Questions answered concerning NEPA's first radio station WBAX
Elizabeth Skrapits
Published: November 3, 2010
http://citizensvoice.com/arts-livin...ing-nepa-s-first-radio-station-wbax-1.1057951
"Last week I wrote about Northeastern Pennsylvania's first radio station, WBAX, started by a Harveys Lake cottager, John Stenger Jr. - but I've since learned I only told part of the story.
I said I couldn't find out much about WBAX after Stenger's death in 1953, except that during the 1970s and 1980s the station was part of the Merv Griffin Group.
Helen O'Neil, who was the bookkeeper at WBAX in the 1960s, set me straight. She told me the station was purchased in 1960 by Frank Henry (of Martz Trailways), Paul Phillips of Phillips Seafood, financier Willard Seymour and radio personality Jim Ward.
WBAX offices were on West Union Street in Wilkes-Barre, and that's where all the broadcasting was from, O'Neil said, adding that Milan Krupa was the engineer at the time. The station's transmitter was located on Route 11 in Edwardsville, where the Enterprise car rental is now.
"They did very well in the 1960s," O'Neil recalled. "It was very sucessful. The ratings were good."
After hearing from O'Neil, I also had the good fortune to meet Bob Shortz, who was one of WBAX's biggest fans at the time in question. He was a gold mine of station information - he even sent me a tape recording of it from 1965.
"WBAX may have been popular in the 1940s, but I would say it probably hit its peak in the period from 1963 to 1971," Shortz writes. "There were any number of reasons for its popularity."
He cites the area's first talk show, "Speak Up," which ran from 10 a.m. to noon and 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; the "Polka Weekend" on Saturdays and Sundays; contests like "Baxo" and "Heart of Gold" and features like the children's "Birthday Club" show.
"The line-up in this period featured: Johnny Margis, Jim Ward, Dick Whitaker, Sam Liguori, Jim Nicholas, Clint Morse and Jones Evans. Later Bill Bachmann (from WBRE 1340 AM) and possibly Rob Neyhard came on board," Shortz says.
"It was Jim Ward's commitment to the people of the Wyoming Valley - and secondarily Scranton - that made it the de facto voice of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It was Jim who started the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Wilkes-Barre."
Ward worked for Merv Griffin Enterprises after it purchased the station in 1971, but returned later to buy and run WARD in Pittston (1540, then 1550 AM) in the 1980s until his death in 1994, according to Shortz.
It was also that year - 1994 - that Times-Shamrock Communications bought WBAX, and the company has owned it ever since.
Shortz additionally notes that WBAX ran on "1000 watts (250 at night, and prior to 1963, even during the day), making it a 'local' station as far as the FCC was concerned, but people tuned in for miles around to hear it.
"And while it could not match WARM's huge coverage area (5000 watts at 590 KHZ reaching into New York and New Jersey) and popular Top 40 format (always number one in the market), it frequently came in second in the ratings, against all odds."
Elizabeth Skrapits
Published: November 3, 2010
http://citizensvoice.com/arts-livin...ing-nepa-s-first-radio-station-wbax-1.1057951
"Last week I wrote about Northeastern Pennsylvania's first radio station, WBAX, started by a Harveys Lake cottager, John Stenger Jr. - but I've since learned I only told part of the story.
I said I couldn't find out much about WBAX after Stenger's death in 1953, except that during the 1970s and 1980s the station was part of the Merv Griffin Group.
Helen O'Neil, who was the bookkeeper at WBAX in the 1960s, set me straight. She told me the station was purchased in 1960 by Frank Henry (of Martz Trailways), Paul Phillips of Phillips Seafood, financier Willard Seymour and radio personality Jim Ward.
WBAX offices were on West Union Street in Wilkes-Barre, and that's where all the broadcasting was from, O'Neil said, adding that Milan Krupa was the engineer at the time. The station's transmitter was located on Route 11 in Edwardsville, where the Enterprise car rental is now.
"They did very well in the 1960s," O'Neil recalled. "It was very sucessful. The ratings were good."
After hearing from O'Neil, I also had the good fortune to meet Bob Shortz, who was one of WBAX's biggest fans at the time in question. He was a gold mine of station information - he even sent me a tape recording of it from 1965.
"WBAX may have been popular in the 1940s, but I would say it probably hit its peak in the period from 1963 to 1971," Shortz writes. "There were any number of reasons for its popularity."
He cites the area's first talk show, "Speak Up," which ran from 10 a.m. to noon and 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; the "Polka Weekend" on Saturdays and Sundays; contests like "Baxo" and "Heart of Gold" and features like the children's "Birthday Club" show.
"The line-up in this period featured: Johnny Margis, Jim Ward, Dick Whitaker, Sam Liguori, Jim Nicholas, Clint Morse and Jones Evans. Later Bill Bachmann (from WBRE 1340 AM) and possibly Rob Neyhard came on board," Shortz says.
"It was Jim Ward's commitment to the people of the Wyoming Valley - and secondarily Scranton - that made it the de facto voice of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It was Jim who started the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Wilkes-Barre."
Ward worked for Merv Griffin Enterprises after it purchased the station in 1971, but returned later to buy and run WARD in Pittston (1540, then 1550 AM) in the 1980s until his death in 1994, according to Shortz.
It was also that year - 1994 - that Times-Shamrock Communications bought WBAX, and the company has owned it ever since.
Shortz additionally notes that WBAX ran on "1000 watts (250 at night, and prior to 1963, even during the day), making it a 'local' station as far as the FCC was concerned, but people tuned in for miles around to hear it.
"And while it could not match WARM's huge coverage area (5000 watts at 590 KHZ reaching into New York and New Jersey) and popular Top 40 format (always number one in the market), it frequently came in second in the ratings, against all odds."
