WNBC, NBC’s radio flagship for 62 years...

WNBC, NBC’s radio flagship for 62 years and once home to Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Fred Allen and the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini, has gone off the air, the victim of a corporate takeover. The new owner is changing the talk and music station, a clear-channel spot on the dial at 660 that can be heard in 35 states at night, to an all-sports format. WNBC’s sign-off, announced Feb. 18, is the result of a $6-billion deal in 1985 in which General Electric Co. bought RCA Corp., the parent company of NBC. A Federal Communications Commission regulation prevents a new owner from keeping both a television and a radio station in the same market. GE decided to sell its new radio properties and keep the more profitable WNBC-TV.