TRANSMISSION
Long Island Music Hall of Fame Presents
LISA Award To Radio Legend Denis McNamara
For my friends and I growing up on Long Island in the 1980's there was only one station that we listened to: WLIR 92.7. It was a cult unto itself, the only station in our region to actually stand apart from anything else on the FM dial. It was the station that introduced strange and unknown artists like R.E.M., U2 and Simple Minds to our ears.
WLIR defined a generation of Long Islanders and made household names of Indie, Punk and New Wave artists that other stations would have never touched, let alone play on the Long Island airwaves. There would be no such thing as Flashback and Retro programming today on our Long Island airwaves, were it not for the ground breaking radio of WLIR.
Denis McNamara receiving his Long Island Sound Award
The man behind this phenomenon was WLIR Program Director Denis McNamara, who steered the station from its freeform progressive rock roots in the late 70's to the premiere Modern Rock station of the 1980's.
On Friday May 12th, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame presented a Long Island Sound Award (known as the "LISA") to Denis McNamara in recognition for this outstanding contribution to Long Island's musical heritage. He received this award during the "Party Out of Bounds: Malibu Sue's Radio Reunion", at Posh Nightclub in the Garden City Hotel.
McNamara is often credited with creating the New Wave and Alternative radio formats that defined a generation and impacted radio on a national level. The Long Island Music Hall of Fame is determined to make Long Islanders aware of the region's influence and impact upon the local, national, and even international music industries.
McNamara was joined on-stage by his family and presented the prestigious Long Island Sound Award by Rich L'Hommedieu, Chairman of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. He was also joined by former WLIR veteran "Malibu Sue," and musical guest Fred Schneider of The B-52's.
Let's hope some day soon Long Island radio will produce more Music and Program Directors with the kind of spirit and vision of Denis McNamara!
