• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Station Lores

N

NightCourtFan

Guest
I was talking with one of my friends the other day about some of the strange goings on's at a station I worked overnight for early in my career..like the typewriter that would periodically type the word "HI" over and over for a full page once in a while while I was the only one there...so it got me wondering..what are some other strories out there. If anyone would care to share.


thanks
 
Some pretty weird things used to happen at the old WKAP building on MacArthur Road (where Best Buy is now). There were three of us who each saw the same "apparitions" (sp?) on overnight shifts and hadn't compared notes until after all of us had seen them, so it's not like we offered each other any suggestive things to look for. We also had a lot of weird things happen with equipment - things turning on and off by themselves and the occasional thing that went bump in the night.
 
in the early 90's after i left radio in dc and baltimore...moved to central pa to work in another industry (harrisburg) worked at wimx 99.3 for 6 years pt. studios in wormleysburg on the west side of the susquehanna river. they were bought in 96 and moved across the river to harrisburg. I went to look at the property to perhaps purchase and went in the unlocked defunct studios and walked around and after about 2 minutes...no lie...i felt cold as ice on an 85 degree day and heard noises and one in the loudests sounded like clanking chains (no not the scrooge story) it scared the hell out of me and i was the hotstepper getting outta there.
 
I was telling someone the other day of my first job in radio...was on an Oldies AM station in the coal region of PA. The owner was a total jacka$$ and would pay us every 90days plus sometimes....other times he would give me a months worth of checks for the entire staff and then I would distribute them accordingly....He had me and the engineer go to a washed up station in Jersey and pick up there studio equipment to transport it to our studio's. We got back and hooked it up, only to get a call the next day saying that we had to bring it back to his office in Quakertown so it can be accounted for. Of course, my question was how can I keep the station on air if we take away the board and all the other equipment. Needless to say, we trucked all the equipment back to Quakertown and put it in the back room of his warehouse, where it sat until I left that station. Periodically he would call me and ask when I was coming to pick it up...but we had no station vehicles and he wouldn't rent us a van to make the trip so we were at a stale mate.

Getting a hold of him was another challenge..if he wanted to talk to you he would answer, but most times you would have to leave a msg and hope he would get back to you....I put up with that for a while..then I started to just leave threats to quit on his voice mail..next thing you know I would would get an instant call back.

He also had a brilliant idea to move the station to the tower site..which lied on a small piece of land surrounded by strip mines and coal banks...and roads you could barely get a car down..if you've ever been in the mountains around Shamokin, Mt Carmel or the like you know what I mean. I told him that wouldn't work and that no one will want to work there if you move to the bldg..he disagreed with me and told me that he thought there was alot of business opportunity to be built out there. So he went to the Township meeting and made his proposal and they laughed him out of the building...He called me right after and all he said was You were right! and hung up.

The best story so far with this station is the time he made me fight a cable bill for 44 dollars b/c he didn't authorize that purchase( the general manager at the time did). The owner had me go from one lawyer to another..trying to fight for 44 bucks. Every lawyer told me the same thing.."just pay the bill"!! I would tell the owner what they said and he would have me go talk to another lawyer....so I did...but instead of trying to plead my case I just told him to call my owner and tell him that he needs to just pay the bill....well we ended up ion court and he (the owner) paid 44 dollars plus court costs.

I could write a book on everthing that happen to me at that station..and I was only there a little over a year!!!!
 
what are the calls of this place? is it still around. i know the coal region has lost alot of AM stations over the past 10 years.
 
The station was WISL. When I worked there the station had been dark for sometime...CC had bought the FM side of the station and left the AM to rought. It was a horrible experience for me there...NoPay, No Legal ID's..EVER, I had to play our music from a 6 CD changer on "repeat" eventually it would get to hot and the changer woul;d get stuck..so I had to go to the studios at all hours of the night and fix it...then go back to bed....only to get up at 430a to drive out to the road that lead to the transmitter and walk in about 3miles...to turn on the TX( it would shut off over nite b/c it was sooo cold) then walk back, get in my car, and be on the air at 530a for news.
 
This has nothing to do with the Lehigh Valley, or PA for that matter, but I used to work for a station in Trenton, NJ that was so bizaare, it still to this day amazes me how he was able to keep it on the air, both legally and technically.

