On May 12th 1968 during that very turbulent time in our history, one of WARM's former employees hit the international limelight for his work in North Korea. David Vrablic, known to 590 listeners as Davey Jones, he of The Davey Jones locker fame, was chronicled the story.
Fifty years ago this month, WARM Radio's surveys had a mix of pop, bubblegum and rock. As news of the Tet Offensive permeated First News First, The Lemon Pipers had the number one position on the Top 40 charts. Number 3 was The Cowsills follow up hit, "We Can Fly", number 17 was Herb Alpert's "Carmen", numbers 21, 22 and 23 were debut songs by "Otis Redding" (Dock of The Bay", The Dells with "There Is" and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels "Personality/Chantilly Lace" medley.
Talk about a time warp. WARM Radio always promoted everything it did including the news. This promo though stirs up a type of cultural time warp. Terry McNulty and Ken Curtis who used to be overnights were doing news. Jeff Lubar was The Washington reporter courtesy of UPI. But the one that stands out is Kitch Loftus who turned into one of the most accomplished news reporters in the market was dubbed as "The News Girl". Loftus later went on to work with her husband the late Anthony Mussari on award winning documentaries called "Windsor Park Stories". But here is that promo.
THE START OF EDUCATIONAL TV AND HOW WARM WAS INVOLVED
We all take WVIA TV and FM for granted. Many in our community think it's always been there. But every great broadcast entity begins with a seed of an idea. That idea spawned by Marywood College at the time grew into public broadcasting. In 1955 Marywood offered a 13 week course via television. It was a History of Drama class. This ad illustrates just how "The world via TV" started. Years later WVIA, in 1966 brought Education and Entertainment via TV. Later on the radio too. Integral in its start was of course WARM TV. Channel 16. Later WVIA started at Marywood with the help of equipment from WNEP. Thanks to our good friend Joe Klapatch for finding this ad.
Kevin Jordan came to WARM at the ripe old age of 19. He was a hard hitting newsman, loved his work, and had an authoritative voice that WARM Radio listeners loved to listen to in the mid 1970s. Jordan later went on to working with Luzerne County and in private business before his death but during his time at WARM, Kevin Jordan was a "must listen to" broadcaster. Here's a very brief audio snippet of him on The Mighty 590, WARM.
Mrs. 590 Forever, the late Terry McNulty and the late Mary Carrano. (Photo: 590 Forever archives)
He was known as "The Big Fella" when he did weekends at WARM, then when he did 9 to noon and ultimately taking over the WARM morning shift after Harry West departed, TBF was the moniker that stuck. He was also known for his serialization of a fictional Wilkes Barre Area (Goose Island) couple Pushy and Reba Bosco as well as his "Pineapple Feature" where locals were included in the joke to pass the can of pineapple around for just a taste. But McNulty was an accomplished newsman. As a matter of fact, he was one of the first news people on the scene at Sheppton's Mine Disaster in 1963. To WARMland he announced the shooting and death of John F. Kennedy. McNulty went from on air personality to newsman because he was so versatile. From 1978 here is a classic Terry McNulty newscast on The Mighty 590.
WARM had such an aura about them through the years that its status in the community was elevated to near broadcast canonization. But WARM was a business like any other operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania. There were times as this Scranton Tribune article from 1955 showed that at some point there were some steps backward in order to regroup and move forward. From our good friend Joe Klapatach.
Political analyst for WBRE TV's Pa. Live program and post election commentator for WBRE TV's Eyewitness News Daybreak show. Author of the book "A Radio Story/We Wish You Well In Your Future Endeavors" and "Leges Vitae" "26 Rules of Life" and the new novel, "Weather Or Knot". The blog editor also writes various news articles and columns as well as upcoming literary projects. The blog editor was a frequent guest on WYOU TV'S INTERACTIVE NEWSCASTS when political issues were discussed on the national, state and local level. Yonki was a weekly panelist on WYLN TV 35's Friday Topic A program. He also appeared on the Hazleton, PA. station on Election Night doing coverage and did special projects and stories for WYLN TV 35's 10PM Newscast "Late Edition".
