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WISL Shamokin
- Thread starter cheapman
- Start date
N
NightCourtFan
Guest
I'm not exactly sure when they were taken down..I was the last person to be employed by WISL, if you could call it that. Back in 2004...however in the area where the towers are( were) there has been alot of excavation since then and they might have been taken down in 2006...I drove past the road to where you "normally" would enter to go to the tower site..piss poor road in the winter you would have to park on the highway and make the 2.5 mile trek back on foot! That station would have been great to have back on air if the person who bought ownership would have gave a damn it
N
NightCourtFan
Guest
It was a skeleton of itself when I was there. Comparing it to what the mighty1480 once was for 50 years in the coal region does not do it justice. I took this job right out of college and fresh off an internship at another FM in the area. I got called for the interview about 4 months after the job was posted...and when i went there...their was no heat in the bldg and the place was in shambles...the place being the station....I visited the place several times in my years living in shamokin.,..tours field trips...so I knew the layout and it was a disgrace. I was hired to do news..and was immediately promoted to News director....see where this is going? I knew how to write news copy but getting leads and contacts I did not!
So then the GM asks me if I knew anyone who needed work...well I had about 30 ppl I graduated college with who were interested in radio...so I calledd them up and got them hired..it didnt take much...they walked in he said your hired..no interview. this went on for a few months about 5 of us trying to get the station rolling....not to mention that the GM wanted me to do a 5am newscast...without any wire or internet for news...the local paper wasnt delieverd until 6am!!! On top of that the transmitter was obsolete so it kept blowing a fuse overnite and at 4am i would have to make the trek out there to turn it on every morning.
I finally told the GM I'm not doing 5am news anymore its pointless...until we get some typr of service here....without any fight he said okay...but I still had to go out tothe TX and turnit on once a day sometimes 2-3 times...not easy either the road to it was nothing but huge craters.
then all of a sudden the Gm stopped showing up for work and left us there with no direction..thankgod I was in touch with a rep from ABC radio who was our liasion for the satellite service we were supposed to have....and phillies as well..we had the recievers but never got the equipment promised to us by the owner to hook it all up....ohhhhh it was up..but all the programming stuff coming from dallas wnet over the air to of what spots to pull....very embarrassing....oh did I mention no legal either..after 4pm when wee we left for the day.
Here's the real kicker...sometimes we would go 90 days without a paychecck the owner was a real loon and would never committ to anything..I had a good idea of what the station could beif given the right rtools..being from that area I knew what could work for that station however it fell on deaf ears. I have so many more stories to tell about my time there ..if anyone would like to hear them let me know..but you can get the idea of what it was like
So then the GM asks me if I knew anyone who needed work...well I had about 30 ppl I graduated college with who were interested in radio...so I calledd them up and got them hired..it didnt take much...they walked in he said your hired..no interview. this went on for a few months about 5 of us trying to get the station rolling....not to mention that the GM wanted me to do a 5am newscast...without any wire or internet for news...the local paper wasnt delieverd until 6am!!! On top of that the transmitter was obsolete so it kept blowing a fuse overnite and at 4am i would have to make the trek out there to turn it on every morning.
I finally told the GM I'm not doing 5am news anymore its pointless...until we get some typr of service here....without any fight he said okay...but I still had to go out tothe TX and turnit on once a day sometimes 2-3 times...not easy either the road to it was nothing but huge craters.
then all of a sudden the Gm stopped showing up for work and left us there with no direction..thankgod I was in touch with a rep from ABC radio who was our liasion for the satellite service we were supposed to have....and phillies as well..we had the recievers but never got the equipment promised to us by the owner to hook it all up....ohhhhh it was up..but all the programming stuff coming from dallas wnet over the air to of what spots to pull....very embarrassing....oh did I mention no legal either..after 4pm when wee we left for the day.
