A NICE RIDE...SO FAR!

  FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND., 2019
          A NICE RIDE...SO FAR!

   Long before I started this daily blog
my good friend David Yonki started
the Lulackpolitical newsletter, a blog
that covers all sorts of community and
political matters. On Thursday David
honored me with a tribute for my 6
decades of broadcasting. I'd like to
share it with all of my friends by
reprinting here today.

Here he is in great form and better than ever on ECTV. 

(Photos: DeCosmo blogsite)

Long time broadcaster David DeCosmo is celebrating 6 decades in broadcasting this year. 60 years. He started hanging around radio station WAZL at he age of 15 and things in broadcasting have changed since then. Now most anyone can get sound from an IPhone but Davis first assignment was to tape a presentation by then Congressman Dan Flood. For those of us who remember the dulcet tones of Flood, it was almost impossible to keep up with the ebb and flow of his vocal levels but somehow DeCosmo brought back a finished product that could air. 
 Starting out as a teenager in Hazleton Area radio has led to Dave becoming  a veritable institution in this radio and TV market. For years he was the News Director of WILK in Wilkes Barre and a well known fixture in County government covering meetings and the like. During the 1972 flood DeCosmo helped found the Agnes Flood Radio network putting together a string of local radio stations that provided vital information at time of crisis. 
David was also the very first President of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Media Association. Those meetings, which I was a part of were seminars conducted by the broadcast and news print greats of NEPA.  DeCosmo also served twice as President of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association.
In 1973 he went on to WMJW and won many broadcasting awards there as News Director. DeCosmo later shifted to TV where he and the late Kevin Jortdan were the premier news duo for WYOU TV. DeCosmo stayed at the station covering a myriad of stories that bordered on the national corners of the news realm.
He was the last witness to testify at a Coroner's inquest regarding the Teddy Kennedy-Mary Jo Kopechne situation.  He has been an educator of students wanting to get in the media and his wealth of institutional knowledge is untouchable.
Not content to sit on the sidelines, DeCosmo still does a weekly TV show on ECTV which we promote weekly here on LuLac. 
David and his wife's wedding was announced on National Radio by none other than Paul Harvey on ABC when Harvey was detailing the number of marriages that stood the test of time. Dave ad his wife Leona were barely newlyweds when Harvey bestowed  that honor. Plus I'm sure Harvey is smiling somewhere knowing that the "two kids" he mentioned years ago are still together and thriving.
For me, he has been a mentor, friend, confidante and supporter of every endeavor I have undertaken. He was the best damn softball pitcher my softball team, The Lady Killers ever had. 
On 60 years of excellence and dedication, we salute David DeCosmo and hope you will too. 

  Thank you David Yonki! Wish I was still pitching too! Hope all your NEWS is good!