For Friedman, the 'Showcase' must go on

Harlan Friedman couldn't stay away.

When the legendary WLIR / 92.7 FM changed formats and went to a smaller signal in 2004, the Oyster Bay native thought he'd try his hand at other things beside music.

In the past few years, he's worked on opening restaurants with The Printz Group and, after winning a contest, become a spokesman for the U.S. Open tennis tournament. But music kept calling him back.

"I just really missed it," Friedman says. "It felt the way a ballplayer must feel when they retire, when they wake up one morning and realize they're not playing anymore. I just really missed radio and doing concerts, and I want to go back to where I was introducing new bands again."

Friedman has restarted his influential "Tri-State Sound Showcase" radio show on Bob Wilson's WLIR tribute station on Live365.com and last week had his first live showcase featuring Wheatus, The Miller Effect and Jake Incao at the SUNY College of Old Westbury - the first of what Friedman hopes will be regular events.

"It's a lot of fun," Friedman says. "It's really like starting all over again, and there's a really good energy on the Island again."

It was Friedman's original show, after all, that supported Long Island bands like Taking Back Sunday and Brand New early on, and his offshoot concerts introduced bands like Maroon 5, Phantom Planet and Sugarcult to area audiences.

"I'd love to do that again with someone like Portugal the Man or another new band," Friedman says. "In this day and age, you really don't need an FM station anymore."

"Harlan Friedman's Tri-State Sound" airs Thursdays at 5 p.m. on wlir.fm.

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