On The Air!

    THURSDAY, AUGUST 20TH.

              ON THE AIR

     For me it's a walk down Memory
Lane. Today is National Radio Day.
     The bulk of my 55 years in the
media have been in television. But
I got my start in radio. And I've got
a lot of memories from those "radio
daze."
      I learned a lot from the years I
spent as a DJ. How to Ad Lib for
instance! You had to think and
act fast when things didn't go just
right.
      I remember reading a list of
Basketball scores. Suddenly, in
the middle of the list, I hit this one
.
( School name)  36
Pennsylvania School for the Dead, 20.
     What the wire service writer meant,
of course, was Pennsylvania School
for The Deaf.
      With my microphone still turned
on I said...."Gee, I'm surprised they
scored at all."
       Local radio was generally a lot
of fun back then. If you were
innovative you could do some neat
things. One day, at WBRX in Berwick,
I was working the control board when
a parade started coming down Main
Street. I grabbed an extra long
microphone cord, walked to a hallway
window, and did a "play by play" on
the line of march.
     Local radio was very local! I still
remember WAZL in Hazleton still
doing the Mine Working Schedules
for area coal mines and breakers when
I was getting started in 1959.
     We carried the New York Yankees
when I worked at WTHT (also in
Hazleton). When Yankee announcer
Mel Allan paused for stations on the
network to identify themselves, I'd
say "Thank you Mel" as though we
knew each other before giving our
call letters.
     Problem was, we were a "Daytime
Station" and had to go off the air at
dusk. But, sometimes, the ballgames
weren't over at dusk!  I'd have to
turn off the transmitter and run out
of the place as soon as possible to
avoid having to answer the telephone!
       I broadcast from a closet at
WNAK the day President Kennedy
was shot. That's where we kept our
Associated Press Teletype and it was
the fastest way for me to air the
latest developments.
       Our shining hour came just
before and in the weeks after the
1972 flood in Wyoming Valley when
a dozen area radio stations joined
forces to provide information on
the emergency. One headline read
"Radio Was The Hero Of The Hour!"
        So here's a tip of the hat to the
folks on and behind the microphones
then, and now, as we observe
National Radio Day!
        Hope the School for the Dead
is still playing strong...and that all
your NEWS is good!

         (WBRX Berwick 1965)