The Museum of Television & Radio Receives Donation of Scott Muni Archives
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA—The Museum of Television & Radio announced today a generous donation of the on-air archives of legendary radio personality Scott Muni from Infinity Broadcasting. Mr. Muni died September 28, 2004, at the age of seventy-four.
The donation consists of interviews covering the better part of Mr. Muni's thirty-one-year legacy on WNEW-FM, featuring a virtual who's who of contemporary music. Among those featured with Mr. Muni are all four members of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Walsh, The Who, Paul Simon, and many more.
In accepting this donation, Monique Fortuné, radio curator of The Museum of Television & Radio, stated, "It is vitally important to acknowledge and preserve the work of Scott Muni, a broadcast pioneer and a true innovator. The Museum is extremely grateful to Infinity Broadcasting for donating this incredibly significant archive."
Born in Wichita and raised in New Orleans, Muni got his start in radio in the Marine Corps as a disc jockey on Radio Guam. Muni moved on to replace Alan Freed at WAKR in Akron, Ohio, and got his first job in New York in the late 1950s as the evening DJ on then-Top 40 WMCA. In 1960, Muni began a four-year stint at WABC, coinciding with the start of Beatlemania, followed by three years at WOR-FM. In 1967 Muni moved to WNEW-FM, where he would stay for thirty-one years. As program director, Muni is credited with making WNEW one of the country's first progressive rock stations. In addition to his radio career, Muni served on the boards of the TJ Martell Foundation, United Cerebral Palsy, and World Hunger Year, and in 2003 he was presented with the March of Dimes Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, is a nonprofit organization founded by William S. Paley to collect and preserve television and radio programs and advertisements and to make them available to the public. Since opening in 1976, the Museum has organized exhibitions, screening and listening series, seminars, and education classes to showcase its collection of over 100,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. Programs in the Museum's permanent collection are selected for their artistic, cultural, and historic significance.
The Museum of Television & Radio in New York, located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6:00 p.m. and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The Museum of Television & Radio in California, located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5:00 p.m. Both Museums are closed on New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Suggested contribution: Members free; $10.00 for adults; $8.00 for senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under fourteen. Admission is free in Los Angeles. The public areas in both Museums are accessible to wheelchairs, and assisted listening devices are available. Programs are subject to change. You may call the Museum in New York at (212) 621-6800, or in Los Angeles at (310) 786-1000. Visit the Museum's website at www.mtr.org.