WMPT Radio and Kelly Watts' BLOG

GOOOOOOOOOD Morning Payson! KMOG

2008-07-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier I replaced Suzanne Michaels on Morning Drive on KMOG AM in Payson, in October of 2004. I am not sure of the reasons leading Suzanne to quit, BUT, knowing her M.O. it probably was a power play on her part for more money or other things. Regardless of that, I became KMOG's "Mild Mannered Morning Man," and the "Grand Exalted Leader of the Royal Order Of The Grungy Coffee Mug." I am not really sure IF Payson was ready for the East Coast former top 40 jock, I can be a shock to the system! As people who have listened to me over the years know I can be every so slightly irreverent! Country music was not new to me as I had done that format at WLYC, WILQ, WCKR, and WIQT, the only thing that worried me was the newer artists. Fortunately Music Director Mazatazal Mike (Shulte) had the approved cuts in the library marked and I had the Country oldies book so between the two I faked it till I got more familiar with the music.

I would like to say that people welcomed me on the air with open arms, well not so. I received more than one phone call complaining about my on air style etc. I later found out that some of them may have very well been staged by my predecessor in Morning Drive, not something that I would put passed her! But as time went along I became a part of Payson and was more accepted by the listeners.

Before I go a bit further let me tell you a bit about KMOG. This station was pretty much a throw back to the days when I first started on the air. Lost dog announcements, Community Bulletin Board, Rim Country Forum, the local talk show, Trades and Sales, Paul Harvey News, local sports broadcasts, remotes etc. KMOG broadcast on 1420 AM, with a daytime power of 2,500 watts and 500 watts directional at night. the equipment was generally pretty good with a new console, three CD decks, and a Smartcaster computer. One thing I liked was the set up allowing in studio interviews. Two mics and space for 4 people on the other side of the console. This was the first station I had worked that did not use broadcast carts. I guess that means I came full circle on those from seeing carts arrive to seeing them depart. The station was live 6 AM to 6 PM Monday Through Friday and live Saturday and Sunday Mornings. The rest of the time it was satelite programmed from The Jones Network. The on air quality was good courtesy of an Orban Processor and the fact it was a studio transmitter location. The news room had a small mixer for the use of the newsperson and production had a slightly bigger Mackie mixer and a production computer a couple of CD players and a turn table, just in case! All in all not a bad setup, but sometimes lacking in preventative maintenance as is the case with a lot of smaller stations.

The staff was older, with me being one of the youngest! The General Manager was Blaine Kimball, he didn't have an extensive background in radio, but was a good salesman, and willing to listen to idea's. I got along with Blaine pretty well and we had many discussions about radio. Dan Happala was the News Director, when I started he was on leave as he was running for Country Supervisor. Dan and I got along well and had many fun times on the air. It is always tough to come to a new station, bad enough when it is in a market where you are known, but here I was the "new kid" in a new town. One person who I always felt went out of his way to befriend me was Don Holcombe. Don was the host of the talk show that aired right after my shift so it was not un-common for him to "help" me along with morning drive usually any time after about 7:30 AM. Don had been an artist until diabeates caused him to become legally blind, but he had a very sharp mind and loved to carry on. Don and I became friends and continued to be until his untimely death in 2006 a day short of his 60th birthday. Don was the founder of a Barbershop Group called "The Beeliners." Most people don't realize that I am a fan of vocal harmony, and Don's group was one of the best I had heard! We had many running jokes, especially who could be first to call a key change in a song, or if I played The Eagles, Don would call, no matter what hour and say "I hate the friggin' Eagles". He was a great guy and with Dan mornings really sounded first rate in Payson. Mid days was "Rockin" Ron Gibson, he had his own country/rock brand and was the drummer, Ron was a fixture at the station and very popular on the air. Afternoons was Ken (Seaman) Brooks the oldest guy on the air in his early 70's. Ken had done some network radio appearing on radio dramas in the 1950's.

Part timers included Mike Schulte, who I mentioned before, J.R. "Doc" Holiday. Doc was raised in Southwestern Pa, and had worked at KAAF in Flagstaff, before coming to KMOG. I had an instant friendship with Doc, as when I started he was subbing for Dan on local news. Doc had a laid back "cowboy" delivery and I really liked that! Another part timer who became a good friend was "Cowboy" Carl Hall. Carl was the senior man in radio experience and we loved to sit and chat about the old days in radio. Carl like me, had done just about every job in the business. In addition to fill in duties Carl did a 3 hour show on Sunday morning called "Country Gold." That show featured the classic country of the 1940's-50's and 60's, Carl's style with his "stage" and stories about the artists, many of them he knew well, was and still is a delight to listen to.

Support staff, included Linda, Blaine's wife, and Joanne, who took turns as the receptionist, in the sales deparment was Lynne Geyer, a very talented sales person who hailed from Michigan, and Jackie Cramer, a lot of fun, I really enjoyed heckling her. In production was Jan O'Neil, I really hit it off with her and she loved to use me for creative commercials. What Jan lacked in experience she more than made up for in creativity.

Say K instead of W

2008-01-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

(Author's note) For those of you who do not know, radio station call letters East of the Mississippi begin with the letter W, and West of the Mississippi begin with the letter K, with few exceptions)

Once my family and I arrived in Payson and unpacked some of the truckload of boxes it came time to look for a job. During the year that preparations were underway for the move to AZ, I had been in e mail contact with Steve Bingham the President of the Payson Council For The Musical Arts, a non-profit corporation that operated KRIM-LP FM. While Steve was impressed with my resume and air check, as well as Blaine Kimball the General Manager of KMOG AM, neither had any openings. One of Steve's Friends was Chris Salgot who owned and operated C & M Communications a two way radio dealer and repeater service. After a while I managed to catch up with Chris, and we agreed with my background that I might be of some use to him selling radios and repeater service. Along the way I helped him with his radio advertising and covered his office when he was out of town. Oh, did I mention it was only commission?

During this time I talked with Steve Bingham and he was having some problems with his sales, called underwriting in non-profit radio terms. I agreed to take the dead accounts and see what I could do. I also proposed doing a once per week oldies show on Friday Afternoon called "The Friday Class Reunion." The idea being taking one year each week playing nothing but music from that year along with news and whatever else rattled my headphones. Eventually I added the top 10 countdown for that exact week from that year. I must say it was pretty interesting seeing what was at the top of the charts. Looking for the music was interesting, I found that there are several download services, "legal of course," that were quite useful. One was Limewire and the other was Napster, between them I found 99% of the songs I needed. At the time KRIM's staff consisted of Randy Roberson, Station Manager and "Good Morning Payson" co-host, Donnalyn Williams, Co-host of G.M.P, Jim Duncan the Underwriting Manager, and Joanne who did office work and of course Steve and Bobbie Bingham.

The equipment at KRIM was at best SPARSE, with the main, and only audio board, a Mackie 8 channel mixer. Coupled with it was a good quality Shenheiser Mic, Gemini commercial grade CD player and, two computers that ran the on air programming. If the equipment was bad, then the "studios" were even worse, located on the second floor of the Club House/Office of The Payson Campground. The on air studio and business office were located in one room about 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, there was no air conditioning, save what might have filtered up from an ancient swamp cooler, that's the Arizona form of air conditioning, of course no heat either, except in the summer. The bathroom was downstairs and around the building, it actually was the shower/locker room for the campground. On the air monitoring was with a Radio Shack tuner, and you had to turn it down when you opened the mic as there was no monitor muting. Prior to working at KRIM the worst studio I had ever seen was the old WPGM studio in Danville, Pa from their early days.

Surprisingly the audio quality was not too bad, but the studio was labor intensive to do a live air shift if you didn't use the computer for music. The program they used for on air was never designed to be an automation program so it was nearly impossible to run. In addition to the main transmitter KRIM had two translators that covered a pretty fair part of Northern Arizona. At that time KRIM was also carried as the background for the community access channel on the Payson TV Cable, and also on the Town Of Payson's Web Site, yep world wide coverage.

When I did "The Class Reunion," I used CD's, but since the station only had one CD player, I brought one of mine in with me. As I said it was labor intensive, no cue system, no monitor muting, and a VERY uncomfortable studio. But the show went on and quickly developed a loyal listening audience.

After about a year Randy Roberson decided to leave and pursue other ventures and Steve hired LeLani Dawn who had been Operations and News at KISS Fm in Globe, AZ. LeLani and I hit it off instantly and while I felt she was put in an impossible position, she did a pretty fair job of updating the computer software into something designed for 'On Air" and making the overall sound a bit brighter. Of the managers I worked with at KRIM LeiLani was probably the most supportive. Jim Duncan retired and the station hired Marty Stuckenberg for the Underwriting Manager Position, in addition I also was handling a few accounts as well. I might point out that sometime not long after I started on KRIM I was offered the Morning gig on KMOG, more about that in the next entry.

Not long after LeiLani came to KRIM it was decided that KRIM needed to move, Mike Farrell President of KMOG and Blaine Kimball the General Manger had a room available in the KMOG building, so while the studio was smaller, at least there was heat and air conditioning and a bathroom! The arrangement of equipment was a bit better, but it was still the same old stuff. I often said I had better equipment for my D.J. gigs that KRIM did, and I still believe that.

A few months went by after the KRIM move and Steve decided that LeiLani was not the person he wanted on the air for Morning Drive. I personally felt she did an adequate job, but she had replaced a duo. Anyone who has ever worked in radio knows that if you have a two person show and those people click, replacing them with a one person show is not the best idea. Steve's next big idea was the hire Suzanne Michaels to do mornings. She had been the morning person on KMOG, and when she quit I replaced her there. In the radio business there are two types of people, the "Prima Donna's" and the people who really do the work. Suzanne is a Prima Donna complete from her greatly retouched publicity photos, to her fake smile and on air persona. LeiLani and I knew that LeiLani's days at KRIM were numbered as Suzanne advances herself by stabbing others in the back. Such was the case in a matter of weeks, LeiLani was out and Suzanne was in! I found out about Suzanne's appointment as Station Manager when I came in to do my "Class Reunion," and saw her new business cards! Not long after that Marty was released and Cathy Hall, wife of KMOG's "Cowboy Carl" came to be Underwriting Manager. To Cathy's credit, she did a fine job getting new accounts and bringing back some of the old ones as well. Cathy eventually fell victim to "Suzannegate" as her accounts were taken away one by one and given to Suzanne's brother KIP, who suddenly appeared on the scene. Cathy stuck it out a lot longer than I would have, eventually moving across town to KCMA LP.

Knowing that she would try to do me in next, I set about putting "The Class Reunion" under contract with me being a vendor provider and having complete control over the content of the show.

"The Class Reunion" was a lot of fun to do, all in all, it gave me the opportunity to try many different things along the way. I was always doing some special program with some of my favorites being, Names in Songs, Groups A to Z, One Hit Wonders, and Summer Songs being some of my favorite shows. After about one year, I got thinking about the 60's group The Vogues, I saw them in concert twice and met them at the height of their career. Over the years I wondered what happened to them, I looked the group up on the web and found "The Vogues," and they had a new CD. WOW! I ordered it and when it came I did not recognize faces or names on the CD, it sounded OK, but was missing that unique harmony they had. On a hunch I searched Chuck Blaskos name and found his website and the details became quite clear, he had lost the right to use the name do to some possible underhanded dealings by a former manager and record label. There was an e mail site and I sent a note saying that I would tell the story on my show and how much I enjoyed the group then. I received a reply from Keith Dix, one of the members of Chuck Blasko's Five O'Clock Reunion telling em that if I wanted an interview Chuck would be happy to do one. A few days later he called and we set a date. As luck would have it Chuck had a family emergency and could not do the show, BUT he made arrangements for Hugh Geyer to do the interview. As with all the artists I interviewed I tried to talk with them in advance of the show so we would be comfortable with each other. The interview was the first of over 50 I did in "The Legendary Artist Interview Series." In later postings I am going to tell some of the stories from the artists that made "The Class Reunion" an unforgettable experience for me.

Thanks for reading, still more to come on my time at KRIM and on KMOG.

On To Arizona

2008-01-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

Even though this post will bring you close to the "current times" in my life and career, it won't be the last. Do I know what I will write about? Heck no!

Sometime in early 2000 I received an e mail from the daughter of a long time friend of mine who's family had moved to Arizona in the late 60's. Over the years as they would come back to Pa to visit relatives I would have the chance to see them. But as happens all too often I lost track of them so the e mail was a shocker. Anyway, to make a long story short there was the usual pleasant exchange of e mails, some of them containing my complaints about the Pennsylvania weather. It was from them I learned that Arizona is not all flat and desert, but had beautiful hills and places where there was a moderate change of seasons. As luck would have it I had some airline miles due to expire, so I decided to come out and take a look around. I was amazed at the beauty of the desert and found out that it did not look like a set from Lawrence of Arabia, but it had color, vegetation and more. The drive from Phoenix to Payson had me saying "wow" a lot. Magnificent mountains deep valleys and a constant change in vegetation. This was the first week in April of 2003, and I spent some 5 days roaming all around "The Rim Country." During that time I talked with my wife back in Pa, she was unable to come along because she was taking care of her elderly father, and one day I was sitting in the sun at Roosevelt Lake, about 40 miles S.E. of Payson, the temperature was in the mid 70's and there were boats on the lake. At the same time Pennsylvania was getting hammered by a snow storm that eventually left over a foot of snow on the ground. It was then the decision was made to "head west old man."

It all sounded so simple, until you consider I had a successful business, a house in which my mother was my tenant, my son was at college in Allentown, and none of us had a job waiting in Arizona. But we were determined to figure out how to make the move. My mother was needless to say rather upset that we were planning on such a move and told us quite firmly she was going to stay in Pennsylvania. Fortunately in Canton there is a nice senior housing project owned by the Yoder Brothers of Turbotville. I had known the Yoder's for many years as they at one time were the dealer/builder for Ridge Homes and had been one of my advertising accounts on WMPT. I checked out some of there other projects and talked to the local officials in each area they had apartments and as expected the Yoder's got a great recommendation. So mom's name went on the waiting list, and in January of 2004 she got her apartment.

