I remember WUNS Radio.

WUNS was a 250 watt AM radio station at 1010 on the dial with no pre-sunrise and sign off at local sunset. No pre-sunrise meant that in the winter months, we didn’t sign on until 7:45 am! The call letters, not counting the W, which no one does of course, stood for Union, Northumberland and Snyder counties. The studio, office, transmitter site, all in one building that looked like a small house, was situated on 10 acres of land along Routes 11 & 15 in Lewisburg, Pa, just over the hill, south of Bucknell University.

I started at WUNS in early June of 1966 as a news person and Sunday afternoon DJ.

My everyday duty was to gather the local news by calling the police stations of Lewisburg, Milton, Sunbury, Selinsgrove, and Danville. Then I would write and record the stories for our hourly newscasts. I would also go to the scene of a major news event and record voice tracks on a cassette deck to be played later in our newscasts. I also edited the postcards and letters we received for our “Swap Shop” and “Community Bulletin Board” programs.

We were not equipped with the latest and greatest equipment in the studio, although what we had usually worked. We had an old Raytheon mixer which we used on the air with an RCA 77-DX microphone which we also used to record a few commercials after sign off. Our turntables were on either side of us; large, RCA transcription tables which needed at least a full revolution to come up to speed. We had one cart machine to play commercials. I think it was a Gates, but I’m not positive anymore. Most of our commercials were live copy probably because no one really wanted to return to the station after sign-off to record commercials. We had an old rack-mounted Magnecord reel-to-reel in an equipment rack along side us in the studio which was used for playing PSAs and Sunday Programs and recording and playing back our daily “Hospital Report” from the Lewisburg Community Hospital. Our dial telephone hung on the back wall with a very long coil cord so we could talk while sitting at the mixer.

The transmitter was a 250 watt RCA which was in the basement of our building. In the winter, the sign-on DJ had to warm the rectifier tubes under his arms before turning it on or the rectifier tubes would explode from being cold. The 250-foot guyed tower was directly behind the station. Will Nesbit was the on-call engineer who did a fine job of keeping us on the air with the small budget he had to work with. Since Will had a full-time job and lived in Sunbury, Pa., about 15 miles from the station, I tried not to call him on my Sunday shift unless it was a major problem I could not work around, like being off the air.

My Sunday DJ shift started at Noon and went until sign off. In the winter months, that would be 4:45. In August, the month with the longest broadcast time, I could go until 8:45. Our music was easy listening although at my young age I wanted to play Top40.

Carl Miller was the owner and sales person. Gloria Bailey held the post of station manager and did some air time. Gar Kron was the morning announcer and Bob Rexroad did the rest of the day. Gar was sometimes mistakenly called Car Chrome by his listeners. Gar taught a broadcast class at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and also sold Amway. ‘Rexroad with records’ also had ‘Flat Friends’. Bob drove a nice MG and had a habit of going across the highway to the Colonial Crest Restaurant and Lounge Sunday mornings during a one-hour religious tape to get coffee and doughnuts. One morning, while he was sitting at the counter enjoying his food, the tape broke and there was dead air for about twenty minutes until Bob returned to the studio and fixed the problem.

One summer afternoon, Carl Miller took us (the entire staff) boating on the Susquehanna River. That was the first time I saw him out of his expensive-looking tailored suits. Even dressed down, Carl’s hair was impeccable. The boat looked like a speedboat to me (I don’t know much about boats) and looked as though it could go fast although Carl did not speed in it. He maintained a steady speed all day just as he did in his shiny white Cadillac. He must have had it washed every day because I never saw a speck of dirt on it.

I quickly tired of news gathering and playing easy listening music on Sundays so I began sending T&Rs within a few months of employment. I landed a job at WRAW in Reading, Pa and left WUNS in my rearview mirror.

I remember WRAW radio.

WRAW, 1340 am, 1,000 watts day, 250 watts night. The studios were on the 3rd floor at the corner of 5^th and Court streets in downtown Reading, Pa. The general offices were on the second floor, and Ed the chief engineer had a huge collection of old equipment on the 4^th floor. The broadcast tower was on the roof top of Pomeroy’s department store at 6^th and Penn, which was six stories tall.

