More from WWPA from Eric Mease

Below is a posting from ERIC Mease antoher escapee from the Williasmport, Pa radio market, Eric worked with Vince Sweeney at WWPA. He was kind enough to share some details of his life and times at "The Twin." Thanks Eric
I started at WWPA in August of 1974 while a sophomore at Williamsport Area Community College which recently morphed into Penn College. I did weekend gigs, Saturday night and Sunday afternoons on "Quality Radio for Williamsport, WWPA." Vince notes that he succeeded Rob Reynolds. I like to point out that he succeeded me, as I filled in on afternoon drive for a couple of weeks until Vince arrived from the Scranton area. And God was I terrible! My worst snafu was the daily 5 p.m. Local/CBS newscast. The network ran ten minutes of news at 5 o’clock which was recorded at WWPA and played back at 5:15. The DJ was supposed to record the CBS cast and do a local live newscast at 5. Both the CBS report and the local report were sponsored. Too many times, in my rush to put the newscast together while doing a DJ show, I would forget to start the CBS tape. Frank Barber, the PD, was a little upset, but he never showed it to me very much. The sales manager, Phil Lane, was not as subdued... and understandably so. Once Vince arrived, I went back to my weekend gig while I continued to go to school. In the fall of 1975 I went away to Penn State, leaving my radio career on hold. I returned in the summer of '76 as a reporter, weekend DJ, and anything else I was asked to do. At some point, Frank Barber left to be PR director at Williamsport Hospital and Ken Sawyer became PD in addition to his morning man duties. Many a time the other jocks talked about pushing Vince into the morning slot. He and Ken never took the bait. I still think he would have been perfect for the job. In the summer of 1976 Ken asked me to become the News Director, full time, but I turned him down, as I wanted to finish my senior year at Penn State. Upon graduation in May of 1977, Ken renewed his offer and I accepted. I was news director from 1977 until I left in the summer of 1979 for Wilmington, Delaware. Here is one of many side bars to the Government place fire story. When the Market Street facilities opened, the newsroom had no recording or dubbing equipment. All of the stories I produced I had to do at the charbroiled Government Place studios which were kept up and more or less running until the Market Street equipment was installed. I remember I had to do all of my phone calling, interviewing, tape dubbing, and story writing at Government Place then literally run over to Market Street for the noon news block. If a call came in at Market Street, I'd have to tell the caller I'd call them right back from Government Place and I'd run over there, do the story, and run back to Market Street. If this sounds complicated, it was worse in real life... but lots of fun, now as I look back on it. Working with Ken, Vince, Gary and Jack Frost had their moments. Vince is right, WWPA-The Twin, never quite made it in the Williamsport ratings wars... even though we had some tremendous talent. The group of us spent many an evening talking about how we would run the station if it was ours. Maybe what we discussed would have worked. We'll never know. Radio was evolving then, maybe more so than it is now. But, like I said, it was a lot of fun. Eric Mease