Alex McNeil, host of the Friday “Lost & Found” and the Saturday morning show “88 Rewound” passed away on July 13, 2026. Below are some remembrances of our friend and colleague. The ones by Angelynn and Rick were given at a memorial service for Alex.
Angelynn Grant:
Hi, my name is Angelynn Grant and I host “Coffeetime” on WMBR. In the summer of 2006, I moved my show from Tuesdays to the Friday time slot following Alex’s “Lost & Found”. In those two decades that Alex and I were time slot mates, he became a good friend. Since COVID, I think we both missed all the chats we’d have as his show ended and mine began. We went out of different control rooms and when I would get to the station, I would always poke my head into his room and say, “What was that song you played?” Or “gosh I LOVE that song.” And, once my show had begun, he would pop into my control room to talk about music, station business or, my favorite, show me photos of the grandkids and tell me what sweet, funny things they’d said.
There has been an outpouring of appreciation for Alex from the WMBR family and also from listeners. When WMBR’s Chuck Rosina, who’s here today, did a tribute to Alex on the Friday “Lost & Found” two weeks ago, a listener texted, “Alex combined an encyclopedic knowledge of music with delightful good taste in his playlists. He could come up with whimsical themes for a show and then fill two hours with a combination of familiar and obscure songs that sounded great.” And, last week, when deejay Jake Kassen, who’s also here, hosted Alex’s other show “88 Rewound” another listener texted, “I learned so much from his shows and our many text exchanges over the years. His time capsule approach to “88 Rewound” really made it distinctive. Not just oldies but true cultural history.” And Jake emailed this to me, “Alex was a time traveler. For two hours on Saturday, he transported us back to the 1960s to listen to the radio as it would have been broadcast, placing the songs in their historical context. It was unique, captivating radio.” And our fellow deejay Larry Azrin wrote this apt reflection on Alex just the other day: “He always greeted me warmly and possessed a sly, understated sense of humor that could easily catch me off guard with a quick zinger.”
Whenever I told Alex I loved a particular musician or song, he never forgot. We shared a love for Jackie DeShannon and, when he got to interview her, he asked her to autograph her new album for me. In 2007, I told him that hearing the theme song to the TV show “Room 222” on his Lost & Found had filled me with a soothing joy. Seven years later he remembered this and played it again when he filled in on my show. He knew how much I adored Lulu and, in 2017, he told me she was going to appear in the greater Boston area. I was reluctant to drive all the way to Shirley, Mass, but Alex strongly encouraged me and it was the most amazing show. These are very specific anecdotes, but so indicative of how considerate a friend Alex was.
Alex made a big impact at the radio station, both behind the scenes and over the air. He was a great deejay, a good friend, and an all around great guy.
Rick Roth:
I’m Rick Roth one of the station managers of WMBR. I’m not sure why he chose me to speak as you see I’m using my phone, not 3 x 5 index cards. I don’t usually tell people, but I went to Harvard Divinity School, if he knew he must have been worried I might go over the two and a half minutes. And I’m also surprised because I have a “Kill Your Television” bumper sticker on my van.
The perfect pop single from the Billboard top 100 from the ’60’s runs on average about two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Alex would have known, I had to look it up.
Knowing Alex, he would have checked my timing, but nobody here is as exact as he would be, so I might risking going long for a minute or so.
My first thought was to honor him maybe like his show 88 rewound, with a countdown. “The Top 100 Reasons We Loved and Admired Alex McNeil.” I had to abandon that concept. There were far too many bubbling under reasons.
I dreamed that Alex Trebek was replaced by Alex McNeil and that a big board of categories all Alex came up. The category is Alex McNeil and these are some of the jeopardy answers: For $100 “Won a round of Jeopardy” For $200 “Was beaten at Jeopardy by a sewage engineer” – for $300. “Shakespeare’s ummmmm…. greatest admirer” and for the daily double “This music lover and wonderfully obsessive completist had a recording of every single Billboard top 100 for the entire ’60’s” Every answer, all the way down the board would be in the obligatory Jeopardy form of a question, “Who was Alex McNeil?”