At night, we barely covered past the city limits, but our signal was good enough to pull in the ratings. We were the only Top40 game in town, but had competition from Philadelphia. During the daytime hours, WIBG (Wibbage) had a very good signal and WFIL (Famous 56) boomed in day and night. We signed off the air at midnight for a while, but after my ratings continually grew, my show was extended until 2 am. Eventually, I don’t remember how long it was, we hired another DJ and went all night. So my show went back to 7 to Midnight again.

Ben Varishone was the General Manager of this William Rust Station and also emceed a Polka show on Sunday Mornings, which drew the most fan mail of any show on the air.

The DJ lineup included: J.W. Wagner; Biff Price; Mark Thomas; Dave Stanley; Johnny Knight 7 – Midnight and signoff; then 7 – 2 am and signoff; then back to 7 – Midnight when Roger Miller was hired to do Midnight – 6 and WRAW became a 24 hour radio station.

Stu Streeter and Ken Matz did news weekdays, Jeff Dean handled the news on my shift. On weekends, we read our own news.

Dave Stanley was there when I first came on board, but left shortly thereafter for a job in West Chester, Pa. I didn’t really get to know him. Bob Lewis was hired as a part-timer and did weekends and soon left for a job in DC. The Big Tweed, an aspiring DJ, dropped in from time to time to talk about breaking into the business. The first time he came he climbed the fire escape and pounded on the exit door until we opened it. After that, he called and we let him to visit with us. I’m not sure, but I think he eventually landed a job at WPAZ in Pottstown, Pa.

The time I was at WRAW was when ‘real radio’ was on the AM dial and the talent was just as, or even more important, than the music. The time of the great PAMS jingles and ‘Much More Music’ and ‘Boss Jocks’ and ‘Good Guys’ and record hops and personal appearances and remote broadcasts. The on-air giveaways, such as “Every record we play, we give away!” And free tickets to concerts with back stage passes, tickets to local fairs, and drive-in movies. Tickets to amusement parks. Shopping sprees, “Prize Patrols”, “Cash Calls” and “news tips” and weather and time checks and temperature checks. Jokes and clever record intros and traffic reports. Commercials that didn’t repeat every break, but instead rotated, so the listener didn’t get hammered and bored with the same spot every quarter hour on a power buy. A time when the commercials were not louder than the programming. All the good things, the fun things, that made Top40 radio king in the 60s. Things that made for good memories of great radio listening.

I had some memorable moments during my show. One was where I went out on the fire escape with a microphone and drew a crowd of my fans much to the chagrin of the police department, the chief complaining the next day to my boss that I caused a ‘traffic hazard’ on 5^th Street. Another time, I had seven student nurses in the studio. They called from a pay phone across the street and asked if they could come up to see me. Visitors weren’t allowed after regular business hours, but I made an exception. Seven beautiful girls… who wouldn’t? The same exception I made for my faithful fans (and Pappa Dino’s Pizza and Sammy’s Steaks) who would bring delicious food to the station for Jeff Dean and me. Jeff was always busy racing down the stairs to open the locked door. On another occasion, Jimmy Velvet (It’s Almost Tomorrow) dropped in for a visit and we played his latest record and chatted on the air for an hour. He gave me an autographed album and promotional picture. Jay Parker (Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie) also dropped by with his new release, Keep The Ball Rolling as did the Soul Survivors (Expressway to Your Heart).

I left WRAW in September of 1968.

I remember WUDO

WUDO was the former WUNS in the same building that looked like a small house but now had a large addition on the south end.

I was in search of I really didn’t know what. I thought I wanted to be in station management, then I thought I wanted to leave radio altogether. Then I thought I wanted to return to college to earn a degree I had been working on without a sincere desire to actually finish. In summary, I suppose I was lost without direction.

