PHOTO INDEX: VINCE SWEENEY, THEN WARM PERSONALITY, DIANE WASTA, STEVE ST. JOHN THEN WARM PERSONALALITY AND THE LATE TERRY McNULTY, ALSO A WARM PERSONALITY.
THE GREAT RACE V
In the 1980s, Wilkes Barre City got involved with an event called The Great American Race. The first one involved antique cars making their way across America. Since that event went so well, anything with the word "Race" in it became a mainstay as part of a radio promotion. WARM got involved in many of these efforts. One of them was a thing called "The Great Race V" sponsored by Celluar One, a company trying to hook WARMlanders on this new fangled handheld gadget called a cell phone. The selling point was you didn't need a cord to talk on the phone. The Great Race was a triatholon I believe and teams from around the area competed. WARM Radio fielded a team and competed in running and boating. According to Vince Sweeney's blog, on the canoes, "Seems I remember us coming in last. Dead last. The river was low. Steve and I carried the canoe more than we paddled it. There's a name for that; portaging." McNulty, a very fit man and good runner for his age competed in the marathon part. I have no memory of how he did. Anyway, this was still another promotion WARM took part in. The interesting thing about promotions like these, especially those done in the 60s through 80s, was that jocks gave of their time for free. There were no talent fees to speak of for these people to show up and participate. Sure it got the word out about a person's show or the radio station, but there was no big monetary payoff. And the station, yes even the Mighty 590 considered it "community" time, ie time without pay. From the photo, the guys looked like they were having a great time. And knowing three of the four as I did, they most likely were. However, it might have been better if someone threw a few bucks their way for lending their "celebrity" to an event.
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