My Life and times at the Mighty 1450 and other places I have RF’ed part 2 (1966 to 1972)

My Life and times at the Mighty 1450 and other places I have RF’ed part 2 (1966 to 1972)
Thanks again to everybody who has made comments regarding this humble attempt at writing the history of Williamsport Radio, WMPT, and yours truly. I am going to be as careful as possible since my writings have been reviewed, with a red pen, by my high school drama teacher Laurie Jones.

Back to the story; in early 1966, January, I was getting pretty upset with the way things at WLYC were going, Vince Campana and I could not see eye to eye, and I was not getting any raises, or days off, I was working 7 days a week. So one morning, I really don’t remember what set it off, but I came in and Vince have some trivial thing to say to me, and I walked out, probably telling him what to do with the station etc. At the time Kobacker Shoes was opening a store, Pic-Way Shoes, in the Big N Plaza and I applied for and was hired as a manager trainee. While it was not a bad place to work, I never have been that fond of retail, but hey it was income. Not long after that I started to pester Dave Castlebury for a part time job. Finally with the help of Dick Crownover and the late Ron Shobert he decided to give me my chance. I remember, I was to work a Saturday night shift and IF I did all right, I would be hired. I was most certainly nervous since I was working at the number 1 station in town and I had to do a good job or else! Well, I guess my performance was ok, since Dave hired me for the shift permanently. So there I was hustling shoes around Monday through Saturday and rushing over to WMPT on Saturday night and working 6 PM to 1 AM, ah but I was young then!

Here's a bit of Kel Trivia, the first TOP 40 song I played on WMPT was Bus Stop by The Hollies. Why you asked? The true story, I had a big crush on a beautiful young lady from Loyalsock Twp. who probably should remain nameless. As I remember this some 40 plus years later that was her favorite song and she asked me to play it for her. I did, and to this day I can not play it without thinking of her. Over the years we saw each other many times and dated from time to time but unfortunately, nothing became of this relationship. Good or bad, radio D.J.'s, in those days, always attracted a pretty good following, mostly young ladies, and all too often they formed a mental picture of a handsome young disk jockey, very glib, and exciting. But all too often they were let down when they finaly met the "super jock" who they many times secretly listened to on their transister radio.

I continued working at Pic-Way Shoes as well as WMPT whenever I could, but I really wanted to be in radio full time. One place I had applied after I left WLYC was WBPZ in Lock Haven. In February of 1967 on my way back from visiting Mike Sarlo, who by then worked in Warren, I stopped in at WBPZ AM FM. It seemed that Harris Lipez had told me he might have an opening coming up around that time. I think Harris was surprised to see me. My timing could not have been better as in fact he was looking for a fulltime night man, to work from 5 PM to 1 AM Monday Through Friday. I jumped at the chance! Now what about WMPT? I told Dave I thought I would have to quit, which didn’t make him happy, as by that time he found out I was not too terrible on the air and actually showed up for work! Anyway I remember him placing a call to Harris Lipez and the two of them agreed that since the stations were some 35 miles apart, I could work for both! WOW, big time for a 20 year old kid! Anyway, I talked with Dave about switching my shift so I would have a night off, and he agreed giving me Saturday morning from sign on, 7 AM to Noon. So what would happen, I would leave WBPZ about 1:15 am on Saturday, drive to WMPT and crash on the couch, my mom, who was an early riser, would call the station to wake me about 6:30, so I could be ready to sign on at 7. After my shift I would go home and take a nap leaving Saturday night free for fun and games!

From time to time I would switch with WBPZ’s Sunday night person, Barry Stott, so I could have both Friday and Saturday nights off and work in Lock Haven on Sunday night. Anyway, I continued on this schedule till November of 1967, a period of some 10 months, when I finally convinced Dave to hire me as the News Director at WMPT. Not that I really wanted to be a News Director but it was the only full time position that was available. I must admit I was getting a bit weary of driving 105 mile round trip everyday to Lock Haven, and I was even doing that on the weekend as I had started to date a gal from there at that time.

One day, after about two weeks as the News Director, I came into the station from making my rounds of the local sources and Dave called me in the office. He told me that one of the salespeople had just been arrested and taken to Virginia where he apparently had skipped out on alimony. Dave asked me if I had ever sold, well other than shoes I had not, he went on to say he really would like me to consider selling advertising. Dave gave me to the next day to think it over and I agreed to give it a try. I look back and laugh at my training, Dave showed me the rate card, how to read it, gave me an account list, taught me how to write a sales order and wished me luck! I stayed with Dave either selling, on the air or both till 1973, except for a couple of times when we would get mad at each other and either I would quit or he would fire me. Usually after a couple of days we both would come to our senses and I would be back at WMPT in some capacity.

I mentioned in another posting that Harry Seltzer returned from the Army in 1966 and we became friends. In late 1970, Harry was promoted to Program Director, after Dick left WMPT, then Station Manager when Dave was elected as County Commissioner of Lycoming County. I thought that I should have been named Program Director when Dick Crownover left, so Harry getting the position did not set well with me being the stubborn person I am, I bucked him everyway I could. During this time I was asked to start the first all night show in Williamsport, called “The Watts Watch.” Looking back, I think that was one of my favorite shows I ever did on WMPT because I got to try a lot of programming ideas and had a pretty large following since WMPT was the ONLY station on the air during the overnight hours. One side benefit was that I NEVER saw management and they had very little input into the programming of the all ngiht show. In addition to the “Watts Watch” I did one overnight a week, Saturday, at WBPZ in Lock Haven as they went 24 hours not long after WMPT, and I found out they wanted a someone to work The Saturday overnight shift. I did both for about a year, and then concentrated on WMPT and my summer record hops and some other part time jobs. I continued doing “The Watts Watch” until Agnes filled the station with 9 feet of water in June of 1972. One other person to note from this time period was Byron Comp who worked in sales, he may have been hired after Fred Burdge left. Byron was a pretty nice guy and was a part time 7th day Adventist Minister. Eventually he left and got out of radio and the ministery completely.

The next time, Agnes did what the other stations in town could not do, put WMPT off the air, AH, but wait, like the mythical bird The Phoenix, WMPT rose from the ashes, err waters, to once again rule the Williamsport Market. Till the next time thanks for reading!