Here's the real kicker...sometimes we would go 90 days without a paychecck the owner was a real loon and would never committ to anything..I had a good idea of what the station could beif given the right rtools..being from that area I knew what could work for that station however it fell on deaf ears. I have so many more stories to tell about my time there ..if anyone would like to hear them let me know..but you can get the idea of what it was like
There's finally a Wikipedia article for WISL but with the station having already been deleted from the FCC database there are gaps in the coverage. If anybody has information relevant to the article that can be backed with reliable third-party sources, the article could stand with a bit of expansion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISL_(AM)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISL_(AM)
J
jjtreese
Guest
If you'd like to see the remains of WISL back in '05 check out these photos! My brother's and I cleaned out the old studio building with permission of the building's owner, (of course!).FYI, Almost every year there is a WISL recreation complete with the WISL Gates board and other memorabilia as part of the Anthracite Heritage Festival in Shamokin and long-time Morning Man Tom Kutza is always on hand to talk about the glory days of 1480.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82847&id=660789285&l=f9c85fd27a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82847&id=660789285&l=f9c85fd27a
N
NightCourtFan
Guest
Yes that was the old place...It was in such dissaray....eventually the "new' ownership asked us to look for some new digs...and WISL moved aboved Weekend Furniture...in shamokin..just across the street from Wendy's..what a disaster....Funny story how I met the Treese bros or Radio Bros for those of us who know them...I was at work one morning at WISL at the old studio doing some celaning up of equipment and such...I walked downstairs to go out for a cigarette and lo and behold I find to kids rooting through the dumpster that we had outside to get rid of a bunch of junk...funny way to be introduced to someone! It was the beginning of a very strange relationship with the 2 bros....decent guys. they seemed to ride my coatails to the last to radio gigs I had hahahaha...no ill feelings
I think we've all known a few stations that fell into that deplorable condition. Most of us have probably worked at one or two. I know I did. But I'd love to see pictures and hear more about this station's glory days. The days when a local AM station could be King.
N
NightCourtFan
Guest
Well back in the hayday WISL was a great, great station. Tom Kutza was "our" morning mayor along with Art Sherman. In its time WISL was everywhere is shamokin it could be...it would do sock hops back in the 50's and 60's and was the leader in news and sports covering all the high school games. they were an affiliate of the Phillies for years, one of the most popular segments they had that was a real cash cow was the "Letters to Santa" that was recently resurected on line thanks to a few people at Times shamrock owned News Item who brought Kutza on board to carry on the tradition of have having kids sit next to there radio in the afternoon (I was one) back in the 80's but now they can huddle around the P speakers and listen for "Santa" to read there letter..very endearing!
D
Denny E.
Guest
I know I'm really drudging up this topic, buy after looking at the pictures that were posted I just had to comment. I starting working for WISL in it's hay day, actually it got my feet wet in broadcasting. When I worked there, it looked nothing like the pictures that were posted, but I'm now going back to the mid 60's and early 70's. Back then it consisted of three full time and three part time air people. I was hired there to take the place of a part time jock by the name of Jay Stoller. The team consisited of Bob Ziegler who did mornings,Tom Kutza, afternoons, Bernie Flynn, evenings, Joe Anthony, Tony Kopecky and myself who did the weekend shifts. I started at WISL "whistle radio" in the summer of 1966 working the Saturday night shift. A few years latter I ended up on Saturday afternoons and a bit latter found myself full time doing afternoons. We had a non directional signal of 1KW that went direction to the North at sunset. Music sources were played from vinyl with with a few on cart. Commercial and PSA's were running from cart. After being employed there for a couple of years, I took on the job of studio maintenance and practically went on every remote just for the station manager's piece of mind. We probably initiated the "Instant Reply" for our local football games using a small Sony reel to reel machine.
It sort of brings a tear to my eyes as I type this knowing what WISL meant to me back in those early years, and now exists as a pile of rubble, somewhere. I now live miles away, but everytime I get back to Shamokin I visit the old studio location at Rock and Sunbury streets as I did just this past Saturday. I ventured up the old black fire escape that still hangs on the side of the building where I hung out all those hot summer afternoons waiting to do my ID's for the Phillies baseball network broadcasts.
I'll try to post some photos of what the studios looked like when I was there if anyone's interested.
Thanks,
Dennis
It sort of brings a tear to my eyes as I type this knowing what WISL meant to me back in those early years, and now exists as a pile of rubble, somewhere. I now live miles away, but everytime I get back to Shamokin I visit the old studio location at Rock and Sunbury streets as I did just this past Saturday. I ventured up the old black fire escape that still hangs on the side of the building where I hung out all those hot summer afternoons waiting to do my ID's for the Phillies baseball network broadcasts.
I'll try to post some photos of what the studios looked like when I was there if anyone's interested.
Thanks,
Dennis
Yes, Dennis, many of us would really like to see your photos.
I know this is a pretty old topic, but thought some might be interested... There is now a WISL history site, featuring pictures, audio, stories and more... we try to keep adding new material every week...
www.history.wisl1480.com
we also are keeping the memory of the station alive at www.wisl1480.com complete with Tom Kutza and brand new polka shows every Sunday afternoon!
www.history.wisl1480.com
we also are keeping the memory of the station alive at www.wisl1480.com complete with Tom Kutza and brand new polka shows every Sunday afternoon!
