In the mid-70s, QEQ 103.1 signed-on. Anyone remember where on Walnut Street the studios were located and if the tower was at the same site?
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Freeland FM
- Thread starter Metropolite
- Start date
Phone number used to be 636-2346.. Yes, the tower was right out back behind the studios...Ice crashing down on the building after every major storm... We worked out of a trailer that they eventually turned into a more business-like structure.. It's still there, but the tower is gone. I worked there from 1980 up until KRZ walked in and took over in 1996. Owner was originally Ed Genetti & Richard Genetti.. then he sold it to Guy Bock, in the late 80's. Guy passed away a few years later and his kids let the facility go to pot. For the life of me now, I can't remember the address... age is creeping in! It housed the studios for WQEQ-103.1 FM and WXPX 1300 AM (Tower in West Hazleton, Junk yard) phone was 455-wxpx...
i was part of the first airstaff at 103.1 it came on in april of 76 as wacm(all country music).
bob scacco was the g.m. the orginal owners came from va. they owned a few stations up and down the east coast....mostly small market operations. i believe one was named bob tsudy. along with playing country music we did a live remote everynight from 6:30 til 7 from genetti's in downtown hazleton. a guy playing dinner music on the organ.....it sounded great coming over the phone line. of course we did big bands with the g.m. on sunday morning then polkas in the afternoon. i must say the place was a train wreck from day one. in june i had enough and went to wyns......a whole other story!
bob scacco was the g.m. the orginal owners came from va. they owned a few stations up and down the east coast....mostly small market operations. i believe one was named bob tsudy. along with playing country music we did a live remote everynight from 6:30 til 7 from genetti's in downtown hazleton. a guy playing dinner music on the organ.....it sounded great coming over the phone line. of course we did big bands with the g.m. on sunday morning then polkas in the afternoon. i must say the place was a train wreck from day one. in june i had enough and went to wyns......a whole other story!
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normhill007
Guest
I did a couple of years at XPX. I was hired by neil rodino to do mornings when the calls were changed and we went solid gold ala WFIL. Had the Century 21 library and it wasn't bad except the rotation had me coming in each monday morning to face the same song's. We had a great jingle package and a good airstaff. If we could have been heard in the "Valley" stronger we could have made some real waves. As we were still waiting for the fcc to approve both the new calls and the move from the junkyard studios, I was "hidden" on QEQ doing news and botching everybody's name as Hazleton had normal spelling but differant pronunciations. One of the great Urban legends when Ed and Richard took over QEQ, the big contest was a secret sound kind of thing and the winner got a choice of any new car from any dealer. The first call was the winner..bad enough..His car of choice, an AMC Pacer..emo can confirm or deny this story as it was before my time. Ed had to sell after Richard died and the GM Guy Bock had put in place got the brainstorm of trading our Century 21 library for KRZ am's version of Music of Your Death. The were homemade and spliced all to hell from breaks..You'd be in the middle of Willie Nelson's "Always On My Mind" and you'd suddenly have the last half of something else. Real shabby and one of the biggest dunderhead decision I've ever seen. Even worse than Warm putting a really bad Dick Cavett comedy (and I use the word lightly) show in the middle of the evening..(a bit from Wayne and Shuster referred to Idlewild Airport..for those of you under 45, that's what JFK was)
Norm:
I have to beg to differ on one small point-the KRZ AM "Music of your life" library of tapes (we called it various names-one was Mucus of your wife!) was returned to Al Ham by yours truly. I remember it vividly because I HATED the whole deal and was only to glad to be rid of it. I also packed the boxes I sent it back to them with whatever was in the garbage cans closest to me. Old hoagies-coffee grounds, cigarette butts etc. Never heard from them again. True Story. Who could make this stuff up!
