• 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

where are they now?

Re: WZIX

Re-reply...

> I did 5-9am (as Paxton Quigley), followed by the late Doc Dougherty
> (a WORK holdover and one of York’s most popular air personalities in
> the 50s and 60s),

Doc and Betty Ann were some of my parents' older friends. He was back
on 1350 during the Oldies format.


> I didn’t have a lot of money to work with but I did manage
> to hire some good people over the next three years. Among
> them: Brad Flick (now with Red 102.3),

Was Brad hired from WSBA?


> Vince Grande (co-owner of WPDC and GM of WOYK),

I used to know his partner, John. Is he still an engineer?
 
Re: Elephant Race and WZIX History

> > >
>
> Why don't I remember the elephant race? Ray, do you have
the details...

As I remember it, the year was 1977. John "PQ" was on morning drive and I was on afternoons. The Delco Plaza sponsored the event, as part of a promotion with the station, on their parking lot at Route 30 and 74. Were the elephants from a circus that was in the area? I can't remember that detail. All I remember is us being strapped onto the backs of these huge elephants. I didn't know elephants could actually RUN! I expected them to kind of lumber along till one of them crossed the finish line. These elephants took off like a bat out of hell and John and I literally, for a few seconds feared for our lives. It was all over in about 20 seconds. John, do you remember who won the race?
Also, Randy, you were a great part-timer. I remember borrowing your Peavey speaker columns. I own two pair of identical columns to this day and use them for my DJ system.
 
Re: WZIX

> Doc and Betty Ann were some of my parents' older friends. He was back on 1350 during the Oldies format.

And still sounding good. Doc Dougherty was a nice man and one of York’s most popular air personalities for three decades. He helped put WNOW on the air in 1948. Who played rock and roll first, Doc or Ed Lincoln? My money’s on Doc, who played Top 40 on 'NOW in the mid-50s. (I had the pleasure of working with Ed for five years at WSBA. I used to listen to him when I was 9 years old!) Doc told me that when WNOW wanted to make him sign a non-compete, he went to WSBA, early in their Top 40 era. When WSBA pulled the same trick, he went to WORK and shifted gears into their M.O.R. format. He did a “live” Saturday morning show of teen pop hits from the record department of the Bon Ton through the 1960s. People have told me that local kids came in and danced while Doc played the hits. Imagine that!

When I started at WZIX, Doc was on the air three hours a day. He was in his mid-50s I suppose and it sounded a little odd to hear him playing Aerosmith and KC and the Sunshine Band, but he pulled it off, professional that he was. I knew he was one of the old WORK guys, and some of them were not so friendly to us long-haired kids, but Doc wasn't one of them and I have to say I was surprised at how easily he fit in.

Funny story about Doc, which he told me so I suppose it’s OK to repeat it. One day the control room mike stopped working during one of Doc’s WORK shifts. This had happened several times and the usually unflappable Doc was a little ticked about it. He had to move to the production studio while the problem was fixed. As he walked in through the studio door, he said, aloud, “Goddamn microphone!,” not knowing that the engineer had keyed his mike and that every blue-haired housewife in York County from Mrs. Lauchman to Mrs. Ilgenfritz heard his outburst over WORK’s 5,000 watt signal. The engineer gave him a lecture, saying “Never swear around a microphone!,” but I'll bet most people who heard it thought they’d imagined it, since Doc, as polite a gentleman as one could find, would never say something like that!

> Was Brad hired from WSBA?

Brad had worked at WSBA, but I hired him from Chambersburg’s WIKZ 95. Nice guy, awesome voice and great production talents.

>Vince Grande (co-owner of WPDC and GM of WOYK),
>
> I used to know his partner, John. Is he still an engineer?

I suppose John is still doing engineering. He’s a good one! He also did some air work for 'ZIX. As “Steve Randall,” he hosted the Sunday Night Oldie Explosion, using his own, vast record collection. Knows more about music of the 50s and 60s than anyone I ever met.

By the way, Xer, thanks for explaining why Thursday's posts were deleted. I saw some mention of it on other boards as well. I'm sure quite a few good posts were lost, mine about WKBO included. I still have them if anyone who wanted to read more about 'KBO didn't see them.
 
