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PHOTO INDEX: 1971 BALLOT.
CAST A VOTE
When WARM radio entered the decade of the 70s, the station sought to get more input from its listeners for the end of the year top songs. Here is a sample ballot that WARM put out at the end of 1971. Unfortunately I only have this ballot but not the results that followed. If anyone has it, let me know. But this is just another example of WARM's constant attempts to keep its listeners involved in the Mighty 590.
PHOTO INDEX: Blog editor with the late Bob Crawford.“I’M BOB CRAWFORD”If you were a listener to WARM Radio in the 70s and were going out for a Sunday drive, chances are you’d hear a deep voice intone these words at the end of every newscast: “I’m Bob Crawford”. Bob Crawford came to work at WARM as the Sunday news man. This was when radio stations actually took weekend news seriously and had news on the hour and half hour. Crawford went about his business in a no nonsense manner that belied the incredible sense of humor he had. Later Crawford did some public affairs programming and news for WMJW Radio. I was actually interviewed by Bob for a social service program that I was working for in 1980. (Thus the photo). Bob was a school teacher in the Wilkes Barre area school district for many years. He was a popular teacher and adviser. Many people I’ve spoken to over the years remember “Mr. Crawford” for his long reach into their formative years as students. But just as many people who were WARM listeners remembered him as the weekend news guy on the Mighty 590. Bob passed away a few years back but he is still fondly regarded and is one of the mighty memories of WARM.
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.
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.
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 GREATNESSI 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.
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.
PHOTO INDEX: TOP SPOT FAST FOOD JOINT UNDER WATER IN WEST PITTSTON DURING THE FLOOD OF 1972.WARM AND FLOODSAs 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.
