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Williamsport Radio loses two veteran broadcasters

K

Kelly Watts

Sad to report the passing of two former Williamsport Radio people, Mike Sullivan and Frank Barber.

Mike worked at WMPT in the early 1960's and went on to work in Atlantic City and Chicago, among other places. After illness affected his voice he became a print journalist in Elgin, Il

Frank was a veteran of WWPA and WRAK in Williamsport working there into the 90's. Frank last radio gig was in Tiffin, Ohio

While neither name may be a household word to you, both were great guys who were loved and respected by those they worked with. I had the pleasure of knowing Mike, AKA Sully, when I was a radio wannabe and he was kind enough to show me some of the ropes.

I worked with Frank at WRAK/KISS FM I was doing Sunday mornings on KISS and he was on WRAK, we sat facing each other had a great time exchanging jokes and other antics across the glass.

Thanks guys!
 
Always wondered where Sullivan wound up working. We would drop by a
few times as teen kids, taking the LIRR from Jamaica, do watch him do his
7-Mid show at WGBB Long Island. He was music director there, at this
small-signalled but densely-populated marketplace. It was his job as MD
to balance the Smiling Susquehanna approach at WGBB (different from the
music of WARM and WSBA) with music that soon became regarded in a
derisive way by competitors as 'Chicken Rock'. He may very well be among
the ditchdigging pioneers of what we now call 'Adult Contemporary', with him
having to locate all that Bacharach and Gary Lewis and Yellow Balloon and Seekers
and Spanky & Our Gang and have it emphasized rather than the Top 40 of the era.
WGBB was a terrific listen.
Before WGBB, Sullivan had worked afternoons at WMID Atlantic City. It was
another small-signalled station, but wow, did they bomb up the coast on the
salt-water path to where we lived (near Kennedy Airport). I've read stories
that the young folks on Jones Beach used to pull in WMID quite easily on the
transistors. What's more odd about that is that Jones Beach gets a full, majestic
view of WGBB's Eiffel-Tower stick, on the water in Freeport -- off which Sullivan
was to broadcast for a few years.

Word was that WGBB had promised Sullivan some more leeway in the music (more Top 40)
plus some added overall station promotion -- weekly surveys, bumper stickers, pictures,
billboards, stuff like that. He never saw it, though. He left WGBB and was next
heard, for a short matter of maybe a few months, working maybe 15 miles east, at
super-directional WGLI 1290. WGLI was top 40, with roaring jingles and a weekly
survey. A rockier, Suffolk County beach version of Nassau County's WGBB, WGLI
literally sent just about all it's power roaring through COL Babylon and the next stop was
Bermuda! In their two big nighttime nulls you could see their three sticks blinking -- and
you couldn't hear the station well at all. They'd get hashed by next-door WADO 1280.
WGLI obviously was not the end-of-the-rainbow marquee Sullivan sought. He was this tall,
lanky blonde guy -- had to go maybe 6'5 -- and the times we visited WGBB there was
always some lovely girl in the studio. We'd duck out quickly, in deference. Perhaps
Sullivan had visions beyond being a DJ ; perhaps becoming, say, the next Rifleman-type actor.

Last I'd heard -- I worked at WGBB briefly -- he left WGLI to go to WGRT Chicago, a daytimer at
the time on 950. That was around 1968. So I guess he basically remained in the area.

Terrific combination of voice and style he had ; a cheerful, smug, dusty baritone. As a kid DJ,
maybe 20, I patterned what there was of my own style after his at my first two jobs.
He also could take a full 4:00 rip-and-read AP newscast at WGBB and close the broadcast day at
1AM *without making a single flub*.
No actualities, no sponsors, no break. Four minutes straight of wirecopy. See, WGBB's
newscasts started at :56.

I believe Sullivan might have had his first gig at WVOS 1240 in Liberty NY -- the Voice of Sullivan County.
Neither Mike nor Sullivan were his real names. Maybe he took his surname from the county.

* * * * * * *

I and others certainly would love to hear some of Frank Barber's career !
 
Just a comment: "WGBB's Eiffel-Tower stick, on the water in Freeport" may have been replaced by one less elegant and in a more inland location. I believe that is the case, but I am not sure.
 
