• 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

Williamsport Radio...

Vince,
WSQV(now WVRT) came on just prior to WJSA-AM in Jersey Shore in 1979.

Bill Ott was an "interesting" man to say the least. I (along with others) lost our jobs when Bill Ott bought 97.7 WEUZ, which had changed the calls to WYRS. Took the station to Market Street in Williamsport. Changed it to WWWD. All in short order. Later, he sold it to a bunch of radio guys in Johnstown, PA.

What's really odd, WWPA and WWWD ended up moving out of the spacious studios on Market Street and moved to the West End of town. Today, ESPN Radio 1050/104.1 occupy intact studios from the old WWPA days. But, I can remember some great music and announcers that came out of Market Street. Even though, most of them are now at West Fourth Street at Clear Channel.

Will you ever be heard on Wyoming Valley radio or tv again? I really enjoy seeing you on occasion representing the SPCA.
 
Bill Ott had grown up in Williamsport but was living in Dayton, Ohio, when his father Woody died. I seem to recall that it was sort of a "It's A Wonderful Life" situation, Boss. His family and the other minority stockholders in the station gave Bill two options, 1) Come back and run the station, or 2) Stay in Dayton and we'll send you a check once we sell the place. I don't think he made an immediate decision, I don't think running a radio station was a dream of his. He was, though, a huge fan of WWWE, known as 3W-E, which likely explains his changing WYRS to WWWD. I'd imagine his plan was for it to become 3W-D. I can say nothing bad about Bill Ott, he was always nice to me. Although radio might not have been his dream, he came at it with passion and a vision.

That facility on Market was a huge part of his vision. Bill made it happen, and had to have run up serious debt in doing so. Prior to every inch of it being literally custom designed and built as a radio station, it had been a warehouse for a plumbing business. If you were to see "before and after" photographs of the place, you'd likely not believe it.

Each wall, floor, set of steps, office, studio(there were five in total), bathroom, had been constructed specifically for WWPA/Twin W Radio. My favorite was the hall off of which both production studios were located, the hall that gave visitors a great and up-close view of the then brand new control room on one side, and an unobstructed northern view of the river valley on the other. I haven't set foot in that building in literally thirty years. (I am suddenly growing very nostalgic.)

On the topic of ESPN, one guy I worked with in that facility on Market St. was Scott Masteller, who is now a Senior Manager/Senior Director of Content for ESPN. Scott's a great guy and has done extremely well for himself. He is also tremendous on the air.

Thanks for asking about me and broadcasting. There are days when I think it would be good to get back in on some level, maybe do some part-time work. Then there are days when I lean towards leaving well enough alone, that I had over thirty good years between radio and TV and maybe it's time to simply leave it be.
 
Scott was my PD when Bill took over WYRS. He is doing quite well in Dallas at ESPN Radio.

A couple of times a year, he comes back up for a visit. He is probably one of my favorite PD's of all time that I have worked for.

The studios at Market Street are still intact. The main studio for WWPA is now a 6-8 person talk studio for discussion purposes. The old newsroom is now the production room/webcasting room for www.espnwilliamsport.com. While, the two production rooms are currently vacant. Though, plans are in the works for something in those two studios. The other studio is the main studio now for WLYC 1050/104.1.
 
Scott was fresh out of college when we worked together. My contacts with him have been sporadic over the years, although two other WWPA/Twin guys keep in much better touch with him, and that would be Eric Mease and Jim Thomas.

That Market street facility would have been perfect for a cluster, they easily could have run four or five stations out of that one building, pretty much what Entercom now does here in Scr/W-B. Broadcast Engineering Magazine found WWPA's new home so impressive that it did a cover story on it, making it the Station of The Month. Somewhere, I do have a copy. A couple of us got our photos in the layout. We thought would surely launch our careers...yeah, right.

It was easily the nicest looking "shop" in town, too bad the numbers never really materialized.
 
