Sunday, December 27, 2009

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #522

PHOTO INDEX: WARM'S HARRY WEST HOLDING A RECORD, NO WORD IF IT "A KISS OF DEATH RECORD".

HARRY'S KISS OF DEATH

If you were a listener to WARM's Harry West in the 60s, 70, and 80s, you'd hear him pronounce "The Harry West Kiss of Death Record". West described it as "a song destined to go nowhere because I like it". Sometimes Harry was right but more times than not he was wrong. Here are three songs from three different decades that Harry liked....and they became hits.
From the 60s, The Turtles, "She'd Rather Be With Me".


In the 70s, it was this ballad by Englebert Humperdink.

And in the 80s it was "That's Love" by Jim Capaldi.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #523

PHOTO INDEX: CHRISTMAS COLORED SURVEY SHEET FROM WARM RADIO 1967. (CLICK TO ENLARGE).

CHRISTMAS AT WARM

WARM Radio never missed an opportunity to promote itself in subtle ways. When you picked up a suervey sheet during the holidays there was a greeting or a colorful addition to the sheet. WARM essentially went all Christmas music around the 22nd and by Christmas Eve WARM ran holiday music non stop until the 26th. It was a nice respite from the frantic top 40 WARM was known for. Information was provided by UPI updates and of course on Christmas Eve there were the tracking updates from the North Pole.

As politicians argue over government spending, there is one line item that is likely to stay in the budget for the foreseeable future: the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD's) yearly Santa Watch. For the last 54 years, the military command -- tasked with protecting the US and Canada against missile attacks -- has answered phone calls from children who want to track the jolly old elf's progress across the Western Hemisphere. Actually, the Santa Watch began long before NORAD came into being. In December 1955, Sears Roebuck ran a newspaper ad with what they claimed was Santa's direct number. Unfortunately, the phone number they offered was one digit off; instead of Sears, it linked to a top secret line at CONAD, the Continental Air Defense Command. When Colonel Harry Shoup, the command's director of operations, answered the phone, he expected to hear about a missile strike against the US. Instead, he got a little kid who wanted to talk to Santa. Although the conversation ended with the child crying and Shoup fuming, the Colonel eventually came around and began giving the children updates on Santa's travels through the night sky. The following year, CONAD offered a new, non-secret, phone number that children could call. In 1958, when CONAD became NORAD, the new command continued the tradition. Over the following decades, the tradition has grown. In 2008, 1,275 people, 100 phones, and 25 computers handled 69,845 phone calls and 6,086 e-mails from around the world. In order to ensure that the many volunteers don't issue conflicting reports, Santa Watch uses a large wall-sized map that integrates the latest Santa sightings with Google maps. For basic Santa tracking, NORAD relies on the same 47 radar installations, fighter jets and spy satellites that help it identify enemy missiles. In addition, the command's website states that it uses digital cameras positioned around the world that capture images of Santa. Presumably, this four-pronged defense system protects against friendly-fire incidents: after all, it isn't hard to imagine how the combination of a red sled, eight reindeer, a red-clad gift giver and a highly vigilant military defense system could result in roasted venison and a ruined holiday. As NORAD has gotten more complex, so has its Santa tracking. In 1998, the command introduced the program to the Internet, enabling children to watch Santa's movement from the comfort of their own computers. In 2007, Google came on board, giving NORAD access to its 2-D maps and 3-D Google Earth resources to improve its tracking. Gmail also provides an address that children can use to email their lists directly to Santa. With a presence on most social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the program is prepared to tell children around the world about the wonders of Santa -- and NORAD.

And this was the number one song at Christmas time 1967 with a smiling Ron Allen on the sheet.



Monday, December 21, 2009

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #524

PHOTO INDEX: PHOTO FROM POCONO DRAG LODGE.

DRAG LODGE REUNION

A word at the end of this year on an exciting development for 2010 and the good people at Pocono Drag Lodge. Here's an announcement from Drag Lodge Reunion coordinator Charlie Hulzsizer. I know its a ways away, but wanted to fill everyone in on the First Annual (I Hope) Warmland Mighty 590 reunion to be held in Conjunction with the Pocono Drag Lodge reunion, August 14, 2010, from 9 am to 5 pm. What went together better than cars, Pocono Drag lodge, and the best station ever, anywhere???I hope to get as many former WARM personalities, workers, fans, radioheads up at the reunion, which will be once again held at the drag strip on Meadow Run road, in Bear Creek. Last years reunion was a huge success,and we are adding the WARM reunion, hopefully a small reunion of the Lyndwood dragsters that were built in Wilkes- Barre, and the Alison P. Suter blues band will be giving a free concert!!! Joey Shaver has promised me that one way or another he will have the "SUNDAY-SUNDAY-SUNDAY" pdl spot that ran on WARM, and we will be dropping WARM Jingles in between the tunes. Please get me your email addresses so I can get you on a mailing list; mine is
ecoair9798@aol.com..suggestions would be greatly appreciated and would help make this a memorable event!!
Thanks
Charlie Hulsizer
These were some of the drag songs you heard on WARM
.





Wednesday, December 16, 2009

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #525

PHOTO INDEX: OPERATION SNOWFLAKE

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

If you were a kid growing up in the 60s and you wanted a snow day, you turned to WARM radio to hear if your school was going to close. WARM used these announcements as an opportunity to increase sales and audience. School administrators were given special instructions and posters to display the information. With no local TV news shows on the air at the time, WARM dominated what was then the information freeway.
The local Triple A also did road reports for the highways and byways of WARM. These 2 minute road updates ran from early November to March.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #526

PHOTO INDEX: WARM AD PROMOTION FOR FOOTBALL GUIDE ON BACK OF SURVEY SHEET.

FOOTBALL PROMO

WARM Radio used its relationship with national clients to build an audience and provide little goodies to their listeners. Before the merger of the National and American Football Leagues, WARM ran a promotion with Campbell Soups to sell a combined NFL/AFL guide book. This was just one of many sideline promotions WARM used in the 60s to build audience and increase sales with advertising clients.