590 MIGHTY MEMORY #525

PHOTO INDEX: OPERATION SNOWFLAKE

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

If you were a kid growing up in the 60s and you wanted a snow day, you turned to WARM radio to hear if your school was going to close. WARM used these announcements as an opportunity to increase sales and audience. School administrators were given special instructions and posters to display the information. With no local TV news shows on the air at the time, WARM dominated what was then the information freeway.

The local Triple A also did road reports for the highways and byways of WARM. These 2 minute road updates ran from early November to March.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #526

PHOTO INDEX: WARM AD PROMOTION FOR FOOTBALL GUIDE ON BACK OF SURVEY SHEET.

FOOTBALL PROMO

WARM Radio used its relationship with national clients to build an audience and provide little goodies to their listeners. Before the merger of the National and American Football Leagues, WARM ran a promotion with Campbell Soups to sell a combined NFL/AFL guide book. This was just one of many sideline promotions WARM used in the 60s to build audience and increase sales with advertising clients.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #527

PHOTO INDEX: WARM'S TOMMY WOODS AND THE "WISHBONE".

WINGING IT!!!!!!

Last year we told you about the WARM Turkey Trot, this year we'll let Tommy Woods tell you about a contest gone wrong for the Mighty 590. Building on the success of The Turkey Trot, WARM thought maybe they could extend the contest pass "Thanksgiving" into the Yuletide season. Didn't happen. From Tommy Woods: The worst contest we ever had at WARM and there were many was...."Send in your turkey wishbone and your wish could come true" Well...People just ripped out the greasy wishbone ...put it in an envelope and sent it in. We were in Avoca at the time and the Avoca post office was really pi$$ed. They had bags of greasy, smelly letters and called us to pick them up. That was a great idea!".

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #528

PHOTO INDEX: THE WORLD FAMOUS WARM DOUBLE DRIBBLERS FROM THE 1960s. LEFT TO RIGHT: JIM WILDER (DEFENSIVE BACK, NY GIANTS TAXI SQUAD), BILL STEWART (DJ AND MEMBER OF THE WILLIAMSPORT H.S. CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM) CLEVELAND "SWISH" MCKINNEY ( SCRANTON MINERS, TEAM USA 1963 ), DON JONES ( PART TIME WITH WARM), WILLIE MURRELL (ALL AMERICAN AT KANSAS STATE UNIV. MINERS IN 65/66 AND LATER PLAYED WITH DENVER AND MIAMI OF THE ABA}, LARRY JONES (TOLEDO UNIV. AND PLAYED 1964/65 W/ PHILA. 76ERS, 65/66 W/ W.B.BARONS AND LATER WITH SEVERAL TEAMS IN THE ABA ), TOM KROH (SALESMAN WITH WARM AND PLAYED BASKETBALL AND ON SKI TEAM IN COLLAGE IN COLORADO, LAVERNE "DOC" TART (DRAFTED BY BOSTON CELITCS PLAYED 65/66 W/ W.B.BARONS AND FROM 67 TO 71 WITH SEVERAL TEAMS IN THE ABA).. IN FRONT WAS TEAM MGR. JOE "MARK CLARK" VERRASTRO WHO CURRENTLY RESIDES IN DUNMORE.

WARM DOUBLE DRIBBLERS

There was the WARM Softball Softies but when the weather got a little nippy, WARM Radio fielded a basketball team. Called the WARM Double Dribblers the team played for charity events all across the broadcast area for charity. As always the draw and allure of WARM packed gyms like St. John's in Pittston, the CYCs in both Scranton and Wilkes Barre, King's Scanlon gym as well as other venues. This photo was forwarded to us by Don Jones who tells us: "I worked part time with WARM in the mid 60's doing live news, re writing news and working record hops with several of the DJs.. I also played on the "Softball Softies" and "Sensational Seven" Basketball team.. Also raced at PDL in 1964.. I'm forwarding a photo taken by the Times-Leader of the team in the 1965 / 1966 season, at Plymouth H.S. I asked Don who he thought were the best and worst players on the team. He said, "No question, Bill Stewart was the best and Lenny Woloson was by far the worst, 2nd worse was Terry McNulty. " WARM at first didn't have ringers but there was a need to do so because of the people the celebrities were playing. Jones said, "We played various school teams made up of coaches, teachers, parents etc. and often they would have an anal player who had to impress his wife or friends by getting physical with someone like Len Woloson. One night when I was working one of the Scranton Miner games with Ron Allen he was telling about this to some of the players and one of the players, I believe it was Willie Murrell, said jokingly that he should play and nobody would mess with him.. Ron ran it by management and talked to Art Pachter and the W-B coach and put together this team. It was a win, win, win, situation since it brought more fans to the high schools, was positive press for the Miners and W-B and kept down the rough play by opposing teams." But even with the added help, the Dribblers were no slouches. "Bill Stewart played high school ball in Williamsport I believe and was a high school All-Star and Tom Kroh was a salesman for WARM who played some college ball at, as I remember, one of the Colorado colleges, "added Jones. Now the Double Dribblers weren't these guys.....but they came pretty close.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #529