This young buck remembers a few things from Williamsport from the early 90s, thanx to DXing and a few time-killing moments in the King's College reference section.

I remember hearing oldies on 1190 WKHL... I think that became 1200 WRKK.

There was WFXX 1450. When did this station throw in the towel?

I also remember Hot 103.9 WHTO... they had a fire and took up residence at WFXX for a while. WHTO also simulcasted on 99.7 WXMH Mount Carmel for a few years. WHTO moved to 93.3, now WBZD.
 
I worked at KISS/WRAK in 1992, before moving on with Dame Media to Harrisburg. My Ops manager was Tom Benson, whom I later worked for at WHP. (Tom is "on the beach" after a Clear Channel downsizing at WFLA in Orlando.) My PD on the WRAK side was Ken Sawyer. Lou Kolb did middays on KISS, Benson afternoons, Tom Turner evenings and George McCready overnights. Robyn Young rounded out the airstaff doing afternoon news.

I LOVED working on W. 4th Street. We had a very tight staff that worked and played together well. I enjoyed being Gary and K.C.'s news guy and third wheel for the short time I was in town. I was the insufferable "Steve From Turbotville" on the air, and in Gary's live shows for almost ten years (I was in Baltimore at WPOC when we did the last show). I will also confess to a "mooning" incident live on the air one morning that nearly caused K.C. to choke to death. But I digress...

One of the the things that attracted me to KISS was the way management went out of its way to take care of Sweet Lou. They recognized his great talent and really worked to accomodate him. My favorite memory was my Annie Dame letting Lou drive her Saab around the big yard in the back near the ballfields. The smile was priceless!
 
WMPT in South Williamsport, Pa. was owned by Galen David Castlebury, Jr. He was one of the best people to work for. Words cannot describe how much ‘Dave’ was liked by his staff.
During my stay at WMPT, I handled 2 pm to 6 pm on the air as Johnny (Nasty) Knight and did a load of Remote Broadcasts. My friend Bob Evans was program director and morning drive announcer 6-10.
Ron Shobert was preparing to leave WMPT to go to WLYC/WILQ to do their all night show. Later, Ron help build WJJR FM in Mifflinburg, Pa. and become General Manager there.
Dolly Wilt (Hello Dolly!) was working in the office, but no longer on the air. Glenaire Snyder was Office Manager and Gary Strausser was a sales executive.
Bill Byham did a daily afternoon sports report. ('that's thirty').
Mike Fogarty and Scott Lowery did local high school play-by-play announcing for us.
Bob Jackson was doing some spot sales for the station and was on the air part-time. His wife 'Egg Fryer' used to drop by the station with Bob on occasion.
Jim Sortman was a DJ there for a while, but left to go into another field.
Greg Isadore did 10-2, Tom Turner handled 6-12 and Glen 'Ton of Fun' Watkins was overnight, Midnight-6.
Al Hoover broadcast a Saturday night oldies show (Al Hoover's Hall of Fame) that was really popular Saturday nights 11 - 2.
Harry Seltzer was the GM (also Chief of the First Ward Fire Company) who left WMPT to take a job with Motorola.
Kelly Watts was also gone by the time I got there, although he dropped in a few times so I knew who he was. At one point, Kelly was managing a station in Canton, Pa. for Dave.
Somewhere in the mix of talent was Frank Bell, and Sue Andrews came aboard as the first full-time female personality. Mona Fisher was hired before Sue, and was actually the first female announcer at WMPT doing Sunday mornings. Sue was the first full-time female announcer.
I had more interest in engineering than remaining on the air at the time, and I credit Dave with giving me my start in that field. I had my First Class FCC license, but no real broadcast related experience. Dave made sure I got plenty of hands-on training in the years I was with him.
 
Vince Sweeney said:
This might be a long shot, but I was wondering how many, if any, folks here spent time working at any of the stations in Williamsport like I did.
Click to expand...