It was about the same time that we were able to place my father in law in a nursing home as he was getting too much to handle, my son finished college and moved back to Canton to help us prepare for the move. The house was on the market and I very quietly went about selling my company. I felt that a customer would be a logical choice since they were consumers and liked the products. I pared my list from 12 names down to five and sent them each a letter with the offering. Several expressed some interest with Carl and Linda Cox of Knoxville in Tioga County, the most interested. Carl had been a customer for well over 10 years in his capacity as Public Works Foreman in Knoxville Borough. We met with them and a deal was struck. Now the house, it had been on the market for several months but with very little action, so I decided to take a rather radical approach to selling it. Each Monday I reduced the price by $2,000 and stated that would happen every week till the property was sold. As luck would have it during a yard sale, Gary Wright, who I had known for years and his wife appeared at the sale. I had worked for Gary for a period of time as a salesman for his wholesale flower business in Wlliamsport. Well anyway Gary was looking for investment property, knew the house and was impressed at the improvements we had made. I took him through that day and he made and offer the next, I countered and it was sold. Early on we thought it would make more sense to sell most of our furniture and buy what we needed when we got to Arizona so we scheduled an auction two days before we were scheduled to leave. All the time we had been packing boxes and stacking them in a designated size area. The auction went as planned the 'Budget Truck From Hell" was packed, and we started off across country with Carol, Karl and two dogs in the van and me with the rental truck and a trailer towing my sons vehicle. Bad roads, one run out of gas, a blowout of two tires on the truck and several episodes of the truck just plain quitting and we arrived at our new digs in Payson some 5-1/2 days later. Karl and I had been out to Payson early in the month and had rented an apartment and had all utilities ready and even made arrangements for the truck to be unloaded. Even though the trip was tiring and stressful it was good to be in Payson.

Next time jobs, where do you find them?

WIQT-WQIX Kel returns to early morning

2007-12-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you write a bolg such as this, it is very easy to get off an a tangent and forget what you were going to do next. In my haste, or whatever, I completely missed the almost three years I spent at WIQT-WQIX Horseheads, N.Y. As I mentioned in a previous entry Dave Campbell stopped into Radio Shack, where I was working part time and told me that they were looking to make a change on WIQT AM, an Oldies Format, and I should contact Dave "Rocky" Rockwell the Program Director.

Since some of this was hush hush, I called Rocky at home and yes he was very interested and we talked and came to terms. It was kind of unique as I was a straight hourly person and was on the air 6:00 to 10:00 am only Monday through Friday and paid for a half hour of show prep time and that was it. no remotes, meetings, or production. If there was a required meeting then I was on the clock, a fact I found to shorten meetings considerably.

WIQT AM was at 820 Khz on the dial with 5,000 watts non directional days, and 500 watts on a four tower directional antenna array at night, it shared studios with WQIX FM a "Modern Country format." The studios had been located just of Hanover Square in Horseheads but moved to 111 N. Main St. In Elmira, the Mid Town Building, after part of the back wall of the Horseheads location fell down. Both stations were owned by Panosian Enterprises, a retail company that operated clothing, shoe, and furniture stores in the "Twin Tiers" area of N.Y. and Pa. I had known most of the Panosians for many years and they liked me and I liked them. But, for every piece of good equipment in the station, there was a piece of equipment or other stuff that was crap. The AM control room had a fairly new Broadcast Electronics console, two Gates turn tables, 4 Revox reel to reels and an old Spotmaster 3 deck cart machine. In addition it had a digital transmitter control unit that would automatically change power and directional patterns by timer. The audio and transmitter controls were on a shared STL with WQIX with the audio and controls "double hopping" to get to the transmitter site on county Route 64 just west of Horseheads.

For the most part everything worked pretty well with the exception of the cart machine which constantly blew through cues, if you forgot to pot down the audio then you had crap on the air. One thing that really caught my attention early on was the control room chair. Talk about cheap, it only had three wheels, the fourth caster long gone and replaced by a brick! The irony struck me that here the station was owned by a company that sold furniture and yet we could not get a decent control room chair, a fact that got stated on the air MANY times, till finally they replaced it! WIQT had always been in "format identity crises" and the oldies format was the latest effort to get some numbers in the market. On air we used a combination of pre-recorded reels from TM Productions and vinyl. The format really did sound good and I was in heaven playing the oldies! When I was at WENY I had very good ratings, I, to this day feel that the Pansoians never really promoted the station or me properly as it had a great signal, it could be heard in Williamsport, PA, always felt that if they had the station would have done very well. The line up included Dave Pal, who I worked with at WENY, Jackie Dee, Bill Russell the News Director, George Kay (WQIX Mornings), Rocky Rockwell, Jim Appleton Engineer, Ron Ferro Station Manager, Jim Barrett part time, and several other whose names escape me now. Pretty decent talent on the air, but no support from the parent company.

Elmira was an Arbitron rated market, and had a full diary survey in the fall and a short survey in the spring, after a year or so that I was there the powers that be decided that they were going to change format yet again, from oldies to something they called "Great American Country!" I was loudly opposed to the change as my morning show was gaining ground in the market and I truly felt that with some time and promotion it could be either # 1 or #2. I had experimented with some specials like "The Friday Class Reunion," sounds familiar doesn't it, and other special programming like featured artist, etc. I also did some phone stuff on the air with listeners, including Elliott Blauvelt, a local realtor, who I called "The Mad Haranger," adoptable pet reports from the Chemung County Humane Society and a lot of other stuff. I was somewhat outspoken on the air and usually had poor Bill Russell stammering as I would add my own spin to one of his news stories and talk with him about it after his news cast. Well, the dye was cast, it was decided that I would kick of the Country Oldies Format on a Monday Morning completely unannounced. How the phone did ring, people were "mad as hell." and I can't say I blamed them, I didn't enjoy the format and I guess it showed on the air. As I mentioned earlier my father passed away July 5, 1991, I was informed while I was on the air when Rocky came in and told me I had to go. I stayed with WIQT for a about year after that and left in June of 1992 when we moved back to Canton. WIQT continued to flounder with several format changes eventually becoming WWLZ (Wheels) a sports, news, talk station.

WQIX was the first place I did a totally oldies format and served as a testing point for what would many years later become "The Class Reunion." at KRIM FM in Payson.

KISS FM a "legend (?) returns to "Billtown"

2007-11-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Last time I talked a bit about the period of time leading up to my election as Mayor of Canton, Pa. The Honorable Kelly Watts, Mayor, seems like an oxymoron doesn't it, well more on that after I talk about my time at KISS FM in Williamsport.

I spent a lot of time on the road during my days of owning Watts Multi Services and that of course meant a lot of listening to the radio. To this day I am not sure when I discovered KISS Fm (WKSB FM) but I liked the oldies format and as well they had some good people on the air, many I had known since my Williamsport Radio days. Their lineup included Gary Chrisman, who I knew from his days at Twin W (WWPA) and his regular gig at Bourbon Street Night Club, Lou Kolb, who I had worked with briefly at WLYC, Tom Benson (The PD) who I didn't know personally, but by name as he was Program Director at WHLM in Bloomsburg, George McKay who I had worked with at WLYC-WILQ, and Maggie Mae (Jennifer Lunt) the daughter of one of my classmates at Montoursville High School. Part timers on the air included Jackie Robinson and Tom Turner who I worked with at WMPT. Most of you know that KISS FM was the old WRAK FM a station that I long feared coming of age when I was at WMPT. 53,000 watts of power from the top of 1,800' Bald Eagle Mountain, in the 60's and 70's I can remember the late Ev Rubendahl telling me they had listeners in Canada. Even with the saturation of radio signals KISS FM still covered a very large part of Pennsylvania in the 90's. The Sister station was of course WRAK. Many of that staff that I knew from my earlier "Billtown" radio days including Frank Barber, Ken Sawyer, who was WRAK's PD, and Skip Smith Chief Engineer. So going to KISS FM like coming home again.

Anyway, when we moved to Canton in 1992, I decided it might be fun to work at KISS FM, it was the sound I had always wanted to do, tight board oldies format. I can truthfully say that at that time KISS was one of the best stations in any size market that I had ever heard! No wonder the line up of veteran radio people was first rate. I took the opportunity to call Tom Benson one day and he of course remembered my name from my WMPT days, and the fact he had hired Vicki Metz at Bloomsburg, Vicki had worked for me in Canton. Well anyway, Tom wanted to hear an air check at that point all I had was my morning drive air check from WIQT where I was playing country. I took it an a resume to Tom he listened and told me that Sunday Morning was available as he was going to do some schedule switching He asked if I would be interested, I of course said YES! My training was to amount to coming in with him on a Saturday afternoon and getting the feel of the board and format.

KISS FM's studios were still in the same building that had been WRAK's home since 1957 and the days of Steinmen Broadcasting ownership, the actual on air studio had at one time been the home of J. Wright Macky's Lowery Organ going way back to the days of live local music. The on air and production equipment was first rate and Skip Smith was a great engineer, he had studied under the late Glenn Sherman long time WRAK engineer. The Control room had an ARAKRIS slide pot console,(first time I had ever used one on the air), Dennon Pro CD players, with the cassete insert so you didn't handle the CD, and Broadcast Electronics cart machines, all in plentiful numbers!

I remember hitting the air at 2:00 pm and by 2:30 I had had several calls asking if in fact I was the same Kelly Watts that had worked at WMPT. I was flattered that people remembered as it had been 14 years since I had worked in the Williamsport Market. That continued even after I started working Sunday Mornings with people calling and saying "I turned on my radio and heard that voice and knew it "HAD TO BE YOU!" That, to a radio person, is very flattering to be remembered for all those years, and it showed me the impact that WMPT had on the community in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Around the station I got to be known, and kidded a lot, being called the Legendary Kelly Watts. My reply to that was always the same, "Hell, Elvis is a legend and he's dead."

All in all I worked for KISS FM for 4 years, till 1996, and for the most part I did Sunday Mornings. Some time around 1995 Tom Benson was promoted to Group Program Director and was re assigned to their new purchase in Albany, N.Y. the legendary powerhouse WGY. A couple of things influenced my decision to leave KISS FM the least not being Tom's replacement Reginald James Pettiford, air name, "J. B.". In all my years in radio I have NEVER met a person who was so totally un-qualified to be a Program Director. We went at each other tooth and nail, with him leaving memos about such trivial things as my playing a "B" format song instead of and "A". I remember asking him "who the hell he was programing for?" The last time I spoke with him it was over a particularly scathing letter telling me I had "better focus," what ever that meant. Anyway my final comment to him was, "Jim I was programming in this town when you were still _ _ _ ing in your diapers." The next Sunday I came prepared with my resignation letter and that was it. KISS FM was, until J.B.'s arrival a good place to work, and I really enjoyed the people. Toward the end of my tenure at KISS FM I was always afraid I would say "102 point 7 KISS MY _ SS! KISS FM, when I worked there, was owned by Dame Media a pretty good company who owned stations in State College, Altoona, and Harrisburg. After I left they were sucked into the Clear Channel Communications Company "vortex" and lost their unique and great sound.

His Honor? Me?

2007-11-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have known me for a long time, it might come as a surprise the have the term His Honor, or The Honorable put in front of my name. Over the years I had toyed with the idea of taking an active role in the political process. When I lived in South Williamsport I was approached to run for council, but at the time Dave Castlebury and I were in the process of planning the radio station in Canton. While being a stranger to serving in public office, over the years I had held positions such as President of a Jaycee chapter, Fire Department Secretary, Fire Department Line Officer, Lions Club Board Member, etc. In addition, during my radio career, I was involved in the coverage local government as the reporter governmental body meetings. I must admit I did have an interest in the political process and felt that I could do the job as well as those sitting around the table.

When we moved back to Canton, Pa in the early summer of 1992 I became active again with the Canton Business and Professional Association, (Chamber of Commerce) and Canton Fire Department. The Mayor of Canton at the time was James Arnold, I had known Jim for many years as he had been active in the fire department, Lion's Club, was a teacher at Canton High School, and had been Mayor when Dave and I built WKAD FM. As I spent more time in the community it became clear to me that a change was needed in Canton politics, so I made the decision to run for Mayor against Jim. The political process involves getting a nominating petition and obtaining signatures of registered voters in the party you belong to. Being a registered Republican, bye the way so was Jim Arnold, that was the party I had to seek the nomination in the Primary election. Pa law says that the candidate must be a resident of the community for one year prior to election. When the May Primary Election came, I had only been in Canton for 10 months. A call to the Bradford County Board Of Elections confirmed my interpretation of the Election Code, with the key words "at the time of election the candidate must have resided in the municipality for a period of one year." Since this was only a primary and the General Election did not take place until November, I could run in the Primary.

When I went seeking signatures on my Nominating Petition I found that several people were reluctant to sign as they felt if I lost the election there might be reprisals on them or their business. But I did manage to get the required 20 signatures and was certified as a candidate in the Primary Election of 1993, running against Jim Arnold for the Republican nomination. In the period leading up to the Primary Election I went to every open meeting, as I had been doing since my arrival back in Canton, and spoke to every group that wished an after lunch/dinner/supper speaker. My platform was pretty simple, the modernization of the Police Department, rebuilding of the Canton War Memorial Swimming Pool and the updating of the Borough Codes.

While the office of Mayor in a Borough was largely a figurehead position, having been stripped of its powers over the years, the Mayor was in charge of the Police Department, could perform civil weddings, also the Mayor was in complete charge in the event of a State of Emergency, which the Mayor could declare, and was required to sign all ordinances into law. The lack of the Mayors signature meant that Council had to approve the ordinance by a 2/3 rds majority, with the President of Council then signing the ordinance in place of the Mayor. One other interesting throw back to the days of old, was that the Mayor would open and conduct the re-organizational meeting, held ever two years, and preside over the election of a Council President. Once the Council President was elected the Mayor would administer the Oath Of Office (as he did for all employees, Borough officials, and fire officers) and then turn the gavel over to the newly elected Council President who ran the Council meetings.

