WNAR

[Betrayed]

Was reading that RJ thread and somehow they moved on to the subject of WNAR. I grew up in Norristown in the 1960's. In the summer I'd spend a week at my grandmom's in Betzwood. Does anybody still call that little area along Trooper Road, between Egypt Road and the Betzwood Bridge, Betzwood? Does anybody still call the intersection of Egypt and Trooper Roads, Schracks Corner?

I digress. Back to WNAR. I recall she'd always have WNAR on. I have no memory of ever hearing Top 40 '60s rock-n-roll on there. My memory is of a lot of call-in talk, interviews, news. If there was music, it didn't interest me enough to even remember any music. I know it sounded nothing like 'FIL or Wibbage, which is what I listened to at home on my little white GE transistor radio. I remember hearing a lot a little jingle that went something like ' W - N - A - R, One Eleven Oh, Norristown' (always pronounced 'Double U - N - A - R, One Eleven Oh, NARistown)

 

[John1]

Sometime in the 1960's WNAR had a dj "Super Lou" who played top 40, sort of a fast-paced, falsetto voiced Jerry Blavat style. The station was block-formatted (like other locals WBUX & WNPV) and he may have even bought the time on the station. I believe he later was on WAEB in Allentown. By the early '70's WNAR was all 'beautiful music on AM" with 15 minute segments of music, not much talk except from a syndicated music host, John Doremus.

 

[athegymtday]

On Weekends WNAR had a number of public service programs eg. the senators report, and "church tapes" and RJ and Super Lou brokered shows. If there was an open slot Johnny Deveroux would play music. I know that many of the Motown songs were not in the stations library, Johnny would borrow my record collection and use them on Sunday mornings first at WIFI and then Sunday afternoons at WNAR. At the time, WIFI being on FM we felt that nobody was listening. But on AM the feeling was that everybody was listening. I also remember in 1967 that most of the area where the station is located was farmland and it was not unusual to open up the station early morning to find that the station was broken into and that equipment and records were gone. This happened mostly during the winter when the station, a daytimer went off the air early evening. The last time I passed the sight there were multiple towers so I guess they have nightime programing now.

 

[DG02816]

Just checked the FCC database...the multiple towers are a directional array. NO night service is listed; they may be too close to Charlotte NC(WBT)for that....

 

[qtpieislit]

I recall that 1110 Norristow had a CP for a 6 tower 50Kw daytime only. But it was never built.

 

[John1]

Long before the current power, WNAR was 500w day. In 1967 they applied for 5kw day, 1 kw CH. The FCC document #67-1980 of 2-20-67 listed that the 500w signal only reached part of Philadelphia, and by expanding to 5kw it would include all of the city and increase coverage in suburban & rural areas "thus raising a presumption that the applicant is realistically proposing to serve the city rather than Norristown". WNAR was denyed the increase in power. The power increases and move-ins of the last few decades did away with the idea that Norristown would need a station for it's needs rather than trying to reach the city and beyond. The 3 daytime AM's that served the general area, WNAR, WNPV & WBUX, all basically served different audiences based on locality even those there was much signal overlap, similar to the lack of overlap by the newspapers in the same towns - Times-Herald, Reporter & Intelligencer back then - now all covering a larger region of the suburbs than in the 1960's.

 

[DaveWilliams]

Back in the late 50's, Cousin Larry use to do a Top 10 countdown show on Sunday morning on WNAR followed by a couple hours of polka music. My parents would tune it in every Sunday morning. WNAR did print a Top 30 list, and called it "The Platter Ladder". I can't recall any of the jocks. For 500 watts, they had a decent signal into the area just outside Chester.

 

[clouseau]

I recall that 1110 Norristow had a CP for a 6 tower 50Kw daytime only. But it was never built.

You be confused, Sam.

That was for WVCH 740 Chester, IIRC. Along with WPEN. Long Gone now.

Clouseau

 

[DG02816]

I'd heard that WNAR's CP was for NINE towers with 50 kw daytime.......

 

[SUPERCASTER]

I'd heard that WNAR's CP was for NINE towers with 50 kw daytime.......

Yes. A 3 by 3 rectangle of towers, quarter wave spaced that was to be located on a then vacant property just south of their Old Arch Rd. location across Germantown Pike. One major lobe. Above 5mv/m to just short of Atlantic City.

At one time WNAR was rated #11 in the Philly market. Not bad for a 500 watt suburban daytimer that only covered part of the market. Very popular in Montgomery county.

You can hear some of WNAR's old jingles (with the frequency edited out) here:
www.wnar-am.com

 

[gakski]

Cousin Larry also did the Sunday polka show. I believe his last name was Moldinero.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

I'd heard that WNAR's CP was for NINE towers with 50 kw daytime.......

Yes. A 3 by 3 rectangle of towers, quarter wave spaced that was to be located on a then vacant property just south of their Old Arch Rd. location across Germantown Pike. One major lobe. Above 5mv/m to just short of Atlantic City.