Vince:

Several people from the Williamsport area and Milton. Don't forget WMLP. George Gilbert, as I am sure you know used to travel down to listen to who was on MLP when WARM had an opening. Some of the ex-WMLP jocks, included, Bill Stuart, Bill Kelly and Chris Starr O'Brien. All 3 worked at WARM at one time over it's many years. Of course the connection turned into a boomerang for Gilbert when he himself left WARM to go to Wisllmsport. One other from WMLP also long out of the biz was a guy who used the air name Jim Reilly. He went from WMLP to WBAX during it's first year when Merv Griffin bought it, The PD was Bill Stuart. It's a small world isn't it.

I don't recall Jim Gannon saying anything about working in Central PA when he was at WBAX 100 years ago. He did work in Atlantic City and the Harrisburg area, but I never heard him say he worked in Central PA
 
Bill Stutzman, aka "Bill Stewart," left radio a long time ago. Never met the guy but used to hear his name mentioned routinely when I lived in Williamsport, which was his hometown. Seems to me that he was also a golf pro. Whether that was before, during, or after his radio career, I really don't know.

WMLP was one heck of a radio station and was a bit of a legend for its sound, and you're very right, for its talent. There was a WMLP tribute site for a time but it appears to be no more. If you traveled I80 across north central PA, WMLP was always a huge bright spot on the radio, it sort of jumped right out of the dash at you. Like all other music-driven AMs, WMLP just faded away as FM began to dominate.

GG's trips through the Williamsport-Milton-Lewisburg corridor were well-known and it's actually how I ended up at WARM. George never did confirm this for me, so it could be any degree of true or not, but he'd been on his way to check out a guy on WMLP, a jock someone had tipped him about. Going through Williamsport he heard me. Not long after, he called and offered me the job. Anyone who ever got a call from GG with a job offer can likely tell you exactly where they were and what time of day it was when the call came. I am no exception. It blew my hair back, since it came out of nowhere. Although I once sent a T&R to Susquehanna when they were doing a talent search, I had never had any contact with WARM at all.

Gannon worked at WLYC in, and this is a fair guess, the early '70s, give or take a few years. I can actually tell you where he lived when he worked there, warmland, because years later I dated a girl who lived in the same apartment he once did. Jim lived in a stately old building very near what's called Confusion Corner, where Market and Hepburn meet by Brandon Park.

By the time I met Galen Castlebury, Jr., he was a Lycoming County Commissioner. All the names Johnny mentioned from WMPT I remember very well. I recall Bob Evans once saying that he'd worked for Susquehanna briefly and couldn't get away from the company fast enough. Years later, I understood completely.

Kelly Watts is a solid source of radio info when it comes to that part of PA. His blog is loaded with stuff that anyone who worked in or near Williamsport will love. http://wmsptradio.blogspot.com/2006/02/vince-says-from-vince-sweeney-wbre-28.html

You might have to poke around some and spend time finding what you want on Kelly's blog. It's worth it, the details and his recollection of things are remarkable.
 
in response to Sweenys question posted last july (that I just came across) ...i don't know if looking for folks this old, but
 
I had a very foregetable stint at WWPA in the 60s when it was a very forgetable radio station. I was hired in aug of 1966 by a guy named Jim Stowe. worked the afternoon shift (noon to 6)...also filed in on the night shift for a guy named George Gedon (who I think later went to jail). after Stowe left to do radio AND TV for WHP in harrisburg , they made Bill Duel the pd and put me on the morning show. I did that until sept of 1968 when I moved to YOrk where I worked for Stienmen stations and then for Susquhanna. the most fun I had in Billtown radio was doing the little league world series in 67 (last year for the old Lamade field ) and in 68 (first year for the present Lamade field). it was a blast. we actualy had several other stations pick up our feeds on some of the games. my name is JOhn Loeper.
 