I actually saw Sullivan's obit after I'd sent in the post. Seems his first job probably was WMPT, not WVOS,
although WVOS, WALL and WELV in the Catskills often offered a 'first gig' for any kid out of a New York radio
school. My own first gig of any tenure, in fact, was at the northeast end of the Catskills, also a graveyarder
(1490 WKNY). Logic says that an apprentice DJ from way out on the Island -- and Greenport was WAY out there --
would have tried a gig closer to NYC after school. It would've been a quicker commute to a radio job
via ferry to Connecticut. But, well, there it is in the bio -- WMPT.

What was WMPT's frequency, b t w ?

I do have a few brief, DX-type snippets of Sullivan from 1966 at WGBB. The DX crowd here knows
how that worked .... a few seconds of WHLO Akron ..... the end of a newscast on WTAR Norfolk .....
maybe most of a song from a fading WKBW ..... a test ID from WVSC Somerset PA. Reel-to-reel
tape took a chunk out of the allowance money and we'd have to stretch each reel.

* * * * * * *

The last time I was out on Long Island, T-O, was at least ten years ago. For all I know they
could have relocated the real Eiffel Tower to there. The actual WGBB studios (where we
visited and from where we enjoyed Sullivan in those parts of the map, and The Vieser,
Mike McKay and the rest) moved out of their ornate standalone Broadcast Plaza. Last I
heard, they were sharing a building in Babylon (next county) with a station in Babylon.
But as I said, it's been a while.
 
WGBB's Stick

The stick is currently on Bedell Street between Atlantic Avenue and Rey Street. According to "Airwaves of New York," this is the same location as the tower built in 1946 on the property of GBB owner Harry Carman. It's two blocks from the water.
 
That would be WMBT Shenandoah, yes, T-O. They signed on ~ 1964 at 250 watts omni, daytime only. If I stand on my roof, which I'll be doing next week to re-do it, I can see WMBT's stick, way up there in Shenandoah Heights. And they ARE heights. WMBT got an increase to 2500 watts, and were Oldies for the longest while -- a lot of it off satellite. But they went dark several years ago. Their best feature was a midday/live show, hosted by the literally homespun Frank Jordan, who was not a genuine DJ per se but had his greatest fame as a singer, writer and sax player for the region's big 60's draw -- The Jordan Brothers.

Might WMPT been on 1010 ? I seem to recall a 1010 from out that way, along with the one on 1050. Same as in New York, with 1010 WINS and 1050 WHN. One afternoon, WHN was off the air and we got the Williamsport station on 1050, pretty readable.
 
Steve, in the spring MBT's four-acres were sold to a local husband and wife. When I drove up in July the building was still there, but the stick is gone. The only tower now on the Heights is T-102.
 
Lol -- so THAT'S why I've had trouble finding it in recent times. It ain't there in recent times! Hardly ever out that way anymore, except for Redners. Those windmills all over the place don't make things easier to locate.

When WMBT was on the air, a lot of time at sunset they'd get stomped by WCKY at the west end of that mountain where 61 winds into Ashland. And that's back in their 2500 watt days. We'd very often get WMBT on Long Island, though, nearing sunset, before the 1530 station from Connecticut signed on. That was back when WMBT was 1000 watts.

The 1010 'from out that way' turns out to be WUDO, later WTGC, listed as Lewisburg both times. But that seems to be a stretch for a South Williamsport ID at 19 miles off. And anyway, the Radio-Locator doesn't list a 1010 station anymore there.

Can someone supply some Frank Barber background and career ?
 
1010 Lewisburg has been off the air for many years now - maybe even a decade. The tower still stands alongside 11/15, behind what's now the studio of religious WGRC-FM.
 
Back in the Mike Sullivan day's at WMPT, it was a "powerful" 250 watts full time on 1450 Mike came to WMPT after a brief stint at WMLP 1380 in Milton, Pa. Mike said that if WMPT had not given him a job he probably would have left the business. He WAS a COMPLETE PRO who never forgot his days in "Billtown" and always visited the station when he came to town.
 
Frank was a PD at WWPA (1340) in Williamsport in the Woody Ott Days, and later went to news at WRAK/WRKK (1400 & 1200) for Dame Media.
 
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