A history of WMPT Radio South Williamsport Pa, as well as radio in the Williamsport Marketplace. In addition a history of my time behind the microphone.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

More from the WMPT files of Mike Sullivan

Hello again, from the hills of Northern Arizona. The WMPT History blog really has gotten a life of its own. Mike Sullivan has chimed in again with a couple of more gems, so here they are!

A quick F.P. (Fred Plankenhorn) story: (You're gonna love it). He was doing his on-air record hop from the First Ward Volunteer Fire Co., and I was the board man back at the station. My job was to get him on the air and intersperse messages from "Charlie and Kay," the Sociables, who were hawking Pepsi-Cola. (on disk). Well, I either became inattentive or was on one of my 33 1/3 long-playing phone calls and missed several cues. At first, Fred was just mildly unpleasant: "Well, I guess Charlie and Kay weren't paying attention....now here IS a word from Charlie and Kay." But things went downhill from there and as I missed more cues, Fred got more exasperated on the air. "Hey, listen now....Charlie and Kay may have better things to do but they were hired to bring you these paid-for commercials. Charlie? Kay?
And finally it was: "Now listen up, Charlie and Kay, you better get on the ball or you may find yourself on the unemployment line. If Charlie and Kay would get off the phone, we'd probably hear from them. And we better, "Sully." Of course, Fred was right. But to bitch me out on the air made him seem like a malcontent.


Lot’s of folks over the years have used air names, I did on a couple of occasions when I needed to usually because I was either working at another station or at a place where it might be viewed as a conflict of interest such as when I was placing advertising for Chemung Country Transit and working for KZ 106/WCLI in Corning. Mike’s reason I suspect was a bit different!


My name: I first used the handle "Gene Grayson," but with my cross bite, it was too hard to say: ssssshhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen grayshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn. I heard a guy on mutual news while in Jamestown and really liked the way he sounded when he signed off with his name: "This is John Sullivan," Mutual News. I figured I would keep my initials (M.S., which stood for, gulp, yes, "Mathias Schunk." In '75, I made Sullivan my legal name. A good decision! That's how I began using that name. Funny story! Some Irish guy came in to talk with Dave and said (while I was standing there) what a great deal it was that he had hired an Irish person. I chimed in with the news (remember the doorbell Dick installed as a time tone?) that I wasn't Irish at all and that it was simply an air name. I could read the disappointment in the guy's face.
Dave was pissed and told me after the guy left to NEVER make such revelations in the future. In other words, he reasoned, what's the harm if I simply go along with it? I took his advice. In St. Cloud, Minn., my next door neighbor, Fred Hughes, said it was great to have an Irishman in town instead of all those "Germans." (I never let on that I was a "Hun.")
Fred Burge was able to sell time to JP & M Sullivan based on my presence on the air.
He also threatened to punch my lights out for making fun (on the air) of a commercial he had done. He kept going in and out of the studio, muttering threats to me, as I was doing my show. I finally (in between records) told Dave, admitted I was wrong, but Dave turned his ire to Fred for threatening me and really lit into him. Fred apologized but I felt I sort of deserved the threats for being so unprofessional. The crisis soon passed. Fred was sort of hokey but he could sell time, no doubt about it