A few weeks prior the the election I received a call from Chief Of Police Doug Seeley wanting to talk with me. I had known Doug since he went on the force, around the time Dave and I were building the radio station. When I went to see him the first words out of his mouth were, "I understand if you are elected you are going to get rid of me." I must say that caught me a bit by surprise as I had never stated that either publicly or privately. I assured Doug that firing him was not in my plans and that I would not make any staffing decisions, if elected, till I had time to study the operation of the department and form my own opinions firsthand. Doug was satisfied with my answer and we went about discussing what he felt were the needs of his department. I must say, I never envied the Chief's job in a small town police department, if you do it and make arrests you are a jerk, if you don't make arrests you are not doing your job. The police department at that time consisted of Doug and Sgt. Ed Larcom as the two full timers and several part time officers, many who had been with the department for 10 years or more. The Borough of Canton did not have 24 hour police coverage, with any after hours emergencies being handled by the Pennsylvania State Police from Towanda, 26 miles away, or by calling out one of the officers.

As time for the primary drew closer I had a feeling that I stood a very good chance of being elected. I might point out that there was no candidate on the Democratic side as that party had a very small enrolment in Canton. I also got the feeling that Jim was not taking my challenge too seriously, a pretty common mistake in politics.

Election day arrived, and I made it a point to be at the polls greeting the citizens when they arrived to vote, something that Jim chose not to do. When the polls closed and the ballots were counted I had won 78% of the votes on both the Republican and Democratic ballots, the Democratic was a write in, and had handed Jim his defeat after 16 years as Mayor.

The next time, I will look at the changing of the guard, my time as Mayor and my decision not to seek re-election.

Here's your sign! Watts Media/Multi Services

2007-10-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

The title sounds like a line from the Redneck Comedy Tour, but it sums up a venture that lasted some 15 years until I sold the business in 2004. When I was at Chemung County Transit and working on the Southerntier Tourist Information System, I found a lot of the companies were looking for representation, so I signed on a the local rep for a few along the way, including Eastern Metal/USA Sign of Elmira. I used them in the Southerntier project and was very impressed with the quality of product. Eastern Metal was founder by John Knapp and Burley Maines in a small garage in Elmira Heights, N.Y. and had grown into a well know maker of traffic and architectural signs. I signed on as a full line dealer, but was primarily interested in information signs. Some projects included an information system for The Strassburg Railroad, and very large signs for the Delaware Turnpike. Along the way, my father, who was a Township Supervisor in Ward Township in Pennsylvania, asked me about road signs. I must admit I didn't know road signs from shinola but I told him I would be happy to get some pricing together. I did, and he was happy with the prices, so a new dimension was added to the business.

Watts Media Services was originally founded as a marketing and promotional venture for small business and along the way I did marketing for a children's book, a limousine service, and some other small businesses, and local government. Dad suggested that maybe I should consider opening a business, he would give me some contacts and after much soul searching it was decided that was the route I wanted to pursue. As I mentioned I was working at WIQT AM doing morning drive and part time at Radio Shack in Grand Central Plaza in Horseheads. Since I was adding two way communications to the product line I viewed it as a conflict of interest with "The Shack," so I turned in my resignation to Dave Cooper. I did however keep the Morning Drive slot on WIQT and when I was off the air at 10:00 am I either hit the road (two days a week), or went to my home office.

I decided that I would call on parts of Tioga, Lycoming, Bradford, Clinton and Tioga Counties as my area. There was competition from Bradco Supply and Chemung Supply in the sign end, and MANY two way radio companies. Had it not been for people like my dad, Jim Merrick (a long time friend) Street and Park Supervisor in South Williamsport, Pa and Fred Pifer. Borough Manager in Montgomery, Pa I am not sure I would have made it. They were my first accounts, with South Williamsport being my overall best account throughout the time I operated the company.

Watts Media Services was a blend of what seemed to be unrelated products; such things as signs, two way radios, hand cleaner, safety equipment and even shoe grease, but after you thought about it for a time and realized the area I covered was rural municipalities who never saw a salesperson, it made sense.

When I wanted to add two way radios to the line, I approached Motorola about becoming a dealer. After quite a bit of discussion I felt that their dealer requirements were way more than I as a start up business could handle. I talked with another firms, Chemung Communications who I had done business with while I was a C.C.T.S. however they just wanted a bird dog. I felt that I had to have the final control on products and service so I decided not to affiliate with them. Enter Joe Nunn, Nunn Electronics in Rochester, N.Y. I got to know Joe during my time at Chemung Transit, he helped me out with products and radio programming when another firm could not. Anyway, I called Joe and gave him my proposal, he said that he had a couple of field people like I wanted to be and would certainly be pleased to add me. I asked him if I could get some demonstration radios as I had two possible sales. To Joe's credit, he was more than willing, and sent me radios and antenna's resulting in the sales of several radios. Joe eventually went on to buy Rochester Radio and add product lines and service. My relationship with his company lasted the whole time I was in business.

All during the first few yeas of business I knocked on a lot of doors, did every trade show I could and even started a direct mail piece I called "The Wattsline."

In 1991 my father passed away, and still another change was going to happen. It was decided that my family and business would move to Canton, Pa. to be near my mom and to more centrally locate in the territory. As long as I was making the move I decided that a slight name change was in order to better represent what the company did. I must admit it was not easy, but finally it was decided that the new name would be Watts Multi Services. I liked the name since it did not limit me to products and services, yet at the same time would still be familiar to my ever expanding customer base.

My years as the Owner/Operator of Watts Multi Services really kept me busy an because of good products, I only represented family owned companies, I got many referrals from my customers. One of my best known customers was Little League Baseball Inc., still today I see my products whenever there is TV coverage of the championship series.

Someone said the life is an ever changing adventure, and such was mine. In the next edition more on my time in Canton, Pa as I enter politics.

Moving on in radio and other things

2007-09-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

If you have ever lost a job you know that there is a lot of self examination that goes on in the days following your dismissal, such was the case with me. I finally figured out that life would go on, but probably not in full time radio. My friend Kevin Doran who ran WLEA/WCKR in Hornell put out the word I was available, but nothing came of it. I had a few offers locally, but I was not really enthused by the stations that wanted to talk.

For a couple of years I had worked part time for Chemung County Transit, starting as a part time driver, being promoted along the way to part time supervisor. After my release from WLEZ I called another friend, the late, Dave Abbey the Operations Manager at WCLI/WZKZ in Corning. I had known Dave for several years and even though we were competitors we got along well. Telling him of my situation I asked if he might have any part time work available. In radio, if you have experience and want to work part time it is pretty much a guarantee of hours. He had me come in and I met with Scott Fisher (Bloor) the General Manager. They hired me immediately for fill in on both stations. I have to say that the years I spent there were quite enjoyable with a genuine respect in both directions.

During the same time period I once again worked for Dave Cooper at Radio Shack In Horseheads. There were some fun days there as Dave and I were about the same age, and he respected me for my knowledge of the products and the "parts wall" and I liked his management style. One understanding we had was that I did not want any responsibility, or to be considered a full time employee. By virtue of the fact I had been around a long time, I knew most of the store procedures and Dave would feel comfortable leaving me alone or with a new employee. When Radio Shack first got there computer check out system, there was a lot of problems with it and many times we had to the the daily reports by hand, something I could do but even some store managers couldn't.

After the first of the year Tom Freeman at C.C.T.S. offered me a full time position as a combo Marketing and Road Supervisor. During that time that I worked for C.C.T.S, a division of American Transit Corp. I was even as a Relief Manager at Dutchess County Transit in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Working for American Transit was a job I held for nearly 4 years until I had gall bladder surgery and was off from work for 4 months. When I got back in November of 1989 I found that my position was not to be funded in 1990, here we go again! During the time I spent at C.C.T.S. I worked on a number of projects including a pilot project of a tourist information radio system, that project would eventually lead me to starting my own business, more on that later. After I found out I was being "un-funded" at C.C.T.S. I asked Dave Cooper at Radio Shack to use me heavy for the Christmas Season, which he did, while I continued part time at WCLI/WZKZ. Dave Cooper and I had a lot of fun during that Christmas Season working together again.

During that time I was back to looking for full time radio again, and was talking to the parent company of WCLI/WZKZ who owned a property in South Jersey. I found out during my talks with them that Jane Steele, wife of former WENY Inc. Corporate General Manager, Mike Steele was working there. Mike had left the cold of Minnesota and returned to work for Howard Green in Atlantic City. The station was losing money financially and would have been an interesting challenge, but it was one that didn't come.

One day while I was at Radio Shack Dave Campbell from WIQT/WQIX in Horseheads came in to get some stuff for the station and talk of course turned to radio. He said that Ron Ferro The General Manager, who had been Program Director at WELM/WLVY when I was at WENY was thinking of making a change of air talent in the morning on WIQT and would I be interested. WIQT was an oldies station and who better than this "oldie but goodie" to go there.

In the next edition I will talk about my time at WIQT/WQIX and the start of Watts Media/Multi Services.

The Green WENY part 2

2007-09-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

One thing certain about broadcasting is that there is NOTHING certain. When Mike Steele decided to leave The Green Group the station lost a good manager, and I lost a good friend. Mike had been with Howard Green for quite a number of years and I am pretty sure he was getting burned out, so he and his wife Jane bought a station in Walker, Mn. That of course left an opening for Corporate General Manager, the liaison between the department managers, such as me, and Howard. The Corporate G.M. was responsible for the overall operation of the Elmira stations.

Right before Mike left, Dick Ireland was transferred to WOND/WMGM in Atlantic City, and a fellow named John Richer was hired to replace Dick as WENY AM Manager. John came to Elmira from Syracuse where I believe he was the victim of a station sale. Anyway, John was a different type of person, and we actually did get along pretty well in spite of the fact that I was doing my best to take away the AM's business.

Anyway, back to the story! With Mike's departure that left John, Bob, and myself to run the property, which was OK, except for items that were beyond our scope of authority such as spending any large amount of money. Even though I had been Manager of WLEZ FM for only a bit over a year I applied for Mike's position. Needless to say I didn't get it, with the reason given that I didn't have enough TV experience. Looking back, I suspect it was because Howard didn't think I could make the change and treat John fairly. One day a fellow named Pat Parish appeared at WENY with Howard. I spent part of the day talking with Pat, he talked a good game, but there was something that was clawing at my insides that I could not put my finger on, I soon would know what it was.

Pat came from Atlantic City where he had worked for the Merv Griffin Group, yep, the same Merv who was an entertainer, talk show host, producer, etc. The station Pat ran in A.C. NJ was from what I was given to understand losing money, no big surprise there. Once Pat was in place the troubles started. He tried his best to violate my contract and make life miserable in general for me and the other managers. John Richer was the first to leave and was replaced by Don Murphy who had been manager at WQIX/WIQT in Horseheads and for a period of time had run his own advertising agency. I had known Don since I had been in the market and we got along well, making many agency trips together and working on getting national business for both stations. I think Don lasted about a year till the Coup! More about that later, it could be a whole chapter by itself! Also around the time that Mike left, Bob Edwards retired from WENY TV and Lew Robelyer was named Manager of TV 36 and Meade Murtland who had been doing sales for WENY AM moved over to TV Sales. I believe the Lew lasted about a year also and he too was butting heads with Pat Parish when he left Meade was named TV Manager.

My relationship with "Puff the magic pipeman, as we all called Pat Parish," was bad at best. Several times there was no communication between us for a month or more. Every time I went to him with a request he would never give me an answer so I finally started to run the station the way I thought best. By the way, the bottom line showed that! How did he get his nickname? That was courtesy of his always smoking a pipe, it was given to him by John Richer after a particularly frustrating managers meeting.

During this time, a lot of people came and went in the organization, my staff turned over again with Laura being transferred to I.T. Department Head in charge of all the new computers for logging and billing on all three stations. I replaced her with a very bright lady named Deb, Donna Pulito left as did Byron and they were replaced by "Smilin" Jack Ryan who had retired from Corning Glass and Jim Flynn. Both were really good salespeople and we made a lot of progress. As far as the three stations went I was one of the "old timers" with about 7 years to my credit. I was definitely the senior manager on the property and had the station that was actually increasing in revenue. Finally Don Murphy had enough of Pat and left to go sell cars, and once again I took care of the National business for both WENY AM and WLEZ FM. Little did I know that when I met Art Kendall, I was meeting my replacement! Art had been a partner in Howell and Kendall Advertising in Elmira and was some backdoor relation on my mother's side. Pat brought him in to manage WENY AM and in the spirit of cooperation I helped Art settle in took him to meet the regional agencies and brought him up to speed on all the national business.

In late September of 1986 on a Friday, I arrived at the station and immediately received a call to come to Pat's office. At that time he informed me my services were no longer needed as Art Kendall would be managing both stations. I could not believe it! I was handed my severance pay and yearly performance bonus and given an hour to clean out my desk. My performance bonus was based on the amount of increase over the previous year, I can tell you it was a rather large check, so it was not a performance issue, but rather a "I didn't hire him so he is gone," issue. Those of you who have worked in media know that this is the rule rather than the exception.

My time at WENY left a very bitter taste in my mouth for corporations and media in general and was my last broadcast management position. I researched many possibilities, but looking into the organizations I found that they were not any better than what I had just left.

I may sound very bitter but I can only hope that Pat got what he deserved in life as well as Howard, they were two men who climbed the ladder on the backs of others, only to shaft the very people who brought them success.

Now it was time for a career change, that story is next!

The Green WENY, my times at WLEZ FM

2007-09-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

In my business life I have always tried to run any business with integrity and customer service, along the way I have found that personally you can not survive, doing that, UNLESS you own the business.