Re: --- PING ---

BL40Modulimiter, randy2, etc...

Check the "Interesting Radio Structures" thread. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by AgingXer on 04/11/06 06:56 AM.</FONT></P>
 
"Last I knew, Ralph Lockwood was in sales, possibly sales manager at Thornton Chevy in Manchester. You can also hear him in Boscov's doing specials over the PA."


MYTH-BUSTED!! -- The fella who does Boscov's is NOT Ralph Lockwood, although he does sound quite similar. That man is a friend of Al Boscov and has been doing those in-store announcements for him over 40 years.
 
Re: WZIX

Hi John,

Yes, it did kind of stink that your posts were deleted. Very interesting stuff !

A couple of more questions for you, if you will:

1) When did WKBO move from 31 North 2nd to 411 South 40th, near the Harrisburg Mall ?

2) When did they move the transmitter off the Penn Harris to City Island ? I know the Hotel was torn down in August, 1973.

3) What processors were in the audio chain to give it that "larger than life" sound?

4) What was the format before "123 Radio KB"?

If you still have the last post, the one about "123 Radio KB", please re-post it. Fortunately, I printed out your first post.

If you'll post your e-mail, I'd like to contact you.

The Rock Of Harrisburg

> "Rock"...
>
> For some reason, everything posted on this board on Thursday
> 4/6 has been deleted. That includes my lengthy reply to
> you, your follow-up questions and my subsequent answers.
> Why, I don't know. It's kind of annoying. As a writer, it
> was good mental exercise, but also took quite a bit of my
> time. Let's try again, however. Is there anything else
> you'd like to know?
>
> John
>
> > John,
> >
> > Thanks for the fascinating, detailed history of WZIX. It's
> a
> > great that you can recall the details so well ! Now, how
> > about sharing your time at the Rock Of Harrisburg,
> WKBO....a
> > legendary 1000 Watts that sounded like a million !
>
 
Re: WZIX

> Doc, as polite a gentleman as one could find, would never say something like that!

Doc was a great guy, warm and friendly. I heard him swear a couple of times but it was so out of character, it was like the words were foreign to him and after he said them he was embarassed of himself. I do remember him telling a funny story about his visit to his proctologist.

WOYK was my first radio gig back in 1983. At that time it was owned by Baltimore Radio Show. OK Gold - WOYK. Orioles Baseball. Larry King overnights on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Mike Leash was the head honcho. Doc did mornings. Lee Case drove up from Baltimore to do mid-days. Dave Cannon (now on WGTY) did afternoon drive. Ken Smith was on at nights. Wayne Harper, Bill Hansen in News and Scott Bradley on Sports (now on WQIC) . Dave Bupp did a special show Saturday nights.

The oldies format eventually turned over to the Stardust satellite network. I had gained some experience but moved on shortly after the conversion. I still have my "Doc Dougherty/Dave Bupp Remember" record album, a collection of lesser known hits that were popular locally.
 
Re: WZIX

> Doc Dougherty

Those are good Doc memories. I wish I would've known him better.


> > Was Brad hired from WSBA?
>
> Brad had worked at WSBA, but I hired him from Chambersburg’s
> WIKZ 95.

He's been up and down the dial.


> Nice guy, awesome voice and great production talents.

Sure. I first worked with Brad when he hired me at WRKZ, January 1992.
IIRC, it was that day when you, Brad, somebody from WIOV, and Wayne
Newton were guests on WGAL's 12:30 show "Live."

Brad was a busy fella in those days; PD, Ops. Manager and PM drive jock.
Even so, he took the time to show me a lot of the radio ropes, everything
from, say, "thought economy" on the air, to inviting me to go over ratings
diaries with the other TeleMedia PDs down at Arbitron.


> > I used to know his partner, John. Is he still an engineer?
>
> I suppose John is still doing engineering. He’s a good one!
> He also did some air work for 'ZIX. As “Steve Randall,” he
> hosted the Sunday Night Oldie Explosion, using his own, vast
> record collection. Knows more about music of the 50s and 60s
> than anyone I ever met.

Huh, he never mentioned his own radio gigs. I knew John when he was
the engineer for Starview Media and WOYK Inc. We'd often bat the shiz
about station histories, broadcasting gear, etc.


