590 MIGHTY MEMORY #453

PHOTO INDEX: WARM GREATEST HITS ALBUM RELEASED IN THE EARLY 70s. JOCKS FEATURED ON THE ALBUM, LENNY WOLOSON, JOEY SHAVER, PETE GABRIEL, JIM DRUCKER AND TONY MURPHY.

WARM AND THEIR LP

For years WARM was known as the great promoter and purveyor of 45 RPM records. But as the 70s dawned, WARM introduced a long play album promoting the station. Other top 40 giants in the country had done it before, most notably WFIL in Philadelpia and WIBG. In Buffalo WKBW had one as well as the Canadian rocker CKLW. This WARM effort featured big photos of the WARM Good Guys on it. Absent was Program Director George Gilbert. The songs were recent hits from the WARM playlist like “Sweet Talking Guy” and “Judy in Disguise” on side one. Side two had “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison and “Cherry Cherry” by Neil Diamond. The album was on sale at various department stores ranging from $1.99 to $3.50 (depending where you went) and was given away during station promotions on and off the air.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #454

PHOTO INDEX: TV AND RADIO.

WARM AND TV

Once upon a time there was a WARM TV. That was when WARM was owned by the Scranton family. After WARM was bought by Susquehanna, WARM stood alone as the radio ratings leader in northeastern Pennsylvania. But WARM personalities and staff made their way onto the big screen.
Two WARM disc jockeys, Tom Woods and Bob Woody had a stint as host of the Komotion Show on Channel 16, WNEP TV. Woody also hosted a Saturday night program aired at 7PM called “Comedy Classics” where “The Woody Guy” introduced Three Stooges shorts and displayed a lot of his own zany wit and humor.
Public TV took full advantage of the popularity of WARM personalities. After Bill Kelly matriculated from Avoca to Pittston as Vice President of Development in the mid 70s, he invited WARM personalities like Harry West, Tim Karlson and others to pitch for funds on Action Auction 44. Later former news director of WARM Jerry Heller joined the WVIA TV staff. Karlson later became sports director of WNEP TV.
The TV newsrooms were populated by former WARM staffers Mike Stevens, Andy Palumbo, Vince Sweeney, and of course Kevin Jordan.
Kitch Loftus, one of the first pioneering female reporters in the area has been producing documentaries with her husband Anthony Mussari for years.
So while WARM made careers in sound, many of those personalities who passed through those doors made their way on to TV with predictably successful results.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #455

PHOTO INDEX: ME IN THE WARM STUDIO IN JUNE OF 1995. EXCEPT THAT IT WAS WKQV FM AND AM. (FORMERLY WARD AM).

THE SHADOWS OF GREATNESS

I never got to broadcast from the WARM Studios in the old WARM building in Avoca when WARM was king. I did an audition tape in a production room for Joey Shaver when I was entering Career Academy of Broadcasting. I remember the playback as the reel wound round and round and the look of unmitigated pride on my father’s face.
That summer of ’72 I wound up in Washington, D.C. and lived on Wisconsin Avenue in the Northeast end of the city. I stayed at a place called McLean Gardens which was then on its way to being a bonafide dump. I had one room with a bed, sink, and closet. There was a shared bathroom down the hall with the other tenants.
When I came back from D.C. I did become a radio guy making stops along the way. I interned at WARM in 1976 working in the News Department with Jerry Heller, Kevin Jordan and Kitch Loftus. I also did a week in the sales department riding with Joey Shaver, the late Tim Durkin, Phil Condron and a really cool guy named Marty whose last name I cannot remember.
WARM became part of my professional career when I worked in public relations for Youth Inc., the United Way and Luzerne County. I always tried to find a WARM angle, always tried to use the power of WARM.
When the station moved to 600 Baltimore Drive in 1995, I did get to work in the WARM Building for WARD/WKQVFM. The FM studio was the old WARM control room. The AM station, WARD was where I worked being a board man for Nascar Races as well as the Sunday Morning Polka Show filling in for Bruce Kreiger. I was on the air in June of 1996 when WARD’s signal was transferred to Susquehanna Broadcasting.
The night before the station was going to be switched over, I had my wife take pictures of me in the WARM control room. I just wanted one seat behind the board that the WARM Sensational Seven worked. The controls that Harry West and Len Woloson used. My wife laughed as she took the picture. I asked her what the deal was and she said, “You’ll see when you get them back from Phar Mor. (A drug store we got our photos developed back then). When I got the photo, I knew what she meant. I had this saintly look on my face. I was a pretender to the throne of greatness. I was sitting in the shadows of greatness. But I didn’t care because I was loving it. I never got to broadcast from WARM when it was the Mighty 590, but the night before as the station simulcast a long gone sports network, I was riding those slide pods. It would have been near perfect if only I had supersonic sound.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #456

PHOTO INDEX: MY THIRD CLASS ENDORSED LICENSE.