As I mentioned the last time WLEZ FM was part of "The Green Group" owned by Howard Green and Donald Simmons, that group included WENY AM, WENY TV 36 in Elmira and WOND AM, WMGM FM, and WOND TV 40 in Atlantic City, N.J. and at one time an AM FM combo in Utica/Rome, N.Y. Each station in Elmria had their own manager, (who reported directly to Corporate General Manager Mike Steele),when I started to run WLEZ, the manager of WENY AM was Dick Ireland, and Bob (C.Robert) Edwards was the manager of WENY TV 36. Each station had their own sales team and shared other administrative, news, and support staff. I always felt that WLEZ got the short end of the stick, but at the time I took over from Ted Hodge, the station was floundering in revenue.

WLEZ in 1982 was programmed "Beautiful Music" using TM Productions music package operated by and SMC automation system. AT 92.7 Mhz it was a Class A FM with tower facilities on Comfort Hill to the South of Elmiria. The signal was a pretty good one in spite of the age of the transmitter. Ray O'Donnell the Chief Engineer had it peaked nicely and with an Orban processor it had a clean sound. The station did not have any live capabilities when I took over the thinking even then was that FM was not important. Back in what the insiders at the station called "the bomb shelter," was some production equipment that was bought as part of the Emergency Broadcast Service. There was a generator for power as well, but when it was in operation you could not hear yourself think, plus the room had no ventilation to speak of and got terribly hot in the summer. It, as I was given to understand was built as a fallout shelter and came complete with Geiger counters! The one thing, in addition to ventilation, they forgot was bathrooms, I am not sure what they though you would do in the even you had to spend a long time back there.

When I took over WLEZ my staff consisted of myself, John Savino as Sales Manager and Mary Ellen Pannell as and Account Representative. The remainder of functions were handled by shared staff and the jock on duty on WENY was responsible for keeping the automation supplied with music reels, Ted Hodge agreed to stay around and do morning news, and production. One of the first things I did was to add additional local news in the morning drive as well as weather forecasts and community announcements.

As with most computers the SMC Automation suffered from a bad case of "GI-GO," garbage in, garbage out. Ted Hodge was a great guy, but I soon found that he knew very little about the programming of the unit. There were a number of commands to move it through the different routines and sub-routines, time corrects and the like. I can remember spending one entire weekend re-writing the routines and sub routines to change commercial availability and music flow. One thing was to add more vocals to the mix, giving the station a somewhat brighter sound until I could do a complete format change. My first priority was to try to increase sales based on what we had and I instituted several new policies most of which were not to popular with John who I found out felt that he should have been chosen to replace Ted.

While I was doing that, I started shopping around for a new format, I felt that an oldies based "Easy Listening" format would be the way to go. No one in the market was playing oldies and a lot of really good "baby boomers" music was not being played by anyone. I finally got hooked up with a fellow by the name of Dave Nelson at Century 21 Productions in Dallas. Tx, C-21 had just the format elements I was looking for and were willing to talk with me. The problem, we still had almost 2 years to go on our TM contract. By a stoke of fate, TM dropped the format into a station in Binghamton, N.Y. The TM contract we had gave us market exclusiveness for 75 miles, Binghamton was 70 air miles from Elmira! This was the way out! In addition to being able to cancel our contract the station got a complete TM production package at no charge, I suspect this was to keep us from suing for breech of contract.

Now the road was set, except for equipment! As luck would have it, WMGM FM in Atlantic City, our sister station was doing away with automated programming, so I requested that I be given my pick of stuff! Surprisingly I managed to get 3 commercial carousels, and three reel to reel machines, this crammed the equipment racks full. By this time Ray O'Donnell had left and was replaced by an old time engineer Vaughn Richardson. Vaughn and I hit it off and had many lively debates about things that the automation system could and could not do. Usually I would ask Vaughn if we could do this and that and he would say no way, well in a few hours he would be back in my office showing me how we could do a certain function. One thing that really amazed me was the unit he rigged up to record ABC news. Using the clock on the automation he rigged a system to switch the satellite, arm the recorder, start it and put an advance tone on at the end of the newscast. The recorder, an old delay cart machine from the WENY talk show. As is was recroding the new ABC newsacat, would erase the previous news it was recording the new newscast from ABC. It would then cue up and be ready to go at the top of the hour. Pretty amazing as as soon as the ABC news feed was done the satellite had to switch back for NBC news for the AM.

I would like to say that the format change went smoothly, and from a technical standpoint it did, but from a public view it didn't! The station received many phone calls from angry business people who used WLEZ as their "in store" music. They loved it because of the "elevatorness sound." These were the same people who would NOT buy advertising on the station, but could not understand why we changed to format to something that could be sold! One of the the most vocal was the Director of The Corning Chamber of Commerce Cy Levine, who would not accept that it was a business decision on our part. I often told people that it was also an effort to keep me awake while I was in the office as I remember falling asleep one day while sitting in my office at the station. But as time went along people discovered the station and the format was a big hit financially and ratings wise.

Once the format was squared away, I set about the task of increasing sales. The Green Group was represented nationally by McGavern-Guild and I became a regular caller to their offices following up on national business. In addition I began making regular regional agency trips to Rochester, Syracuse, and Binghamton to meet with the agencies that placed business in the market. I really enjoyed the challenge of the agency visits and became quite successful in landing quite a few major accounts.

Locally the sales effort was, for a long time, stymied by the sale people I had. Over the course of time I completely changed the staff, first by adding a part time traffic person, Laura Peck to the staff. While she did not have any radio experience, Laura quickly became my right hand person and defacto Assistant Manger. New sales people included Donnalee Pulito, Byron Palmer, and Debbie Lusk. Both Byron and Donna had radio experience and Debbie was a natural sales talent and the bottom line started to show it.

WLEZ was off and running, but then Mike Steele my boss, friend and ally left to buy his own property, it was the beginning of my end! More next time when "Puff The Magic Pipe Man" appears!

WENY AM-WLEZ FM and WENY TV 36

2007-08-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

After I left WKAD, I worked for Smith Printing as a salesman in Central New York State, on one of my trips I happened to be stopped at a traffic light North of Horseheads, N.Y. on Route 13 and noticed the WENY studios there. Well, I thought why not drop in and see if they could use some weekend help. The first person I met there was the Program Director Steve Christy. Steve was a legend in the market and even I knew who he was. He asked if I had some experience and when I told him I had about 15 years, he asked me to come in the following days for training. My first shift was a Saturday mid-day, a lot of fun, WENY had a pretty good play list and was gold on the weekend. As luck would have it the following Monday I received a call from Smith Printing telling me that my territory was being eliminated. I figured that I could probably pick up some hours at WENY AM, so I called the Station Manager Dick Ireland and told him I was available, later that day he called me back and asked me to come up to the station. When I got there I met with Dick and the Corporate General Manager Mike Steele. They told me that I was the "talk of the station," and the Sales Manager Duke Sechrist wondered why I was only a part time employee. At that point they offered me Morning Drive, 6 to 10 am six days a week. Now to this point in my career I had never done morning drive on a steady basis for more than a couple of months. The up-side to the offer, decent pay and benefits, the down-side, I would be driving from Canton, Pa. about 1 hour away everyday! Well after some discussion I told them that I would do it for 6 months and if we liked each other then we could talk about something more permanent.

Six months turned into nearly 3 years as I became the "Mild Mannered Morning Man," the Grand Exhaulted Leader of "The Royal Order Of The Grungy Coffee Mug." WENY was a pretty good place to work, the shift was busy and I got to do some remotes, and learn quite a bit about television, more on that later. The staff was a pretty good one. I replaced Dave Weeks, who I had hired in Canton, he went over to nights. Mid day was Steve Christy, who had been at WENY for over 20 years. Steve also was the weather guy on WENY TV on the 6:00 pm newscast. I liked Steve, he was a easy going fellow who liked his adult beverages and once told me "can you imagine what it is like for someone who doesn't drink waking up and knowing that is the best they will feel all day." Afternoons was John Anthony Slick, a damn good jock who eventually went to ESPN. The station had a talk show called Voice Of The People and it was hosted by Ted Hodge, a long time radio guy who managed WLEZ FM. I had met Ted many years before when he managed WUNS (aka WITT and WUDO depending on the owner) in Lewisburg, Pa. We had worked out an agreement for them to share an ABC Network line with WMPT. Ted had been at WENY before in the 1950's as station manager and one of his claims for "fame" was that he fired Howard Green. Howard eventually went on to own the WENY properties in Elmira, as well as WOND-WMGM, WOND TV 40 in Atlantic City, and The South Jersey Sentinal Ledger. Nights, as I said before had Dave Weeks, and all night was a young fellow Dave Parsons, who liked to put on an L.P. and take naps in the office. More than once as I was driving to the station I would hear "click-click-click" as the LP have ended and Dave's nap had not! John Anthony Slick eventually left and they hired Dave Cochran, (Who appeared later on in the movie "Grumpy Old Men" as the weather man), when Dave Weeks left Dave Pal (Paltrowitz) came on board for the evening shift part timers John K. Scott, Dina Losito. Rob Benson (Maloney) and many others. I can't forget Tom Mailey, who came from WQIX-WIQT, he later went on the WGY in Schenectady/Albany, N.Y. and worked for Program Director Tom Benson, (from KISS FM IN Williamsport). Others along the way included John Kobelt, who had worked at WKAD after I left, he was a thorn in my side when I managed WLEZ since he had no onterest in taking care of the automation.

There was a pretty big news staff since they all did TV news as well. My morning news guy for a time was Nick Drinker, pretty decent news guy, who did all three stations morning news. It used to be interesting to see Nick leave the TV studio, after his 7:25 news update and run across the parking lot full bore over to do the 7:30 on WENY AM. In the winter it was not uncommon to hear a crash as Nick slid into the side of the radio studios, on the ice. The News Director was a fellow named Jeff Stone, who was named "Bubbles" by his staff, along with Loraine Dyjack, Dan Johnson, and Todd Ulrich, who had also worked for me in Canton. Over the time I was there other news people came and left names like Ginny Panchoe, Mary Ellen Plubell, Holly Hunter, Dan Johnson, and Gary Turner come to mind. As news teams in small markets usually are, they were young and pretty inexperienced and there was a BIG turnover. In addition to the news team there was 4 sales people, Duke Sechrist, A.J. Malone, Sam DeLuca, and Meade Murtland. There was a full time copy and production person, Candy Friends (her real name), and Florence Sabatini, full time traffic, who also did a interview show on TV 36. Engineering was handled by Ray O'Donnell with whom I became very friendly. WENY was a busy place with the three stations and staffing for all of them. TV 36 was managed by Bob Edwards (The silver fox) with sales from Bill Miller, Lew Robelyer, and Darryl Miller (no relation to Bill), John Herrick was Program Director, and Scott and Ellen did TV Production. In The office were Hazel Rydell, Lois Paul, Marie Kendrick and Audrey Link, Jeanne Kennon was the receptionist, and of course a variety of TV switchers, engineers, camera people etc. Of all the broadcast properties I have worked at WENY was definitely the biggest. I stayed on morning drive till 1982 when I found out that Ted Hodge was planning to retire. It was at that point I made yet another mistake in my radio career, asking for the managers job at WLEZ. More on that next time as I was headed toward getting the "Green WENY."

WKAD continued

2007-05-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

Now that the station, equipment wise was coming together, we needed a staff. To accomplish this I advertised in the "trades", Broadcasting Magazine, and took any applications we had in house at WMPT. I can remember talking to the late Floyd Avery at a little restaurant called "Our House" just south of Canton. Floyd had a keen interest in the station and the fact that Dave and I usually met there for breakfast on Saturday mornings he was pretty much in the fold. Well anyway, I decided that if Floyd did not mind, I would conduct interviews in his back dining area. He felt that would work since mid days he was not that busy. The advertisements in Broadcasting were quite successful and a large pool of potential employees were gathered. I, of course can not remember all I interviewed but, I do remember the first employees. The first one hired was a young lady named Vicki Metz from the N.Y.C. area. She was a graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Broadcasting and looking for her first job. As a side note, I found out as the first day on the air approached that she had never been on the air, I still to this day wonder how anyone who had a degree in broadcasting could accomplish that without any air experience. Next up was Ted Saul. I had worked with Ted at WILQ in 1973 so I knew he was very talented and I hired him for sales. Well because we were still a ways from air, Dave decided to put him on at WMPT, and like in the case of Cliff Horton, I lost another good employee. But anyway, Ted did contribute in the actual construction of the WKAD studios, and helped me in the hiring of several employees. Next hired was Dave Weeks, who was a student at Mansfield University in broadcasting. He actually had on air experience at WNTE the college's FM station. Dave was hired for evenings, and later would move over to mornings, and eventually follow me to WENY in Elmira. Next hired was a young man named Scott Deschane, I don't remember a lot about him, he was not with us a very long time. Other people on the original staff were Stu Streeter, the head of the AV Department at Canton Area Schools. I had known Stu for a number of years and he was looking to augment his income. With his connections I tapped him for news and to do an oldies show on Sunday night. Todd Ulrich was a local Canton lad, who also was in school for broadcast journalism, I hired him for weekends and vacation schedules. Patty Stroble had been a friend of mine back in my WILQ/WLYC days, she was also attending Mansfield and was hired as a part timer. Additionally Nancy Fay who had been in the Explorer program at WMPT was hired to do fill in when she was not doing the same at WMPT. Now that brought us to sales, I got the idea to hire local lady Anne Preston for sales and to do news in the Towanda area. Anne had worked many years earlier at WENY in Elmira, and her family were long time friends of my family. Sometime not long after we went on the air Rob Dee (aka Rob French) joined the staff. Sheila Bellows was hired to be my traffic and billing staff, a job she never actually did, as I moved her over to sales. Dave Johnson was our Chief Engineer, this was double duty for him as he was WMPT's Chief as well. As for me, I was the Station Manager, the Morning Drive Personality, did the logs, billing, P.R. some sales, and just about any other thing you could think of. As you can see it was quite a line up, some experience and a lot of raw untested talent.

