Sunday, August 27, 2017

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #163

JACK WILSON ON WARM TV TOO

Back in the 1950s when radio first began, radio was more popular than TV. WARM TV saw that and decided to have their popular Morning Man at the time Jack Wilson to do the last half hour of his radio show on Channel 16. 
Wilson's upbeat show then led into a very popular ABC broadcast from Chicago called The Breakfast Club. 
Here's an ad promoting Jack Wilson and then a film clip from The Breakfast Club. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #164

WARM TV GETS A BIG THANK YOU FROM THE CITY OF SCRANTON 

The day after WARM TV began, the city of Scranton sent out public kudos to the new broadcast entity. Mayor Bil Hanlon met with the principles and here's the photo from The Scranton Times from 1954. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #165

THE HISTORIC McCARTHY HEARINGS ON WARM TV

April 1954 was a pivotal time in American history. Senator Joseph McCarthy appeared before the United States Senate to answer questions about his claims about Communists in government. The televised hearings were in effect the Waterloo of McCarthy's career. WARM TV, Channel 16 took the live broadcast of those hearings from mid day to late afternoon. 
Prior to that, WARM TV signed on at 4pm. The hearings added heft to the programming schedule. 

One of the most memorable moments was when the Counsel for the Senate, Joseph Welsh took McCarthy straight on. This happened in June of 1954, this ad was placed when the hearings started in late April.  

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #166

WARM TV LOCAL LINE UP

Here's an ad from the Scranton Tribune touting the new Channel 16 local team as well as a preview of the TV programming. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #167

WARM AND HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP BASKETBALL

As far back as the 1940s and 50s, WARM Radio would broadcast basketball games. Here's an ad from 1954 on an out of area game between Scranton Prep and Allentown Central Catholic. At stake, the Class A Eastern Semi Finals.  
This was from March of 1954, a type of early version of March Madness before it was March Madness. 


Saturday, August 26, 2017

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #168

ELVIS GONE @ 40 


WARM Radio and Elvis essentially grew up together and then faded away as the rock icon each one was in their own right. This month  we look at the 40th anniversary of the death of The King. It was a Tuesday afternoon in August 40 years ago. The weather was muggy, oppressive and cloudy. One of those dog days of August that was neither pleasant nor horrible. Just blah. 
I was working at WVIA FM and TV at the time. My shift was 2pm to 10. I had a rather forgettable program at 4pm called “Mostly Pops” where we played nothing but Boston Pops Music. In the evening, I was George Graham’s newscaster for his program (still going strong I might add,) “Mixed Bag”. Fridays on TV they let me do a Phone In program on TV about……..wait for it…politics. 
For some strange reason I remember what I was wearing that day. I had on one of these soccer shirts with the fat stripes of Kelly green and black. I also had on, sadly, green shoes. After I got settled and did the Pops program, I went to check the news wire. Back then the news came from a teletype machine. WVIA had the UPI (United Press International) Service. 
Right around 5:20 pm Bill Kelly, the then Vice President of both TV and Radio strolled through the hallway between the Control Room and the broadcast studios. We started to chat in the hallway about the station and the news of the day which included the troubles of Jimmy Carter’s Budget Director Burt Lance as well as the Panama Canal debate. All of a sudden, the bells started to sound on the teletype machine. 
DING. DING. DING. DING. 
Kelly asked me, “Do you mind while I look?” Hey Bill Kelly was an iconic Newsman on WARM before he came to WVIA, who was I to say no. As it rang, Kelly said, “Presley!” I said, “Is it about the concert tours?” He looked at me and said, “No, it says here he died!” “Died?” I replied. “Died”, he emphasized. 
He grabbed the bulletin and I got the second one that came in as a correction. My recollection is that he went to the TV booth and cut a brief announcement for the next break and I broke in on WVIA FM. Bill is about 7 year older than I but it had an impact on both of us. We had both listened to the music. Seen the movies. We both knew that Presley was part of pop culture. Americana if you will. 
That night on “Mixed Bag” I did news updates and George Graham talked and played artists influenced by Presley. When I got home that night, all three networks at 11:30pm had Elvis retrospectives. Throughout the days, Elvis was the news. The way he died, the funeral. The legacy. All of it was front and center. Even during the rest of that summer into fall, the best icebreaker in a bar to speak to a woman was to say, “Shame about Elvis wasn’t it?” 
Years went by and Elvis’ image has been chipped to bits. But to this day, he is still revered as a classic entertainer. He is parodied to death. He is sometimes belittled and dismissed as a puppet of the Movie and Record industries. All of that though is submerged by the raw talent of Elvis. His image has been bruised and battered. But the music, the thing that we were all brought together around him….40 years later, and beyond…. will remain timeless. This was the song that was on the Radio from Elvis the night he died. “Way Down”.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #169