WARM AND “THE TICKET”

For those who worked in radio in the 60s and 70s before deregulation, “The Ticket” was one of the most important thing you needed. “The Ticket” was the nickname for the FCC Third Class License required to be a broadcaster or failing that, being allowed to be left alone in a broadcast station. . There were 3 testing elements in it and the most complicated was the dreaded “Element 9”. If you were extremely non gifted in Math like I was, (I was told I had the lowest Math percentile in the entrance exams in the Scranton Diocese) Element 9 was downright scary. But I decided I wanted “The Ticket”. After attending Career Academy of Broadcasting in Washington D.C. in the summer of ’72 (Joey Shaver signed me up in February of that year) I took the test in October in Washington D.c. A bored bureaucrat took my information and I began the test. It was all or nothing. If you passed all three sections, you got the license with an endorsement. If you failed Element 9 you got a provisional which was akin to having training wheels in a triathlon. When I handed in my test, the bored woman scored it and blankly told me I passed. Elated, I said, “I’m now a broadcaster” and she retorted, “And I’m Diana Ross”.
The Third Class License gave me the opportunity to work at station with transmitters. I could read the meters (theoretically) and be left alone. “The Ticket” came in handy at my stints at WPTS, WARD, WRKC FM, WVIA FM, and WKQV AM and FM. I never got to use the License at WARM but I did wind up broadcasting from the sainted and iconic WARM control room. That story in our next 590 Mighty Memory.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #457

PHOTO INDEX: TOP SPOT FAST FOOD JOINT UNDER WATER IN WEST PITTSTON DURING THE FLOOD OF 1972.

WARM AND FLOODS

As I took a break from all of the flood coverage last week by listening to WARM’s True Oldies Format, I found that WARM Radio was offering flood updates. Phil Galasso was giving updates throughout the day on river height, road closing and evacuation centers. This was extremely important to those in the Tunkhannock area where they were hit very hard. WARM of course carries well into that Wyoming County area.
Back in 1972 WARM Radio was a very big part of communication between those residents who lost their homes. WARM suspended programming and became the linchpin that people depended upon. A full staff was unleashed to cover the biggest story to hit WARMland since the Kennedy assassination. Sales manager Dick Bolin had his brother who was involved in civil defense take news reporters around in jeeps to survey the damage. Terry McNulty then a WARM newsman said, “I will never forget the mud and disease..the people who lost everything. It’s one thing to cover a story like that when you’re miles away, but when you’re in the middle of it, you’re really with these people”.
WARM later produced a record “River On A Rampage” which was a good audio starting point for future documentaries on Agnes. After the waters subsided WARM had banner sales months getting orders for businesses that needed to relocate and reopen. The Mighty 590 also was involved in community involvement and also played a jingle that sang out, “Wyoming Valley, coming back now better than ever, WARM the Mighty 590!”
Sam Liquori would be a future radio host and board operator at WARM in the late 90s and into the 231st century. But in 1972 Sam was doing mornings on WBAX Radio in Edwardsville. The water came up suddenly on Route 11 and Sam had to beat a hasty retreat with his car to get out of there with life. Hearing the WARM flood updates brought back those memories of Agnes and the Mighty 590.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #458

PHOTO INDEX: THE LATE LEN WOLOSON.

LEGACY OF LENNY

How memorable were the guys at WARM? Well this week I received two e mail communications from people with fond memories of WARM, particularly Lenny Woloson. A woman e mailed me to see if I could provide her the sound from Woloson’s show where there was a gaggle of young girls cooing “Lenny, Lenny”. She wanted to put it in a type of time capsule/cassette for her husband's birthday. I sent her a soundbite from the You Tube video I did on WARM. , I hope it helped.
An e mail came from Maryland. Mike Lewis had this memory of WARM and Woloson.
I discovered WARM at the end of August, 1970, the week before I started eighth grade. It took only two songs to do it --War's "Spill the Wine" and Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime" -- and I was hooked. Every morning that year, my
radio alarm woke me to the sound of Len Woloson's voice. For some reason, all through that January he played Todd Rundgren's "We Gotta Get you a Woman" promptly at seven a.m. I still remember his quirky sense of humor, which was much more subtle than any DJ I've ever heard. One example sticks out. That fall there was a song by the Flaming Embers called "My Brother's Keeper," and Woloson told a joke about a zookeeper who came across a chimpanzee who had a copy of the Bible in one hand and Darwin's Origin of Species in the other. "What are you doing?" he asks. And the monkey says, "I'm trying to find out if
I'm my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother." Somehow I can't imagine a DJ saying that today. Even 41 years later I remember the kind of intelligent wit that made waking up a very pleasant chore that magical year.
Woloson was not your typical punchline joke teller. He was more of an observer of the current scene and did a tremendous amount of work with “drop in” voices. Lenny would cue up a voice and have it interspersed with his bits. Some of his humor was so simplistic that it was funny. Plus Woloson used area towns as references to his show. One of his favorite tag lines was “winner of the Honeypot beautiful child contest”. Woloson did seem to play the same songs in rotation almost to the minute but I think that was more of a happenstance due to a crowded morning commercial log than anything else.
Four decades later…….the memories of Len Woloson and WARM just keep on coming.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #459

PHOTO INDEX: SECOND ANNUAL REUNION.