Candidly : I grew a Long Island boy who moved to NEPA 21 years ago for personal reasons (good ones 
. WISL 1480 came in *pretty* listenable on a DX radio at where I'd moved, maybe 20-25 miles east of their sticks.
By the in-laws, though, WISL 1480 was a local. And of course, so was WISL-FM 95.3.
95.3 was Moms-in-law's station, her choice, for the Oldies (also with it being the loudest FM there).
Merry Christmas 2001, Northumberland County!
It seems that Clear channel had bought WISL-FM and changed it to 'Bill Country' the day after Christmas -- not to serve the rural locals and the Shamokin bustle, but to hypo and distort the diary ratings for their adjacent-frequency 95.5 Bill FM in Williamsport.
The old owners must have insisted that Clear Channel also take the archaic 1480 off their hands too, because that's what happened. Within a very short time, the 1480 facility was brusquely shut off, as if it were a black-and-white TV with rabbit ears, or had some communicable malady that was especially virulent amid corporate types.
There then came a renaissance, if you're generous with your evaulations. I forget the year .... 2003, maybe, or 2004 ..... when * someone * put 1480 back on the air. They played Oldies. The fidelity was abominable. I worked in and around Mount Carmel and Shamokin at the time, and at night neighbouring WTOP 1500 in the car was louder than WISL at the intersection of 61 and 901.
If I have my geometry straight, or geology, whatever, WISL's four 1480 sticks were just about due south of that big cloverleaf, at 901 and 61 -- and not even by a mile.
While that attempted exhumation of WISL 1480 was underway, a buddy of ours applied for work at the studios of this new attempt at 'WISL 1480'. She has an excellent voice, by the way. But she mentioned that after she saw their 'headquarters' and 'studio', she decided not to return.
If my memory serves, the studios were about thirty feet north of Shamokin's main drag, on a side residential street, first floor of part of a wraparound Sunbury St structure .... North Rock Street or North Franklin.
In 1480 WISL's absence, that frequency has been very nice to me. But that's for another discussion board.
A tear-in-the-eye here too, Denny E, for that book-burning of local radio. I remember asking a few of the Shamokin, and Coal Township, and Elysburg people, my age or a bit younger, what * station * they remember listening to as teens back in the Sixties. It was almost unanimous ....... WKBW 1520, and WISL ..... 'they (WISL) used to have these sock-hops' ......
. WISL 1480 came in *pretty* listenable on a DX radio at where I'd moved, maybe 20-25 miles east of their sticks. By the in-laws, though, WISL 1480 was a local. And of course, so was WISL-FM 95.3.
95.3 was Moms-in-law's station, her choice, for the Oldies (also with it being the loudest FM there).
Merry Christmas 2001, Northumberland County!
It seems that Clear channel had bought WISL-FM and changed it to 'Bill Country' the day after Christmas -- not to serve the rural locals and the Shamokin bustle, but to hypo and distort the diary ratings for their adjacent-frequency 95.5 Bill FM in Williamsport.
The old owners must have insisted that Clear Channel also take the archaic 1480 off their hands too, because that's what happened. Within a very short time, the 1480 facility was brusquely shut off, as if it were a black-and-white TV with rabbit ears, or had some communicable malady that was especially virulent amid corporate types.
There then came a renaissance, if you're generous with your evaulations. I forget the year .... 2003, maybe, or 2004 ..... when * someone * put 1480 back on the air. They played Oldies. The fidelity was abominable. I worked in and around Mount Carmel and Shamokin at the time, and at night neighbouring WTOP 1500 in the car was louder than WISL at the intersection of 61 and 901.
If I have my geometry straight, or geology, whatever, WISL's four 1480 sticks were just about due south of that big cloverleaf, at 901 and 61 -- and not even by a mile.
While that attempted exhumation of WISL 1480 was underway, a buddy of ours applied for work at the studios of this new attempt at 'WISL 1480'. She has an excellent voice, by the way. But she mentioned that after she saw their 'headquarters' and 'studio', she decided not to return.
If my memory serves, the studios were about thirty feet north of Shamokin's main drag, on a side residential street, first floor of part of a wraparound Sunbury St structure .... North Rock Street or North Franklin.
In 1480 WISL's absence, that frequency has been very nice to me. But that's for another discussion board.
A tear-in-the-eye here too, Denny E, for that book-burning of local radio. I remember asking a few of the Shamokin, and Coal Township, and Elysburg people, my age or a bit younger, what * station * they remember listening to as teens back in the Sixties. It was almost unanimous ....... WKBW 1520, and WISL ..... 'they (WISL) used to have these sock-hops' ......
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