> By the way, Xer, thanks for explaining why Thursday's posts
> were deleted. I saw some mention of it on other boards as
> well. I'm sure quite a few good posts were lost, mine about
> WKBO included. I still have them if anyone who wanted to
> read more about 'KBO didn't see them.

Go ahead and repost the WKBO stuff. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by AgingXer on 04/13/06 01:47 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: WKBO

> I'm sure quite a few good posts were lost, mine about
> WKBO included. I still have them if anyone who wanted to
> read more about 'KBO didn't see them.
>

If you still have the text in a file, John, could you please repost it to the board? I read it quickly but did not get to save it before it was deleted.
 
Re: 1000

> RayThomas, I listened to your show Monday while cruisin'
> around.
> I tuned in during "Jolene," and tuned out after 5pm.
>
> That station spins Traditional [-sounding] Country and
> damn-near
> nuthin' but. You sound like a guy in his 30s.
>
> What's the deal with simulcasting on 1480?
>
Actually, I'm 53, been in the business, counting college radio and part-time while a student at Ship U. since 1971. The idea behind WIOO, since Cumberland County has always been very Country-oriented, is to offer something totally different from anyone else on the dial. We play late 50's thru the 90's, a fairly large selection, all big hits from traditional to crossover. Its worked well for us for over 7 years now. 1480 is the old WSHP where both our morning man Larry Flood and myself worked in the 70's. We recently purchased it, and it gives us a much stronger signal in the Shippensburg-Chambersburg area than we get with 1000. We eventually plan to do local Shippensburg sports and possibly other local programming on it. So far its been well received. Thanks for asking!
 
Is J.J. Randolph back on-air?

Someone mentioned that J.J. Randolph (Randy Freed), 1980's WYCR jock (and ex-WEEO, et al) was back on-air. Is that true? Where?
 
Re: WKBO repost for Philly_Soul, TheRockofHbg, et al

Repost of some WKBO stuff for Philly_Soul and TheRockofHbg and answers to some questions:

>1) When did WKBO move from 31 North 2nd to 411 South 40th, near the Harrisburg Mall?

Late ’73 I’d guess. I was gone by then.

>2) When did they move the transmitter off the Penn Harris to City Island? I know the Hotel was torn down in August, 1973.

A month or two before that. Although I’m sure they planned to move the transmitter eventually (the West Shore signal from the Penn Harris was awful), the announced demolition of the hotel hurried it up a bit. The only down side to that move was that the daytime power had to be lowered to 750 watts and nighttime power to 175 watts to avoid interference with WITH Baltimore. While the old signal was dead to the west, it traveled unusually far to the east, and I recall getting calls from disgruntled Lebanon listeners who could no longer hear WKBO at night after the switch to the island rounded-out the pattern. Still, the signal from the island was a killer.

>3) What processors were in the audio chain to give it that "larger than life" sound?

The station was already using reverb and had a CBS Audimax/Volumax combination in the chain. Those two units were simply speeded up. Everything out of the production studio was equalized for a bright, crisp sound, and they also put a device called a SymmetraPeak in the chain, which I think was some sort of mike compressor. Later I suppose they were using one of those Dorrough 3-band processors that everyone liked so much in the 70s. It was all pretty simple stuff.

The real key to WKBO’s bigger-than-life audio was the engineer, Gary Magill, who came in from Altoona. Gary was an audio purist and thoroughly cleaned up the chain to as close to perfect as he could, considering the age of some of the equipment. I don’t know whatever became of Gary. He was one of the best.

>4) What was the format before "123 Radio KB"?

A non-descript middle-of-the-road format of the Englebert Humperdinck/Tom Jones variety. NBC News on the hour. NBC Monitor, a music-and-personality service used by many small NBC stations, ran all weekend. Not a bad station, really, just no real need for it. A typical low-budget Steinman operation, almost totally dependent on downtown advertisers, who were closing-up fast by 1970. Good personalities, Charlie Adams and Gary Brooks among them.