Well the stage is set, with the help of a lot of people. Vic Michales, former owner of WMLP Milton, Pa did the tower work, the guy wire layout, supervising the raising of the tower, and installing the antenna and feed line. Larry Reinhart of Canton Telephone Company, personally supervised the installation of the leased broadcast quality telephone lines to the tower. Larry said when I ordered the lines, "well we've never done them before, but that's not a problem." The effort to get the station on the air could not have been accomplished without people like our local contractors. People like S.E. Williams Redi Mix Cement for the tower base and guy anchors, Lloyd Herman excavating contractor who built the tower road and did all the digging for the tower base and guys, William "Sweede" Eckman excavating contractor who did a lot of extra clean up around the site, Gene Segar of Morse and Segar our flooring contractor, and Herm Seeley, Seeley Electric who responded to my rather odd requests almost immediately.

I can not to this day remember the exact first air day, but I know it was Labor Day Weekend in 1978. I signed on at 5:00 AM and the first song was The Carpenters, "We've Only Just Begun," kind of fitting huh? I played that at the top of the hour all day long. There were a few bumps along the way, but the first day on the air went pretty well.

A bit of trivia,the first advertiser was T. Burke and Company, a family clothing store in Canton. The owner Mil Burke had been a friend for years and told me she was proud to be a part of something great in Canton. The first sporting event on the station was the "Old Shoe" Football game between Canton and Troy in 1978, Bill Byham came up from WMPT and I did the game with him. The first remote broadcast was from J.C. Penny in Troy and the second from Morse and Segar Furniture in Canton.

I stayed with WKAD until just after New Years in 1978, there were some very frustrating times, due to the lack of help and support from WMPT and I eventually decided it was time to move on. After a brief time selling for Smith Printing in Williamsport, I went to work for WENY in Elmira following Dave Weeks who had been doing Morning Drive on a temporary basis.

The experience of designing and building WKAD is something I will never forget, I hope that Mike Powers, who is the current owner (call letters WHGL, Wiggle 100) can appreciate all the time and effort that went into building that station.

WBPZ AM-FM Lock Haven

2007-05-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Before I continue on with the WKAD story, I noticed I had forgotten a very interesting part of my radio past, the 11 months I spent as the "Evening Guy" at WBPZ in Lock Haven. Some time after I left WLYC in 1966 I went to see the late Harris Lipez at WBPZ looking for a full time job. He had none, and told me to come back in early 1967 as he felt he would have an opening at that time. True to my word, I appeared in January 1967 at the station, and true to his word he said that he was in fact going to have an opening for the night shift, 5:00 PM to Sign Off (1:05 AM) . I guess that Harris admired the fact I had remembered for so long and he hired me to start in February, just prior to my 20Th birthday.

WBPZ was a very interesting place in many respects, Harris' brother, Judge Abe Lipez was a stockholder as was Bill Piper Jr. or Piper Aircraft, all in all, there were a passel of stockholders, I believe over 20 some owning as little as 1/2 %. The station was located down town on the third floor at 132-1/2 E. Main St. Below the station on first floor was the Lock Haven Lunch, (best chili dogs and fries I ever had) and a furniture store. On second floor was a J.W. Church meeting hall. I remember how much I hated to arrive late, as I drove 55 miles one way and had to run up the steps arriving out of breath for the 5:00 PM station I.D. or when there was boxes of teletype paper to bring up. The delivery driver would stack them on the landing and the first few steps and each employee (male) was expected to bring one up with him.

When I first started there the control room equipment was the original stuff they had signed on with some 20 years earlier, an old RCA board, and turntables, one of the old EV long mikes, some newer cart machines and a Gates Spot Tape unit. That was an interesting idea from the days between producing commercials on reel to reel and the first broadcast carts. The unit had a manual slide track selector for one of 42 different tracks that could run up to 90 seconds. The tracks were recorded on a very wide magnetic tape belt, that would break at the most inopportune moment, causing all tracks to have to be re recorded, usually my job. The dis advantage, other than breakage, is the you could not play tracks back to back, and the rewind made a horrid noise like someone shoveling scrap metal. The control room also had two Magnacorder reel to reels, one dedicated to Unkle Joe's Woodshed's 5 minute commercials. Unkle Joe's was a discount store "on the hill in Flemington." The other was a "maggie" 1023 a great machine to do editing and recording. The usual assortment of remote controls for the AM and FM, monitors (both modulation and frequency) and one great patch bay that you could do just about anything with. It was not too long after I arrived, 4 or 5 months that the owners sprang for a new console a Gates "Gatesway", new turntables and another cart machine replacing the Spot Tape unit. I remember stying overnight as Al Stratmon the Chief Engineer and I installed the new board between 1:00 Am and 6:00 AM, we made it, but morning man Jim Eckert had to put up with Al and me under the console running wires to the patch bay.

The staff ws quite large, as you may imagine, for all programming, with the exception of 3 hours a day from Mutual Radio Network in the evening shift, was live, and even that was tended to by yours truly. When I first got there Jim Eckert was doing mornings 6:00 am to 12:00 noon. After Jim left to go teach at Career Acadamy Broadcasting School in Milwaukee, he was replaced by Chuck Studley. Jim Remick (JRZ) was on Noon to 5:00 pm and I was 5:00 Pm to 1:00 AM. John Lipez, Harris' son was the News Director along with Keith Kline, and Joe Hutchinson, Sales was handled by Dick Yohe and Benny Mathews, in the office was Jane Edwards (I think) Barbara Yohe and Ray Reese the Comptroller. Part timers included Barry Stott, Marc Sommer, and Randy Dory. The station was busy commercial wise and carried a lot of sports. If I remember correctly Harris Lipez was inducted into the Pa Sports Hall Of Fame a few years before he passed away.

My shift at WBPZ started as I said at 5:00pm, from 5 to 6 I played kind of an easy listening format and lots of comemrcials. On the Half hour we had Mutual News and a short sports feature. From 6 to 7 was the news block, local, and then Mutual commentary. 7 to 9 was more Mutual feature programming. I can't for the life of me remember when they were. This time was spent by me in one of two ways, either doing my production, or sitting at the back of the control room, looking over Main St in Downtown Lock Haven. That was pretty nice in warm weather, in that college town! One other thing I did while I was on the air was to write the local news for 11:00 pm, making police and fire calls. I started my music shows at 9:00 with "The Music Hall." From 9 to 10 I played Top 40, from 10 to 11 is was country, 11 to midnight big band/easy listening, and from midnight to sign off at 1 am it was classical. I really did have to do much in the last hour as Dick Lipez, and son of Harris, recorded the intros and outros to the show and left a music list. During that time I usually finished up my production and caught a bit of the Tonight Show on TV. At 1 am, I did a 5 minute news cast and signed off. The station also carried Philadelphia Phillies baseball. No being much of a sports fan, it was quite boring and my attention span was to say the least, short. My duties during the games was to to the station I.D.'s and insert any local commercials. The games were fed on lease telephone line, like Mutual Network, and if that system when down, we had an agreement to pick up WRAK's FM signal for the game broadcast. That was a good back up EXCEPT, that station I.D.'s could be a bit tricky, since you had 10 seconds you had to "pot down" the feed and insert your call letters and pot back up for the game. If someone, or everyone, was a bit slow, or the game announcers called for I.D.'s too quickly then you might hear far more than your own. That happened one night, I suspect everybody was asleep at the switch, and at least three sets of call letters made it on the air before WBPZ's.

As I mentioned earlier WBPZ carried a lot of local sports, Harris Lipez and Keith Kline were the play by play team. Since this was way before cell phones we had a system. They would go to the school set up and if they were within range listen on the FM. I was instructed when to monitor the line, in cue, and when they asked send a tone over the air to let them know I was receiving them. This usually worked pretty well, notice I said usually. One night they were, I believe, in Bellefonte for a game, I was listening, and they came on the line right away. Keith called for a tone and I sent one, there was a push button on the console, no response from him. I hit is again, still nothing. In the mean time he is calling for tones, I keep sending them. I was monitoring the air signal, so I know they were going out. I even cut the audio and sent nothing but tone for 10 seconds. Keith and Harris were getting pretty agitated with ME because I was not answering them, which as I said I was. I got listening to the line carefully when they were not talking and low and behold they had a State College station, close to WBPZ's frequency on their radio. Finally Keith said something to the effect "I'm going to go call Kel and read him the riot act." Well, I was READY! A few minutes later the unlisted line rang I answered and Keith was in high boil. I interrupted his fuming, and said, "I've been sending you the tone, but you won't hear it with your radio on the wrong station!" Keith said, "oh," and hung up. A few more minutes went by and I hear Keith back at the microphone. Harris asked if he got through to me and set me straight, Keith said, I think we are listening to the wrong station. I hear them tuning it, and all of the sudden they finally had the station. They called for a tone, so I cut audio and laid on the tone for a good 30 seconds. They laughed and apologised to me and said "looks like we've got you now."

Keith Kline was not my favorite person at the station, but for the most part he left me alone. He was usually doing morning news so he was long gone when I came in. I remember he left sometime while I was there, but I don't remember where he went, or for that matter even care!

I left WBPZ in November of 1967 to become WMPT's News Director, that chain of events is mentioned elsewhere in this BLOG. I did return to WBPZ in 1970 for a few months to do the Saturday overnight shift. All in all WBPZ was not a bad place to work, a good staff and a lot of talent. I had the opportunity to see Harris one last time in about 1996, I was in Lock Haven making calls for my business, Watts Multi Services, and stopped at the station. It was almost as if I never left! They had moved to Belefonte Ave, but there was John Lipez, Jane, Randy, and Mark, it was nice to see them all and I will cherish the time I had with Harris that day as we talked about the old days!

Well that is my look back at WBPZ, I hope I remembered everyone and the good times we had there!

On the road, Canton Here We Come!

2007-02-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sometime in 1976 it became clear to Dave that operating more than one station had certain advantages, shared staff, equipment, selling, and buying power. Several afternoons were spent talking about potential locations for a new radio station, with the decision being reached the the new station should be located in a town that didn't have primary radio service. After more discussion we decided to do a market potential study on Canton and Troy, Pa. I was born in Canton, Pa and spent many summers of my youth there at my grandparents. Of the two communities Canton was the largest by about 400 people and seemed to afford the best facilities for the station and tower. My parents who had recently retired owned a mountain top location, perfect, so we thought, for the tower, and there seemed to be a wide variety of buildings available for studios.

I was dispatched to spend a few days in Canton to do some investigation, very quietly, so we could make a decision about our next move. I could not even tell my parents of our plans, since at that time there was no frequency assigned to Canton or Troy and we would need to apply to the F.C.C. to amend the table of assignments to add an FM frequency to either community. The only person in Canton who knew anything about our plans was Paul Burr the Canton Borough Manager. He proved to be a valuable source of information about the commercial and statistical base of Canton. With this information in hand Dave and I sat down and took a hard look at the potential cost of building this station. After determining that it was financially feasible, finding a potential frequency, 100.1 MHz we forged ahead with the paperwork to have that frequency assigned to Canton. It took about three months for the F.C.C. to act, and even then there was no guarantees that Dave and I would be successful in securing a license, as the frequency allocation was open for anyone who wanted to apply for it.

The process of completing the application meant spending a lot of time in Canton, and the surrounding area meeting with "community leaders", an FCC term, and doing a programming needs assessment. Once that was completed the over 1 pound application was filed with the FCC and it was set back and wait for the cut off date to see IF anyone else would file. After what seemed to be an eternity, the FCC finally granted a Construction Permit in the late fall of 1977, too late of course for us to do anymore than get the tower site cleared and obtain a studio site. By this time I had met a fellow named Dave Seagren. Dave S. was President of The Canton Business Association and Manager of Beacon Consumer Discount Company's office in Canton. Dave had come from California where he had been a C.H.I.P.S. officer. He had recently purchased a house up on Center Street hill and was in the process of converting the bottom floor to his home and and office for a collection business he ran. Dave S. offered us the second floor for $50.00 per month, we jumped at the chance. In retrospect, we should have gone elsewhere because we got what we paid for! Anyway, weekends during the fall ,winter of 1977-and the spring of 1978 were spent putting together studios What a job!! The house was well over 100 years old, had been through a fire and years of neglect as an apartment house. To add to the fun, nothing was square or level, we wound up building new walls and floors throughout.

During that time we were on the lookout for a used tower, finally locating a former AM tower in Orange, Va. So one day Dave C. and I along with one other person climbed into a U Haul truck and made the round trip to get the tower, all 180' of it. We had to sandblast and paint the tower in WMPT's parking lot and truck it, yet again, to the mountain top where it was assembled on the ground.

I must admit that Dave C. allowed me a bit of freedom in choosing equipment for the station. I ordered the studio equipment and he took care of the transmitter and antenna. For you technical junkies here is the list. Transmitter: a C.C.A. 500 watt FM Transmitter, a Orban stereo generator and processor, Belar Frequency and Modulation monitors, and a Celwave 4 bay antenna. Studio Equipment: (NEW) Ramko DC-8MS stereo audio console, (NEW) 2 CCA 12" turntables, (NEW) Revox reel to reel, (NEW) Shure RE-10 Mics, (USED) 2 B.E. cart machines, (USED) 1 Stereo cart Machine. The transmitter controller was designed and built by Alan Preuss who had once been the Chief Engineer of WMPT as was working in aviation electronics for Bendix in Florida. Also the way we also obtained a used and abused, Gatesway mono console for the production studio. Equipment wise we were pretty good, staff wise, well that needed to come together. (to be continued)

Head South Part 3, The Final Chapter

2007-01-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

My role at WMPT, as I mentioned before was pretty much as "catch all" position. I did Sales, the Public Affairs show, called "In-Sight", wrote commercials, did production, and finally after Bob Evans decided I didn't "totally suck" on the air, did some fill in airshifts, and TONS of remotes!

If I had to pick a time in Williamsport Radio History that was exciting, this would be one of them, WLYC or course was under different ownership, WWPA came out of the "dark ages" programming wise, and WMPT was really promoting. The market was hot for radio and my fellow staff at WMPT was looked upon as one of the best, even by some of the competition. Vince Sweeney who was at WWPA has commented many times how he wished he would have been a part of it all in South Williamsport.