I have to beg to differ on one small point-the KRZ AM "Music of your life" library of tapes (we called it various names-one was Mucus of your wife!) was returned to Al Ham by yours truly. I remember it vividly because I HATED the whole deal and was only to glad to be rid of it. I also packed the boxes I sent it back to them with whatever was in the garbage cans closest to me. Old hoagies-coffee grounds, cigarette butts etc. Never heard from them again. True Story. Who could make this stuff up!
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normhill007
Guest
I think the tapes we got were before then. Not a 100 percent sure but they were definately homemade. And spliced all to the devil. Would have been around '84.
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normhill007
Guest
Got any old reel to reel's to play them on????
WXPX
WXPX was the first AM station I was ever on... I didn't work there. I was statistician for GAR High School, and Tom Ragan put me on as a halftime guest of a GAR/Hafey basketball game in 1991. I had no idea how to put the headphones on.
Emo can correct me on this... they were 13X (with a decent dose of Radio Pennsylvania shows), then Talk Radio 1300, then Lucky 13 Country.
WXPX was the first AM station I was ever on... I didn't work there. I was statistician for GAR High School, and Tom Ragan put me on as a halftime guest of a GAR/Hafey basketball game in 1991. I had no idea how to put the headphones on.
Emo can correct me on this... they were 13X (with a decent dose of Radio Pennsylvania shows), then Talk Radio 1300, then Lucky 13 Country.
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normhill007
Guest
XPX had probably the best logo in the market..Straight out of Star Wars with the WXPX in yellow fading from small to large with a dark blue field with stars. Very Impressive. If only we'd had MP3 and Napster, nothing could have stopped us. (Could have used a bit more power-Junk cars kind of screw up the radials)
They were WWKC.. KC-Country at one time.. WXPX came later.. Phone again was 455-WXPX.. Norm was right.. we broadcast from Hazle Auto Parts junk yard because the idiot owner wouldn't believe that you didn't have to broadcast 50% of the day from the transmitter site. I tried to tell him over and over that Magic 93 did not have to broadcast from Penobscott, so WXPX did not have to have a studio in the junk yard! I can't tell you how many mornings I had to beat the attack dogs to the second gate before they tore me to shreds. One day, I broadcast from 5:30 am til 10 am and I wasn't even on the air! I head myself over the air monitor all morning long and did my entire shift. Then at the end I get a phone call.. the guy says "Why aren't you on the air?" I tell him "you're nuts.. I've been on all morning and I can hear myself over the studio radio"... then I call the engineer who tells me he forgot to hook the transmitter back to the towers after maintenance last night and the only reason I can hear through the studio radio, is because it's 5 feet from the transmitter! Then there's the morning that it 10 degrees below zero and I'm wearing a one piece "union suit underwear" with a flap in the back for warmth and bid overalls... well I never figured what kind of trouble that combination would be at bathroom time, since all we had was a porta-potty out next to the studio. I took off 3/4 of my clothes and ran out to the john, but I kept the potty door open, so I could hear the music inside the studio, just in case it went dead.. halfway through my "dump", I hear the phone ringing inside the studio... I finish up and go inside to answer, and a ladies voice says "I see you!"... I said what? She says she has binoculars and can see me from 2 miles away. Yeah, great logo.. worst possible studio site, sales never stayed with one format for any length of time... PARadio Network, a fax at the studio that should be in the Smithsonian.. the only rotating drum type... took 5 minutes to print off 1 page.. and Radio Bingo! Yes, the good old days...
Re: WXPX
Lots of changes...No more local Freeland station, no more Bishop Hafey High School, 1300 is nothing but a drone for WILK...change is NOT always a good thing.travist102 said:
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3rdTicketHobo
Guest
pdjames said:
Classy move. Very professional.
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DStroyer
Guest
Re: WXPX
But... but... but... WKRZ is licensed to Freeland! They're Freeland's #1 Hit Music Station!
Seriously, guys, I'm enjoying the hell out of these stories.
From my radio career, I've got nothing that even comes close... Other than working with 3 chain-smokers at the old 97.9/1490 studios in Hazleton, several years after the facility was ordered to be smoke-free. And, it was located on the 2nd floor above...a SMOKE SHOP!
