PHOTO INDEX: PETE ERICKSON AND BOBBY DAY AT A SOFTBALL SOFTIES DINNER. (PHOTO COURTESY OF BOBBY DAY.)
THE CONTEST WINNER
WARM Radio in its heyday had thousands of contests but none was more controversial and talked about than the one where WARM issued a hunt for the biggest sports fan in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Amidst much ballyhoo, WARM sounded the clarion call for all fans to register with the Mighty 590 for this contest. Men, women, former athletes, college students, working Joes and Josies wrote in and declared why they should be WARM Radio’s biggest fan. The promotion was done to make the transition in the 70s from a full service top 40 AM to more concentrated sports coverage. You’d still hear Harry West, and the current hits but there would be an incremental increase in the hours of sports programming. Ron Allen’s 20/20 Sports became “The Sunday Night Sportsline”. For a time George Gilbert co-hosted with Allen but the thought was that Allen’s sidekick would be “WARM’s Greatest Sports Fan”. No one knows for sure how it happened. My friends at WARM say their memories are very foggy but Pete Erickson became the number 1 Sports Fan in WARMland. Erickson then co-hosted the show with Allen for many years. When Allen had a heart attack in the mid 70s, Erickson even hosted the show on his own with the help once in a while of Double G and Tim Karlson. Erickson, employed in private industry proved to be a treasure trove of sports knowledge. Between he and Allen, no sports fan could stump them on any question. Erickson became part of the station culture attending and speaking at high school athletic banquets, playing in the WARM Softball Softies games and becoming part of the WARM on air team. When you still mention his name to people of a certain age, they’ll tell you he was a “sports guy” from WARM. Whether it was intended or not (and there are some who will argue that this was an elaborate orchestration masterminded by that promotional genius Ron Allen) the station’s contest for “The Greatest Sports Fan” in WARMLAND yielded positive results in promoting WARM as the place to be for the seminal sports talk radio craze that exists to this day. But it also got in the bargain a person that turned into a legitimate sports presence in the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Radio market for years.
WARM Radio in its heyday had thousands of contests but none was more controversial and talked about than the one where WARM issued a hunt for the biggest sports fan in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Amidst much ballyhoo, WARM sounded the clarion call for all fans to register with the Mighty 590 for this contest. Men, women, former athletes, college students, working Joes and Josies wrote in and declared why they should be WARM Radio’s biggest fan. The promotion was done to make the transition in the 70s from a full service top 40 AM to more concentrated sports coverage. You’d still hear Harry West, and the current hits but there would be an incremental increase in the hours of sports programming. Ron Allen’s 20/20 Sports became “The Sunday Night Sportsline”. For a time George Gilbert co-hosted with Allen but the thought was that Allen’s sidekick would be “WARM’s Greatest Sports Fan”. No one knows for sure how it happened. My friends at WARM say their memories are very foggy but Pete Erickson became the number 1 Sports Fan in WARMland. Erickson then co-hosted the show with Allen for many years. When Allen had a heart attack in the mid 70s, Erickson even hosted the show on his own with the help once in a while of Double G and Tim Karlson. Erickson, employed in private industry proved to be a treasure trove of sports knowledge. Between he and Allen, no sports fan could stump them on any question. Erickson became part of the station culture attending and speaking at high school athletic banquets, playing in the WARM Softball Softies games and becoming part of the WARM on air team. When you still mention his name to people of a certain age, they’ll tell you he was a “sports guy” from WARM. Whether it was intended or not (and there are some who will argue that this was an elaborate orchestration masterminded by that promotional genius Ron Allen) the station’s contest for “The Greatest Sports Fan” in WARMLAND yielded positive results in promoting WARM as the place to be for the seminal sports talk radio craze that exists to this day. But it also got in the bargain a person that turned into a legitimate sports presence in the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Radio market for years.
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