WARM AND THE POCONO DRAG LODGE

Please join all fans of WARM for the Second annual WARMLAND Mighty 590 reunion, to be held at the Pocono Drag Lodge reunion, 648 Meadow Run Road, Bear Creek, on August 6, 2011 from 9 am to 5 pm. There will be a WARM display setup, and will be dropping the WARM jingles between the oldies. You might even hear the old Stop n' Go Burger commercial. We will have some WARM celebrities on hand, as well as some pictures, old surveys, and more WARM related material. Come help us celebrate the Glory days of the best station, ever, anywhere!! Plus witness the Old Drag Lodge come to life for a day! Food and memorabilia will be available. For more info, contact Charlie Hulsizer, email: ecoair9798@aol.com....BE THERE!!!!!

You heard this song on WARM back in the day, stop by this weekend and hear those great old memories.And see them too!

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #460

PHOTO INDEX: TOMMY WOODS THEN AND TOMMY WOODS NOW.

TOMMY'S TUNE

Did you know that one of the Sensational 7 cut a record? Well Tommy Woods did and it was released and became a minor hit. Called "LIttle Lorraine" the song is a repetitive tribute to a girl who loves the 50s, 60s teen age party scene. Back in the day as the kids like to say, disc jockeys sometimes took a turn at doing a song. In Pittsburgh, my late cousin Ed Price took a turn at crooning. He had a pretty good voice and honed his skills in the service singing sat various USOs with a former local ad agency executive Gene Stone. But back to Tommy, "Little Lorraine" is on You Tube" and for all we know could go viral. Take a listen:

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #461

PHOTO INDEX: WERNER ERHARD.

WERNER, WOODY AND ME

One of the classic Bob Woody stories I have is the way he embraced the teachings of EST. Werner Erhard was a new age guru who Woody really believed in. A few in the Woody circle went to a weekend seminar.
“The Forum” was the Werner Erhard seminar that Bob Woody persuaded his friends and clients to attend in Edison, New Jersey. Each
client Woody represented was given the opportunity to go to the event.
Some took kindly to his browbeating and others essentially threw him out of their offices. Woody did have the power of persuasion though and after the Twin Valley project, Woody got some of the committee members to go to New Jersey and partake in the seminars.
His sales pitch to me was that I needed something like “The Forum” to center my professional life. He felt that I needed to be more dynamic and serious in trying to get rich. I was told that I needed to have a better work ethic. This is where I disagreed with him. I had been working since the age of 14 and felt that one could work hard but have fun at the same time. He asked me to set down goals and mine were 1. Be more assertive in saying “no” to things like the Forum,
2. Less womanizing and
3. Losing 60 pounds.
I set out to Edison, New Jersey with a guy named George who was the Sales manager at KRZ FM. This was in 1989, March. Nice guy, drove a white Acura. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Edison where the two weekend, 8am to 10pm seminar started. During the course of the weekend,
everyone there committed to “working on themselves”. The northeast delegation numbered about 12. The instructor’s name the first week was Randy who sat alone on a stage and made pronouncements. Then we each had to make our list and tell the group of 100 where we needed to “work on ourselves”. (100 times a $600.00 price tag equals $60,000 for the weekend).
There were people there (one guy who looked like Robert Palmer) who talked about the death of a son, another talked about his demons with alcohol and another woman talked about her problem with fidelity which caught the attention of most of the men there.
There were bathroom breaks but they were timed out tightly. And if you were late, you were locked out of the room and you were instructed to handle the situation. No excuses were broached. If you had your leg blown off that was not an excuse. “Handling it” meant accepting responsibility for your mistake of being late).
The second weekend we had an instructor named Lon. I knew I was getting bored when I began to silently sing the words to the Angels “My Boyfriends Back” substituting his name. (“Hey Lon, hey Lon, my boyfriends back”). Finally, graduation came and Woody, Rene and Bert Ayers drove down from Scranton to congratulate us. We were happy because we went through an endurance race. I had to admit it was a good feeling. After the ceremonies, each graduate was invited into a little room for a one on one personal coaching meeting. At this meeting you were congratulated and then had an offer extended to you. The offer was to do an 8 week “Forum Maintenance” program which would enhance the skills you garnered in the original one. It was an 8 week, 2 day a weekend, 12 hour day series that was essential to your further growth and education. In my meeting, I was slightly distracted because the woman with fidelity issues was in the office next to me and I was trying to eavesdrop on her. But in the end, I said no because I did not want to spend the time away from home on a weekend, I did not think my company would pony up any more money for this and I was at long last asserting my authority in saying “no” to people who were trying to persuade their belief systems on me. They called in the instructor, the coordinator and then Woody who used his oft quoted line, “you don’t know what you don’t know”. I replied that what I wanted more than anything else out of “The Forum” was to assert my authority to be able to say “no” and that I accomplished that goal. It was getting late and they knew I wasn’t going to budge so that was that. Me and George with his white Acura from KRZ went home and that was my experience with Werner Erhard, “The Forum” and Edison, New Jersey.

ANOTHER EXPERIENCE

Here's another person's take on their weekend with Werner.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/landmark/landmark269.html

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #462

PHOTO INDEX: BOB WOODY, BLOG EDITOR DAVID YONKI IN MIDDLE AND BERT AYERS TALKING STRATEGY OVER WITH WOODY BEFORE A TWIN VALLEYS NEWS CONFERENCE.

