Tony Orlando will host WABC/770 music show on Saturday nights

Tony Orlando — of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and "Knock Three Times" fame, also headliner of countless summer concert series on Long Island — is coming to radio as host of a greatest-hits show on WABC/770 AM launching this Saturday, the station announced Thursday.

The show, which will air from 10 to midnight, means that WABC — which is largely all-talk during the weekend — will turn largely all-oldies-music on Saturday nights. Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow's WABC show also will expand an hour starting this Saturday, airing from 6 to 10 p.m.

In a statement, Orlando, 76, said "I am thrilled to be back on the radio on 77 WABC to play the greatest hits of an iconic generation: the sixties and seventies. I can’t wait to be on the airwaves with my fans who are looking forward to the greatest hits — we are going to have a lot of fun."

Orlando — born Michael Anthony "Tony" Orlando Cassavitis — is a mutli-hypenate with a long career as songwriter, performer, music producer, actor and variety show star ("The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show" on CBS in the mid-1970s). "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" was a No. 1 hit in 1973 for many weeks and has been on radio continuously ever since.

John Catsimatidis, WABC's owner, said in his own statement: "Orlando is an iconic musician who holds a place in the hearts of everyone who lived through the sixties and seventies … My motto is make music, not war."