THE MORNING MAN OF WARM IN THE MID 50s 

Before there was Harry Newman, George Gilbert, Harry West,  Lenny Woloson, Kim Martin, Terry McNulty and others in the morning drive time slot on WARM, there was Jack Wilson. Positive, upbeat and filled with information, Wilson put WARM listeners on the sunny side of the street.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #170

OPERA ON WARM RADIO???
YOU BET!!!!

At one time, as a matter of fact it was January 1954 that WARM Radio programmed opera. In this ad from the Scranton papers dated January 26th, 1954 WARM presented "Tannhauser" sponsored by The Texas Company, later to become The Texaco Company in 1959.
Here is the ad and what WARM listeners heard that day. 
 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #171

THEN THERE WAS THE INITIAL TALENT LINE UP OF WARM TV

This is an ad that came out announcing the line up of WARM talent, national local. Take a look and you might, or might not see familiar faces. Win and Lynn Foreman were the pioneer broadcasters on 16 and Jack Wilson did double duty on both WARM TV and WARM Radio.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #172

LOCAL PROGRAM TO HELP KICK OFF WARM TV OPENING 

It would have been very easy for WARM TV to just go on the air and run network programming. I'm sure there is a segment of the population that would have been thrilled with that. However WARM TV went big with a local program that was broadcast at 8PM that night. Here is an article fro the Tribune, February 7th, 2 days before sign on. The Scranton Times followed up the next day.


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #173

WITH TV, YOU HAD TO HAVE ONE OF THESE

WARM TV started with what every TV station in America started. A test pattern. Not many people over the age of 40 have a clue what a test pattern was. But they looked like this. 

These two newspaper articles from the Tribune and Times, dated January 27th and 29th, 1954  announce the times an of course the station! 


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #174

WARM TV ANNOUNCES DEBUT DATE

These two newspaper articles in both the Tribune and Times highlight just exactly when the new TV station, Channel 16 will go on the air. The ads ran on the 12th and 13th of January 1954. 


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #175

WARM TV AD  PREVIEW PART 4

These two ads from January 30th and February 5th 1954 tells of the competition of the transmitter as well as the installation of kitchen equipment and stage sets in the new WARM Studios. 


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #176

WARM AD TV PREVIEW PART 3 

These two newspaper ads tell of the continued progress of WARM TV. The fellow looking into the WARM TV window now sees the studios have been sound proofed and the heavy duty power circuits for the station have been installed. 


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #177

WARM TV AD PREVIEW PT 2

In this preview from January 18th and 20th of 1954 readers saw more progress for the new WARM TV Channel 16. These ads touted the painting of the studios as well as the lighting for the studios. 


590 MIGHTY MEMORY #178

WARM TV PREVIEW PT. 1

That Union Broadcasting Company certainly could promote WARM Radio since its inception in 1940.  When WARM TV took to the airwaves, there were various newspaper promotions touting the progress of WNEP TV Channel 16. Here are two from January 7th and January 9th, 1954 from the Scranton Tribune.