He arrived out of the ozone in the very late ‘60’s, a voice straight off the Fordham campus. On WNEW-FM, a station with its share of edgy types, he came off as much more than sophomoric but not yet a grad student – a perpetual junior, who was starting to get it. That is a compliment.
Pete Fornatale maintained that mix of wonder and knowledge as long as he lived, which was not nearly long enough. He died Thursday at the age of 66. He was a friend. We lived about a mile apart in Port Washington for decades, and took long walks around the old sand mines on Hempstead Harbor. We talked about serious issues as we walked – spiritual things, political things. He was deeply affected by 9/11 – talked about it on the air at WFUV-FM, his first and final station. He didn’t seem much interested in talking sports, thank goodness, which gave me the leverage to ask him about his music contacts. There were perks to being a friend of Pete’s. He introduced us to our heroes, Anna and Kate McGarrigle, in some Village basement dressing room, right after a show. We sat with him when he emceed a benefit brunch at the Lone Star, when Richard Manuel and Rick Danko were about to go back on the road. Check out the High on the Hog album. Richard sings She Knows in that sweet falsetto, and at the end Pete and Richard salute each other. Now all three of them are gone, and so is Levon. Pete and I took our sons to a Grateful Dead concert at the Nassau Coliseum. He introduced me to John Platt, his Long Island buddy, now a Sunday-morning presence on WFUV. And one night in a club on the South Shore of Long Island, he introduced us to Christine Lavin, his friend, now my friend. Chris once performed Sensitive New Age Guys live on Pete’s Mixed Bag show – using Pete as the male foil. That night in the club, she called out both of us to sing backup. She’s currently on the road, working on a tribute to Pete that will be played sometime over the weekend on XM radio and also on WFUV-FM on Saturday. We are all in shock. But the best part was the music, the thematic shows, where Pete could find four or five songs that belonged together. (Doug Martin’s obit in the New York Times on Friday does a great job explaining Pete’s technique. ) I hope this doesn’t get Pete in trouble with the authorities – what can they do to him now? – but he used to make copies (cassettes, which dates me) of his best thematic shows. I play them on my walks. One show was Ladies Love the Beatles, amazing arrangements of old favorites. Another show was about aviation, with a sensational version of Tree Top Flyer by Stephen Stills. Afterward, Pete admits, with that heh-heh laugh of his, that the song just might have been about an illegal pursuit. Another cassette was about the Sunday papers, all those sections, including the so-called funnies, with Adam Carroll’s song urging Dagwood to take Blondie up on the roof for a glimpse of the sky. That one certainly puts some zip in the step. Pete was still growing, still learning, still thinking, still talking. My deepest condolences to his family. I’ll miss the walks but I’ve got the cassettes.
martyl
4/27/2012 06:22:28 am
sorry to hear of the lost of your friend. i grew up listing to Pete in the late sixties as well as thru the 70s. lost touch his him during his days at Fordam radio but when i ever his voice was heard, it only brought back found memories of my youth. sorry again for your lost. you do have the tapes!
Brian Savin
4/27/2012 11:19:02 am
I knew him as a very young man. Hadn't heard his name in forty years. I know many of his classmates. Cool guy. Wow.
ira sonin
4/27/2012 11:39:31 pm
pete always did an annual baseball show. but he was turned off by the way the game had changed its focus to being all business. i was fortunate to have spent time with pete on several occassions back in college and recently at the wfuv studio. my offers to accept my season tix to a game were always politely ignored. although he remained relatively unspoken as to his feelings about the game he did discuss it a bit with one of his students, mike francessa on one of his hungerthon visits to WFAN. on occassion i will go to mets games alone. i bet that i will put the other seat down for pete and hope the mets can give us another one of those great comeback victories as they did on thursday as the news of pete came on the airwaves.
george vecsey
4/28/2012 12:27:08 am
Do I recall that Pete's dad was a Yankee fan from the Bronx? That's my impression. But I was always more interested in hearing old WNEW-FM stories from way back, and inside stuff on singers.
Bruce Schoenfeld
4/28/2012 01:16:12 am
He was my adolescence. He and Scott Muni and Richard Neer and Vin Scelsa, but mostly Pete. He showed us how to listen to music, navigated our way through the uncharted territories that kept showing up on the pop/rock map. I left the WNEW listening area for college in 1978 and realized that WBCN, for all its Boston college scene credibility, had nobody who was near an equal of Pete's. If internet radio existed in those days, I would have had Pete on in my dorm room day after day so everyone could hear him. But if it had existed then, they'd have already known.
Barry Kornfeld
4/28/2012 01:38:54 am
Pete was responsible for forming my musical consciousness. He was the Radio Host of my generation who grew up in the the NYC area.
Dave
4/28/2012 04:21:47 am
How envious! I taped Jonathan Schwartz's last show on WNEW back in the mid '70s and due to overuse, crappy auto cassette player, and general misuse it has since been disposed, but what would I do now just for a brief moment of an old Scott Muni show, Allison Steele, or for that matter, anything with Pete's honey tinged banter. With a young son, my Saturday's have been mostly home bound, didn't matter, they were the best kind, offering an opportunity to sit by the radio, tv muted listening to Mix Bag-CURSING when it was pre empted by Fordham hoops. Most of the time joining a few minutes late and playing a guessing game with my wife what the theme of that afternoons show was...thanks Pete, you got me through some dark moments, especially after 9/11 & the 84th floor...Now may the four winds blow you safely home.