BrigThomson said:
But... but... but... WKRZ is licensed to Freeland! They're Freeland's #1 Hit Music Station!
Seriously, guys, I'm enjoying the hell out of these stories.
From my radio career, I've got nothing that even comes close... Other than working with 3 chain-smokers at the old 97.9/1490 studios in Hazleton, several years after the facility was ordered to be smoke-free. And, it was located on the 2nd floor above...a SMOKE SHOP!
One of my favoritre stories about our two stations was the day we did the WQEQ "Baby Break".. it was sponsored by a local furniture store who featured Nursery items. Joyce, who was our copywritter did the breaks every morning live with me. Now understand, that Joyce was very prim and proper and prided herself of getting things totally correct, both gramatically and in execution. Her last birth announcement is for a little boy named James, who's grandparents lived in "SCROTUM"...I look over at Joyce in amazement and said "Where do they live?" and she repeated "SCROTUM"... I hit the recorded close for the show and grabbed her copy and said off air.. "Joyce, that Scottrun!" The look on her face and her embarrasment were pricesless.
The there was the time we had a part time newsperson.. new to the job, she read a story of a shutdown of the "OooGe" power plant... when the newscast was finished, I checked her copy and advised her that it was the U-G-I power plant not OOOOH-Ge.. One of our newscaserts was doing a live call in about a multi veichle accident on I-81. I asked him on air where the accident was near, he responded it's 7 miles from "Die-Sell".
I looked at the map and was confused, but we ended the report. When we got off air, I asked again, it's near where? Then I realized the sign he was looking at was "DEISEL - 7 Miles"..
We had no way of contacting our part time engineer pack then, an aging gentelman named Paul Wensko.. so we had a signal song that we played. We knew that Paul liked to frequent a local bar who always had WQEQ on, so if we had any engineering problems, we played "El Paso" by Marty Robbins.. that was his cue vamoose!
Only problem was that if we went off the air.. playing El Paso did very little good, and paul was usually too involved to notice. Whatever broke at our station, Paul liked to drill a hole in it first, and ask questions later.
Once we did a remote broadcast from Downtown hazleton. I did a check of the marti signal the day before.. clear shot to the transmitter in the Hazle Auto Parts junk yard... no problem. Except oor Manager at the time ticked off our engineer by witholding paychecks. So the broadcast starts and all we have is white-noise.. no signal. I quickly drive out to the tranmitter site, past the snapping dogs from the OMEN, and get to the transmitter site only to see the cable going up our antenna is missing a connector, HALF WAY UP THE TOWER! It's just hanging there.. no connector. So I turn on the radio in the studio real loud to hear it outside, climb up the tower, and whenever we break away to the remote, I hold the two cables togeteeher until Tony Pacelli finishes that remote break. I had to do this for three hours. hanging all the time half way up the remote antenna tower. Ask me if I miss my broadcast days.
The there was the time we had a part time newsperson.. new to the job, she read a story of a shutdown of the "OooGe" power plant... when the newscast was finished, I checked her copy and advised her that it was the U-G-I power plant not OOOOH-Ge.. One of our newscaserts was doing a live call in about a multi veichle accident on I-81. I asked him on air where the accident was near, he responded it's 7 miles from "Die-Sell".
I looked at the map and was confused, but we ended the report. When we got off air, I asked again, it's near where? Then I realized the sign he was looking at was "DEISEL - 7 Miles"..
We had no way of contacting our part time engineer pack then, an aging gentelman named Paul Wensko.. so we had a signal song that we played. We knew that Paul liked to frequent a local bar who always had WQEQ on, so if we had any engineering problems, we played "El Paso" by Marty Robbins.. that was his cue vamoose!
Only problem was that if we went off the air.. playing El Paso did very little good, and paul was usually too involved to notice. Whatever broke at our station, Paul liked to drill a hole in it first, and ask questions later.