The biggest downside of that era, was a pretty steady staff turnover. Greg Isadore left, as did Bob Jackson, Jim Sortman, and quite a few sales people. In either late 1975 or early 1976 we hired Cliff Horton (Cliff Edwards on the air) to the staff. He and I clicked, and did many remotes together including the now famous Corvette Club Remote on VERY HOT summers day at John Powell Chevrolet. Notice the words "VERY HOT", now Cliff and I were in the air-conditioned show room, so we were nice and cool, but being a "VERY HOT" day the female attendees of the show were in short, short shorts, and halter tops! To say the whole event was very distracting would be a classic understatement. Our job was to promote the Corvette show, and there was a great crowd, well over 100 cars to view, I remember Cliff saying, "well Kel, there are a lot of classy chassis here today." My reply, "sure are Cliff, and the cars aren't bad either!" that was the end of it, we were both pretty worthless the rest of the remote. One reason we had hired Cliff is he came from Canton, Pa, and Dave and I were planning on building a station there, we felt Cliff would be a natural add to that staff. As it turns out, he didn't want to go to Canton but was a valuable part of the WMPT staff later leaving to replace Bud Berndt at W.A.C.C. as a broadcasting instructor.

Other staff during this time included Sue Andrews, who was a winner in our "Guest Disk Jockey" Promotion, along with Steve George, who came back with me to the "south Side", Pete Brown in sales, and Glenaire Snyder in the office. It was also during this time that a group of young people started "the Citizen's Press" a weekly newspaper and daily radio news feed, unfortunately it didn't last, possibly because of their high staff turnover and being a bit ahead of their time. Also during this time Dave and I hired the services of Paul Douglas who was a student in meteorology at Penn State in the class of Dr. Joel Meyers the founder of Accu-Weather. Paul came to us and I remember Dave saying something to the effect of "well, let's have you do forecasts for a week and see how good you are." I remember that Paul accurately predicted a "dandy" snowstorm when everybody else missed it. The biggest hitch in having Paul was we could not call him a Meteorologist, seems when we started to use that term, Dr. Joel and WLYC, Accu-Weather's station in Billtown, strongarmed Paul and to save him, changed how we referred to him on air to Weather Forecaster. Eventually Paul wound up at WNEP TV 16 in Wilkes-Barre, and then on to the satellite News Channel during it's period of operation.

During this time, WMPT had its 20th birthday, Gary, Cliff and I spent a lot of time putting together a pretty good promotional package, if I remember we gave away 20 prizes a day for 20 days, a lot of fun and a good audience builder. WMPT through this period was #1 in the Professional Research Surveys in age 18 plus, something that did not set too well with the folks at 4th and Pine in Williamsport, in part because each time the Arbitron would come out we would counter the limited research of that survey with a comprehensive market survey.

Part of WMPT's community participation was participation in the Boy Scout Explorer Program with Post 99.3. At one point we had upwards of 15 young men and women in the program with Bob Evans as the Leader and help from myself and others on the staff. The post had a show on the air each Sunday night and were schooled in broadcast operations. A couple of the people, Nancy Faye (Place), and Mike Doyne went on to work in the media.

In 1976 Dave and I announced plans to build another radio station, a new FM in Canton, Pa. my home town. I will look at that station in detail in a future entry.

I think that this time in South Williamsport was my most productive time working for Dave, at times a lot of fun, exciting, and frustrating. I often think fondly of the good days I spent at WMPT and being a part of Williamsport's Radio History.

Head South part 2

2007-01-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

When I returned to WMPT in 1975, there had been a lot of improvements equipment wise. Two new consoles, one in the Master Control and one in Production, new audio processing, new turn tables, new reel to reel machines, and the control room had moved. The on air sound was pretty solid with Bob Evans, Program Director and Morning Personality, Bob came to WMPT from WSBA Susquehanna Broadcasting in York. He had a warm easy going charm that really had the market solid in the mornings. I think Bob was the first one ever in morning drive to beat Rube and WRAK in that time slot. Mid days were handled by Greg Isadore. I don't really know a lot about Greg, except to say he was good on the air and a nice guy. If I remember correctly Johnny Knight (Crawford) was doing Afternoon Drive at the time. Johnny was solid on the air, but loved to do engineering, so he did that as well. Evenings had Tom Turner a young man from Loyalsock Township, lots of raw talent and energy. Overnights was Glen Watkins, what he lacked in experience he made up for in energy on the air. Part timers included Mona Patt,Jim Sortman (who later became a District Justice) Dave Wollett, Jackie Robinson, (not the baseball player) and Al Hoover. Al's show "The Hall Of Fame" was what I consider to be the benchmark for oldies shows of that period in small market radio, it was on Saturday Night, and I often stopped in to "Help him" do his show. Other staff included Bob Jackson, sales and fill in on air, Gary Strausser also in sales, and the best sports staff with Bill Byham, Mike Fogarty, and Scott Lowery. In those days WMPT carried Montoursville and South Williamsport Football and Basketball, Lycoming College Football, Williamsport High School Basketball, and of course the Little League World Series. Additionally we carried Little League action when one of the area teams got to playoff level. It was not uncommon to have one game on 1450 Am, one of 99.3 FM and be taping another, with three play by play teams, I was with Bill most times, we really had the market covered for sports and it was a money maker for the station and GREAT P.R.

Head South Young Man

2007-01-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

Hi again, I probably will write this in a few different parts as there is a lot of history to talk about at WMPT from 1975 to 1979. After a big mistake in working at WLYC/WILQ I took some time and worked for a friend of mine selling of all things cut flowers, plants, and floral supplies, wholesale, in a large part of Central Pa. I must admit is was at times a nice job, I covered a lot of ground every week. Well then came the recession of 1975 and the floral industry dried up, so I was laid off. As luck would have it, I ran into Dave Castlebury on the street one day, and told him I was looking and explained my situation. Dave asked me if I would be interested in a short term position, maybe 3 or 4 months doing license renewal for him. In those days the F.C.C. license had to be renewed every 3 years, and the process was quite exhaustive, surveys, and tons of exhibits that the station was serving the "community interest." Well anyway, I took him up, as he was offering a steady pay check, at least for a few months, and the hours were good, and a lot of the work I could do at home and only come into the station after hours to use the copier. As I progressed along in the project I soon found that WMPT was adrift. No one was really at the helm, and while the air sound was decent, with Bob Edwards as the P.D. and a good staff on the air, sales were slumping and critical items were not being attended to. I should point out that after Chuck Hoffman left and Harry Seltzer left, Bob was not given the authority to do a lot. Well to make a long story even longer, after I finished the license application and follow up corrections and additions, Dave asked me if I would be interested in staying on and "helping out." I was given the title of Public Affairs Director. That job involved producing a 30 minute weekly informational show as well as coordinating the station "public file" and other public service programming. Behind the scenes I was looking at all area's of the operation, sales, expenses, facilities, etc. It was quite a job, and at first Bob Evans was, I think, figuring I was out to get him. After a time, he saw what I was up to and we became allies and worked hard in promotion of the station. I had a good track to Dave and Bob knew it so we all benefited. The biggest problems I saw were sales and expenses. I found things like lease program lines that were never used the station was paying for, no one followed up on collections, etc. On the sales side was Bob Jackson and Gary Strausser, I had worked with Bob before and knew Gary for a long time. Both were decent sales people but not really motivated. Well as I looked over the inactive accounts, I decided to take a shot at some of them as I had serviced many of them before. The result, I took a cold list, and with some additions turned it into the hot list on the station. One mistake I felt Dave always made was the sales staff was on salary, no commission. While I never could change that per say, I did get bonus deals for the staff in the form of dinners, clothes, and other stuff that the station traded out. It was a hit, and along the way I added another sales person to the staff. One thing we did was to use the stations two way radio system to a real advantage. Each person had a two way in their car, so we could instantly handle sales calls, breaking news, etc. We even covered the arrival of the Freedom Train with Dave following the progress from the air in his Cessna 150 from Bellefonte to Williamsport. Using the two way radios was a real advantage to sales as well. One day Jack Lowery (Dodge) called in from Jersey Shore to talk to Gary, now I knew Gary was in the area, but was not scheduled to see him that day, well I called Gary on the radio and he was at Jack Lowery's doorstep in less than 5 minutes. Jack was impressed to say the least! More to come soon, I promise!!

The Class Reunion "Legendary Artist Series"

2006-11-29T12:28:00.000-08:00

During the three year run of my show, "The Class Reunion" I had a very unique opportunity to interview some of the greatest stars of all time. In keeping with the mission of "The Class Reunion", the "Legendary Artist Series", I talked only with original or long time members of groups, and if there is a question as to the validity of a person I check it out thoroughly before I schedule an interview. During this time I have come to deeply respect the work that so many artists are doing in "Truth In Artist Advertising." Many of the best know artists of the rock and roll era have banded together to seek passage of legislation to protect the public from "impostor" groups. "The Class Reunion" fully supports that work and has interviewed several members of the various groups involved with this project.

I have been fortunate enough to interview the following "Legends":

Legendary Artist Series Interviews:
Brenda Lee
Hugh Geyer (The Vogues)
Neil Sedaka
Sonny Turner (long time member of The Platters)
The Skyliners 2 times (Jimmy Beaumont Founder/leader and Nick Pociask, long time member)
Buckinghams (Carl Giammarese)
Sly, Slick, & Wicked (John Wilson) 2 times
The Coasters (Carl Gardner)
The Guess Who (Garry Peterson)
Sha Na Na (Jocko) 2 times
B.J. Thomas
The Tams (Charles Pope)
The Union Gap (Gary Puckett)
The Manhattans (Sonny Bivens)
The Kingsmen (Dick Peterson)
Johnny Tillotson (KRIM & KMOG) 2 interviews
The Four Preps (Bruce Belland)
Lou Christie
Dowop To Woodstock Productions (John Lumpkin)
The Diamonds and Y.B.S. (Dave Somerville 2 times)
New Christiy Minstrels (Randy Sparks Founder)
Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon
Diane Renay
Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells & LaBelle (Sarah Dash) 2 times
Danny & The Juniors (Joe Terry, founding member)
Surf City All Stars (David Logeman) 2 times
Lenny Welch
Shirelles (Beverly Lee)
Mel Carter
Dick & Dee Dee (Dee Dee Phelps) 2 times
The Association (Jim Yester)
Frankie Ford
The Lettermen (Tony Butala) Founder of the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame
Jimmy Rodgers
The Four Aces (Joe Giglio) 3 interviews
The Reflections (Tony Micale, founder)
The Fleetwoods 3 times (Gretchen Christopher founder/female lead)
The Champs (Jerry Cole long time member)
Joey Dee (Joey Dee & The Starlighters ) interview included Bob Valli & Dave Brigati
Duane Eddy 3 times
Dave Brigati (Young Rascals)
Gary Puckett 2 times
Johnny Crawford
Freddy Paris (the Five Satins)
Trini Lopez

I feel fortunate to have made many friends along the way, and for the assistance of such people as Joe Giglio, Dave Sommerville, John Lumpkin, Nick Pocisak, and many more artists.

I continued the "Legendary Artist Series" until September of 2007, a couple of months after I purchased Cruise Port Travel when the work load and the "B.S." from Suzanne Michaels got to be too much. I consider myself fortunate to have continued to be friends with several of the artists to this day. Today I am sharing some memories of my broadcast time and The Class Reunion in a weekly column in the Rim Country Gazette.

Sue Andrews checks in

2006-10-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

One of the best talents to come out of WMPT's Guest D.J promotion was Sue Andrews, I was really surprised to see her comments on the blog, but since a lot of people might not take the time to click on the comment section here is her posting! Thanks SUE!!!

WMPT's Midday Music Lady Sue Andrews, middays on WMPT, I was there from March 1975 until February 1979! Then, I found myself working alongside the truly greats of Williamsport radio when I joined WRAK later in the spring of 1979. I was thrilled to be offered a job at WRAK by none other than Ev Rubendall. Foster Gaines turned his show over to me for a week that summer when he went on vacation. Bud Berndt, Glen Sherman, Wright Mackey--all the powerhouses of Billtown Radio before Stainless bought the station late in 1979. To think that Mr. Mackey thought that 53,000 watts of FM power was a liability, while Stainless couldn't believe their good fortune.

But, back to MPT--

What a trip down memory lane,growing up listening to Fatman and Ribbon and the crew at WMPT in the 60' and early 70's, only to find myself on the air there in '75.
Bob Evans was PD and morning man in '75, Greg Isador was doing middays, high schooler and very talented Tom Turner in the evening (having replaced Todd Stewart) and "Ton of Fun: Glen Watkins doing overnights. Part-timers then were Dave Wollet aka Jackson Reed, Jackie Robinson and me as I recall. Kelly was in sales with Bob Jackson (This is Bob and Bob for Beiter's), Bill Byham and the Irish Mafia--Mike Fogarty and Scott Lowery on sports and I don't remember if we had a news director.
At that time, Al Hoover's Hall of Fame played every Saturday from 11pm until 2am.
Dave C. The bossman when he wasn't playing County Commissioner, was messing around with canned music at night on the FM and AM was left to Top 40 and live jocks on the AM.

We almost tore the station down when flood waters threatened again in 1975.
Explorer Post 99.3 was up and running on Saturday mornings with Bob Evans and later with me. Nancy Fay, among others, emerged from that group.

The Jingles--Thank goodness it's Friday, Really Friday her on WMPT and Time to Turn to prevent sunburn!

I could go on and on, but who wants to listen to an old music lady reminiscing--I'm still too young for that.

Kelly and I locked horns several times in that time period, but I had the utmost respect for one of my radio hero's.

A few years back, Kelly and I met for the first time in better than 20 years when I ran into him at the ice cream stand in downtown Canton. We talked too long into the night, but weren't as bad as when we would close down the Caboose from time to time on a Thursday night which was Lady's night.

There are great memories of WMPT for me.

After 1450 AM, and WRAK, I joined the PA Radio team and did middays on WLYC with the Music of Your Life. Barb Evans was on the other side of the glass and the midday hostess on the Q. None of the kids at the Q could understand how I could live the pop scene to play all the old, old music that belonged to my parent's generation. I loved it and played it as Andrea Scott. The name was a result of not wanting to be remembered as being associated with WJKR 104 for a short stint.
I would spend 8 wonderful years from 1984 until 1992 on the air at WLYC.

