I'm hoping someone here can help with information about air personality Lou Dark who worked at WNOW in York as a DJ in the 1960s. I know he later moved on WRAW, but that' about all I know. A friend of mine recently came across a box of letters addressed to Lou at the radio station and they were handwritten by country music stars such as Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson, Buck Owens, Ernie Ashworth, Mel Tillis, Merle Haggard and Skeeter Davis. They were thanking him for playing their "records" and also for spots they had apparently done on the air. Does anyone know if "Lou Dark" is his real name, if he's still alive or how he may be reached?
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WNOW air personality Lou Dark from the 1960s
- Thread starter SherryM
- Start date
Thank you so much for responding! Hopefully someone will be able to confirm that or have some more information for me. Unfortunately I know nothing about Lou Dark, except that he worked at WNOW in York and ended up at WRAW in Reading in the late 60s/early 70s. Now at least I can research Q106 and try to find out if that's where he went after WRAW. I realize this whole thing sounds bizarre, but if "Lou" is still alive or if he has family I'm sure they would like to have these letters back. It's been interesting reading them...hard to imagine an era without agents, without all the technology and just plain old handwritten letters to DJs asking them to play their songs on the radio in hopes of getting recognized.
Lou Dark, who's real name is something like Lou Prieto(sp) was a long time WNOW employee. He was there in the 60's when the format started. When the AM/FM simulcast ended in 1974, Lou was doing PM drive on WNOW, which was an AM daytimer at this point. Prior to Q106 going live in 1978, Lou was the night staff announcer feeding breaks into the automation. After the NEW Q went on the air, Lou moved into sales....then left radio. I don't ever recall him working for WRAW....but he could have, since they were sister stations. Don't know what became of him...but he was a great guy.
Wow! I appreciate all the information I received from Bossjock and RockofHGB. You have helped me a lot in my search for Lou. This is a lot more to go on than I had before. I will see what I can find out and I will do a new post if and when I locate him or his family. From what I have read in all those letters I agree with Bossjock that he had to have been a very nice man. You guys rock! Thanks again.
I worked with Lou for a short time in the early 70's, when WNOW AM was country. He covered a part of my air shift (I was suppose to be on at midnight), when I took an "unauthorized" hour off my normal show and began at 1 AM instead to attend a party. Lou was a real ladies man by the way, along with being a nice guy with a dry sense of humor. Many years ago, a good friend of mine said he saw Lou at the Home Depot in York...don't know if he was shopping or working there!
Wow, Hits...you took an "unauthorized" hour off? Was Dave Marino the PD at the time? Did he ever find out? If he did....I'll bet he had one of his infamous tirades.
Yes he was (PD) and no he didn't have a fit (at least not one I was made aware of). Actually, a few months later as I recall, he showed up unannounced one night at my apartment in York, relaxed on the floor and gave me his life story, failed marriage, what was he gonna do, blah, blah, blah. I have no idea why, but 38 years later that's all I remember about the man. Oh yes...there was the time when he took over as PD at 'NOW and up to that point, the station was called the "country king", we had the "royal request line" and other corny lines. This was under the leadership of Phil Gardner, a great air personality in my opinion. Anyway, Marino calls his first staff wide meeting to announce the king is dead and his new top 40 country format would start the following week. Ah...those were the days.
A "Phil Gardner" reference...great. He was a very good radio personality. anyone remember when he did a 24 hour plus on air marathon for some charity , broadcasting live from the North Mall in York? As for Dave Marino...there are a lot of storys folks could tell about him. He did sound real good on the air though.
The most exciting time to work up there on Pleasureville Hill was when WNOW-TV, Channel 49 was operating. That was 1953 to '58.
Everybody got to know what Doc Daugherty looked like, as he was the
station's main on camera person "from the DuMont Telecenter".
He also made WNOW AM 1250 such a pleasure to hear. Their motto was
'Your Good Neighbor Station". Great jingle package.
Everybody got to know what Doc Daugherty looked like, as he was the
station's main on camera person "from the DuMont Telecenter".
He also made WNOW AM 1250 such a pleasure to hear. Their motto was
'Your Good Neighbor Station". Great jingle package.
I remember WNOW playing Todd Rundgren's "I Saw The Light In Your Eyes" during thr Marino era, along with alot of other pop crossovers. During the Phil Gardner era WNOW was solid country....but was using jingles and formatics that Rust was using on their Top 40 stations.....WRAW, WAEB, and WPTR. If it weren't for WSBA already dominating in York and the fact that their AM was a daytimer they probably would have stayed Top 40. I was a Top 40 guy at the time, but started listening to WNOW because of the formatics and the personalities.....and got hooked on Country. I can't help but think that if WNOW would have stayed Top 40....York would have been able to hear "Honky Tonk Women" by the Stones...without having to go to an out of town station.
As I recall, Phil explained to me that he had the music rotate to tell a story...and yes, I know country did/does tell a story normally, but he had songs from groups like Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen on a country station...unheard of I believe at the time. The format was very loose however. Stage left for Phil and enter Dave Marino. Between him and Famous 56 in the early days, I learned a lot. Marino was a pretty good programming in my opinion. In typical Rust fashion, no budget for jingles, so Marino went somewhere and someone spliced the heck out of the current jingle package...when he brought back the new reel, they sounded pretty good...sort of like taking mud and making gold! We had clocks on top of clocks, tons of liner cards, transisition jingles (unheard of at 'NOW before) and promotions. And he left the reverb on. Once while Dave was on the air, one of the other jocks and I walked into the studio as he was doing a live read, went behind the equipment rack in the transmitter room and hit the reverb spring with our fingers, then we ran out of the studio. Made the strangest sound. Marino never said anything.
Just found out some more information regarding Lou Dark. His name is really Luis Angel Prieto. He was living in the Hanover area. Do not know his whereabouts now or if he still alive.
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