Hello all. It's been great to read people's WECQ memories. I've seen names I know and learned history of the station from before and after my time there. Thanks for that. Thanks to Dave W. for tipping me off to this thread. I can't believe anybody remembers me from my short stint at WECQ. Thanks for the kind words. I was the news and public affairs director - no, make that news and public affairs department(!) - for a few months in 1978-79. As others have recalled here, I'm visually impaired. In a box in my attic I still have the liquor ID (or whatever they called it) I got from either the city police or the county sherriff's office. There's a WECQ bumper sticker in that box too.
A few memories...
I've been in radio for over 30 years and I've only blown the call letters once. It was at WECQ. WECQ was my 5th station, counting college. All five station call letters started with W-E. One day I'm doing a legal ID and I started with the wrong call and just kept going til I got it right. Came out something like, "WECBERSEEIESO, WECQ Geneva" Then I started reading the news. Halfway through my first story I look up and standing on the other side of the glass is Dave Weinfeld. Smiling broadly.
Early in my time at WECQ. I'm working 75-80 hours a week at the station - mostly trying to deal with the ridiculous amount of public affairs programming we did - so I haven't been out to meetings or around town to meet anybody yet. I'm there after midnight (still on yesterday's shift), producing a PA show, when the overnight jock (Connie Ryan?) rips the wire and tells me Nelson Rockefeller had just died. "Do a bulletin right now," I said. She does. There's nothing for me to do about Rocky's death now so I finish what I'm working on. I had been planning to go home and catch a nap. Now I tell Connie I'm going to nap at the station and I ask her to wake me at 4 a.m. When she does I go through the phone file my predecessor had left. I'm thinking two things... I've been told by others at WECQ that WGVA doesn't take us seriously and they don't bother to listen to our newscasts. So here's a chance to kick them in the butt. My other thought is that whomever I wake up at this hour, it's going to be the first time I've spoken to them. What a great first impression, they may never speak to me again! The only thing I know about the local pols is that our state senator (Fred Warder?) has been around for a long time. Here goes nothing... "Senator, This is Steve LeVeille at WECQ. I'm new here, we haven't met. I'm sorry to wake you at this hour but Governor Rockefeller has died." There's a long silence on the line. Then I hear, "Oh my gosh..........oh my gosh........ I was Gov. Rockefeller's Agriculture Secretary in his first two terms." Now I'm the one thinking oh my gosh - I've struck gold! He gives me great tape and I'm making the most of it - two cuts on each newscast beginning at 5 a.m. I'm airchecking WGVA and all they have is wire copy. I waited until it was too late to make their 7:00 before letting them know they'd better listen to us once in a while. That's when I finally called the wire service and fed them the quotes. I was just tickled when I saw it coming over the wire:
"From WECQ Geneva.....State Sen. Fred Warder (R-Geneva) remembered former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller today....etc..." On WGVA's next newscast I heard them reading those quotes. Nice.
I remember a period of 10 days or more when the temperature never got up to zero. I'm doing the noon news one day and I announce the temperature in Geneva as 12 below zero. That was the highest temp of that whole period.
Christmas 1978. We were doing wall-to-wall Xmas music with no input from the jocks other than the legal ID and the hourly news. I'm new in town, no one to celebrate the holiday with and I had to work anyway. So I suggested to Dave Weinfeld that since it wouldn't take long to put together the news that day that I do a jock shift and he could shorten everybody else's shift and they could spend more time with their families. Dave approved it. The idea made me pretty popular with the DJs. Christmas Eve comes and we get hit with a blizzard, at least 20 inches of snow. I get up extra early Christmas morning due to the storm. I was going on the air at 4 a.m. I look out my window - on a major residential street - and it had not been plowed. Tom Gongaware used to pick me up some mornings but not this morning due to the shift changes. Normally I'd walk (about a mile) or call a cab. Neither of those options was looking too good. Nothing to do but get ready for work anyway and see what happens...maybe it'll be plowed by the time I'm ready to leave. I called the overnight jock and told her I was on my way but didn't know how long it would take. When I came out of my apartment I heard a snow plow a block away and could hear that it was heading toward the station. So I made my way through deep snow over to that street and just walked behind the plow for many blocks. Eventually the plow turned left but I had to keep going straight. I still made it on time but it was no help to Connie. Roads were closed, she had a long commute, and there was nothing for her to do but sack out on a couch. People coming in later had to leave extra early to get in. So the shift changes were all for naught.
Tom Gongaware was a helluva guy. We hit it off right away and soon were playing practical jokes on each other or trying (and succeeding) to crack each other up. I remember how long it used to take us to cut morning show promos because we'd be laughing at each other constantly.
This is probably a "you had to be there story" but I think of it every once in a while and it still cracks me up...
Gongaware used to leave the studio door open during his show. I'd sit in the "newsroom" and type away, edit tape, etc. Guess you couldn't hear it on the air. One morning he's doing the sports scores and I hear him pause momentarily because he can't think of a team nickname. So I say it loudly and he repeats it on the air. But I (purposely) hadn't given him the right name. Sounded like this....
GONGAWARE: ...In the American Hockey League last night, it was the Rochester Amerks 3,
the Hershey ......(pause)............
VOICE IN BCKGRD: Bars.
GONGAWARE: Bars -- NO, BEARS!, the Hershey BEARS 1.
Gong finishes the sports, starts the music, gets up, walks past my desk, muttering, "son of a..... "
New Year's morning, 1979. I'm working too many hours every week and living the rather dull life of a local radio news guy. So I didn't go out to party the night before because I had to be on the air in the morning. There I am, bright and cheery, prepping the morning news when Gongaware arrives at work. He's moving kind of slowly. He's come directly from a New Year's Eve party. He is wearing a Hawaiian lei. Immediately I knew how I was going to introduce him that morning after my first newscast (knowing management was asleep).
LEVEILLE:
...I'm Steve LeVeille, WECQ News. 5:05 on New Year's Day and time for Gongaware. Happy New Year Tom.
GONGAWARE (a bit sleepy or something):
Yeah, Happy New Year.
LEVEILLE:
Tom I see you've already been layed this year.
GONGAWARE:
What? What?!!
LEVEILLE:
Well, you're wearing a Hawaiian lei, I assume somebody put it there. So, you've already been lei'd this year.
GONGAWARE (laughing)
Ah, yeah....
MUSIC UP
Gong walks into the newsroom, "What the hell are you trying to do to me LeVeille, wake me up?"
After all these years I can still hear the sound of shock in his voice, "What? What?!!"
I stayed in touch with Gong for some years after leaving Geneva but we lost track of each other at some point. Would love to be in touch with him again.
To CTinOH, I have a vague recollection of doing that spot for you and cracking up over and over again. Take 15, Take 23.... I was probably slap happy from those 75 hour work weeks!
I met great and talented people at WECQ and it really was a good experience. But I'm glad I don't have to do it again!