WOODY, ME AND THE TWIN VALLEYS

In 1987, Bob Woody, by that time running the Ad Agency had a big idea. He felt that there was this big wall between Lackawanna County and Luzerne County and felt that something should be done about it. He was the ad agency for the Sheraton Crossgates at the time and the GM of that property was working as a volunteer as head of the tourism board. Bob wanted to bring the two regions together and took his idea to the chambers of commerce who were lukewarm to the idea. So he formed his own committee of people and it was called The Twin Valleys Committee. The first group of members were himself, as chairman of Lackawanna County and me as Chairman of Luzerne County. Board members were Bert Ayers, Lee Flynn, Rene Laspina (you already see how this is going don't ya!!) Dick Mackey, Dale Rapson from Pocono Downs, an older sales
rep from 22 who's name I don't recall, Mike Raymond from WSGD FM and Lisa Lebonson from Rock 107, a few hotel operators as well as some other people who came and went. The meetings were held every Friday at Pocono Downs at 10AM. If you were late, you had to give a reason why you were late. If you weren't coming at all, you had to send what Woody called "an emissary". Your emissary did not receive your voting power if we decided something, but the responsibility of the emissary was to make certain the absent person knew what went on at the meeting. The committee's charge was to bring the two cities together via a media message that we beamed to ourselves first and then hopefully to outside markets. The advertising would come through the Ad Agency (which got 15%) and most of the TV advertising wound up at WNEP TV (the sales rep (Lespina) got 15% commission for her efforts. Media sales reps populated this committee in the hopes of getting "a buy" from the Ad Agency. Some did, some didn't. (Right those without emissaries did not). In October of 1988 we pulled off this big event at Pocono Downs where we had all the radio stations lined up, crafters, food guys, etc. About 2000 people came. Then we had a tuxedo clad dinner at the Downs where 250 people came to enjoy the races. We were generating some excitement and some good publicity. Like any group or committee, the more people contributed, the more they wanted to give their input. Bob took some of this input as criticism. Less media people started showing up and less started sending "emissaries". The straw that broke the camel's back came in March of 1989 when we were having our weekly meeting at Pocono Downs. When Bob spoke, he wanted the entire attention of the room. Dale Rapson had given us the run of Pocono Downs for all of our meetings every week for about 2 years. One day, during a meeting, while Bob was speaking, Dale's beverage guy came in to take Dale aside to the back of the room and speak to him about an emergency at the Downs. Both went to the back of the room and began to confer. Woody stands up and says to Rapson, the guy who had been housing and feeding us for free, "Uh, we can't have two meetings going on here at once. Can you either take that outside or send in an emissary?" As soon as I saw Rapson's face and look of incredulity, I knew the next time we came to the Downs we were going to be paying admission. That afternoon, Woody's assistant called and said the new meetings were going to be held at Perkins in Pittston. The Twin Valleys concept lost a great deal of steam after that and eventually died a peaceful death. But a few months later Bob contacted the committee members who stuck it out through the end. He wanted us to meet a friend of his from Edison, New Jersey.
NEXT TIME: WOODY AND WERNER-the next big thing.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #463

PHOTO INDEX: BOB WOODY.

WOODY AS A NEIGHBOR PART 2

WOODY'S BIGGEST REGRET

In 1980 I was on my way to Yankee Stadium for Old Timer's Day. The bus was sailing along when we were told we had to make a turn to come back and pick up some stranded passengers who's bus broke down. I became very good friends with a guy who was Woody's next door neighbor. Through the years this guy and I remained friends. In my visits to this guy's house, I saw Woody as the neighbor. Quiet, kept the place up, at one point had his parents living with him. In the winter when I had to pick up dubs in that box outside the studio it was an adventure going down that sidewalk on the side of the house when it was icy. I seem to remember getting dubs for Music Box Playhouse, Motor Twins and a few others. One time I asked Woody if in his long career he had any big regrets. He thought a moment and said, "I wish I hadn't driven George Gilbert as crazy as I did. I wish I was a little bit less confrontational and easier on him. I'd like to tell him "I get" what he was trying to say to me". I don't know if he ever told "double G" that but I'd like to think he did. The house at 317 Harrison Avenue belongs to someone else. My friend still lives at 309 Harrison. Because of my accident I can no longer make the steps but every once in a while when I drive down Harrison Ave to pick up my buddy for a Yankees game or a night out, I half expect Woody to be charging out of his house on some mission that he only "gets" in its full magnitude.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #464

PHOTO INDEX: RING DING DING COASTER.

RING A DING WEEKEND

One of the best memories of WARM Radio is the weekend "Ring A Ding Ding" Stegmaier weekend. Airing on Saturday and Sunday nights, WARM actually played oldies. Well they were only just a few years old but WARM used the opportunity to play hits from 1956 on to the current day the show was on. The ubiquitous jingle:

"Ring A Ding Ding, do the Stegmaier thing in the Summertime" usually kicked off on Memorial Day weekend.

Also during the holiday weekends WARM gave safety tips to drivers making sure they stayed safe on the roadways. The station actually had a fatality count from the previous year to deter drivers from doing something silly.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #465

PHOTO INDEX: PETE GABRIEL, (CIRCA 1971).