I once had a perfect music moment with Alex. He and I and Doug Gesler went to see the Byrds and Marty Stuart perform Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It was so great to be with two guys who knew so much about it and loved the music and had a deep appreciation, a great musical moment.
When Alex had just entered hospice care at home, I wrote him a letter: “Alex – I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that you are a huge reason I am still at WMBR. Your example – always doing the station’s work, hard work, and never letting the difficulties of the community get to you – was a great one. Your perspective, and the humor and wit with which you delivered it, tempered my frustrations more times than I can count. Your love of music, and your expansive knowledge of music, have inspired not just me but countless station members and even more listeners. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a wonderful piece of music I was sure was obscure to everyone – only to discover you had already played it. I believe that music is love. I hope music can carry you beyond time and space. Peace and love, brother. Peace and love.”
I asked him once to name his favorite song and to my surprise he answered, “my favorite song is Patsy Cline’s “When You Need a Laugh” – there’s a little catch in her voice at the very end that gets me every time.”
There is a hole in our hearts, music and good memories and friendship and love and laughter will fill it.
When you hear something great you never heard before, think of Alex and be like him, share it.
Larry Azrin:
I wish to share with you some of my personal memories, and experiences that I had, with my dear departed friend and WMBR colleague since 1996, Alex McNeil, and also provide some biographical information. Alex was the longtime host of the Friday “Lost and Found”, and since 2013, also host of the Saturday morning chart countdown show “88 Rewound. He died several Monday mornings ago, on July 13th. It still does not feel entirely real to me, as Alex always seemed so healthy and sensible, that I imagined he would continue as a WMBR DJ well into his eighties, and that he’d eventually be recognized (unofficially …) as “The World’s Oldest Rock N’ Roll DJ”.
It is difficult to summarize in a few sentences a great friendship of nearly 30 years, but if I were forced to, I’d say:
A good, decent man who used his considerable talents in a positive way
WHAT TALENTS?:
– Exceptional organizational skills
– a very strong work ethic
– An obsessiveness (in the most positive sense), that allowed him to achieve complex, multidimensional long-term goals
FINALLY …
– A deep intelligence (beyond the strict academic definition), driven by curiosity about many subjects, especially music and television.
On a personal note, he always greeted me warmly and possessed a sly, understated sense of humor that could easily catch me off guard with a quick ‘zinger’. He was also quite generous in his praise – when I started coming back to WMBR after I moved away in 2006, he’d sometimes introduce me, when reading the upcoming Lost & Found schedule, as “The Legendary Larry Azrin”. I was flattered at first, but soon asked him, “PLEASE don’t say that!”.
AS some of you may know, he helped facilitate my return to more active involvement in WMBR (after I moved to Maryland in May 2006), as he (and his wife Jill) very graciously allowed me to stay at their home during my ever-more-frequent visits to WMBR. In time, we became friendly, not just because of our common interests as fellow station members, but also in exchanging personal/ family info: he’d fill me in on his latest travels (usually involving several record store visits), his son Jeff (and Jeff’s ever-expanding family) and his daughter Joanna; likewise, I’d do so about my sister Susan, and my nephews Leo and Noah. We even exchanged Christmas cards (… and I’m Jewish!).
I go back aways with Alex, to even before he was a WMBR member, as I heard him do a “Listener Airtime Pledge” show c. 1995, I think it was on Eli’s show (thanks Leigh Cochran, former ‘Lost & Found‘ DJ). My reaction was:
1) . He might make a good ‘Lost & Found‘ DJ.
