The Class Reunion how it started and what it is.

The original idea for "The Class Reunion" came about in the late 1980's.  At the time I was spending a lot of time on the road building my business, Watts Multi Services.  My travels took me into Williamsport, Pa on a regular basis and I listened to KISS FM.  I was of course familiar with the market having started my radio career there in 1964.  Also during this time, I was doing mornings on Oldies station WIQT Horseheads, NY, hey I was younger then and could get up at 4:30 and work all day.  Anyway, one of the voice I heard on KISS FM was that of Loy Kolb.  I knew Lou from my Days at WLYC/WILQ in the early 70's.  A couple of times a week, over the lunch hour Lou would feature several songs from a particular year, NICE!  I got to thinking about what he was doing and decided I could make a slight twist on the format and do a who show featuring music of a specific year.  I took the idea to WIQT P.D. Dave "Rocky" Rockwell and G.M. Ron Fero, they gave me permission to run with it, and it was well received by the listeners and the station owners.  As fate would have it, the station changed format about 6 months later to classic country and the show as shelved.

Fast forward to 2004, me and my family reloacted to Payson, AZ, and I started to get the itch to do more radio.  In the 90's I had done Sunday mornings on KISS FM and fill in slots on WIGGLE 100 in Troy, Pa.  I met KRIM FM Owner Steve Bingham and Manager Randy Roberson, and pitched the idea of a once a week  three hour oldies show called "The Class Reunion.'  They gave me the go ahead and the show was born.  I continued with the show until 2007 when business other commitments made it impossible to continue doing the show.  To me it was a great loss as I had added artist interviews to the show and had made many friends along the way.  in 2009, circumstances brought me back to KRIM doing a two hour show Monday through Friday afternoons.  That continued for several months until due to a contract disagreement I ended the show.

The next few years were frustrating to me, as I wanted to find a home for the show.  In January of 2012 I was contacted by a local station asking me if I would be interested in bringing the show to their station in Payson.  The rub, they were planning to move the radio station and didn't want to get started until that happened.  For the next nearly two years I waited and heard promise after promise and they were ALL EMPTY.  In late 2013 KRIM was sold and I makes several overtures to the new owner about bringing the show to his station, he never bothered to reply, really professional!

Frustrated yet again, I make a posting on Facebook that I was looking for a new home for the show.  To my surprise an old friend from my Williamsport Radio Days, Vince Grande contacted me and said he and his wife Cathy were looking for a show for Sunday evening after football season ended.  So in February of 2014 "The Class Reunion" came back to life in its original 3 hour format on WAVQ AM FM in Jacksonville, NC.  I record the show in my home studio and send it to the station where they plug it into their computer and by some magic it plays!  I can not tell you how grateful I am to Vince and Cathy for giving me one more day in the sun.

By chance, I happened to contact LTD Radio, an Internet station in Canada.  The G.M Saul Jacobson liked the concept of the show and it begins airing there Sunday, April 13.

I am blessed, December of 2014 will be the 50th anniversary of starting to get paid to play the hits.  Oh sure things have changed a lot in those years but not the people who grew up with the great music of the 50's and 60's, many of today's Class Reunion listeners were listeners in the 60'swhen the songs that are now "oldies" were new and a young Disk Jockey named Kelly Watts played them on "The Neat and Nifty Fourteen Fifty, WMPT."  To you all I say THANK YOU!