CORRECTION

Last year we were told by a former member of the WARM Sensational 7 (actually he came after the 7) that Pete Gabriel had passed away. We are happy to report that the information was erroneous. Joe Middleton just spoke with “The Mighty Gabriel” hours ago and the big guy is alive and well in the Midwest. We are sorry for the error and apologize if we caused any concerns or trouble with the information that was not true. Our source was adamant and it was confirmed by another person. But I later found out that the second source got the information from the first source. So once more, sorry and long live Pete Gabriel.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #466

PHOTO INDEX: BOB WOODY AND KING'S COLLEGE CROWN NEWSPAPER EDITOR JILL KAY USKRAIT, CIRCA 1976)

THE WOODY GUY (Part 1)

Bob Woody came to WARM in the late summer, fall of 1972. I was not in town when he arrived but heard that his arrival was very much ballyhooed by the WARM suits. Woody held down the 3 to 7PM slot and had a manic and entertaining delivery. Woody made his mark as one of the most accessible and intensive personalities. At times he clashed with management over his style as well as his ancillary causes. Woody was big into humanitarian causes and while so was the Mighty 590, their commitment was sometimes closer to home. Woody talked of world hunger and discrimination. Back then those were issues that were hot button and worthy of discussion. But after the tragedy of the Agnes Flood and the need for residents to get back their lives, sometimes Woody’s efforts were placed on the back burner. Undeterred Woody used his show as a type of conversational bully pulpit and spoke about those issues anyway right in between playing records like “Bang a Gong” and “Nice To Be With You”. Woody became a close friend and confidant of the late singer Harry Chapin. Chapin was a message singer who was wildly popular. Even though many young college students were turning to FM Radio, Woody with his enthusiasm for social causes and wacky personality gave WARM’s drive time a special niche. Woody cultivated the college crowd by working with them on various concerts. He was a huge promoter of the Chapin concerts at King’s College in the mid 70s. One college newspaper reporter, Jill Kay Uskrait of Williamsport actually won a prestigious Collegiate Newspaper award because of an interview that she wrote with a local personality, one Mr. Bob Woody.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #467

PHOTO INDEX: THIS BLOG EDITOR AND HARRY WEST, THE CHILI RECIPE IN THE WARM COOKBOOK> (CLICK TO ENLARGE).

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME!

WARM Radio always got involved with the Cherry Blossom Festivals in West Pittston and Wilkes Barre. In the 80s, WARM ramped up its coverage of the two concurrent weekend events and did live broadcasts. Usually the West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival came first, then then the Wilkes Barre soiree. WARM personalities like Melanie Apple, John Hancock, Vince Sweeney, Steve St. John, Terry McNulty and the venerable Harry West did live broadcasts from the event. One year, in cooperation with the promotion of one of the releases of an edition of the famous WARM cookbook, yours truly made Cherry Blossom Chili. There were no ingredients apropos of the festival flowers but it was a good way to move the cookbooks and raise some money for some non profits. The recipe that was served to the folks in the 1987 Cherry Blossom Festival on the River Common in Wilkes Barre is in the photo index as well as the famous promotional picture of me and the great Harry West.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #468

PHOTO INDEX: WARM EASTER SURVEY SHEET ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHO GOT THE BIG BUNNY!!!

WARM’S EASTER PROMOTIONS

Warm Radio also took the lead in promoting the Easter Season. As a prelude to the big day, WARM had an array of advertisers like Gertrude Hawk candies, markets selling hams and kilbossi as well as the involvement of various malls that put on gigantic Easter Egg hunts. WARM always did a promotional Egg hunt with Pocono Downs usually the day before Palm Sunday. WARM also gave away tons of chocolate. A WARM tradition was the giving away of a large Easter bunny. One year, a listener suggested that WARM give the big guy away to children who were a little more disadvantaged than the average WARM child. And so every year, from that listener seed, a local charity got a big bunny, courtesy of the Mighty 590.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #469

PHOTO INDEX: FORMER WEJL AND WARM PERSONALITY KIM MARTIN.

RECRUITING TALENT

WARM Radio always had a reputation of recruiting on air talent from surrounding radio stations. Tommy Woods, Terry McNulty and Joey Shaver, three members of the Sensational 7 came from local radio outlets. Harry West came from Reading and became the morning man. When West left in 1968 to go to KQV in Pittsburgh, WARM looked to a former staffer Len Woloson to return to WARMland. When Woloson left WARM suddenly, for a time the Mighty 590 had George Gilbert fill in as the morning man. A nationwide search ensued for a new morning guy. Interviews went on and on until WARM decided on their new guy. It wasn’t anyone from a far away market but a guy broadcasting in Scranton on WEJL AM. To usher in the 70s WARM chose Kim Martin. Martin came to WARM in early ’71 and did the noon to 3pm (Double G’s old stomping grounds) initially. Then when Woloson left Martin did the mornings. Martin had an easy style about him which was a precursor to a subtle style in the new genre of WARM jocks. He was best known for gentle jabs like referring to WARM news reporter Kitch Loftus as Kitch Newsworthy. But that style was only on WARM for a short time because the big Philadelphia market came calling and Martin wound up there using the name McClintock. The instability of the WARM morning drive time show ended in July of 1973 when Harry West returned to WARM after working at KQV in Pittsburgh and WSBA in York.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #470

PHOTO INDEX: THE FIRST WARM SURVEYS ON 8 AND 1/2 BY 11 PAPER, THE FIRST SMALLER SURVEY SHEET, THE NEXT GENRE WITHOUT PHOTOS, BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS WERE ADDED AROUND 1965, A FEW YEARS LATER ARTIST RENDERINGS OF WARM'S JOCKS WERE ADDED, THE GOOD GUYS SHORTENED THE FORMAT BUT STILL KEPT THE RENDERINGS AND FINALLY IN 1971 PHOTOS WERE ONCE MORE ADDED.

