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The Old WMIM Mt. Carmel

S

Steve_Green

Am having trouble locating anything historically about this curious, isolated station on 1590.

The earliest logbook mention available here is from around 1970, and lists them as a 500 watt daytimer with a 500 watt pre-sunrise approval. Their address is the Marble Hill Hotel at 1st and Oak.
'1st' is known now, and has been for decades, as 'The Avenue', which divides at Oak Street to become East 'Avenue' and West 'Avenue'. I've been through Mount Carmel quite often, but don't see any structure that looks like a hotel there.

A later logbook, possibly from the 80s -- I don't have the first few pages for the date -- says that WMIM was 1000 watts at publication time, with the address of 3rd and Oak. A stout, stately, bank-like building on the southeast corner of that intersection probably was the venue. In this newer logbook they've been issued 17 watts at night.

A shortish, guyed stick on 3rd Street at the west end of Mount Carmel, across from the high school, most likely was the one they used from sign-on until they went dark for good around 2005 (?). Despite Mount Carmel being in a relative hole, surrounded on all sides by 200-foot mountains, but settled due to a creek (and the accompanying train tracks every so often), WMIM put out a pretty doable signal in the day. I could take them west in the car at least to Sunbury, and east to Hazleton.

My questions are, when did they sign on, and were they ever affiliated with the 99.7 FM there? When I moved to here in 1992, the FM calls were WSPI. And I find it quirky that a non-directional regional of 1000 watts got licensed. As they're now off the air, in place of WMIM on the dial is a faint daily signal from WHGT Maugansville MD (the old WCBG Chambersburg PA) and every so often WPWA Chester, both of which are directional at least part of the day.
 
Back in the 70's, I visited WMIM when they were in the hotel but they vacated that when the building burnt down. In the 90's, they were running the station out of a very small red brick building at the west side of town with a phone number stuck on the door. They were off the air then. And i thought the tower was alot taller than 200 feet. The ATU was gone from the tower base. Its sad to see the tea kettle AM's gone in that area (WQIN Lykens WMBT Shenandoah WISL Shamokin and WMIM).
 
Checking a Broadcasting Yearbook, sign-on was in 1969. On December 1, 1978 sold to Mount Carmel Broadcasting. David Donlin, Pres. & GM, Bruce Bortree, PD and Blaine Handrehan, CE. There's a handwritten notation "25 Beaverdale St." Perhaps the xmtr?
 
The actual 'Beaverdale St', if it's still called that, would be a short walk -- very close -- to where the tower is ; thx, Cosmo. Doubtless you're right. The only other commerce in the immediate area of the tower is the Beaverdale Fire Company.

Beaverdale and neighboring Connorsville, both just outside Mount Carmel, are two of what they call 'patches' up here -- one or two long blocks of houses.

Which came first, though -- WMIM or WSPI 99.7?

I'd heard (rumor only) that at one time, WMIM, WSPI and WISL-FM used to swap tower sites for minor repairs, rather than go through the expense or hassle of special temporary assignment paperwork. Myth has it that the Mount Carmel High School tower may have housed some of those signals for a few hours. I trust no animals were harmed during these unofficial waivers.
 
I'm pretty sure that WMIM was first on the scene before WSPI. Both WISL AM and FM were still on the air at Rock and Sunbury streets in Shamokin. I was only at WMIM once to cut some promos in the early 70s and this is when they were in downtown Mt Carmel. I really don't remember if it was the second floor of a bank building or what. Just too many years ago.

BTW, their production board at the time was a Gates Producer.

Another thought I just had, I believe Blaine was doing an afternoon air shift at the time. Like I said, it was many moons ago.

Denny
 
The calls are WVRZ, Dave. Word has it that Clear (cough cough) Channel bought the facility to use it merely to warp the Williamsport ratings book and it's own, occasionally rated, 'Variety' station on 99.5 or 99.9 in Williamsport.

Same as they did with their 'Bill-FM' purchase and re-baptism of 95.3 Shamokin -- in part to put a few more nickels and dimes from Coal Township onto the stage coach to San Antonio .... but mostly to bloat the Williamsport ratings of the Bill-FM there on the next channel.

* * * * *

Seems as though Variety 99.7 from, ahem, 'Mount Carmel', uses an unlit stick with two bays in back of a firehouse in Natalie PA. The devil knows where the actual DJ studios are,
 
WHGT is 15 kW-D, 58 Watts night.same pattern day and night. Pattern is a 2-tower figure-8, with the main lobes going NNE-SSW ,and the waist going NW-SE. WPWA runs 2500 watts non-D daytime, 1000 watts DA at night.with the pattern looking almost like an inflated balloon. The major lobe appears to go southeast.
 
The demise of WMIM came in 1999, when a truck driver owned the license. I had struck a deal to purchase the station for $5,000. BUT... the dumbass owner sent a fax to the commission stating that the transmitter was back on before the license was to have expired.

I was in close contact with the commission, to make sure that everything was by the book and legal. Dave Gorman (who later bought WISL AM) was to have installed a transmitter for me. The commission actually called Gorman up and asked if indeed he had put the transmitter in place and turned 1590 AM back on. The answer "NO". He told them that he was on his way to the WMIM transmitter site to do so; but, the commission said don't bother. I just cancelled the license due to falsifying a statement to the commission.

The equipment wasn't worth much; but, it could have saved the station by targeting the community.

The tower remains intact across from the high school. Meanwhile, WVRZ 99.7 FM rebroadcasts WVRT 97.7 FM out of Mill Hall, PA.
 
I worked for WMIM Mt.Carmel from 1974 till 1980, and WISL Shamokin from January 1977 till August 1977
Ed Romance put WMIM on the air in 1969. He named it after his wife Mimi. Charlie Stake was the first morning man (morning mayor). The Jordan Brothers were doing afternoon somtime arount the begining. Ed Romance Jr. also did air work, was was killed in a fire while attening Kutztown University. I don't know if he was the first CE but Ray Willard was CE when I got there. The station started out as a 500watt daytimer using a Gates (Harris) Vanguard II transmitter. Ed was told by his engineering consultant that 1000watt should work, but may get some flack from another 1590. Ed decided to go 500watt and later apply for the boost to 1000w. That boost came in the fall of 1975. 500w pre sunrise, 1000w day. Just prior to that Ed added a Harris MW1 to the small transmitter building. Tower 160ft. Studio equipment was almost all Gates/Harris. Console was a YardII, 3 criterion cat machines, 1 magnacord reel to reel, 2 Gates turntables, Gates remote controll. Mutual radio network. Ed originally worked for WPPA Pottsville before building WMIM. When I started there the morning man was Al Mason, afternoon's was Bob Bernowski. Bob was killed in a car accident in the first half of 1975. Thats when I took over afternoons. Paul Kieser did big band on Sunday morning. Dave Donlin took over in the late 70's. Thats when I took over as CE.

I still own some property in Mt Carmel, and get back there a few times a month.
 
I believe Bob Bernosky was working at WKOK at the time of his death. Bob had worked for Ed at WPPA, where Ed was A.V. Tidmore's program director and sports director, before following him to WMIM.
 
Even near the end, WMIM had a pretty good signal. I could get it clearly in Hazleton, which is maybe 35 miles away. I don't remember who he was, but when I was at the now-defunct WKAB, a salesman we had said he and a partner or partners were buying the station and intended to keep it on and grow it. I can still see the guy -- he had dark hair and glasses. He was from Mahanoy City. He left KAB to devote more time to WMIM, though I don't know what happened after that.
 
LA,

The last guy that I heard that was trying to save WMIM was Dave Gorman...he was from Quakertown and was one of the owners of Phasetek (also known as Vector Technologies) which manufactures AM Phasor systems (we have one at WGMF, Tunk.). He was trying to organize a network of AM stations in PA and had spoken to us 5 or 6 years ago. He passed away about 2 years ago. His son Kurt still operates Phasetek in Quakertown.

