McGee Takes Over For the Late Pete Fornatale

6-12-2012

WFUV-FM in New York announced yesterday that Don McGee (pictured) will become the permanent host of the award-winning program Mixed Bag, which airs every Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. Radio icon Pete Fornatale started the program nearly 30 years ago and hosted it until his death in April. McGee has been the primary guest host for Mixed Bag.

McGee said, ?I know how important Mixed Bag is to so many people. I?m grateful to WFUV for this opportunity, and I thank the show?s many loyal listeners who?ve wished me well. Of course, I?ll always be grateful to Pete Fornatale, to whom I owe so much.?
McGee began his association with Pete Fornatale in 1987 as a producer of Saturday Morning Sixties, another program hosted by Fornatale at WNEW-FM, and was later an associate producer of Mixed Bag. A graduate of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, he is the president of McGee Productions, a media production company.

Soon after its debut as a Sunday morning program on WNEW-FM in December, 1982, Mixed Bag became the launching pad for a new generation of singer-songwriters, including Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, and Christine Lavin. Known for his penetrating interviews with artists such as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen, Fornatale (pictured right) received the Armstrong Award for Excellence in Musical Programming in 1983 and an AFTRA Media and Entertainment Excellence Award in Broadcasting earlier this year. In January, 2000, Fornatale brought Mixed Bag to WFUV (where he worked as a Fordham University undergraduate in the 1960s) in the Saturday 4 to 8 p.m. time slot.

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New York DJ Pete Fornatale Dies at 66

Fornatale hosted a show called "Mixed Bag" on WFUV which is a non-commercial listener-supported station at Fordham University. If you hit the station web page a photo Fornatale pops up with details about his storied radio career. The station will pay tribute May 5th. Fornatale got his start in 1964 at Fordham hosting a show on WFUV called Campus Caravan. After graduating from Fordham in 1967, Fornatale taught for several years before beginning his professional career in 1969 at the legendary WNEW-FM in New York.

Fornatale hosted several different shifts at WNEW-FM before launching his Sunday morning program, Mixed Bag, in December, 1982. As the name implies, the program was designed to be a reflection of Fornatale?s eclectic musical taste. Inspired by a fan letter from Suzanne Vega, he helped launch the careers of many singer-songwriters, including Vega, John Gorka, and Christine Lavin. Grammy winner Shawn Colvin told The New York Times in 2001, ?Pete helped pave the way for so many of us. He was a rare guy in radio then.?

In 1991 Fornatale moved the program to WXRK (K-Rock), where it was renamed The Sunday Show. In 1997 he returned to WNEW-FM when it launched a format of ?Classic Rock with Classic Jocks.? He came full circle to WFUV in 2001 as the host of Mixed Bag on Saturdays from 4-8 pm. The latter-day Mixed Bag typically focused on a single theme each week, with Fornatale drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of music for songs to illustrate that week?s theme and engaging his listeners in the process through the program?s online bulletin board.

David Hinckley at the Daily News reports that Fornatale suffered a brain hemorrhage on April 15 and been in intensive care for the last week

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