DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER A WPTR PART-TIMER (circa 1977) NAMED FRANK FERRARA?

[Early Byrd]

In 1977, I heard a kind of different sounding overnight guy on the weekends on WPTR...he would almost "sing" his name when he said it, so I'm not sure if it was Ferrara or Ferrera...it was something like that. He was young sounding, but did a decent job on 1540 during it's music days. Anybody know who I'm talking about?

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

Frank popped up on the Northern New England board in a discussion about WDOT and related Burlington history that I started.

I think he did work in Albany, maybe at 'PTR.

 

[Early Byrd]

Frank popped up on the Northern New England board in a discussion about WDOT and related Burlington history that I started.

I think he did work in Albany, maybe at 'PTR.

Hmm, I looked through that thread, at every response, and I didn't see any mention of Frank Ferrara. There's a mention of an Ernie Farrar, but that's not the same name.

 

[The Bro]

Frank DID work weekends at WPTR. About 1977. At the time, (if my memory is correct) he lived in Canajohaire. Never knew where he went after that.

 

[Early Byrd]

I must add that I'm not sure if his last name is Ferrara or Ferraro (Farraro?). As I remember it, it sounded like there was an "a" on the end of it rather than an "o". He sounded quite young, as if he was in his late teens or early 20's. He was there when other night time personalities included Don Brooks and part-timer Lee Hamilton.

 

[rtetro]

My memory is a bit hazy, but I believe that Frank Ferrara was indeed his name. I began working at WPTR in Februrary 1977 as Jin Cruise's Asst. Chief Engineer, but did not have much contact with the weekenders. In those days we signed off at 2AM on Sunday mornings for equipment maintenance, and I remember that when I would come into the station the part-timer that was on immediately before sign-off was quite young. He would take off as soon as I shut down the station so I didn't have much interaction with him.

By the way, Lee Hamilton (who had worked at WOKO immediately before coming to WPTR) later went on to do middays at WPTR when Gary Evans left later that year. If I remember correctly, Lee was still doing evenings at WOKO fulltime under a different name when he first began doing weekends on PTR.

I remember the fulltimers from that era much better than the weekenders since I saw them every day.

 

[Early Byrd]

By the way, Lee Hamilton (who had worked at WOKO immediately before coming to WPTR) later went on to do middays at WPTR when Gary Evans left later that year. If I remember correctly, Lee was still doing evenings at WOKO fulltime under a different name when he first began doing weekends on PTR.

I just found out that Lee Hamilton (real name Gary Zoehfeld) died of cancer in early 2008. It was probably mentioned in this forum back then, but I usually don't read or post much on the Albany/Hudson Valley board.