FOR THE MUSIC GEEKS

By request here are some of the WARM survey sheets which highlight the actual music. Note the progression of the format from its earliest days to the final ones put out in 1971. (Click to enlarge to see).

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #471

PHOTO INDEX: WARM SURVEY SHEET WITH ANTI DRUG MESSAGE.

WARM'S WAR ON DRUGS

As the innocence of the early 1960s faded, and long before Nancy Reagan launched her "Just Say No" campaign, WARM Radio utilized an anti drug message. Recognizing that the new, more progressive music had drug overtones, WARM carefully looked at its play list. Still, the station could not ignore popular music trends. However WARM proactively ran anti drug campaigns and even went so far as to "message" their philosophy on their weekly survey sheets. Where acne cream once reigned and news of dance "hops", WARM now had some pretty stiff anti drug messages. Click to enlarge on this survey sheet from the October of 1970. By the Way, the number 1 song in WARMland on this survey was the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There".

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #472

PHOTO INDEX: SCRANTON FOR GOVERNOR LICENSE PLATE AND NEWSWEEK COVER OF BILL SCRANTON.


BILL SCRANTON AND WARM

What does a former Governor of the State of Pennsylvania have to do with WARM, the Mighty 590? Plenty. The guy owned it. Bill Scranton got involved in the broadcasting business in the fifties purchasing WARM TV and the 590 frequency. (The TV station would become WNEP). WARM with its impressive call letters as well as its 5,000 watts was an attractive entity for Susquehanna Broadcasting. (They had just got WSBA in York, Pennsylvania up and running. Lou Appel who was then associate with Susquehanna called Scranton up and asked him if the station was for sale. Scranton said yes but that he was in negotiations with a Ken Cooper from New York City for the outlet. True to his word, Scranton kept negotiating with Cooper even though his interest was dwindling. Appel and Art Carlson kept after Bill Scranton because they knew the potential WARM held. Finally, Scranton gave up on Cooper and began to negotiate the sale. Appel said that he could never get over the reaction of Bill Scranton during the business meetings which took place every time during a Scranton City sized snow storm. Scranton kept on reiterating that he (Scranton) was an honest and straight forward person who was a man of his word. Appel told Phil Eberly, the author of “Susquehanna Radio: The First Fifty Years” that he found this humerous because he had no reason to believe that Bill Scranton was any type of scoundrel in business or otherwise. The deal was done with the honest Mr. Scranton. Appel had his station, he put Art Carlson in charge of it and WARM began its assent as the top dog in NEPA Radio. And Bill Scranton? He went on to become a U.S. Congressman, Governor of Pennsylvania, Presidential candidate, Ambassador to the United Nations as well as a trouble shooter for many U.S. Presidents. He also appeared on numerous national magazine covers throughout his life.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #473

PHOTO INDEX: ADS FOR RECORDS ON THE BACK OF WARM "GOOD GUY" SURVEY SHEETS. THIS WAS FROM THE EARLY 70s.

SELLING THE SONGS

WARM Radio got into the business of added revenue in the early 1970s. For years the major Top 40 Radio Stations like CKLW in Detroit, WCFL in Chicago, WFIL AND WIBG in Philadelphia as well as WMEX in Boston produced long play albums with, what else? The hits of the day. The albums were also walking commercials for all of the jocks on the radio station. WARM entered this arena with a “Good Guys Present 16 Greatest Hits”. It sold for about $1.99 in some stores and in a weird sort of way was a precursor to what eventually did WARM in, non stop music on the FM side. It was an album with no commercials or jingles and it was in stereo. But FM and the demise of Top 40 radio was a long way off as “The Good Guys” promoted their shows and music through these albums.
Another thing WARM did was promote various albums on the back of their top 40 survey sheets. WARM always sold advertising space on them but the early 70s gave the music industry new opportunities to promote cross over artists like Joe South. Popular in folk and country circles, South was the type of act that fit into WARM’s growing older demographic. Those teenagers who danced at Sans Souci now were getting married, slowing down a bit but still listening to a softer blend of music than the burgeoning progressive movement. Joe South was a natural.
Again, the Greatest Hits Album as well as the ads on the back for more mainstream artists exhibited once more how WARM changed with the times. But one constant was that whether it was a long play album with all of the hits or a new artist, either one, you heard it first from the Mighty 590 WARM.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #474

PHOTO INDEX: WARM NEWS DIRECTOR JERRY HELLER. (FROM PHOTO PROVIDED BY KEVIN JORDAN).

