Sunday, September 30, 2012

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #442

PHOTO INDEX: Super Redskins fan Brian Hughes and WARM announcer. 

THE LOCAL BRIDGE 


Any successful radio station has a local identity. That was the strength of WARM Radio in its heyday. WARM Radio as The Oldies Channel has adopted the music that made WARM the most popular radio entity in Northeastern Pennsylvania. To keep the local connection going, veteran broadcaster Brian Hughes is the local bridge between local news and weather and the nationally syndicated oldies heard on WARM. Hughes is the voice you hear every morning doing news briefs and weather updates. 
Brian is a 1984 graduate of the University of Scranton, with a B.A. in Communications. He was a sports intern at WDAU-TV, working with Kent Westling from 1982 to 1984. Hughes also worked at WGBI AM-FM (Country 910 and Stereo 101) from November 1984 until Feb. 1993, when the stations were sold to Keymarket, now Entercomm. Hughes also worked part time at WEJL and WBAX from Jan. 1994 until July 1995. If you were anywhere in your car in the late 90s Brian was a traffic anchor/producer at Traffax, which later became Metro from July 1995 to March 2002. In July 2002, he  joined Citadel, and worked overnights for WARM, occasionally filling in as a news anchor. In January 2003, Hughes became the news anchor for Magic 93, and sidekick to "Frankie in the Morning", while anchoring newscasts on WARM and JR 93.7, now Great Country 93.7. 
Currently, Brian works as the morning news anchor on the Mighty 590, now True Oldies Radio providing a local flavor to the syndicated oldies that WARM runs 24/7. Brian also hosts the Sunday Magazine Show on all the Cumulus stations. So in addition to True Oldies giving you the tunes, Brian Hughes will be telling you what went on while you slept and what type of weather day you’ll be facing as you start your workday in what many still consider WARMland.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #443

An ad for the hub with WARM personality Tommy Woods. 

A FASHION PLATE 


One of the perks about being a WARM personality in the 1960s was the opportunity to get other work. Most of the WARM jocks got gigs as deejays at record hops. Even when schools had bands, the WARM jocks still hosted the show playing records in between the live act. (I met many a WARM personality at the St. John’s dances in Pittston!) Tommy Woods went to the next level actually appearing in an ad for The Hub. Woods’ all American good looks gave him that clean cut well dressed man look guys at the time wanted to emulate and women just adored. Even in retirement Woods is a star in advertising. Recently he was on TV as a spokesperson for a elder care facility.