW's
Sports Guys "Johnny Thunder" was one of the most infamous and unconventional Shadow Traffic reporters in NY history.External links
* [http://www.metronetworks.com/ms_bts_about.asp Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services]
* [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2004/12/07/2004-12-07_shadow_traffic_turns_25_with.html Shadow Traffic Turns 25] - Article from the "New York Daily News ", fromDecember 7 ,2004
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