The old WKBO was not without merit, however. When hearings were held into Harrisburg’s racial disturbances of the late 1960s, WKBO carried them gavel-to-gavel, the only Harrisburg station to do so. They allowed Toby Young to do a “soul” show from 6-9pm weeknights, and for a while in the summer of 1970 there was a guy who did a sort-of progressive rock show from 9pm-1am. They also had a talk show, “Voice of the People,” which aired mornings from 9 til 10. The host was a guy named Joe Thomas, a real rabble-rouser and very entertaining. All of this ended with Radio KB.

>If you still have the last post, the one about "123 Radio KB", please re-post it. Fortunately, I printed out your first post.

Yes, “1-2-3 Radio KB.” That was it. “Happy Day Radio.” We even had a little song about it. I have a copy of it somewhere and a dub of the sales presentation tape they used for it. It’s a hoot. Radio KB had excellent full-time air personalities, but the format itself was just a little too wide musically. We were playing everything from the Who to Vicki Carr. Old stuffy WHP had the older adults; WCMB had the younger ones. WHYL had a big chunk of adults at that time too. There was just no room for another middle-of-the-road station. The kind of ball the Phillies were playing that season didn’t help either. And then there was the signal, which barely crossed the river at night.

>If you'll post your e-mail, I'd like to contact you.

Sorry, I don’t want to post my e-mail address on a public forum. However, I’m doing a fill-in on the Rose this Saturday from 9a-2p. You’re welcome to call. The hitlines are open at 800 655 4101.

(By request, here’s my original post, the one that got lost in the crash):

WKBO. That’s another case of “someone should write a book,” but I wouldn’t be the one to do it. The authors would have to be Bob Alexander and Dan Steele. I was only there for a couple of years early on. WKBO’s glory years were still ahead.

WKBO was another Steinman station; long on history but short on ratings. It was located on the third floor of 31 North Second Street, where it had been since the 1930s. Al Dame and his partner Michael Rea bought it in 1971 and with great fanfare launched a lively AC format with Drake’s “History of Rock and Roll” over the Memorial Day weekend. PD Wendy (Wendell) Williams was morning man, followed by Charlie Adams, Larry Hall and Gary Brooks. Charlie and Larry are now deceased. Gary, who had an enormous voice and went to WIBG from WKBO, now runs Brooks Creative Services out of Philadelphia. Wendy Williams abruptly exited, and Larry became PD and morning man. He had worked at WSBA in York and WCBM in Baltimore and was a really funny guy on the air. I was going to HACC at the time and Larry hired me to do the all night show until Dave Edwards arrived in September, and I went to weekends. Larry also hired Dan Steele for part-time.

The AC approach didn’t work out, and the decision was made to go Top 40 against WFEC. Bob Alexander was brought in as PD/morning man from WVAM Altoona. Les Howard was on middays, followed by Jonathan Harris (aka Dennis Elliott, who worked in Pittsburgh for years), Jim Roberts at night (now PD at WOLZ Ft Myers FL) and Gary Knight overnights. Gary later moved to afternoons and is now at KLDE in Houston. Dan and I were on weekends. WKBO officially went Top 40 on St. Valentine’s Day 1972, although we had been toying with it for a few weeks. The day “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin went into rotation made it official!

Bob Alexander is now a Dauphin County parole officer, I believe. What a character. Probably one of the most clever, creative people I’ve ever met. Apart from his strong on-air personality and production abilities, he was an absolute genius at promotion. He came up with ideas that really caught people’s attention. Some were original, others recycled, but they always sounded big. WKBO’s first major promotion was giving away a shiny new 1972 Ford Mustang. There were three “Oldies” in the trunk. Listeners were put on the air hourly during the daytime and had to guess the three songs by title and artist. It took all summer but a lady from Middletown finally did it. They also gave away a swimming pool by having people guess, in a kind of a “hi-lo” manner, how many teaspoonfuls of water it would take to fill the pool. Alexander had a physics professor figure it out! We rarely did call-in-to-wins; he always gave everything an imaginative twist.

He also had a great ear for technical quality. He pushed for WKBO’s incredible audio processing, which really sounded bigger-than-life. Old equipment, older surroundings, a studio infested with monster-sized spiders that would often fall from the ceiling onto the board while you were doing a break, and a lousy signal from a tower on top of the Penn Harris Hotel. None of this mattered. The station sounded like a million. In the very first ARB after the switch, Jim Roberts was number-one at night. When Jim moved to afternoons, I did the night shift for about a year, then went to Florida in 1973. When Dan returned from WPGC in Washington in 1975, he took WKBO to the next level, eventually outranking WHP.