2) . He sounded like a college professor – Well, I was right about one of those two above, ha ha …
AS DJ’s, we “bonded” over our mutual collector-geek interest in various Billboard Magazine charts, in particular the “Bubbling Under” – this was a separate chart started in June 1959, of 10 to 35 current singles, charting from #101 to #135, listed directly below the “Hot 100” singles; hence the designation “Bubbling Under”. Some of his shows were entirely “Bubbling Under” singles, and in 1998 I began starting off all my shows with (at least one) “Bubbling Under” set. Here’s the actual chart, on the left:
Bubbling Under the Hot 100 Part 3 | PopBopRocktilUDrop
WE also shared an interest in the “Forgotten Top-40″ – chart singles that reached (at least) the #40 position on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ charts but weren’t really remembered anymore – he even recorded several cassette tapes to ‘test” people (including me). YEAH, he was serious about this stuff … This was the theme of several of his early shows (which, unfortunately, aren’t on Track-Blaster). The common denominator of all this, was that we both had a great interest in 1960s singles that were hits of some sort but not remembered anymore; the “Almost-Hits”, so to speak ….
The ULTIMATE chart-geek anecdote involving him is:
One time at WMBR, someone overheard Alex and I going back and forth testing each other on some chart stuff, and on impulse went into the Record Library to grab our Billboard “Pop
Top-40″ book, to “quiz” us, to see who was more knowledgeable about dates/ chart positions/ labels of Top-40 songs (Y’know, the REAL important stuff). We went it for about 10 – 15 minutes, till it was collectively decided to declare this a tie, so we could both save face.
I’ll admit now that Alex was more knowledgeable than I was overall about chart info, although it was obvious that both of us had wasted much time, I mean SPENT much time studying up on chart positions. On a serious note – I realize that a lot of WMBR listeners completely dismiss this chart info stuff – but it was damn important to an artist’s career (and, to the Music Industry as a whole) in the 1960s, as it often determined if they got to record another single for that label, or if they did record again, how much promotion the label would give their next recording.
CASE in POINT: Smokey Robinson was The Temptations producer for a while, but in 1965 – 1966, his last three productions of the group charted at:
#17: ‘Since I Lost My Baby’ {July 1965}
#13: ‘My Baby’ {Sept 1965}
then, OH NO:
#29: ‘Get Ready’ – {Feb 1966} although now considered a classic, back then, just a sub-par chart performance (Smokey also co-wrote all 3 of these ….)
… WELL – that was IT for Smokey as their producer , as that simply wasn’t good enough for Berry Gordy Jr. The Temptations were a very valuable Motown property, and he simply needed better (chart) results from Smokey. SO – he replaced him with Norman Whitfield, who produced these chart results:
#13, #3, #8, #8, #6, #14, #4, #26 and #6 through the end of 1968. Whitfield continued to write/ produce for them through the summer of 1974.
AS FOR his shows, what impressed me most was:
1) . The incredibly wide range of musical genres. He did had his favorites, such as the 1960s “Girl Group” sound, or more generally, certain 1960s female singers (in particular: Jackie DeShannon, Dusty Springfield, Leslie Gore, Evie Sands),The British Invasion (Beatles/ Kinks/ The Who/ Manfred Mann), early/ mid-1960s Motown), but he tried to play as many music styles as possible, often organizing his sets by genre.
2) . The creativity of his “theme” shows. It usually wasn’t a spur-of-the moment decision as to that week’s theme – he usually spent weeks, often months, sometimes several years researching a particular theme, to get enough tracks. Some were routine (“Remakes”, “More Top-40 from 1967 – 1969), BUT some _only_ Alex could come up with, such as:”The Obfuscation show” , where the Song Title is NOT mentioned in the lyrics (Think of Bob Dylan ‘Positively Fourth Street’):
Playlist for Alex McNeil on WMBR’s Lost and Found, Friday, July 5, 2013 (Noon-2pm)
3) . The way he wove in the occasional hit with mostly obscure stuff – I’ve found as a ‘Lost & Found’ DJ, that you don’t want to _totally_ ignore the major hits, but you don’t want to overload any show with too many well-known recordings that (you assume) much of your audience already knows – it’s kind of an art. I don’t know how many times that I checked an obscure title, thinking that I’d be the first to play it (YAY!), but then to discover, Alex had not only played it, but frequently more than once. So YEAH, he played a lot of obscure but good stuff.
