My Life and Times at WMPT 1966 to 1972
WMPT Staff from 1965 to 1972
Before I get started let me say how honored I am by the nice comments I have received about my efforts to preserve a part of small market radio history. Those of us who lived and had the privilege of working in those great days of radio are fortunate. The kids coming out of broadcasting school today will never know the pleasure of searching for the big 50,000 watt stations at night and as young disk jockeys trying to imitate our favorite jocks of the day such as, Herb Oscar Anderson, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, Joey Reynolds, Dick Biandi, Jerry Blavitt and so many more names that graced the airwaves.
When I went to WMPT in 1966, I became part of a pretty seasoned staff, I hope that after 40 years I don’t forget anybody.
At the time the Program Director was Dick Crownover a person I had known since the late 50’s and for the most part the last of the very early staff. He came to WMPT from Lewistown, PA, to study electronics at the old Williamsport Technical Institute. In Lewistown he had worked for WMRF and WJUN (k) as he called it.
Dick was the kind or person who would ask you to do something once, and if it didn’t get done, then he would go ahead and do it. While he never said anything directly, you knew that you had screwed up big time! He was probably one of the busiest guys in the station in addition to doing the mid morning show, he sold and at one time did the Disk Jamboree show at 4:10 pm everyday. Dick also was, at the time the record hop king of Williamsport, having done hundreds of record hops. By the time I got to “The Mighty 14-50” the only dance still running was The Coca Cola Hi Fi Club on Friday night in Montoursville. In addition to all that Dick was responsible for a lot of engineering around the station and usually the first one who got called when some of the antique equipment crapped out as it often did. I can’t exactly remember when Dick left, but I think it was around 1970 to take a job with Sylvania Electronics and pursue his first love.
Ron Shobert: Ron was the big jock doing the top rated “Night Train” on the station at that time. Ron came from Jersey Shore and to the best of my knowledge he was a product of WMPT’s in house training, which at times meant, “here’s the board, the log and the records, good luck.” I liked Ron, he was fun, had an eye for beautiful ladies and never hesitated to do someone a favor. I remember he once did a tape for me for our after high school play party and dance. Some of My best memories of Ron come from 1967, at the time I was working full time (5:00 pm to 1:15 AM at WBPZ in Lock Haven) and Ron from 6:00 PM to 1:00 AM at WMPT. Well he lived in Jersey Shore and I lived in Barbours out the Loyalsock, so when we left work we would meet usually at his house. Both of us had C.B. radios and would talk to the “late nighters” along the way till we met up. Then it was coffee and conversation for a couple of hours at his house till I would be on my way to my next stop Mr. Donut! Also in 1967 we were asked to participate in the Jersey Shore Town Meeting over July 4th, and play music to warm up the crowd for the feature act The Tremeloes. But before that, Ron and I played host to the group most all day, taking them around to radio stations and giving them a taste of rural Pennsylvania life. Both Ron and I were disappointed that a Philadelphia TV celebrity(?) Wee Willie Webber was the Master of Ceremonies. Practically no one in the crowd knew him, but when the Tremeloes introduced us and thanked us for being their host for the day, we received a large round of applause. Bye the way, Wee Willie was the host of a Kids TV show in Philly and if memory serves me correctly he was married to a woman from Jersey Shore who had a relative on the committee and that was the ONLY reason he was the M.C. and not Ron and I.
Ron was at WMPT till the mid 70’s when he left to go to WLYC/WILQ and do the all night show. He later helped build and was the first General Manager at WJJR FM, a station in Mifflinburg, Pa. I have to believe that was Ron’s downfall as it took a real toll on him personally. Unfortunately he passed away in 1991 at a far too young age.
Harry Seltzer: Harry was another one who had worked at WMPT before being drafted into the service and came back in late 1966. He wound up doing the Platter Party and when Dick Crownover left became Program Director. Harry and I got to be friends early on, I had known him before he went into the service and for some reason we became close when he returned to the station. He even sponsored me in membership at First Ward Fire Company in 1967 and for a number of years we were quite close. After Dick left and Harry became P.D. I felt there was a change in him, I guess part of it may have been my disappointment in not getting that position. Anyway, after Dave was elected County Commissioner Harry was promoted yet again to Station Manager and the riff between us became even more pronounced. It was during that time I left and came back a couple of times trying my hand at selling cars at Larry Herron Lincoln Mercury and for a very brief period of time as a Broadcast Instructor at Career Academy in Milwaukee, Wi. Around the same time Harry also became Chief at First Ward, and I was a Captain, so no matter where I went he was still my boss! Harry left sometime after I did and worked for Bob Bieter and eventually as the Local Government Sales Representative for Motorola Two Way and was well respected. It took a long time but we finally mended our fences and became friends even though we were competitors in business.
Bill Thomas and Rob Thomas: To the best of my knowledge the Thomas brothers were the only brother combination WMPT ever had. Bill did mornings and Rob weekends. Bill went on to work for ABC and Rob stayed in radio for a number of years.
Fred Burdge: While not an on air person, Fred was a very important part of the staff as he sold advertising and wrote a lot of copy. Fred had this mop of very thick hair, prompting Dave Castlebury to call him “Rughead” a name that was never to be said in his presence, well of course like the “kids” we were, it did slip from time to time. Fred loved alliteration in his copy and one time wrote a complete spot for Super Self Service Shoe Store with most of the words starting in “S”. I must say I hated his live copy and vowed NEVER to write stuff like that myself. I am not really sure when Fred left the station but I think it was sometime in the late 60’s as I believe his health was failing. Fred was an amateur radio operator and was highly proficient in CW or code transmission.
