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.