4) He also collected vintage TV themes of the Lost & Found era, he had hundreds of such albums. “Route 66” by Nelson Riddle was frequently his Opening theme music, although he didn’t playlist it often:
Search for the Song “Theme from Route 66”
Sometimes when he filled in on ‘Coffeetime’, he played nothing but TV themes:
Playlist for Alex McNeil on WMBR’s Coffeetime, Friday, December 2, 2011 (2-4pm)
EXAMPLES of his OBSESSIVE (in a positive sense) NATURE:
1) PERSONAL: He succeeded in collecting ALL of the singles that made the Billboard Top-40 Pop charts in the 1960s in physical forms – so, mostly original singles, some albums, a few CDs (but nothing on tape, or later CD-r’s counted). I, myself, gave him the very Top-40 single {on an LP} he was missing, circa 1999. We made a “big deal” of it, and on-air I presented him, during his show, this album below to complete his quest:
Anita Bryant – In My Little Corner Of The World | Releases | Discogs (Anita Bryant’, ‘In My Little Corner Of The World’ (June 1960/ Carton Records)
I considered myself a completist, but that’s waaayyyy beyond what I could do.
BUT WAIT! THERE’s MORE:
Not content with possessing all of the charted Pop Top-40 singles from the 1960s, he next aimed for all of the charted Billboard ‘Hot-100’ singles of the 1960s. … And, although it took some more years, he eventually did it.
BUT WAIT! THERE’s E V E N MORE … :
He took aim at:
1) All the 1960s singles on The “Bubbling Under” charts, that I referred to earlier. I’m not sure if he completed that, but I think that he came awfully close.
2) 1) All the 1960s singles that made the R&B charts, but didn’t make the Pop charts, either ‘Top 100’ or ‘Bubbling Under’
2) WMBR: When in the very early 2000s, the subject of “What Lost & Found-related material should we acquire for the WMBR Record Library?” came up, instead of just listing off-the-top of his head some of his favorites missing from the Record Library that we should get, he created and typed up a specific list of 5 categories, in order of priority to acquire, and listed several examples of each. I actually made us of his data base when I was trying to figure out what titles to look for first, on my “searching for material for the record library” trips around the local Record store circuit.
VOLUNTEER WORK for WMBR:
He was the Fundraising Director one year, and also for many years during Fundraising Week, he created a list of all the audio (vinyl/ CD premiums) that listeners could pledge for. He also appeared on-air other shows (not just Lost & Found) during Fundraising Week, to support their fundraising efforts.
He created a comprehensive database listing of all the tracks on a number of compilation albums and CDs in The Record Library, on a station computer in the Office, for several genres:
– Pop
– R&B/ Soul
– Jazz
– Blues
… which I personally found extremely useful, for locating many elusive tracks that I otherwise could not find in the Record Library. This took several years of tediously entering the individual tracks info of Artist/ Song title manually.
He also did much work over his entire time with WMBR in checking possible Dupe (more than one copy of … ) singles/ albums/ CDs against the Record Library, to create more shelf space there, discarding vinyl and CDs material not needed. He did a lot of this when I was Record Librarian from 1998 – 2003, helping to cut down a HUGE backlog of possible Dupes, an entire set of shelves-worth.
- MUSICAL EXPERIENCE:
He played bass, starting in a music group at Yale playing (mostly) the Pop/ Rock/ R&B hits of the day, then gradually worked in some ‘Progressive’ stuff (such as early Traffic, one of his very
favorites), then periodically getting together for college reunions, and also a few shows locally here and there. He was a great admirer of legendary Motown bass player James Jameson, who
played on nearly every Motown recording between 1963 and 1968, and many recordings both before and after those years, including many classics such as ‘Dancing In The Street’, ‘My Girl’, ‘Bernadette’, ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘I Was Made Was Made to Love Her’ and ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’.
IN CONCLUSION:
I hope that you have learned something about Alex’s contributions to both WMBR, and my experiences.