Ken Breon: Ken was a person I did not know very well till after he left the station to start his own business North Central Amusements. He had been there a long time and also worked at WMLP under the air name of Brian K. Ken and Ron Shobert were good buddies for a number of years, and again the time frame in which he left is foggy.
In the late 60’s early 70’s the “Terrible Trio” was formed, it consisted of myself and to following two characters.
Caesar Mattioli: He came sometime in late 1969 from WWPA to do WMPT‘s evening shift. Caesar actually got his start in Philadelphia at WWSH which was a beautiful music station. Of the people who graced the mic’s at WMPT he probably stand out in my mind as one of the better voices ever on the air. Caesar was legally blind, a fact that most people did not know and he certainly never seemed handicapped by it on the air. He had a highly creative mind and that got him into trouble more than once with Harry Seltzer and Dave Castlebury and eventually led to his firing. After his demise at WMPT for insulting a paid religious program, that yes, really was a bad as he said it was, he went to WMMR in Philadelphia, and from there to top rated Z93 in Atlanta, and the “Powerhouse of the South” WSB in Atlanta. I remember one time in the early 80’s listening to him while I lived in New York State thinking “how cool is that?” Over the years he stayed in Georgia and worked in Athens, and Macon. He is currently at WGAU in Athens Georgia and has been there for a number of years. I feel fortunate that we managed to keep a friendship going over all these years even though we have not seen each other since he left Williamsport in the 1970’s.
Jon Paul: The third member of the “crew.” Mattioli and I always felt that he needed a last name, and at times we supplied various ones including “Reporting” when he did a newscast. Jon came to WMPT in the very early 70s’s and did afternoon drive. I can’t remember if he had any actual air experience, but it seems to me he worked in Babylon N.Y. where he was from. In those days to make adjustments in the station or to do engineering work or work at a high power or directional station you needed a First Class Radiotelephone License. I tried several times for get one and failed, Jon had his courtesy of a “six weeks wonder” course. At the time Dave hired him I think he felt that if you have the license you can engineer. Such was NOT the case with Jon and he freely admitted it! So Jon was the guy who was one of the very few Chief Engineers I worked with who never opened a piece of equipment without someone like me or Harry Seltzer being around. Jon was there during and after the flood of ’72. Jon and I were very close during his time at WMPT, I even introduced him to his wife Bonnie and was in their wedding. Recently after over 30 years Jon and I re-connected courtesy of the internet. He and Bonnie came and spent an evening and how much fun it was, he later told me that Bonnie had said “listening to you two it was like you just saw each other yesterday, not over 30 years ago.” That was the case with us, very close on and off the air, and ALWAYS pulling pranks on someone, or each other.
In my mind this period of time was one of the greatest in the history of WMPT. We were a brazen bunch, always challenging authority, I can remember one time when Dave Castelbury posted a kind of management schedule, Harry was on it and so was he, only he wrote G.D. (Galen David) Castelbury, of course someone immediate asked the question what G.D. stood for, Dave’s reply was “It DOES NOT stand for that G - - Damn Castelbury!”
It was during that time that WMPT really came of age in the transitional period from the early pioneer days of Rock and roll radio that was coupled with traditional block programming to a modern contemporary sound. Block programming disappeared at the hands of Watts, Mattioli, and Paul and was replaced with a strong Contemporary Top 40 format in drive and evening times and a quality Easy Listening Contemporary sound overnight and in mid days. It was without a doubt one of the better programming sounds I have ever heard. Caesar and I still say to this day “if we would have only known what we were doing, we would have sold the format and been rich!”
Also during this period of time, 1968, came WMPT FM Stereo. Dave had a knack of looking forward and believed that FM was the wave of the future, boy was he right! When the FM went on the air, it was the first FM STEREO in Williamsport, one of very few in the state, and was the first with separate programming. Evenings the station ran pre-packaged programming with very easy listening music and a disk jockey from the west coast named Don McMaster and his show “Music With McMaster.” The first automation was one reel to reel (a Skully) a carousel commercial machine and a single deck cart recorder/playback machine. It worked pretty well, a Alan Preuss had built the homebrew components to make it so. Parts of it were still in service when I left in 1978 to go to Canton. Having the FM also gave WMPT the advantage of being able to broadcast more than one sporting event at a time, often during both football and basketball season we would have one game on AM and one on FM, a nightmare for the "Board" person. Phil Lane and Woody Ott from WWPA once told Dave, “That FM thing will never last, can’t see the value in it.” I consider it somewhat ironic that what was WMPT FM, at 99.3 is still around while 1450 is dark.
I certainly hope that I have not left anyone out of this time period, I always have that fear that my mind has forgotten one of the people who was a part of 14-50 (Fourteen-Fifty) W M P T.
Till the next time and Bill Byham always said “That’s 30.” As often happens certain things happen that remind you how much you forget over 40 or so years. I received a note from former WMPT Staffer Byron Comp and I must apologize that for what ever reason I had forgotten our time together. I think t was shortly after Dick Crownover left and after Fred Burdge was gone that Dave hired Byron. Pretty much Byron was the buffer between me and Harry Seltzer. I was a combo person, doing both sales and air work. Byron was an ordained 7th Day Adventist Minister. Over the time he was there we worked well together, sadly I can't remember when he left, so I am hoping he can fill in my fading memory!
posted by Carol and Kelly Watts Travel Planners at 2:15 PM
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