Barbara Evans from Q-105 checks in

2006-08-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

The power of this BLOG even amazes me, the number of people I have heard from is amazing, some people I had not heard from in years, some that I had never even met. Such is the case with Barb Evans, I had moved from the market by the time she came in, but never the less I recognized her name instantly, Here is Barb's addition to the blog!

Back in the 80s and 90s my air name was "Barbara Evans"..

I was the 7p-12m announcer at WILQ from July 83 to Feb Thenthen promoted to mid-day and Program Director at the Q until LAMCO sold the station circa January 1996. When I started at the Q, some of the names at the station were John Ellis-engineer of course, Joe Dalto-Sales Manager, "Jungle" Jim Cameron-making a return as Assistant Sales Manager. Cecil Hook..top AE and Bob Cunnion as GM-from LAMCO. I like to think that I was/am the only female PD Williamsport ever had, or at least longest run at it 12 years. I worked part time for a short period at WKSB on the weekends for fun. I am now on Âthe dark side, selling for cable television in Lewisburg, Sunbury, Danville, Watsontown areas. Not as fun as being a dj, but more profitable for me! People ask me if I miss radio, yes, but its the old days (ok, the 80s weren't that long ago) with live shows, back-timing, carts, vinyl and those new cd things that made it cool. Williamsport is mostly "voice tracked" after 10am and is basically two radio groups Backyard Broadcasting and Clear Channel.

My career started 1982 ish at WBPZ Lock Haven. I had never known Harris Lipez started in Williamsport.

I really enjoyed your history of the market..John E was the source of most of my history lessons in days gone by.

Mistakes come in three's, back at WLYC again

2006-07-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Writing this blog have evoked both good and bad memories, the same can be said about my second and third times at WLYC and WILQ. Now as you may remember I started my radio sentence at 1050 AM and 105.1 FM, in 1964, at the time they were owned and operated by Keliher Construction Company. In 1972, J.T. Keliher sold out to a company called Alpha Broadcasting, as Chuck Hoffman wrote earlier the broadcast end was part of a company that primarily was into computer services. When they bought it many changes took place. Most of the original staff, was either fired, or quit, save Ann Davis in Traffic, George McKay on air, and John Ellis the engineer. Vince Campana the G.M was out, and replaced by Henry Kirk, new announcers started appearing almost instantly mostly from the State College area as the station was switching to a more top 40 format. Wendell H. (Wendy) Williams was brought in as the Program Director. Wendy had once been at ABC owned and operated KQV in Pittsburgh. I remember that Wendy had actually applied at one time to WMPT and Dave didn't hire him, (MISTAKE) because he said, "why would anyone that had been in major market want to work in Williamsport." Wendy actually wanted to attend Williamsport Area Community College for airplane mechanics of all things. Also appearing were Harry E. Gahagan, a young hippy type, Steve Migdon, and Steve Suskie. All were pretty talented air people and WLYC was throwing a ton of promotion at the market.

I had left WMPT after the flood and for a brief period of time I was working for a small privately owned company selling emergency equipment, the only problem, neither I nor any of the suppliers got paid! So I finally decided that maybe WLYC might be a place to try as I didn't want to go back to WMPT as Harry Seltzer and I were still feuding. At first view WLYC seemed like the "hot" place to work, lots of enthusiasm, promotional money, and the pay was not too bad either, so I landed a part time job. It was about this time that a decision was made to split WLYC FM off and make it a country station, well sometimes! In the evening after WLYC signed off, ( A day timer) WILQ would continue to rock till midnight. I was approached about starting the overnight show on now renamed WILQ. The shift amounted to coming in at 11:00 pm, doing production, and going on the air at midnight playing top 40 till 2:00 am and then changing to country for the remainder of the shift, talk about block programming! Well I did the shift, at the time the FCC was looking for stations to do a lot of public affairs programming and the idea was put forth that 12:00 to 1:00 am might be the time for a WILQ music/talk format show. So that is what happened, I would come on at midnight play music in between phone calls and then at 1:00 am after the news switch back to all music. The show for the most part went pretty well save the fact that there was a half assed delay system, created by inputting the air signal into one Ampex, running the tape down to another Ampex reel to reel mounted below it in the rack, feeding the output from that machine back into the board and on the air. WHAT A mess! Well anyway, being one of the very few stations on the air, I got a lot of calls, and it was quite often that the talk show would continue till 2:00 or even 3:00 AM. The rest of the night was country pretty much wall to wall, as there were few if any commercials. I did that shift for about 1 year, somewhere during that time I was getting regular complaints about my production, missing, bad quality, Etc. I made sure I checked and rechecked the production before I put it in the control room, I can only think that someone, for some reason was sabotaging it! Finally one night I came in and there was a rather nasty note from now Manager Larry Knapp that I had better get my act together, I snapped and walked out, leaving poor Steve Migdon with his mouth hanging wide open. Do I know who, not for sure, but I have a couple of candidates in mind. Anyway, several months passed, and I actually had applied at WWPA and was going to be hired to do part time when I received a call telling me that WILQ was going to 4 hour day shifts, and would I be interested in doing a combo position or mid day and afternoon news. The money was right, and I accepted. So in late 1973 I came back and settled into mid days. As far as fan appreciation that was one of the best shifts I have ever done, lots of feedback from the listeners, and a fair amount of freedom on the air. I for the most part even enjoyed the afternoon news, I did both WLYC and WILQ local news live, two times and hour for 3 hours. I had done news before, so I still had contacts and it really did sound pretty good. I stayed with that till mid 1975 and I was offered a on road sales position working for a friend of mine selling of all things cut flowers and floral supplies!
But that is yet another story!

During time there I had the chance to work with some very unusual people, with my rather conservative upbringing I was somewhat surprised at the people, let me profile them:

Wendy Williams: He was a Morman, who at times would get fed up with the church and let loose in private. Wendy was one of the more inventive persons I have ever known, and was quite controversial on the air. There are several famous Wendy stories that I wonÂt take time to tell here, but ask me, they are classics. I of course worked with him in afternoon drive during my news duties.

Harry Gahagan: I described him as a hippy type, long hair, nervous type, he always played with a pen while he was on the air. Harry was tapped as the Program Director at WLYC after Wendy started school and resigned. I got along with Harry most of the time, as I really didnÂt work directly for him except when I was doing Top 40. Harry eventually went to WOND in Atlantic City, N.J. owned by the Green Group, yes the same company I worked for in Elmira, as Howard Green owned WENY/WLEZ/WENY TV 36.

Steve Migdon: was a nice quite kind of guy who loved pranks, and we were always working each other over. I never saw him too much except at station events as he worked evenings and I was gone by the time he came in. I remember once after a station softball game, he and I tackled several bottles of Boones Farm wine, neither of us were worth much the next day. I really don't know what ever happened to Mig, although for some reason I think he might have gone to Harrisburg.

Steve Suskie: I was probably closest to him of all the WLYC staff, we worked a lot of promotions together, not the best voice on the air, but a hard worker.

Joe Dalto: We had other names for him, he was a kid that just didn't grow up.

On the WILQ side were the following:
George McKay: I had known George a long time, I believe he actually replaced me when I left WLYC in 1966. He was promoted to Program Director of WILQ when the split happened and did a fair job. George did not have the greatest radio voice, but he was a good guy. We got quite close as for several months I dated is sister in law. George stayed at WILQ for a long time, I eventually worked with him again in 1992 at KISS FM.

Lynn Bloom: "Big Time Bloomie." Now there was a real character, looked like everybody's grandfather should look, was probably the biggest lush I have ever worked with. It was not un common to get a call from the city police that they found him passed out someplace or he would stager into the station at 2:30 am and tell me to wake him up for his air shift. More often than not he would go on the air totally plastered, but you would never know it when he turned on the mike. "Bloomie" had the absolute worst rug (wig) I have ever seen, it was yellowing from age and neglect, and when he got drunk it would wind up crooked on his head. Eventually he was fired and I think went to Roaring Springs.

Bill Wilson: He replaced "Bloomie" That was not his real name, but for the life of me I can't even come close to spelling his real name. He has worked with Harry Gahagan and Wendy in State College and if I remember was pretty good on the air.

Ron Shobert; Yes that is right after I left Ron was hired to do the all night show, he like a lot of other people got shafted by "Moose and Squirrel." (more on them later)

Chuck Hoffman: He was hired as the "Group" Program Director for the Williamsport stations and WGGO AM/FM in Salamanca, N.Y. I liked Chuck, I am not saying that just because he reads this, he was my kind of P.D., a bit laid back, and had a pretty good sense of humor. I used to stay around and "help" Chuck do his show when I was doing all nights. Chuck was not well liked by the "State College Crowd" who called him "Huffy Chuckman" behind his back. Be sure and read Chuck's notes about his time on the second floor of the Carone Building at 4th and Pine Streets, it is very interesting.

Larry Knapp: He became the General Manager, and his wife was one of the sales staff. In my opinion Larry was not the most honest of persons, I don't believe he had much radio experience, except working for Cary Simpson (Allegheny Mountain Radio network). I believe he was always out for Larry, and didn't care who got the shaft along the way. I understand that there was some questionable tactics used in assigning commercial accounts, with some being listed as house accounts on the lists given to the other sales staff and his wife being paid commission of those same accounts. By the way, we used to call them "Moose and Squirrel" as George Vadja who was Mr. Alpha Broadcasting looked like and had an accent like the Rocky and Bullwinkle character Boris Batenov. Larry eventually opened a motorcycle and recreational vehicle business in Galeton, I talked to him just once, when I was managing WLEZ in Elmira, as he was trying to convince me to give him a glowing reference, as he wanted to advertise on TV 36 and wanted credit approval! YEAH RIGHT!!!

Looking back over the last 41 plus years in radio Alpha was probably the absolute worst operator I ever worked for. They we constantly late with paychecks, would fire you for no reason and were on your back constantly. One of Alpha's favorite tricks to fire people was to remove their name from their mailbox. If you went in and you didn't have a mailbox then you were done! The other was to fire you by letter in your mailbox. I remember that Steve George, who was going to college in Bradford, Pa, came home one weekend to do his shift and walked in only to find "the letter." But that was Alpha's and Larry Knapp's style, backhanded and underhanded in dealing with employees and customers. Vince Campana who was fired not long after Alpha took over filed suit against them and won, the day it was announced all of us who disliked Alpha cheered loudly!! Learning Alpha's tactics and how they operated really was benefical when I went back to WMPT in 1975. With the ground work that Chuck had laid at WMPT and what I was allowed to do, we really cut into Alpha's bottom line. It was not too long after the start or 1975 that they sold out to Kerby Confer and Paul Rothfuss, but that too is another story for another time! Thanks again for your kind words, till next time, when I once again cross the river and head down East Central Avenue!

My Life and Times at WMPT 1966 to 1972

2006-06-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

WMPT Staff from 1965 to 1972

Before I get started let me say how honored I am by the nice comments I have received about my efforts to preserve a part of small market radio history. Those of us who lived and had the privilege of working in those great days of radio are fortunate. The kids coming out of broadcasting school today will never know the pleasure of searching for the big 50,000 watt stations at night and as young disk jockeys trying to imitate our favorite jocks of the day such as, Herb Oscar Anderson, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, Joey Reynolds, Dick Biandi, Jerry Blavitt and so many more names that graced the airwaves.

When I went to WMPT in 1966, I became part of a pretty seasoned staff, I hope that after 40 years I don’t forget anybody.

At the time the Program Director was Dick Crownover a person I had known since the late 50’s and for the most part the last of the very early staff. He came to WMPT from Lewistown, PA, to study electronics at the old Williamsport Technical Institute. In Lewistown he had worked for WMRF and WJUN (k) as he called it.
Dick was the kind or person who would ask you to do something once, and if it didn’t get done, then he would go ahead and do it. While he never said anything directly, you knew that you had screwed up big time! He was probably one of the busiest guys in the station in addition to doing the mid morning show, he sold and at one time did the Disk Jamboree show at 4:10 pm everyday. Dick also was, at the time the record hop king of Williamsport, having done hundreds of record hops. By the time I got to “The Mighty 14-50” the only dance still running was The Coca Cola Hi Fi Club on Friday night in Montoursville. In addition to all that Dick was responsible for a lot of engineering around the station and usually the first one who got called when some of the antique equipment crapped out as it often did. I can’t exactly remember when Dick left, but I think it was around 1970 to take a job with Sylvania Electronics and pursue his first love.

Ron Shobert: Ron was the big jock doing the top rated “Night Train” on the station at that time. Ron came from Jersey Shore and to the best of my knowledge he was a product of WMPT’s in house training, which at times meant, “here’s the board, the log and the records, good luck.” I liked Ron, he was fun, had an eye for beautiful ladies and never hesitated to do someone a favor. I remember he once did a tape for me for our after high school play party and dance. Some of My best memories of Ron come from 1967, at the time I was working full time (5:00 pm to 1:15 AM at WBPZ in Lock Haven) and Ron from 6:00 PM to 1:00 AM at WMPT. Well he lived in Jersey Shore and I lived in Barbours out the Loyalsock, so when we left work we would meet usually at his house. Both of us had C.B. radios and would talk to the “late nighters” along the way till we met up. Then it was coffee and conversation for a couple of hours at his house till I would be on my way to my next stop Mr. Donut! Also in 1967 we were asked to participate in the Jersey Shore Town Meeting over July 4th, and play music to warm up the crowd for the feature act The Tremeloes. But before that, Ron and I played host to the group most all day, taking them around to radio stations and giving them a taste of rural Pennsylvania life. Both Ron and I were disappointed that a Philadelphia TV celebrity(?) Wee Willie Webber was the Master of Ceremonies. Practically no one in the crowd knew him, but when the Tremeloes introduced us and thanked us for being their host for the day, we received a large round of applause. Bye the way, Wee Willie was the host of a Kids TV show in Philly and if memory serves me correctly he was married to a woman from Jersey Shore who had a relative on the committee and that was the ONLY reason he was the M.C. and not Ron and I.