I dropped in on my friend, Long John Wade (Carl Wehde) at WFIL in Philadelphia many times while working at WRAW and he always encouraged me to try out for WFIL. Of course he was a friend and I took his words with a grain of salt. I wish now I had taken the time to talk with Jay Cook about possible employment, but I never did and that’s water under the broadcast bridge.

I was in Syracuse, New York, visiting a friend from college and was driving back to Carlisle, Pa., where I had an interview with WIOO Radio when I passed the former WUNS and now WUDO building. I saw the new, big addition to the old, small house and the new large, black call letters and wondered if any of my former friends were still there, so I turned left off Routes 11 & 15 and stopped in.

Don Steese was the Program Director and he told me about the station being owned by a group which included Arnold Palmer, Dick Lynch, Whitey Ford, and Ted Hodge. Ted was the former “Voice of the Jets and Giants Radio Network” and was at WUDO in the capacity of President/General Manager. Don Steese mentioned in conversation that he grew up in Reading, Pa., as I did, and that he had an opening at WUDO and I decided on the spot to fill it. After all, I liked Lewisburg when I was there before, and I would be close to Bucknell University where I thought I’d take a few classes and I happened to be out of work with no ties to any particular city.

In addition to Don Steese, at one time or another, Ron Chubb was on the air as was Bill Moyer, Jim “Louis” Kurtz and Kenny Adamson, “The Big KA.” Mark Hanlin was one of our part-timers along with a few others I can’t seem to remember. Will Nesbit was still the on-call engineer. In addition, Bobby Mersick, an EE Junior from Bucknell University helped us with minor modifications I dreamed up for the studio and didn’t want to call Will Nesbit to handle. Fat Jack was our local newsperson when I came on board and Rick Heller took his place after Jack left. I took over Rick’s duties after he left in addition to doing my show and designing and tabulating our WUDO music survey. I also selected our weekly playlist. In effect, I was the station’s Music Director.

Ted Hodge eventually brought Bob Hile on board as Station Manager. Bob handled the administrative duties, most of our time sales, recorded a few commercials, and delivered the 8:00 am news cast. I became Program Director after Don Steese left, moved into morning drive and brought Dave Bartholomew on board to do mid days. Dave did a good job on and off the air and remained with the station after I left to go to WMLP in Milton, Pa.

I remember WMLP

WMLP was a 1,000 watt daytime radio station at 1380 on the AM dial. It had pre-sunrise authority and therefore signed on every day at 6:00 am. The FM was at 100.9 MHz and simulcasted the AM programming until local sign off, then went automated during the overnight hours until the AM signed on again with J.J. (Jim Jacobs) at 6 am. The studios and offices were located on the second floor in the old YMCA building in downtown Milton, Pa. There was no question about the popularity of WMLP AM. It was THE station to listen to in the area with a wide-reaching signal.

When I came on board, Victor Michael was the owner/general manager, his brother Bob Michael was a sales executive, John Yingling was sales manager, Pat Fink held down the office and Terry Lloyd wrote commercial copy and programmed the FM automation each night. The air staff consisted of J.J. (Jim Jacobs), Don Steese, Bill Kelly, and Paul Herbert. I replaced Bill Kelly, but did the sign off show with Paul Herbert moving into Bill’s slot. Harry Bingaman was the full-time station engineer, Vic Michael was the chief engineer. Vic also did an extended weather report on my show. Vic was really into weather forecasting at the time along with many other interests which included photography and cinematography.

Along with doing my show, I helped Terry Lloyd write some of the copy and recorded a lot of the commercials after I signed off the air. I also recorded the ‘Time Tapes’ for the FM automation system which was a real fun thing to do. The Odd and Even time checks, sponsored of course, were on a large, continuous loop tape cartridge; one cartridge for the even time and one for the odd time. The fun came when I was nearing the end of the tape and flubbed a word. There was no going back, the entire cartridge had to be erased and rerecorded from the beginning. I can’t tell you the number of times I wished there were an easier way to record the time checks or at least to control my mouth. Luckily, this was not an every day event. I believe it happened only once every 3 months or so. I also watched the automation overnight when the need arose for me to do so.