One of my biggest memories was Hurricane Agnes. The station had sponsored the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” at the old State Theatre. That night it was raining buckets. The city was under water the next morning. Jim Roberts and I came in and took the news vehicle around, interviewing flood victims and reporting in by phone. We almost got submerged at the bottleneck in Lemoyne! Then I got stuck at the station that night when martial law was declared. I finally got out later that night and WKBO stayed on the air with music and information until the city lost power. What a time!

Like I said, I was only there a short time. There are others better qualified to talk about WKBO. Hopefully, someone will pick it up from here…
 
I worked for the old WZIX and was one of the few who survived the sale to Baltimore Radio Show(Janet Aubry was another one). Before the sale, the line-up was Rick Shockley, Roland Dennis(for awhile), Tom Shannon & Dave Shafer. WOYK had Dr. Mucho Morgan, Jack Armstrong, J.J. McKay & Paul "something" @ night. Bill Nicholas(former WSBA-TV newsman) was news director. Diane Bidun did sports, along with Bob Stewart. The infamous Dave Marino was GM.Later, Wayne Harper did mornings, along with Doug Walker in news. Steve Bentivegna was doing mornings b-4 Wayne, along with Nicholas.While we're dropping names, WZIX's owners were Jeff Greenhawt & Dan Cohen. Now, that should keep you reminiscing for awhile!
 
Looking for the whereabouts of a few former WKOK/Sunbury Broadcasting co-workers...Mark Allen Thomas (former WKOK news director)Ali Stevens (news anchor, reporter, morning show co-host on 94KX. A Jill of all trades :) )Bob Pinter (news anchor/reporter)Thanks!James
 
John Summers. WKBO-AM. Great to hear from you.God, that was some great radio when I was a teenager at Cumberland Valley HS and driving downtown three nights a week to empty trashcans, dust off the desks, clean the bathroom... and hang out with some of the jocks while on the air. It was on 2nd Street as I recall. And I did some promo work with them on weekends.Along with Bob Alexander, Jim Roberts, Lou Raymond... I can't remember them all but would love to find an aircheck from the station in the summer of '70 or '71!
 
I worked with Mac Macauley, Dave Herlihy and Bob Foor while at WWII. 'Haven't seen them in years, I'd love to know what they are up too.
 
Pastywhitethighs said:
I worked with Mac Macauley, Dave Herlihy and Bob Foor while at WWII. 'Haven't seen them in years, I'd love to know what they are up too.
Click to expand...
I worked with all of the above in my early days in the biz at WCMB. They always called me "kid" - even when I had known them for nearly 10-years. I saw Mac at a restaurant in Colonial Park about two years ago, but didn't get a chance to speak to him. Last I heard, and this was years ago, Dave was very sick; I would be pleasantly surprised to hear that he was still with us. Smilin' Dave was quite a guy, probably the nicest man I ever worked with. I'm not sure where Bob is these days; Bob was a jock before he switched to news. Bob's catch phrase was, "Hi, I'm Bob Foor, how's your socks?" One of the most sarcastic guys I ever worked with. The first time I ever went on the air live is when Bob got caught in traffic (1977), and I had to rip-and-read the 3:30 news update - I was scared to death! And then there was my old buddy, Toby Young... and Shotgun Mike Curtis, Lani Paz, Robin Quivers, Bill Campbell, Larry K. Scott, Jim Allen, Dan Kamal... and there are so many more WCMB alumni that I can't remember them all. Can anyone else from that era fill in the blanks? How about updates on some of these people (excluding the obvious Robin Quivers).
 
Scott said:
And then there was my old buddy, Toby Young... and Shotgun Mike Curtis, Lani Paz, Robin Quivers, Bill Campbell, Larry K. Scott, Jim Allen, Dan Kamal... and there are so many more WCMB alumni that I can't remember them all. Can anyone else from that era fill in the blanks? How about updates on some of these people (excluding the obvious Robin Quivers).
Click to expand...
Whaddup, Scott. Regarding Mike Curtis, I recall him working for WGTY by the early 1990s.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom