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. 

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.