Melissa
4/28/2012 11:03:57 am
Heart breaking. The loss of the man and the end of era that we all loved so much.
Jeanne
4/28/2012 11:11:32 am
Lovely memories, George. As so many, I started out listening to Pete back when, later becoming a friend as I became a regular volunteer at the radio station during pledge drives. And -- you have emboldened me to share publicly that Pete once burned for me my very own CD copy of Mary Travers's "Mary." Just to reassure you you won't languish in copyright prison alone!
George Vecsey
4/28/2012 11:13:51 am
Given Pete's zeal to spread the music, we might have a crowd in the pokey. Thanks for caring. Everybody listening to Don McGee's sweet show dedicated to Pete? GV
Don
4/28/2012 11:37:39 am
George, yes I am in Manassas VA with WFUV tuned in on he internet. Don McGee is handling the show great
Ed McMillan
4/28/2012 11:19:26 am
seems i've listened to pete forever driving home from work saturday evenings will never be the same
Rlw
4/28/2012 11:21:57 am
i wish he would have had the chance to say goodbye.
A listener and radio friend
4/28/2012 11:25:59 am
With respect to the rule of 3...Dick Clark, Pete.. wouldn't want to be Cousin Brucie right about now.
George Vecsey
4/30/2012 01:41:28 am
Umm, why don't we add Mike Wallace to complete the Trio?
meg flannery
4/28/2012 11:39:18 am
Pete Fornatale will be missed. Saw him a couple of months ago at Port Washington Library. His infectious laugh and great musical themes will be greatly missed. George its good to see you still walking and eating out around Port Washington. Thanks for the shared memories of you and Pete. See you around town. Meg
David
4/28/2012 11:43:37 am
I came of age during the late sixties, the WNEW era, and all the guys from that station are forever etched in my life. For the past several years I would listen to Pete on Saturdays evenings when I cooked meals of my family. It was my absolute favorite part of the week, I will sorely miss him. And I think I saw Poco 5 times before I was 18.
Andrea
4/28/2012 12:40:28 pm
Saturdays will never quite be the same. He was so influential in forming my musical tastes.
Chris Dougherty
4/28/2012 12:50:30 pm
Nice tribute, George. Pete was a part of my life since I was at Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, NJ in the early seventies. Pete's spirit of broadcasting innovation, his love of music and his knowledge was huge in shaping the power and innovation of FM music.
Paul Hraska
4/28/2012 01:11:29 pm
George, that was a nice tribute to Pete. I have listened to him since the 60's, but have made him a mainstay while cooking dinner on Saturday evenings (I stretched the time out to eat when the show was over). His ability to make people relate to what he was playing was amazing. I truly felt what he inferred when he weaved story lines into the music he played. I already miss his genius.
Andy Iskoe
4/28/2012 04:02:17 pm
George, yours is a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. It was clear every time he took to the airwaves that Pete has an incredibly strong passion in sharing he joy in music with all his many listeners over the years. And in his unique style was every bit the storyteller as the artists whose music he played. Out here in Vegas I made a point of listening to Mixed Bag over the Internet as often as possible on Saturday afternoons. I thoroughly enjoyed his "Back to the Garden" book on Woodstock. Thanks for your fine tribute and the forum allowing us to share our memories with his many listeners and fans.
Joel Rosen
4/29/2012 02:10:22 pm
Now I've lost two of the favorites of my youth within days of each other - Moose Skowron and Pete Fournatale. Time is running by too fast.
Lew
4/29/2012 05:01:15 pm
I first met Pete when he was 21 and I was almost 16, as I was a huge fan, and he invited me to WFUV. I attended Fordham solely cause of him, though I'm not Catholic. We lost touch for almost 30 years, but we became friends again 11 years ago. That was surely meant to be. I've always enjoyed you in the Times, George. Thanks so much for the tribute.
Steve W.
4/30/2012 01:02:46 am
I think I heard John Platt say on his show Sunday morning that you had written a tribute to Pete. Thanks for your unique perspective George. I have been listening to FUV all weekend. I had no idea Pete's death would hit me so hard. I'm listening to "High On The Hog" as I type. Levon and Pete....
Dan Minutillo
4/30/2012 10:24:10 am
I grew up listening to Pete, Allison Steele, Scott Muni, and the rest of the air staff at 'NEW, I miss them all, New York radio is just not the same anymore 5/1/2012 03:53:19 am
I used to listen to PF late into the night. He had great taste, a perfect voice for radio and a passion for rock and roll. Along wirth Scott Munie and Allison Steele (sp?) this was the FM crew. They shaped my taste in music and made WNEW the coolest spot on the dial. He will be sorely missed.
George Vecsey
5/1/2012 09:42:47 am
Wait a minute, nobody has mentioned Zacherle and his lab assistant Gasport. 9/25/2013 01:08:36 am
This is really an informative posts because the links are informative. 9/21/2014 11:08:48 pm
The loss of the man and the end of era that we all loved so much. Comments are closed.
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