Once we did a remote broadcast from Downtown hazleton. I did a check of the marti signal the day before.. clear shot to the transmitter in the Hazle Auto Parts junk yard... no problem. Except oor Manager at the time ticked off our engineer by witholding paychecks. So the broadcast starts and all we have is white-noise.. no signal. I quickly drive out to the tranmitter site, past the snapping dogs from the OMEN, and get to the transmitter site only to see the cable going up our antenna is missing a connector, HALF WAY UP THE TOWER! It's just hanging there.. no connector. So I turn on the radio in the studio real loud to hear it outside, climb up the tower, and whenever we break away to the remote, I hold the two cables togeteeher until Tony Pacelli finishes that remote break. I had to do this for three hours. hanging all the time half way up the remote antenna tower. Ask me if I miss my broadcast days.
The more I reminisce, the more I remember.. Every past DJ at our station will attest to this.. we actually had mice who lived inside our broadcast boards.. once one got fried and the board required extensive repairs.
We frequently had to run wires from one end of our building to a room at the other end (I've stated before it was a run down mobile home). Whenever we had to go this, the engineer would say to me.. Tom, It's Ghostbuster time! I had this grey once piece pullover that looked just like the outfits the Ghostbusters wore.. I put it on to crawl through the mud and cobwebs underneath the building to run wires. I quit doing that one one day I shined my flashlight aheade and saw to eyes glowing back at me... I did not carry a proton pack and was unprepared for any battle with a slimer!
We had an automation system that would routinely crap out totally... the brain would wipe clean and it required hours of reprogramming. Once, the cleaning lady was running the sweeper over our power cords... over and over and over, she kept running the sweeper over the cords until they were pulled up into the sweeper.. system went braindead, but I think the sweeper did a mind meld and it's IQ exceed that of the cleaning lady.
We frequently had to run wires from one end of our building to a room at the other end (I've stated before it was a run down mobile home). Whenever we had to go this, the engineer would say to me.. Tom, It's Ghostbuster time! I had this grey once piece pullover that looked just like the outfits the Ghostbusters wore.. I put it on to crawl through the mud and cobwebs underneath the building to run wires. I quit doing that one one day I shined my flashlight aheade and saw to eyes glowing back at me... I did not carry a proton pack and was unprepared for any battle with a slimer!
We had an automation system that would routinely crap out totally... the brain would wipe clean and it required hours of reprogramming. Once, the cleaning lady was running the sweeper over our power cords... over and over and over, she kept running the sweeper over the cords until they were pulled up into the sweeper.. system went braindead, but I think the sweeper did a mind meld and it's IQ exceed that of the cleaning lady.
And speaking of mice, and as Paul W. would refer to them and "Vermin".. our studios were littered with rat poison dishes... unfortunatly when one of these critters bit the dust, they always seemed to crawl up into our heating and ventilation system.. for at least the next two months you had this wonderful aroma building-wide of dead mice.
The stories do bring back memories. Norm, the tapes you were referring to, where homemade by Jay at KRZ and were in really bad shape from airplay or KRZ AM. I am the one who made the trade with those guys as per Guy Bock. At that time Guy wanted standards on the air but no money was to be spent. Tommy do remember the Littlest Angel story. How about when we had to do the Christmas blocks in real time in the production room. You also mentioned Radio Bingo. Did you know B 14 was under the transmitter during most of the contest? I also have a few of the Century 21 reels and a machine that plays them. I alos have The History of Rock n Roll tapes that they ran before i got there. Here is another thing about QEQ. It was never in true stereo. We needed a new board and once again money came in play, so we got a mono board. Rick Musselman came on board said let's go oldies. We got this great jingle package from TM at the time, but the cart decks were also mono, so they sounded like crap on the air. With all that said I have to say we did get involved with the community. We need a reunion. I may think of more stuff later on, but I laughed through this thread.
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