PHOTO INDEX: THE LATE AL MARTINO

A BRIDGE TO ROCK

Al Martino died the other day near Philadelphia. Martino was one of those "bridge" artists used frequently by WARM Radio to broaden its appeal. Martino's songs like "Mary In the Morning", "Spanish Eyes" and "The Theme From the Godfather" never reached the top 15 on WARM. But as an artist Martino received a lot of airplay in the mid morning and afternoon hours on WARM. Martino was 82. Publicist Sandy Friedman, of the Rogers & Cowan public relations firm, confirmed Martino's death in the Philadelphia suburb of Springfield, in Delaware County, but didn't cite a cause.Starting in 1952, Martino was known for hit songs including "Here in My Heart," ''Spanish Eyes," ''Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Volare."Besides acting in the Marlon Brando classic "The Godfather," Martino sang the 1972 film's title score, "The Love Theme From The Godfather." At one point, WARM had three versions in their top 40 of the "Godfather Theme". Martino's, Tony Bennett's and Andy Williams' renditions were all on the charts at the same time. Martino's Fontane character is a singer and occasional actor and is the godson of Brando's Mafia boss character, Don Vito Corleone.Martino was born in South Philadelphia as Alfred Cini and was a longtime resident of Beverly Hills, Calif.Philadelphia radio and television personality Jerry Blavat dined with Martino and his wife on Monday night. Blavat told the Philadelphia Daily News that Martino appeared to be in fine shape and that he was shocked when he learned of the singer's death."He was the last of the show business legends," said Blavat, who has played Martino's songs on the radio for years. "There's nobody else. The last of the performers. A magnificent voice."

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #530

PHOTO INDEX: ANDY PALUMBO, JOHN HANCOCK, TO THE RIGHT OF THIS DUO ARE THE LATE MELAINE APPLE AND PHIL CONDRON, GM OF WARM AT THE TIME.

HANGING ON FOR CHARITY

WARM did various stunts and promotions over the years. One of the most intriguing was when John Hancock, then Program Director at WARM hung suspended on a platform for, what else 59 hours. The photo comes from Andy Palumbo, morning anchor at WNEP today but then a newsman on the WARM news staff. Hancock and Apple had airshifts. What I remember most about Hancock was the way he embraced WARM's heritage even saying on the air what an honor it was to work with the remnants of the Sensational 7 still at the Mighty 590. The fundraiser was for "Easter Seals". Hancock might not have been hanging on for love but certainly for dear life. Here's Sade, a mainstay on WARM in the mid 80s.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #531

PHOTO INDEX: GEORGE GILBERT OF THE MIGHTY 590.

PICKING THE MUSIC

One of the early duties operations manager and then soon to be Program Director George Gilbert had was picking the music. In the 60s with the Beatles and English invasion, Gilbert struck a fine balance between rock, pop and adult standards. You would see songs from Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Layne and even Nancy Wilson. Sometimes the songs registered in the bottom third of the top 40 but they were there. Gilbert had a fondness for the harmonies of the Four Freshman and The Lettermen. At one point in the early 60s the Lettermen sang his closing theme. The passing last week of the Arbors Joe Cass reminded me that Gilbert programmed the music of the Arbors amidst Tommy James' "Hanky Panky" and the Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love". Gilbert and his successors in picking the music struck a fine balance that gave the kids the rock and roll but the older folks a chance to "chill" with some adult contemporary. The Arbors in the 60s were a perfect tonic and WARM Radio and its management knew just how to apply it.