This station was 5kw day 1kw night DA2. It had 2 Gates transmitters. One at 5 and one at 1kw. Obviously the 1k was for night service, since the 5k was an older than dirt unit that took up half the studio south wall and actually sucked the money out anyone's pocket that got too close to it. Anyway, it took the amazing Kreskin and a handful of other magicians to turn this baby down to 1kw. As you can guess. One night the 1k said "Not tonight bud!" so I had to call the owner (who was the only one who knew the tricks) to come out at 8pm on a warm summer night and crank down the 5k, which by then was already running way past it's cut off time. He came in, opened the cabinets and started cranking and switching. Well it wasn't going to happen this time, so he stood there, cursed and started kicking it with his foot. All the while, I was trying to produce a Top 40 radio show in the same room.

He finally gave up, told me to put the night time pattern up and leave the 5k hot. I'll bet we came in loud and clear in Atlantic City and southward. This guy was a kook.
 
that's a good one...I had tears runnign down my face from that one!

There also was this time at the the mighty 1480, I was out with the GM at the tower site. We had this huge Ryder truck that the owner gave us filled with office equipment from a defunct Gospel station in Alabama. Well, we managed to get the big truck down this narrow path to the tower, dropped off the raminaing stuff we didnt need in the tower bldg. As we were pulling away we were listening to the station...all of a sudden the station goes off the air totally!!!

The GM gets out and come to find out the box portion of this truck had gotten caught on the outside wires running into the transmitter and pulled the pole down with it....so here is this big yellow truck ...with downed power lines on it...and a transformer and pole just lying on the snow....We called the power company and told them we found the tower site vandelized and hightailed it outta there!!!
 
sad story about wisl....a heritage station in shamokin! i believe it's gone along with wmim and wmbt (myfirst job in radio). for years these stations had community involvement and sponsors......it's a shame new owners robbed the area of these fine stations!
 
Yes it was a very sad story about "whistle". When I took the job I thought we were going to get the station back on track and pick up where it left off when it went dark. Unfortunately, that never happend. It was a sinking ship from day 1 and it never got off the ground. I tried my best at doing what I felt was right for the station and for the area but without the assistance of upper management my hands were tied.

We never had an automation system in place to run the satelite service that we had form ABC radio..so as you can guess everythign that was put out over the system..the changes to the logs..pulling this commercial..airing this one..all went out over the air...it was so shitty and I was so embarrased...but what was I supposed to do..I ended up turing off the satellite feed and just running the cd player over and over again.
 
what was the long term plan for 1480? did the owner have one? why would you buy a place and then leave it?
 
his idea for the station changed with the weather. First off it was going to be an all news station, but b/c of WKOK being so close we were able to talk him out of it....then he was going for Radio Disney, ummm not in that area , bud! Finally I was able to convince him of keeping it familiar to the area and the listeners..Full Service Oldies station. He liked that idea after the 5th time I pitched it to him. keep in mind we weren't on the air yet during this time b/c the station was dark and the transmitter was in need of heavy repairs...thanks to vandals who would used our tower bldg as a frat house in the mountains.

He wanted everything under the sun; Phillies, HighSchool Sports, national talk shows...only problem was once I ordered the feed..and would get the reciever..it would just end up sitting there b/c we didn't have any equipment to hook it up to for it to work properly.

Everytime I would inquire to the status of anything that we should have to run the station, i would get the blanket answer" We are in talks with a company in Anytown, USA..and we should have something by next week." These promises never materialized.

Hell, half the time he wouldn't even get the calls right when he called. He'd call me and say "Matt, what can I do for you and WSIL!!!! I am ready to help u 100%." So I told him that we haven't been paid since February and it's now May...when will we get a check? he say he's got another call coming in and dump out of our call. Then i wouldn't be able to get a hold of him for another 2 weeks...always some excuse of him being in Key West, Fl

this was the most bizarre and unconventional station I ever worked for!
 
terp,

I almost forgot to answer your question. My guess is that his long term idea for the station was (drum roll, please)......a big tax write off!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Why am I not surprised that a lot of this thread deals with coal region stations? When I was was at WMIM, Mt. Carmel, we had a morning man named Charlie Stakes (sp?). Charlie got sick and was out of work; I believe he had cancer. I came in to sign-on one Saturday morning and his license had fallen off the wall in the studio. I found out later that day that he died during the night.

WMIM was my first and third radio employer. I was lucky enough to start in the business under Ed Romance, who was a legend in radio in that area. He was a real pro as a broadcaster and I was just thinking of him and wanted to get his name on the board. There are so many horror stories about 'talent' that gets into ownership or management and can't handle the job, but Ed never missed a payday and we always had what we needed.
 
a name from the past...ed romance....a class act! I remember when that station came on in may of 69.
local news.....and lots of sports....i believe saturday during the fall they re played high school football
from friday night. it's a shame the station is gone along with my first station WMBT. local radio can work...it's just the owners don't have a clue!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom