WSBA MYTHS AND LEGENDS

[vetguy]

WLPA was one of the first 100 stations on the air in the country. I believe aroung June, 1922. I saw a list, possibly through someone on broadcast.net where it was noted. Steinman's were very short sighted regarding the future of radio, but they also were some of the first to put AM, FM and TV on the air in the country. They had some of the first Gates automation equipment (Stack 55). Lovers of RCA equipment, antennas for WROZ and WGAL-TV were photographed and used in sales brochures for RCA often because they were serial number 1.

WLPA had several Western Electric consoles on the air until about '78 or '79 when they were retired. Hall had to replace virtually everything in the buildings after purchasing the stations. A chief engineer I think from WWIN (?) in Baltimore came and took the consoles. He collected old WE equipment and had a house full of it.

Delmarva who owns multiple stations in Delaware and Maryland is owned by the Steinman Family, owner of Lancaster Newspapers. Many newspaper employees do not even know that it is so well hidden. Seems like Delmarva is operated differently than Steinman's ran the local stations.

 

[fybush]

The 860 thing makes a little more sense with WORK, though it too was a fulltime regional-channel allocation (on 1320 before the 1941 NARBA reshuffle, on 1350 afterward) that would have had to have given up nighttime authorization to move to 860. Inasmuch as WORK started out as a daytimer on 1000 kc in 1932 before going fulltime on 1320 in 1935, it would have been odd to have gone back to daytime-only status.

Moving to 850 would have been a tight squeeze at any time in WORK's history. While WJAC didn't move from its old graveyard channel (1370 pre-1941, 1400 afterward) to 850 until the mid-fifties, WEEU was a longtime occupant of the channel. It was on 830 before NARBA, and moved with the other 830s (KOA Denver, WEEI Boston, etc.) to 850 in 1941.

In fairness to WORK, that 1320/1350 channel was actually a pretty decent place to be in the forties and fifties. There was nothing at all co-channel to be protected to the north or east, and the closest stations to the west and south were WADC in Akron and WSMB in New Orleans. It's not clear to me why WORK never went to 5000 watts at night when the opportunity existed. Even today, the channel is relatively clear to the north and east at night - WHWH in Princeton NJ is the big factor hemming it in now, along with WNLK in Norwalk CT.

You're quite right that there are some very old stations on relatively lousy facilities. Sometimes that was the result of lack of initiative or capital, sometimes it was just a bad gamble. Let's say you're WHAT and WTEL in Philadelphia, sharing the graveyard 1340 channel after NARBA. 860's available as a daytime-only channel. Do you take that, or do you stay put with the fulltime graveyard facility? I think WTEL ended up with the better end of that deal, but if you're trying to lease out time when it's December and there's just nine hours of daylight, you might think 1340 looks better in retrospect.

Another factor: the FCC was extremely rigid in its rules about station ownership caps in the fifties. I wonder if WGAL/WLPA stayed where it was on the dial to avoid creating impermissible overlap with other Steinman stations in nearby markets? (Real-life example: WKIP 1450 in Poughkeepsie NY was a directional graveyarder not because of any interference concerns, but to avoid overlap with co-owned stations in Connecticut.)

As for WSBA moving to 580, I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that the story is true. I'm pretty sure the channel became available when Canada reshuffled some of its low-dial AMs (CKEY Toronto from 580 to 590, CFRA Ottawa from 560 to 580, etc.), and it's not hard to imagine several contenders going after the frequency. Under the old FCC comparative hearings policy, those could be brutal battles, and if you didn't have the right political connections you could get dragged along for years of legal bills, travel costs to Washington, and on and on.

This may also explain why WSBA-TV didn't end up on channel 8. There were a lot of broadcasters who thought it would be more expedient to get on the air right away with an easily-obtained UHF license than to spend years fighting for a VHF channel they might still lose out on in the end. Sometimes that was a winning bet - channels 55/21 and 73/27 in Harrisburg come to mind - and more often it wasn't, as WHUM-TV and WEEU-TV in Reading (among many others) could attest.

 

[John-Summers]

Scott Fybush can probably give us the name of the person who first spoke the term! Probably some long-gone-to-the-graveyard radio engineer. Any history on that, Scott?

Can I make a guess on why 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400 and 1490 were called graveyard frequencies? Those were all designated as "local" frequencies, designed to serve a city area to a radius of 10 miles or so. Originally they were 100 watts, then 250, then were allowed 1000 watts daytime/250 night, then 1000 watts all the time. Note how many stations are on those frequencies and how geographically close they are to each other. Kinda packed together like residents of a graveyard. Hmmm.

Interesting that two highly successful Harrisburg stations in their day, WFEC 1400 and WKBO 1230, were on graveyard frequencies.

You used to be able to catch some interesting DX on those frequencies. You could never tell just what might float in. I had a friend who did the weekend all night show on WBCB in Levittown in the early 1970s, and I could listen to him in Harrisburg, off and on. Today of course those frequencies are all just noise, especially at night, like the rest of the AM band. It's a pity.

 

[fybush]

I don't think anybody's ever successfully identified the coiner of the "graveyard channel" term, but John's guess about "packed together like residents of a graveyard" is as good a guess as any.

WFEC and WKBO are hardly alone as successful graveyarders. WYSL 1400 in Buffalo gave 50,000-watt WKBW a run for its money through much of the sixties, and WOLF 1490 in Syracuse owned the town for many years, just to name a few.

The wall of noise on the graveyard channels at night is a great example of being careful what you ask for. There aren't many graveyarders (if any) that ended up with any significant increase in coverage once everyone else on their channel also bumped up to 1000 watts at night, and a lot of stations that lost usable coverage as a result. But once that genie was out of the bottle, there was no putting it back in.

 

[vetguy]

In talking about Steinman's and their stations, after Hall purchased the Lancaster stations, Steinmans only had WDEL/WSTW in their posession. Hall was going to purchase those stations also, but in those days there were limits on signal overlap between stations you owned. It may have been the 60 or 54 dbu contour for FM. WROZ and WSTW overlapped by less than two miles yet the FCC would not have approved the sale. Steinmans kept the stations and then expanded Delmarva over the years.

 

[bossjock 56]

It's true that Lancaster had very high FM listenership. In the 70's WIOV was often number one. Country music was popular in the area, but some people listened to IOV because of the clear signal heard around the clock in all of Lancaster County. WGAL was only 250 watts at night and didn't cover the whole county. WLAN dropped to 1kw at night and was directional to the east. WSBA always did well in the western part of the county. WFIL from Philly had some impact in the late 60's and 70's, but had no night signal at all. With a decent antenna WIFI from Philly could be heard. When WYCR and WQXA bust on the scene in in 1974, it was a game changer because Lancaster County has hungry for Top 40 on FM. WLAN managed to hang on until somebody wised up and put their long established top 40 on FM.

 

[Seltzer]

Surprising it took LAN 6 years to put Top 40 on FM with Q arriving in 1974. Especially with the proof of FM penetration.

 

[bossjock 56]

From what I've heard over the years, the former owner loved the Beautiful/Easy format on the FM. Top 40 was the money maker....but his personal favorite was the FM. When his sons became more involved the shift to FM was put into motion. First in late '78 or '79 with an AC format.....then the flip with AM in early 1980. Shortly after the format flip.....they began broadcasting from the new tower near Mountville. Like alot of heritage Top 40's of the 70's, they weren't ready to throw in the towel on the AM until the ratings really started to slide. The AM then moved to an AC format with some Top 40 at night, similar to what WKBO did around the same time frame. They later had a Rhythmic block at night before flipping to Adult Standards, which became the owners new favorite.

 

[TommyG]

I had always heard that the term "Graveyard Band" referred to the significant number of stations that went dark or "died", due to low power, daytime, crowded, or other restrictions.

 

[meryll]

just a quick note. I did news on wsba-fm and wsba-am during the early 80's through 2001. thanks for all the great memories! there are a few names that are missing, however. does anyone know what happened to jack malloy? i worked with him at wnow-am as well as wsba. and how about ralph lockwood? retired, i suppose now, but still doing the voice of boscov's. someone also mentioned bill walker. no one mentioned the farm report. every morning at 5AM ...oh i wish i could remember his name...wsba's farm director would talk about everyone agri. marty grey later took over. oh, if only we could go back.....ML

 

[Carleckels]

In the mid 60's the WSBA lineup included Chuck Frederick, Harper, Gil David, Jim Pride, Blaine Harvey (Dan Donovan) and the addition of Jim Scott in the morning as well as veterans like Bob Janis and Ralph Lockwood. Bob Harper, before leaving for WSAI in Cincinnati, was appointed "acting program director." In the news room, Steve Fullerton left and was replaced by Wayne Trout who along with Jerry Dyer and Larry Shaffer continued to provide news for WSBALand. I, along with John Jay and Jack Nagle, were featured as reporters from Lancaster, Harrisburg and York. As time went on, Gene Burns was hired to head the news department. He developed a following with his biting commentaries and has for many years worked at KGO, San Francisco. Gene and the news staff's highlights included reports related to the major winter storm of 1966 and other events. Particularly notable where reports provided by Mr. Burns from the Peggy Ann Bradnick kidnapping and the airline accident that took the life of Pennsylvania's attorney general, Walter Alessandroni. Chuck Frederick later went on to become a funeral director. Long before, Ed Lincoln and Ed Coles were a part of the early development of the station. I recall Ed Lincoln schooling me about the pronunciation of milk.... not mill-K but MELL-K.

 

[loeper]

I think the guy that did the "farm report" at 5am on WSBA was named Stippens..or something like that. wish i could remember his first name . could it have been Bob? I really don't remember. It was quite booring to listen to as it recall, but I did listen to it on my way to work at that onGodly hour back then. I do remember they ran spots on that show and I would always wonder..how the heck do they sell air time at 5am? that's the sign of a great sales team, and we all know that WSBA had a fantastic sales team back then. that station was a "money machine" for Susquhanna.

 

[John-Summers]

Herm Stebbins did "On the Farm" every morning on WSBA. Mind you, this show was part of the WSBA lineup even after the switch to Top 40. Mr. Stebbins also managed Louis Appell's dairy farm, which was highly-regarded in the dairy industry.

 

[Carleckels]

Herm Stebbins was the farm reporter. He, along with an extended recorded weather report, started each morning at WSBA. The station was located in a rural area along Susquehanna Trail. It wasn't rare for farm animals to stray onto the front lawn. Phil Eberley, the long term station manager, directed us to call Herm to clear the livestock from front door. He would chew his wrist to release tension and race upstairs to his office leaving the staff to deal with the livestock and the day's broadcast.

 

[bossjock 56]

In an earlier post, someone mentiomed the "poolside" broadcasts of WSBA. I remember them running from Noon to 3. Poolside sound effects would play under all jock talk during this shift to create a live poolside broadcast during the summer months. When it rained.....the pool was closed. They refered to it as the WSBA land pool. Another theater of the mind trick used in the late 60's was the 9-Noon shift broadcast live from a general store in downtown Steinhilper PA. Steinhilper was the real name of Mike Mckay who at the time was Noon to 3 personality. Don Steele was the 9-Noon host complete with general store sound effects....mostly a bell for the door opening and closing and cash register effects. Another clever stunt that I remember was when Jeannie C. Rileys "Harper Valley PTA" was a hit...they did a bit invovlving Bob Harper. He was in programming and only did the Saturday coundown show. He filled in during the week...so they made him president of the Harper Valley P.T.A.....part time announcers. One day he was to fill in...and they had him come in late....because "he stayed to long at Kelly's Bar again". He finally appeared on the air about 20 minutes late. They kept replaying the line from the song
"Mr Harper couldn't be here 'cause he stayed to long at Kelly's Bar again" until he took the mic. Classic stuff!! By the way there was a Kelly's Bar up on Sherman St. That wasn't mentioned....just left to the imagination.