WMLP was a fun place to work, always something going on with on-air games like Radio Bingo and local dances—J.J. at the Green—and Remote Broadcasts from local merchant’s stores. I especially enjoyed doing the Remote Broadcasts from Stuck Brothers Furniture in Northumberland.

I got really interested in photography while chumming with Pat’s husband Dick Fink. He had gotten a new Nikkormat 35mm camera and it wasn’t long before I bought a Minolta SRT-101. Dick and I would get together and go on photo missions around the area and critique each other’s work.

Harry Bingaman was a real card. He was always into something, like the time he nailed our large plastic waste can to the floor and the janitor, “Bill” came in during my show to empty the trash as usual. I was on the air at the time, but Bill didn’t usually make much noise, so it was not unusual for him to pick up and empty the can while I was live. This time, though, the can would not budge as he tried to pick it up. Old Bill grunted and heaved, and really heaved, and the entire bottom ripped out of the can sending empty soda cans and bottles and lunch scraps and newswire copy over the studio floor. Bill started cussing and of course I broke up laughing on the air while reading a live spot and had to quickly go into a record. Harry also told of the time he nailed a fellow’s lunch box to the counter top and when the guy grabbed the lunch box in a race to the lunch room, he pulled the handle off the lunch box which didn’t move from the counter top.

Recording artists were known to drop in to promote their latest record and Gordon Lightfoot was no exception. He stopped by one afternoon in worn jeans and pink glasses while I was on the air and we had a great interview concerning his latest release, Sundown.

The Susquehanna River flooded while I was at WMLP. The water rose in downtown Milton to nearly the level of our second floor studios and offices. J.J., Don Steese and I went to the transmitter site before the water got too deep in downtown Milton and we stayed on the air 24 hours a day for several days from there broadcasting emergency messages and flood information to the area. The damage along the Susquehanna was enormous, but luckily, downriver, the city of Sunbury was saved from the high water by their flood wall. The water was within inches of going over the top, but the wall held.

Somewhere along the time I was at WMLP, I decided I wanted to get my FCC First Class License and pursue a career off the air as a broadcast engineer. I did get my ‘First’ but pursuing the technical side of the business was put on hold temporarily when I received a phone call during my show one afternoon. Mike McKay from WSBA Radio in York, Pa. offered me a job at his station doing 7 pm to Midnight.

I remember WSBA

WSBA AM · 910 kHz, 5000 watts day, 1000 watts night, YORK, PA, serving York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Although at the time, we only acknowledged the Tri-cities of York, Harrisburg, Lancaster in our weather and Ids. WSBA was owned by Susquehanna Broadcasting and the studios and transmitters were in a brick building with the directional towers directly behind. The AM studio itself had no windows to the outside world, but had a large window directly behind the talent area through which one could view the transmitters and the engineer on duty.

I held the 7 pm to midnight slot Monday thru Friday, and 2 pm to 6 pm on Sunday. That left Saturdays open for scheduling record hops and personal appearances, of which I was booked solid. The station had a portable DJ setup for hops which could be rented at a reasonable cost along with a kit of 45 rpm records which included all the latest songs and a good selection of oldies. The good thing about renting the equipment was that it worked, was easily toted about and assembled, and was maintained by the station’s engineering department.

We used to join CBS network news at the top of the hour with our local news at five minutes before the network. The newsperson had to time his newscast to hit the top-of-the-hour tone right before the news sounder. During the times there was no local newscast, the DJ had to time his music to hit the sounder. A lot of guys took the easy route there and played an instrumental to be able to fade it at the right moment to hit that tone.

The ‘WSBA Good Guys’ consisted of Harry West in morning drive, Mike McKay followed Harry and Rick Burton followed Mike. Jack Armstrong held down afternoon drive and myself, Johnny Knight, handled 7 to midnight. Bob Evans took over Midnight to 6 am. We had several full-time and several part-time news people with Ron Chubb from WUDO fame one of the part-time reporters. Bob Markham delivered the news on my weekday shift. Steve Carlton was one of the part-timers who handled my Sunday casts.

WSBA did a lot of promotion and a lot of public service and did a lot of local events. There was always an on-air contest or promotion or charitable fund-raiser running. We were very popular in the Triple Cities.

Ray Ensinger was the chief engineer; John Sheldon one of the station engineers usually on duty during my shift.

As I mentioned previously, I was interested in becoming a broadcast engineer and had asked Ray about possibly doing some of the maintenance work, but since I had no real hands-on training, Ray didn’t think he could use me. Then, as luck would have it, Bob Evans left WSBA to go to South Williamsport, Pa. as program director at WMPT. Bob called me shortly after he took over his duties and arranged for me to do afternoon drive and learn-while-doing engineering for the station owner, Dave Castlebury. It was a deal I couldn’t pass up. I resigned my WSBA affiliation and headed to South Williamsport, Pa.

I remember WMPT

WMPT was a 1,000 watt Daytime, 250 watt Nighttime AM radio station in South Williamsport, Pa. at 1450 on the dial with an FM simulcasting the AM programming at 99.3 MHz twenty four hours a day.

Galen David Castlebury, Jr. was the owner and also a County Commissioner. He was one of the best to work for. Words cannot describe how much Dave was liked by his staff.

During my stay at WMPT, I handled 2 pm to 6 pm on the air as Johnny (Nasty) Knight and did a load of Remote Broadcasts. My friend Bob Evans was program director and morning drive announcer 6-10.

Ron Shobert was preparing to leave WMPT to go to WLYC/WILQ to do their all night show. Later, Ron help build and become General Manager of WJJR FM in Mifflinburg, Pa.

Dolly Wilt (Hello Dolly!) was working in the office, but no longer on the air. Glenaire Snyder was Office Manager and Gary Strausser was a sales executive.
Bill Byham (a full-time school teacher and former professional minor league ball player) did a daily sports report after 5 p.m. ('that's thirty').

Mike Fogarty and Scott Lowery did local high school play-by-play announcing for us.
Bob Jackson was doing some spot sales for the station and was on the air part-time. His wife 'Egg Fryer' used to drop by the station with Bob on occasion.

Jim Sortman was there for a while, but left to go into forestry.
Greg Isadore did 10-2, Tom Turner handled 6-12 and Glen 'Ton of Fun' Watkins was overnight, Midnight-6.
Al Hoover broadcast a Saturday night oldies show (Al Hoover's Hall of Fame) that
was really popular Saturday nights 11 - 2.
Harry Seltzer was the GM (also Chief of the First Ward Fire Company) who left WMPT to take a job with Motorola.

Kelly Watts was also gone by the time I got there, although he dropped in a few times so I knew who he was. At one point, Kelly was managing a station in Canton, Pa. for Dave.

Somewhere in the mix of talent was Frank Bell who, as I remember, was very good on the air. Sue Andrews came aboard as the first full-time female personality. Mona Fisher was hired before Sue, and was the first female announcer at WMPT, although she was part-time doing Sunday mornings. Sue was the first full-time female announcer.
Alan Pruess, a talented electrical engineer friend of Dave’s, built an automation system for Dave and also some 2-way car mobile radios for the station.

I had more interest in engineering than remaining on the air at the time, and I credit Dave with giving me my start in that field. I had my First Class FCC license, but no real broadcast related experience. Dave made sure I got plenty of hands-on training in the years I was with him.

Mike Dorrough came to our FM transmitter site to install one of his first Discriminate audio processors making WMPT-FM one of the best sounding FMs in the market at the time.

Dave also arranged my hours so I could enroll at Williamsport Area Community College, then after graduation, attend Penn State to earn an EE degree.

Dave didn't need a full-time engineer, he could handle that himself, so with a mutual parting of the ways and hands-on experience, I returned to Susquehanna Broadcasting as their Chief Engineer at WLQA FM in Cincinnati, Ohio.