Ron was at WMPT till the mid 70’s when he left to go to WLYC/WILQ and do the all night show. He later helped build and was the first General Manager at WJJR FM, a station in Mifflinburg, Pa. I have to believe that was Ron’s downfall as it took a real toll on him personally. Unfortunately he passed away in 1991 at a far too young age.

Harry Seltzer: Harry was another one who had worked at WMPT before being drafted into the service and came back in late 1966. He wound up doing the Platter Party and when Dick Crownover left became Program Director. Harry and I got to be friends early on, I had known him before he went into the service and for some reason we became close when he returned to the station. He even sponsored me in membership at First Ward Fire Company in 1967 and for a number of years we were quite close. After Dick left and Harry became P.D. I felt there was a change in him, I guess part of it may have been my disappointment in not getting that position. Anyway, after Dave was elected County Commissioner Harry was promoted yet again to Station Manager and the riff between us became even more pronounced. It was during that time I left and came back a couple of times trying my hand at selling cars at Larry Herron Lincoln Mercury and for a very brief period of time as a Broadcast Instructor at Career Academy in Milwaukee, Wi. Around the same time Harry also became Chief at First Ward, and I was a Captain, so no matter where I went he was still my boss! Harry left sometime after I did and worked for Bob Bieter and eventually as the Local Government Sales Representative for Motorola Two Way and was well respected. It took a long time but we finally mended our fences and became friends even though we were competitors in business.

Bill Thomas and Rob Thomas: To the best of my knowledge the Thomas brothers were the only brother combination WMPT ever had. Bill did mornings and Rob weekends. Bill went on to work for ABC and Rob stayed in radio for a number of years.

Fred Burdge: While not an on air person, Fred was a very important part of the staff as he sold advertising and wrote a lot of copy. Fred had this mop of very thick hair, prompting Dave Castlebury to call him “Rughead” a name that was never to be said in his presence, well of course like the “kids” we were, it did slip from time to time. Fred loved alliteration in his copy and one time wrote a complete spot for Super Self Service Shoe Store with most of the words starting in “S”. I must say I hated his live copy and vowed NEVER to write stuff like that myself. I am not really sure when Fred left the station but I think it was sometime in the late 60’s as I believe his health was failing. Fred was an amateur radio operator and was highly proficient in CW or code transmission.

Ken Breon: Ken was a person I did not know very well till after he left the station to start his own business North Central Amusements. He had been there a long time and also worked at WMLP under the air name of Brian K. Ken and Ron Shobert were good buddies for a number of years, and again the time frame in which he left is foggy.

In the late 60’s early 70’s the “Terrible Trio” was formed, it consisted of myself and to following two characters.

Caesar Mattioli: He came sometime in late 1969 from WWPA to do WMPT‘s evening shift. Caesar actually got his start in Philadelphia at WWSH which was a beautiful music station. Of the people who graced the mic’s at WMPT he probably stand out in my mind as one of the better voices ever on the air. Caesar was legally blind, a fact that most people did not know and he certainly never seemed handicapped by it on the air. He had a highly creative mind and that got him into trouble more than once with Harry Seltzer and Dave Castlebury and eventually led to his firing. After his demise at WMPT for insulting a paid religious program, that yes, really was a bad as he said it was, he went to WMMR in Philadelphia, and from there to top rated Z93 in Atlanta, and the “Powerhouse of the South” WSB in Atlanta. I remember one time in the early 80’s listening to him while I lived in New York State thinking “how cool is that?” Over the years he stayed in Georgia and worked in Athens, and Macon. He is currently at WGAU in Athens Georgia and has been there for a number of years. I feel fortunate that we managed to keep a friendship going over all these years even though we have not seen each other since he left Williamsport in the 1970’s.

Jon Paul: The third member of the “crew.” Mattioli and I always felt that he needed a last name, and at times we supplied various ones including “Reporting” when he did a newscast. Jon came to WMPT in the very early 70s’s and did afternoon drive. I can’t remember if he had any actual air experience, but it seems to me he worked in Babylon N.Y. where he was from. In those days to make adjustments in the station or to do engineering work or work at a high power or directional station you needed a First Class Radiotelephone License. I tried several times for get one and failed, Jon had his courtesy of a “six weeks wonder” course. At the time Dave hired him I think he felt that if you have the license you can engineer. Such was NOT the case with Jon and he freely admitted it! So Jon was the guy who was one of the very few Chief Engineers I worked with who never opened a piece of equipment without someone like me or Harry Seltzer being around. Jon was there during and after the flood of ’72. Jon and I were very close during his time at WMPT, I even introduced him to his wife Bonnie and was in their wedding. Recently after over 30 years Jon and I re-connected courtesy of the internet. He and Bonnie came and spent an evening and how much fun it was, he later told me that Bonnie had said “listening to you two it was like you just saw each other yesterday, not over 30 years ago.” That was the case with us, very close on and off the air, and ALWAYS pulling pranks on someone, or each other.

In my mind this period of time was one of the greatest in the history of WMPT. We were a brazen bunch, always challenging authority, I can remember one time when Dave Castelbury posted a kind of management schedule, Harry was on it and so was he, only he wrote G.D. (Galen David) Castelbury, of course someone immediate asked the question what G.D. stood for, Dave’s reply was “It DOES NOT stand for that G - - Damn Castelbury!”

It was during that time that WMPT really came of age in the transitional period from the early pioneer days of Rock and roll radio that was coupled with traditional block programming to a modern contemporary sound. Block programming disappeared at the hands of Watts, Mattioli, and Paul and was replaced with a strong Contemporary Top 40 format in drive and evening times and a quality Easy Listening Contemporary sound overnight and in mid days. It was without a doubt one of the better programming sounds I have ever heard. Caesar and I still say to this day “if we would have only known what we were doing, we would have sold the format and been rich!”

Also during this period of time, 1968, came WMPT FM Stereo. Dave had a knack of looking forward and believed that FM was the wave of the future, boy was he right! When the FM went on the air, it was the first FM STEREO in Williamsport, one of very few in the state, and was the first with separate programming. Evenings the station ran pre-packaged programming with very easy listening music and a disk jockey from the west coast named Don McMaster and his show “Music With McMaster.” The first automation was one reel to reel (a Skully) a carousel commercial machine and a single deck cart recorder/playback machine. It worked pretty well, a Alan Preuss had built the homebrew components to make it so. Parts of it were still in service when I left in 1978 to go to Canton. Having the FM also gave WMPT the advantage of being able to broadcast more than one sporting event at a time, often during both football and basketball season we would have one game on AM and one on FM, a nightmare for the "Board" person. Phil Lane and Woody Ott from WWPA once told Dave, “That FM thing will never last, can’t see the value in it.” I consider it somewhat ironic that what was WMPT FM, at 99.3 is still around while 1450 is dark.

I certainly hope that I have not left anyone out of this time period, I always have that fear that my mind has forgotten one of the people who was a part of 14-50 (Fourteen-Fifty) W M P T.

Till the next time and Bill Byham always said “That’s 30.”

Dave Castlebury

2006-06-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the pleasure of receiving an E mail from Galene Castlebury Reynolds, yes, she is the daughter of Dave Castlebury. She sent me some pictures of Dave taken not long before he passed away, I share one of them with you now. The last time I saw Dave in 1996, he didn't look a lot different from the picture and that was not a lot different than the way he looked in 1979. Also a picture of a VERY young "Sky King". Thank you Galene for the pictures!

More from the WMPT files of Mike Sullivan

2006-05-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hello again, from the hills of Northern Arizona. The WMPT History blog really has gotten a life of its own. Mike Sullivan has chimed in again with a couple of more gems, so here they are!

A quick F.P. (Fred Plankenhorn) story: (You're gonna love it). He was doing his on-air record hop from the First Ward Volunteer Fire Co., and I was the board man back at the station. My job was to get him on the air and intersperse messages from "Charlie and Kay," the Sociables, who were hawking Pepsi-Cola. (on disk). Well, I either became inattentive or was on one of my 33 1/3 long-playing phone calls and missed several cues. At first, Fred was just mildly unpleasant: "Well, I guess Charlie and Kay weren't paying attention....now here IS a word from Charlie and Kay." But things went downhill from there and as I missed more cues, Fred got more exasperated on the air. "Hey, listen now....Charlie and Kay may have better things to do but they were hired to bring you these paid-for commercials. Charlie? Kay?
And finally it was: "Now listen up, Charlie and Kay, you better get on the ball or you may find yourself on the unemployment line. If Charlie and Kay would get off the phone, we'd probably hear from them. And we better, "Sully." Of course, Fred was right. But to bitch me out on the air made him seem like a malcontent.

Lot’s of folks over the years have used air names, I did on a couple of occasions when I needed to usually because I was either working at another station or at a place where it might be viewed as a conflict of interest such as when I was placing advertising for Chemung Country Transit and working for KZ 106/WCLI in Corning. Mike’s reason I suspect was a bit different!

My name: I first used the handle "Gene Grayson," but with my cross bite, it was too hard to say: ssssshhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen grayshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn. I heard a guy on mutual news while in Jamestown and really liked the way he sounded when he signed off with his name: "This is John Sullivan," Mutual News. I figured I would keep my initials (M.S., which stood for, gulp, yes, "Mathias Schunk." In '75, I made Sullivan my legal name. A good decision! That's how I began using that name. Funny story! Some Irish guy came in to talk with Dave and said (while I was standing there) what a great deal it was that he had hired an Irish person. I chimed in with the news (remember the doorbell Dick installed as a time tone?) that I wasn't Irish at all and that it was simply an air name. I could read the disappointment in the guy's face.
Dave was pissed and told me after the guy left to NEVER make such revelations in the future. In other words, he reasoned, what's the harm if I simply go along with it? I took his advice. In St. Cloud, Minn., my next door neighbor, Fred Hughes, said it was great to have an Irishman in town instead of all those "Germans." (I never let on that I was a "Hun.")
Fred Burge was able to sell time to JP & M Sullivan based on my presence on the air.
He also threatened to punch my lights out for making fun (on the air) of a commercial he had done. He kept going in and out of the studio, muttering threats to me, as I was doing my show. I finally (in between records) told Dave, admitted I was wrong, but Dave turned his ire to Fred for threatening me and really lit into him. Fred apologized but I felt I sort of deserved the threats for being so unprofessional. The crisis soon passed. Fred was sort of hokey but he could sell time, no doubt about it

A Golden Goodie from another WMPT Alumnus

2006-04-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

One of the most surprising thing about having a web site or a BLOG page is who read it. Recently I received a big surprise when one of my early idols on WMPT, Mike Sullivan sent me an e mail saying he found my site while "surfing." I remember Mike as a person with a great on air presence, and wild sense of humor and an extremely creative mind. One of my favorite "Sully" stories involves him when he was doing sign on back in the days when WMPT was located on the second floor of the South Williamsport Borough Hall. When you got to the top of the stairs and went in a big counter greeted you, to the left was the ever present nickel Coke machine, legend has it that Mike would come in turn on the lights, plunk two nickels in the machine and get two bottles of cherry soda. One he would drink while turning stuff on, the other during sign on. From the time I got there in 1966 till I left in 1979 the cherry soda was always referred to by the entire staff as "Sully Soda." That being said, here, with his permission, are some of Mike Sullivan's memories of the early days in radio for him:

Kelly: While surfing I stumbled onto your WMPT site and I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed reading it – and marveled that yours truly (Mike Sullivan) was included in your remembrances!

Here’s a brief “rundown” (you can take that literally) of my career:

Hired by Dave Castlebury in 1960 after he listened to my “superb” air check from WMLP. “What kind of a microphone was that you were using?” (typical Dave comment).

Actually, I had been fired from WMLP, and also cut loose from WBRX in Berwick, WJOC, Jamestown, NY and WHTG in Asbury Park, NJ. Had Dave not hired me, I would have quit the radio biz.

I got drafted a few months after Dave hired me. But he took me back in 1962 (full time!) even though I was only a part-time employee. Some folks hated Dave. But he and his station were just what I needed at that point in my career.

I left WMPT in Oct., ’63, for WMID, Atlantic City, where I was indoctrinated in “back-to-back” commercials during the summer season. June thru Sept. we played 3 records an hour. I know. It sounds as if I made that up.

In Oct., ’65, I joined Susquehanna broadcasting (they owned WARM in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton.) I was hired at their “new” station, WGBB in Freeport, Long Island, NY. What a wild place! (Not a place to work if you were (1) in radio and (2) married.

I got canned at WGBB because the manager, Bill Musser, hated me – I guess because I wasn’t from PA.

I was hired one day later at WGLI, Babylon, Long Island, where the signal was quite strong – if you happened to be a fish.

On land, we couldn’t be heard 17 miles from the station.

From there I went to the big time: Chicago stations WGRT, WJJD, etc. Mostly news and 10 years with a black station, owned by John H. Johnson of Ebony/Jet magazine fame.

I spent 5 years in Minnesota, all radio years, all cooooooooooooooooold radio towns.

Returned to Chicago in ’84, worked at one big FMer which canned the entire news department to make way for a high-paying morning announcer (Tom Joyner, who is now syndicated nationally on black outlets.)

I gravitated to newspaper work in 1986, spent 12 years in suburban Chicago radio (in news) before retiring (voice problems) in 2005.

I am now on staff at the Elgin (Ill.) Courier – News as a business reporter.

I am a grandfather of two boys and still married despite the rocky radio road.

Yes, I do remember you hangin’ out with me during my air shifts at ‘MPT.

I feel fortunate to have worked at WMPT.

I feel very fortunate to have spent more than 40 years on the air. I did it all, Kelly. Played black music at a black station, was news director for several stations and did production work that was decent.

I still lose my voice on occasion, but it’s good enough for print journalism.

Thanks Sully, I look forward to more posings from you as well as anyone else who survived radio in Williamsport, Pa.