Richard Neer

[2] He worked at Long Island, New York's WLIR, where he was one of the early adopters of the freeform or progressive rock radio format.

[3] In 1971, he joined the airstaff of progressive rock radio powerhouse WNEW-FM in New York City, where he worked as a disc jockey, doing mornings for eight years over three different eras.

[5] He witnessed the growth of the format and then its gradual shift into a more rigid, programmed, classic rock-driven product, a transformation he described in his 2001 book FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio.

[6] 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.

His call-in show was where Mets fans registered disapproval of the team's decision to run ads targeted at Latinos.