In December 1967, Yonge moved to New York and WABC. Five-minute snippets of Yonge, each spotlighting a fact in rock history, aired on other ABC radio stations as well, such as WLS-AM, on weekday evenings during early 1969. Originally hired for the 1-3 PM shift, Yonge was moved into the overnight shift in August 1969 when Charlie Greer left the station. He was told by WABC program director Rick Sklar, in the early fall of that year, that his contract would not be renewed. He subsequently went on the air with the Paul McCartney "death" rumor on October 21, 1969, having heard the rumor from kids calling in from a college in Indiana. Stating that his contract was up in two weeks and would not be renewed, and that at 12:39 AM, he would not be "cut" because there was nobody around, Yonge began to speculate on rumors circulating about the possible death of McCartney. He never said that Paul was dead, but rather enumerated various "clues" in album cover art and within certain songs, some played backwards with clues like "Paul is dead" and "I buried Paul" which he said had been catalogued by thirty Indiana University Bloomington students. Callers lit up the station switchboard. Since all the phone lines were jammed with thousands of calls, Rick Sklar could not get through to the station and it was an hour and a half before Program Director Sklar arrived at the station in his bath robe. He got Les Marshak the newsman on duty in the adjacent studio to relieve Yonge and Sklar told Roby, "When you come in tomorrow to do your show, I don't want you to talk any more about this McCartney might be dead rumor".