Kevin Fitz
 
When I was working at the old WALE in Fall River MA, the guy who I relieved was Mike O'Rourke, fresh from WMIM. This would have been in 1970. Great pipes. Eventually went to a station in, I think, Norwich CT.
 
The only person I recall speaking with at WMIM was a Bill Erdman or Bill Ertman? That would have been the mid or late Nineties. IIrc, he was out of Harrisburg. He had put the station back on with a sort-of Oldies format emphasizing a lot of 70's A/C playlist -- really nice stuff. It was also an exclusive, since no station around here played that genre. He asked if I'd be interested in doing some board-op/fill-in/babysitting, but I had another job that paid more at the time. Plus, if I remember correctly, that was the format they last used when they first went OFF, around 1991 or so.
Then they changed to Standards (AM-Only), and finally to a network sports. It would have been the only sports signal in Mt. Carmel at night (and at the time, during the day) but that's only about 5000 people within the nighttime signal range. WKOK 1070 ran a lot of weekend sports during the day, and WPPA Pottsville covered most of WMIM's coverage area with Eagles and Phillies.

Later on, WSPI began airing Mt. Carmel HS football games, and WEGH 107.3 Sunbury had the Eagles. High school and Philadelphia sports, which is huge up this way, wouldn't have done well with 17 watts on AM.

* * * * *

As a footnote, I remember someone putting WISL 1480 back on the air for a few months. Horrible fidelity. They were playing some great Oldies, but the sound was appalling. I don't remember the year, but it was after Clear Channel bought the 95.3 FM. They probably were broadcasting from the old tower site, in a coal field southeast of Shamokin. Perhaps the old owners sold to Clear Channel and tried to resuscitate the 1480 AM with some of the loot.
 
Just thought I'd chime in. Somewhere in the early 90's I became interested in purchasing a station. I stumbled across WMIM and was put in touch with Bill Erdman. I was too late as he had just purchased WMIM. We spoke for a while and he enlisted my help in getting the station back on the air. He purchased a good, used LPB mono console from a school and hanging on the wall was an LPB 60 watt transmitter previously used for night time operation. Believe it or not, I wired up the board into an old CBS Volumax. (wish I had the Volumax today) I spent countless hours assembling the format and we went on at 60 watts to test out the signal. We had one new record-playback cart machine and the music was all on VHS Hi quality tape at high speed. In the mean time Bill had ordered a 1 KW Omnitronix transmitter. When it was ready, one Saturday, a friend and myself took a pickup truck to North Wales and carried the rig home to Mt. Carmel. We were on the air testing at midnight that night with 1 KW. As someone mentioned, the format was very listenable and we received a warm welcome from the handfull of merchants that we called upon. The problem, as I see it: Mr. Erdman was not "part of the community" and wanted to keep it that way. My experience in radio is that being a part of the community and getting involved is far more important than the music you play. It's kind of a "reap what you sow" unwritten rule. Putting it back on the air was a great experience. I liked the town and I liked the people. With the correct leadership, WMIM would have had a fair chance. I only recently discovered that a United Airlines DC-6 crashed in Mt. Carmel in June of 1948. Who knows what other stories that beautiful little town holds. Craig Baker, WKVQ / WYTH
 
the real truth about WMIM-AM 1590

you can ask me anything about this station!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as the RADIO BOSS said i'm the DUMASS who owned it>>>>MY name is Bill Erdman...........as a side note>>>i just love how some people seem to no eveything but know nothing.,just an obsevation from reading these pages for many years!!!!!!!!
 
May I ask who are you, "L.A. Tarone.: I am the REAL L. A. Tarone -- you know, the guy who works at WILK, who'd been at WKAB, WKRZ, WBQW, WYLN-TV, etc. Who are you and how did you get in using my name? I was contacted by the administrator last week to say someone had been trying to get in as me, but I didn't think there was any way to do it. Be aware, this "L.A. Tarone" is NOT the real L.A. Tarone. For verification, I may be reached at the station's business office, 570-883-9800. I hope the administrator does something about this!
L.A. Tarone (the authentic)
 
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