 

[GuyFry]

Here's the deal on REAL poolside broadcasts from the old WSBA-TV up on what was then called South Queen Street Extended. In the late 50's and early 60's...WSBA-TV, Channel 43 had a succession of weather girls lin bathing suits lying on the diving board of a real swimming pool on station property. It was just to the south of the studio. By that time, WSBA-TV was only doing an early newscast. It was a 15 minute program with news read by Program Diredtor John Eisenhauer. Most memorable moment? One night the station CAT jumped up
on the desk interrupting the flow of his copy just long enough to say "down kitty" as he dispatched the feline from view. Other memorable moment was the night the boom mike came crashing down
on the set, prompting an early cut to break. If they are still alive, former GM Bob Stowe or then Sales Manager Dave Berlin can verfify all that. The 5 minute poolside TV weathercast on Ch. 43 may have been the brainchild of Jim Curtis, who was 2 pgoram directors before John Eisenhower. John's immediate predecessor was a wild man named Roy Bishop, who did a Friday night horror movie host character named "Leroy". Even sicker than John Zacherle's "Roland" (Pronounced Ro-LAND") on WCAU-TV. Across town at the old WNOW-TV, Channel 49, early York television was just as zany
with Ruch Marshal of Yoe, PA eating slices of Baum's Bologna doing the spots in "The Children's hour which she hosted on Friday nights..first on Ch. 49..and then Ch. 43 after WNOW-TV went dark. If asked, I suspect that the portly Ms. Marshal would have done the live, bathing suit weather, as she was a hearty laugher, especially at the young talent on her Saturday night "Children's Hour".So beautifully-innocent.

 

[John-Summers]

"Leroy." Host of "Tales from the Tomb." The show where those of us of a certain age saw all those Universal horror pictures from the 1930s and 40s. My favorite was "Man Made Monster" starring Lon Chaney Jr. with the mad scientist played with over-the-top malevolence by Lionel Atwill. I wondered for years who "Leroy" was in reality and only recently found out his name was Roy Bishop. He did that show on WSBA-TV but also did it on WHP-TV in Harrisburg. It wasn't a simulcast. It was a completely different show. Leroy was a gravedigger or crypt-keeper or something, and would sing this little song at the beginning to the tune of "The Sheik of Araby." "I'm the ghoul from WHP..." he would intone. "Tales from the Tomb" was on Friday nights at 11:30 and for a while on Saturday evenings at 6. It was live TV. I've been told Roy Bishop was also the technical director of the 11 O'Clock News. The story goes that the news was sponsored by a beer company which provided an ample supply for the live commercials. Apparently the brews would pour and the crew would get giddy. I recall Tales from the Tomb being a lot of fun but I was only 9 or 10 so I wouldn't have known if anyone was tipsy or not. I find that story hard to believe at stuffy WHP-TV but that's from someone who was on the crew, so it may have some truth. I'd like to know more about the guy who played Leroy and what became of him after he left WHP. Any details FryGuy? For anyone who remembers this little gem of local TV, here's a link with more about Leroy including his complete theme song. http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/hostsl.html

 

[loeper]

there was also a guy who called himself "Leroy"...who did an hour (5 to 6PM) i think , weekdays on WNOW radio in 1960 or 61. He did his own spots live and they were a riot. He would play records from the stations regular playlist, which was top40 at the time, right before they went country). I always suspected he bought the hour from the station and sold his own spots. the show was very corney as I recall but I do remember laughing a lot during it. could this have been the same Leroy that did the TV shows?

 

[bossjock 56]

I've been told it was the same guy. On a related note.....does anybody remember if WNOW was a simulcast on WNOW-FM during the top 40 era. Did they continue the top 40 at night after 1250 signed off? I heard that they simulcasted during the day.....but after sunset they did jazz or something. Anybody remember? I had only an AM radio at the time. I once saw a WNOW survey sheet from the early 60's. There were enough jocks pictured to indicate a full-time line up...and yes...Leroy was pictured.

 

[grandoleopry]

I recall speaking to the late Val Gearhart who was a longtime personality/sales and manager
for WQXA/WNOW who mentioned to me that at one time the FM aired symphony music.
As I remember he told me he hosted it for a while.
Those who worked in the old WNOW/Q Building would certainly remember Val, I think
he came shortly after Bill Rust bought the stations from H.J. Williams Co.; I think
Val put in over 40 years there.