At one time WNAR was rated #11 in the Philly market. Not bad for a 500 watt suburban daytimer that only covered part of the market. Very popular in Montgomery county.

You can hear some of WNAR's old jingles (with the frequency edited out) here:
www.wnar-am.com

Correction to my earlier post:

south of their Old Arch Rd. location across Germantown Pike.

Should read north east

 

[qtpieislit]

What's the coverage map of 1620 look like?

 

[amfmsw]

Super Lou was a staple on 7-mid on WAEB 790 Allentown. Yeah, a rapid fire cross between the Geator and Terry Young.

 

[thebeach33445]

Re: WNAR COUNTRY? WNAR FORMAT HISTORY 50'S 60'S.

Hey Guys:

Would anybody remember when did WNAR have a country format? Did it end in Nov of 1965 when WNAR went MOR/STDS?

Thanks
T.J.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Yes. A 3 by 3 rectangle of towers, quarter wave spaced that was to be located on a then vacant property just south of their Old Arch Rd. location across Germantown Pike. One major lobe. Above 5mv/m to just short of Atlantic City.

Probably 90 degrees or thereabouts between the north-south "columns" of towers but the spacing within a column was most likely 180 degrees or thereabouts--not 90 degrees. Within a column, all three towers probably had close to the same phase and the signal from each center tower was probably twice that from either of the end towers in the column. Such arrays are fairly common (although six-tower versions with two columns instead of three are really common). A nine-tower version would have produced a very narrow teardrop pattern with virtually all signal going to the east. Not only was daytime skywave toward WBT an issue, but there also is (or was) a 50-kW daytimer on 1110 in Norfolk VA. If you thought the VA station was pushing everything to the north to protect WBT, you'd be wrong. The four-tower in-line array must be situated northwest of Norfolk. The main lobe is to the southeast. Conceivably the reason that the Norfolk station is/was designed that way was to protect the 1110 station in Providence RI. There is almost a clear salt-water path between Norfolk and Providence and 50 kW directionalized away from WBT could have put quite a strong signal into Providence.

 

[Steve_Green]

To original poster Dan .... for what such DXing and jaded ex-DJ sentiments are worth .....

In the mid-Sixties, WNAR 1110 used to put a pretty nice signal into eastern Queens, right at Long Island's front fence, near Kennedy Airport. Nothing else was on 1110 in the day. So, if a radio could 'pick it', WNAR was there daily on 1110. Yeah, our crew had some pretty good radios. But I had the crumbiest radio of the lot. A logbook from the Seventies lists them as 5000 watts omini, but I think we originally caught them at far less wattage than that. Maybe 500 watts?

Listening to WNAR was like listening to WNLK 1350 in Connecticut .... or WKER 1500 in northern NJ .... or to WHTG Eatontown NJ 1410 .... or to WVOX 1460 New Rochelle, or to WKDN's MoR from Camden on 800. These stations owned their DOWNTOWN, darn it. That's all that mattered to them. And the PSAs and the pressing news within ten miles of the tower and the lost pets stuff counted until sundown.

And every now and then, some of those stations would play a pop-country song, or maybe a Glenn Yarbrough song, and everything was at listening nexus.

 

[deepstblu]

Not only was daytime skywave toward WBT an issue, but there also is (or was) a 50-kW daytimer on 1110 in Norfolk VA. If you thought the VA station was pushing everything to the north to protect WBT, you'd be wrong. The four-tower in-line array must be situated northwest of Norfolk. The main lobe is to the southeast. Conceivably the reason that the Norfolk station is/was designed that way was to protect the 1110 station in Providence RI. There is almost a clear salt-water path between Norfolk and Providence and 50 kW directionalized away from WBT could have put quite a strong signal into Providence.

I remember that Norfolk station getting into Ocean City NJ with a decent signal (on a good radio) when they first came on in the mid-'70s. They were WZAM ("Zam-11") with a tasty hybrid country/rock format.

 

[athegymtday]

Super Lou was on tape and yes brokered, he insisted that we have an echo on throughout the show, we just esed a tape loop on the old ampex tape recorders to do that, that was next to the old RCA transmitter. I also remember RJ bought time on Sunday afternoons. In 1967 we played your typical top 40 in between brokered programs, lots of Motown, Beach Boys, Beatles, British invasion stuff, but because of all the brokered programming I guess the music in between was forgotton. I had to bring my own personal music collection in because the station got broken into so many times and the record library was targeted.

Fun days in radio, you got to play whatever you wanted.

 

[DanStrassberg]

To original poster Dan .... for what such DXing and jaded ex-DJ sentiments are worth .....
<SNIP>
And every now and then, some of those stations would play a pop-country song, or maybe a Glenn Yarbrough song, and everything was at listening nexus.

I thought I was the only living soul who remembered, much less appreciated, Yarbrough. Great lyric tenor voice! After he left the Limelighters, they were never the same. Do you know whether he is still alive? I believe that the guy who led the Limelighters (Lou Gottlieb?--I could have the name wrong) is no longer living (but I could also be wrong about that).