EXCLUSIVE NEWS

Recently I was doing some TV coverage for a local TV station and I was struck by the fact that the media pretty much traveled in a pack. It got me thinking about how WARM news was covered back in their halcyon days. I was told by a news reporter that Jerry Heller the News Director at WARM urged his reporters to get exclusive sound from the subject of a news story. Let me explain: let’s say there was a government official talking about a budget cut. At a news conference with a whole room of reporters, everyone covering it there got the same sound. What Heller wanted, even demanded, was that his reporter linger behind and ask their own question to either get a different take of what was said, an entirely different perspective than what was portrayed or just a different way of saying what the subject said to the others. WARM sometimes required its reporters to phone in sound. This was done by going to a land line, unscrewing the mouthpiece and hooking up two circuits to the inside of the phone. You transmitted your sound that way through the phone lines. That way, the story was on the Mighty 590 even before the reporter got back to the newsroom. WARM Radio was always rated number 1 in news. It was because reporters were encouraged to work just a bit harder and get all of the story. WARM was for sure “First News First” but it also did its best to get the most exclusive sound they could. The WARM News Department operated on the age old broadcast principle, “what came out of that speaker was the most important thing you did”.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #475

PHOTO INDEX: WARM'S LEN WOLOSON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON.

LENNY AND GEORGE

Today we celebrate President’s Day which is part of a traditional three day weekend. But once upon a time Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) was celebrated as well as George Washington’s Birthday. WARM Radio once ran a type of promotion that garnered a lot of attention in its fledgling days. WARM Radio’s Len Woloson (who was doing all nights) agreed to dress up as George Washington. To set this up, the station management arranged a bogus phone call that reported a figure looking like Washington was seen on the banks of the Susquehanna throwing silver dollars into the river. The management at WARM were no fools but also were very frugal. So Lenny just threw one or two for effect. The intrepid Frank Jay who doubled as a sales rep followed Woloson uh, Washington around reporting it as if it were a news story. Like children following the pied piper, the local media followed suit and reported the pilgrimage. Woloson then walked across the Market Street Bridge from Kingston to Wilkes Barre . The plan was for Woloson to walk into the always crowded Europa Lounge on Public Square in full Mount Vernon regalia and order a piece of cherry pie. People were making such a fuss that somehow Lenny never got around to ordering the pie. It has been reported that Len wasn’t making a lot of money at the time and opted for a few steak dinners while he was there instead the less inexpensive dessert. Whatever the case, WARM’s little promotion had its desired effect. That station with “the crazy kids music” had gotten the attention of the media, adult listeners and history buffs. Again, the promotion cost little but gained a lot. In future Presidential holidays, Tommy Woods visited lucky winners with Cherry pies. (See 590 MIGHTY MEMORY #561, February 15th, 2009) WARM also gave away those pies in subsequent promotions. But it all began with Lenny Woloson taking the bait and posing as our first President.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #476

PHOTO INDEX: STOP 'N GO LOGO ON BACK OF WARM SURVEY SHEET.

STOP 'N GO

Before there was a Wendy's, Burger King or McDonald's in WARMland, there were Stop 'N Go restaurants. The chains sported yellow roofs and very inexpensive hamburgers. Stop 'N Go did a promotion with WARM giving out "Ballad of WARMland" records. But just like those big fast food chains we know of today, "The Ballad of WARMland" had a precursor. And that of course was the melody from the Stop 'N Go commercial. The vocal is by vocalist Terry Lee who also did "The Ballad".

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #477

PHOTO INDEX: WARM'S DON STEVENS AND A PHOTO FROM THE KNOX MINE DISASTER.

WARM/ KNOX MINE DISASTER

When you work at a radio station there are clearly delineated roles. And never the twain shall meet. Except of course for emergencies. And one such huge challenge occurred in WARM Radio’s infant stages into the foray of Top 40 radio. On Jan. 22nd, the Knox Mine Disaster happened. For reasons that still remain a mystery, there was no one available in the WARM News or Programming Department. Bill Musser a salesman at the time went to the disaster and was the first reporter on the scene. He had the savvy street skills to obtain the only phone from a house next door to the disaster in Port Griffith.
As time went on, the national and statewide news arrived. The house was set up as a makeshift newsroom. Don Stevens who was Program Director at the time marshaled every available employee into the equation. WARM Radio dominated the news coverage. 27 men trapped and no end to the impending tragedy in sight.
While other reporters were trying to get their bearings, Musser, Stevens and Art Carlson were near the collapsed mine shaft. Suddenly there was a scream saying that the surviving miners were on their way out of the deadly shaft. There was a washed out railroad track near the mine shaft where the miners were coming out. The lanky Stevens ran on the remaining track bed to see the exit from danger. Stevens called the station and gave the first eyewitness report. Art Carlson said that Stevens had a penchant for saying the word “Yes Indeed” whenever he was exited. On the last report from the mine disaster, Stevens in those deep down dulcet tones said, “Yes indeed! This was the miracle of Port Griffith!!!!"
Don Stevens remained at WARM for another half dozen years after that fateful day in January. While I’m sure the rest of his tenure was fun filled and action packed, nothing could match the day that Don Stevens and Don Musser broke the biggest news story in WARMland that year.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #478

PHOTO INDEX: THE ROCKY GLEN BANDSTAND.

LUNCH WITH BEN

WARM Day at Rocky Glen Park didn’t just happen. First off there had to be a central location. What better place than in the mid point of Wilkes Barre and Scranton. Rocky Glen Park was a natural. The late Al Kornish said the only way Rocky Glen owner Ben Sterling would meet was over lunch in the park president’s office. Kornish related that Sterling would take his desk, clear it and put a checkered table cloth across it. Sterling would then order lunch, which in the summer was amusement park fare and for a few hours the duo would discuss the world, the nation and what have you. Kornish related that in his very first meeting with Sterling, the amusement magnate said that the WARM Sales Manager should buy his book. Sterling solemnly said it was a type of biography entitled “What I Have Learned About the Amusement Business In Forty Years”. Kornish eagerly said he'd buy the book and Sterling said he’d send it to him. A few weeks later Kornish got a package COD (Cash On Delivery) for $14.95. When he opened it up, he saw Ben Sterling’s Book, “What I Learned About the Amusement Business In Forty Years”. When Kornish sat down to read the book, it turned out there were hundreds of blank pages following the title page.
This story is illustrative of how sales people, and yes sometimes General Managers used to interact with some clients. While the public saw the glitz and glamour of WARM Day, and the radio personaltites rubbed elbows with the stars, all of that would never have happened without the time, effort, bonding and comraderie cemented over a checkered table cloth. And of course, a little practical joke also had to be thrown into the equation. That never hurt either.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #479

PHOTO INDEX: DON IMUS ON HIS FIRST VISIT TO WARM (THE ONE WHERE HE ACTUALLY STAYED) FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, THE BLOG EDITOR, THEN PROGRAM DIRECTOR GREG FOSTER, THE "I MAN" HIMSELF AND WARM SALES MANAGER GREG STROM.

BOTTOM PHOTO IS A WARM SALES HANDOUT FEATURING THE ENTIRE TALK LINE UP. (CLICK TO ENLARGE).

WARM TALK

During the 80s WARM developed what the late Sales Manager of the Mighty 590 Tim Durkin called a “hybrid format”. During that time WARM had music in the morning and then after the Sports Line with Ron Allen which alternated between being on at 5 or 6pm, WARM went talk all night.
It wasn’t until the mid 90s that WARM went all Talk. By the end of the decade WARM had been in a battle with WILK AM for Talk Show supremacy in the market. WARM featured the syndicated Don Imus program followed by Ron Nyehard and Kevin Lynn and then having the very liberal Tom Likus on at night. Later on due to budget cuts Nyehard was moved to sports exclusively and Lynn became the sole local talent. WARM continued its popular remotes with Lynn doing remotes for Pittsburgh Steeler games. Rob Nyehard continued his popular series “Rob On the Road” where he went to various businesses. WARM had lost the Eagles and Penn State football in a bidding war but continued sports with the acquisition of the Steelers.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #480

PHOTO INDEX: THE LATE ALAN KORNISH. (PHOTO FROM TIMES LEADER).

AL KORNISH

While personalities heard on a radio station get the bulk of recognition, people behind the scenes also make a great radio station. WARM had a succession of very good general managers who helped guide the station through the business waters. One was Alan Kornish. The secret of Kormish’s success at WARM was that he let his people under him manage. There was some direction but he let the ideas fly.
Alan E. Kornish, 74, of Exeter died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011, at home. Born Sept. 28, 1936, in Scranton, he was the son of the late Alex and Helma Trager Kornish. He was a graduate of East Stroudsburg University with a degree in teaching. Alan's lifelong career was in broadcasting and he was formerly employed by Susquehanna Broadcasting "WARM" radio. Kornish started out as a Salesman at WARM in the early 60s. He was promoted to General Manager in the late 60s. Under his stewardship WARM continued to grow ratings wise as well as in sales. He was instrumental in the transition from Harry West as Morning Man to Len Woloson in early 1969. Working closely with WARM program director George Gilbert, Kornish gave the okay to expand the WARM News Department. Old friends and co workers attended his wake in Plains and once more remembered one of the human the building blocks that built The Mighty 590.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #481

PHOTO INDEX: WARM COFFEE MUGGED.

MUGGING IT UP

One of the most sought after WARM collectible was the WARM COFFEE MUG. WARM gave them away sparingly at first, afraid that they’d run out of them. But cooler heads prevailed in management and at one point in the 90s the WARM coffee mug became the most ubiquitous office accessory in WARMland. At first the station gave away the mug with a tin of Folgers coffee. Then they became prizes at event. Finally at trade shows the WARM mug went corporate as a gift to business leaders and followers for that matter. Through the years, the once coveted WARM mug has been on sale at yard sales and even once there was a rumor it was on E Bay. (I looked, couldn’t find it). The WARM mug stands as a testament to what a little promotion will do in radio. Oldsters drank their coffee, kids drank their hot chocolate and Lord knows how many dates, harassment suits, hiring, firings, promotions, corrective actions and staff meetings went on accompanied by the venerable WARM mug. Long gone, but kept by a few pack rats in WARMland, the WARM coffee cup is another WARM memory.
This song by Frank Sinatra says it all about coffee, and Sid Marks weekly Sinatra program is heard Sundays at 10AM on the current reincarnation of the Mighty 590.