Vince Sweeney said:
Bill Stutzman, aka "Bill Stewart," left radio a long time ago. Never met the guy but used to hear his name mentioned routinely when I lived in Williamsport, which was his hometown. Seems to me that he was also a golf pro. Whether that was before, during, or after his radio career, I really don't know.
Click to expand...


Stuart aka Stutzman was doring production and fill in at the old WSGD in the mid 90's before he and the late Scotty Youg aka Fred Deiter bought a station and ran it for a very short time. Later they both ended up at WWDL. Stuart actually was put on the air the day..well, I think we all know that story. When you know who was taken away. After that who knows.

Gannon, I will be? He never said aword about it. I wonder what happened to Chris Starr and oh what's that's guys name again? Oh yeah; Bill Kelly.
 
Was that the same Bill Stuart that became PD of WBAX in Wilkes Barre? Also wasn't Scotty Young at WBAX? I did mornings for a short time there as Dan Dayton. Great station, hated Wilkes Barre.
 
me again, I was reading "WARMLAND" and saw that it was the same Bill Stuart that was the PD at WBAX, I guess he brought with him all of the jocks except me, me coming from Delaware. Real nice guy there was Jim Ward, the GM. How long did that Oldies format last? I'm still in radio, working in Las Vegas.
 
Pinegroves said:
me again, I was reading "WARMLAND" and saw that it was the same Bill Stuart that was the PD at WBAX, I guess he brought with him all of the jocks except me, me coming from Delaware. Real nice guy there was Jim Ward, the GM. How long did that Oldies format last? I'm still in radio, working in Las Vegas.
Click to expand...

Hello Dan, Did you wark at WAMS?. BAX had Bobby Hatfield there for a very, very short time. he tried to get his job back at WAMS, but it was taken. he is on this board as "The Radio Boss" I think? Jim Ward passed away in the mid 90's and Scotty Young aka Fred Deiter several years ago. I have no idea if Stuart is working in radio any longer. Most people from that time period are out of it if they are smart LOL. A guy named Rick Walker (Rick Belzer) worked morning drive later on, must have been after you left.
 
Re: Williamsport Radio.../Loeper

I remember hearing a "Loeper" on WORK radio in York in the late1960's.(now WOYK).
I was working at channel 43,WSBA TV in York at the time.
Regards
Tim
 
TimY, that Loeper was one and the same. left WWPA to do mornings at WORK. thanks for remembering. BTW who was the news anchor on TV 53 back then? I can picture what he looked like but I can't remember his name.
 
Re: Williamsport Radio.../Loeper

Hi
I do indeed remember listening to you back in the 1960's on WORK in York.I believe the station carried NBC news on the hour ??? Is John your first name ? I worked the technicial side of WSBA TV .The anchors/weather persons were Bob Breutsch and Bob"Shipley ! Bernie Buckler ( who wore a hairpiece-a BAD one at that) did the sports.WSBA TV was treated as a stepchild/orphan compared to Susquehanna radio.It spent very little money on equipment.Of all the regional TV stations,we were by far the worst regarding signal,equipment,etc. It was nice reminiscing with you. Take care.
Tim
 
WSBA TV was a real treat. when i came to york in 78
Bob Breutsch did everything. news...wx and sports.
They did hire a female anchor in the early 80s before
they sold it.
 
I am pretty sure that WSBA TV 53 was the first commercial UHF TV station to go on the air in the united states. mid 50s sometime. never did understand why Susquhanna didn't invest in that station the way the owners of 21 and 27 in Harrisburg did in theres. there surly was money to be made. I think maby Phil Eberly, GM of WSBA Radio, didn't want to compete with the TV station for local ad dollars. The "mighty 910" was a true cash cow back in the day. about TV53, is it true that the reason the anchor never handed it off to the sports guy directly, or the sports guy to the weather person without a commercial brake in between segments was that they only had one camera? That story was told to me years ago.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom