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WSBA MYTHS AND LEGENDS

bossjock 56 said:
Percy Platypus was on of my earliest memories of WGAL-TV. Marijane Landis was host. What was that phrase they used to intoduce cartoons......"letter flicker"?
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As I child I could never figure out what that meant, "letter flicker." I knew what a letter was and guessed that a flicker was a movie, but together??? I finally figured out that it was "let 'er flicker." All the kids in the studio audience would yell it at the top of their lungs so that Pokey Dingo, the puppet who ran the cartoon, would know when to start the projector. Imagine a local TV station doing a "live" show for kids on Saturday morning with a studio audience, week in and week out for something close to 20 years. And then later in the day was "Channel 8 Dance Party," another "live" show that lasted close to a decade.

WGAL's Studio A is where these shows originated. Sometimes I walk through and can almost hear the voices, music and laughter echoing back through the many years. Marijane Landis is in her 80s now and I'm told is doing well. I met her once and we had a delightful conversation about the show and her place in Baby Boomer history. I'm happy to say she is as charming in person as she was hosting "Percy Platypus and his Friends."

People often ask if there are any films or videotapes of the show. Unfortunately not. It was a "live" show, was broadcast once and that was it. Tape was prohibitively expensive back then and the idea of filming never occurred to anyone. There are a number of photographs, though.

There was a lot of "local" TV back in those early days, some good, some not so good, but now they're all just dusty photographs and memories.
 
Why did WGAL TV and Radio personalities not appear on both radio and television? Did Steinman not want to have "ego problems" with their talent? By Kintzer didn't appear on weekend TV sports until after WGAL radio no longer existed. At least WSBA Radio's Ed Lincon appeared on WSBA-TV 43's "York Bandstand" on Saturday mornings.

Also, can you name 3 people who were fired by WGAL-TV? (1) Bill Kuster for saying "pain in the ass during a weather case". (2) Chuck "Uncle Josh" Zink
whose temper included at least one fistfight (which I witnessed) at the old Channel 4 studio on South Queen Street. (3) WGAL-TV's first anchorman, Keith Martin for influence peddling. I once heard Nelson Sears say in 1972 "we don't HAVE anchormen". You never knew who was going to be reading the news on that station, especially at mid-day. News readers were also commercial pitchmen and booth announcers.

Can you tell me who the hosts of "Channel 8 Dance Party" were? The history part of WGAL's website doesn't say.

Chuck Zink, the first host of "Slapstick Theater" in 1954 went on to be 'Skipper Chuck" on Miami TV
for more than 20 years. Former WGAL-TV newsreader Pat Bange (pronounced "BANG") and his wife, weathercastress Dee Norman moved to MIami
where Pat was known for 20 years as Pat Banghart.

It's a shame that the FCC didn't force de-intermixture on the Lancaster_Harrisburg market and make it all-UHF. If that had happened, the other stations would have been competitive enough to offer viewers a real alternative when it came to local news. But WGAL's Clair Mc Cullough was so influential with the FCC (having been a "dollar year man" on commissions under FDR and President Truman. Yet, "Google" the name of Clair Mc Cullough there there is nothing..absolutely NOTHING! Try it. Mc Cullough and company's other efforts included the ill fated WLEV-TV, Channel 51 in Bethlehem which was on the air for only 3 years. Steinman also held a construction permit for WRAK-TV, Ch. 36 which never got on the air in Williamsport. For 36 years, they held seven, mediocre, low power, 250 watt radio stations, plus WDEL radio in Wilmington, Delaware, which the Steinman family still owns. in addition to Lancaster Newsapers. I would be surprised if Nelson Sears is not writing a book about all this.
 
actually Ed Lincoln of WSBA radio also hosted a Bowling show on WSBA TV for a while. actualy went to watch it live one time. it was a suburban lanes...which just so happened to be located next door to the WSBA TV studios on south Queen street in York. as for Steinmen stations, I have no idea of what they were about except that they invensted absolutly zero dollars in equipment or maintiance in there radio stations in the 60s and 70s...( I worked for them then so I know)> on the TV side they got away with "murder" with TV8 because all the other stations in the market were on the UHF band in the 60s and 70s. a rather bad product but a fantastic signal that people could almsot get on there toasters.
 
Terry Abrams was the host of Channel 8 Dance Party. The female co-hosts - there were two of them during the show's run - I don't recall.

I once heard a story from an old Susquehanna engineer - who was there when the plans for WSBA-TV were being drawn up - that Susquehanna passed on the channel 8 allocation for York because 1) there was a freeze in effect on VHF at the time and they would have had to wait and probably battle other applicants, and 2) that they had been advised that the FCC was going to delete the channels 4 (Lancaster) and 8 (York) allocations and make this an all-UHF market. It was bad advice, obviously. As soon as the freeze was lifted, the Steinmans were awarded channel 8 and channel 4 was deleted. This allowed a transmitter move to York County at a greatly increased power, thereby making WGAL a regional station and putting everyone else at a distinct disadvantage. Susquehanna felt they had been betrayed by the FCC, which had been pushing new broadcasters toward UHF.

Adding insult to injury, just a few months after that happened, ABC reneged on a gentlemen's agreement with Susquehanna for an exclusive regional ABC affiliation by signing WTPA-TV Channel 71 in Harrisburg, which had been an NBC affiliate. In the headlong effort to get WSBA-TV on the air as the first UHF station in the country, they cut corners by placing the transmitter on Queen Street Hill, the transmitter site of the former WSBA-FM, which had gone dark. The plan was to get the station on the air, make it profitable and then move the transmitter to where Ski Roundtop is today, giving the station a watchable signal in Harrisburg and York at least. Susquehanna didn't move quickly enough, and when ABC had the chance to sign an affiliate in Harrisburg, they did so. ABC was nothing in those days, about the equivalent of the CW network today, so they were grabbing any affiliations they could get.

At that point the powers at Susquehanna decided that WSBA-TV would never be a success as a York-only station and thereafter treated it as the red-headed stepchild of the company. A lot of this is documented in Phil Eberly's history of the company, and some of it came from that old engineer, and I have no reason to doubt his word..
 
Ah yes! Channel 8 Dance Party. Local high schools would be invited to the WGAL studios on Columbia Avenue. There was a limit to the number of students who could attend. The schools would decide who those students would be. The end result....a bunch of honor students wearing their Sunday best....who couldn't dance. I'll never forget watching one Saturday as the students attempted to dance on that ugly tile floor to The New Vaudville Band's "Winchester Cathedral". After Terry Abrams left, the hosting duties went to....are you ready....Wendall Woodbury. I remember Wendall on one of his first shows intruducing Deep Purple's "Hush". Not the type of song you would associate with Wendall.
 
Ha ha ha. "Hush?" Now that's funny! I forgot about Wendell Woodbury's stint as host. I remember seeing "American Bandstand" one Saturday with kids (badly) attempting to dance to "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. The musical guests that day were Jethro Tull! Can't remember if they actually played or just lip-synched in Bandstand tradition. This was long before they had a hit single so I have no idea what song they played. Changing musical tastes really sounded the death knell for Dance Party-type shows. Who could dance to "Eleanor Rigby?"
 
I remember as a kid (sometime in the mid-80s) listening to 910 in the morning as I got read for school. For the life of me, I can't remember who the morning host was though. He played some oldies type music and talked some, did news and such. That's one of my earliest radio memories, actually, and could possibly be what made me want to do that for a living some day.

Anyone remember who the morning host was circa 1983 or 84? I see that Dennis Edwards was the host starting in 1985, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't him. I could be mistaken though.
 
The morning host at that time was Hal Raymond. The music WSBA played was a mix of Adult Contemporary tunes and a few Oldies thrown in from time to time. I did the all night show and Hal came on at 5am. A fine gentleman and a pleasure to work with. Hal passed away a couple of years ago.
 
Don, if you remember me on WSBA, you must have been an early riser!

I'm not sure when Hal arrived from Portland Oregon to be the morning host on WSBA. He was there when I started doing morning drive on 1350 WZIX, opposite him, in 1975. I think he succeeded the very popular Harry West. Hal did mornings on the Mighty 910 until late 1989, when Ralph Lockwood was brought in from Montreal. Then they moved him around a lot. I even heard Hal one time on the all night show. He eventually retired from WSBA and went over to what had become 1350 WOYK, where he did mornings from several years. Great guy, and one of the quickest with a witty ad-lib I have ever seen. I'm sure Hal would be pleased he was such an influence on you.
 
didn't know that Hal Raymond worked at WOYK after the "mghty 910". He was morning host at WSBA when I worked on the FM side from 77 to almost 80. A real pro...great to be around. made me laugh more than 50 or 60 times even though I only saw him in the station "lounge" or in the hall ways. think Susquhanna should have taken better care of him then they did. somebody told me once that Hal was forced out at WSBA because Chris Huber absolutly loved Ralph Lockwood and wanted him back in York. I , for one < never understood the facination with Lockwood. in his first stint with WSBA in the 60s he ripted off most of his humor from the Steve Allen show ( eg.."how's your sister....etc)... not to much original stuff. he was very popular however but I don't think he was the best "morning man" WSBA ever had. Harry West and Al Wolf come to mind as better. back to Hal Raymond...I worked with a lot of "jocks" over my 27 years in radio and Hal was the "real deal" nothing phony about the man....
 
I believe Hal Raymond came to WSBA from KBOX in Dallas, which actually gave the legendary Mighty 1190 KLIFa big run for the ratings in Dallas FT Worth in the '60s
 
thebigT said:
I believe Hal Raymond came to WSBA from KBOX in Dallas, which actually gave the legendary Mighty 1190 KLIFa big run for the ratings in Dallas FT Worth in the '60s
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Not directly. There were a number of notable stops in between.

Hal did indeed work at KBOX in the late 50s and early 60s as the morning man and later the program director. It was a legendary station and the airchecks I've heard are amazing. Dan Ingram worked there too. Other legendary calls on Hal's resume were KISN in Portland, KAYO in Seattle and WDGY in Minneapolis. I believe Hal went back for a second stint at KISN and from there was hired by Dick Drury to come to WSBA. Do a Google search on Hal Raymond +radio. There are hundreds of hits and a few of them have airchecks of Hal.
 
I went with my father, who used to be a board engineer at WSBA back when they utilized engineers for on-air operations, to visit Wayne Trout when he was on the air announcing; probably around 1968 or 69. They were still operating out of the old Susquenna Trail studios in those days. I remember looking at the old RCA Transmitters thinking how large the tubes were inside the cabinet.

Years later (1978) we went back to the studios out on US 30 and met with Ray Ensminger, who by then was the chief engineer and he took us outside and their was some sort of underground shelter incase of nuclear attack in which there was an emgencey studio set up so they could stay on the air. All i remember is that it was damp and dark inside the shelter.
 
WSBA was a classic, state of the art Top 40 station until the mid 60's, when corporate started messing with the overall sound to make them more adult. Around 1968, the GOOD GUYS became THE ENTERTAIN MEN and those MOR sounding "Station with Personality" jingles emerged. They never did do away with the old jingle package and soon it again became the primary jingle package, especially at night. The old "Hits of the Week surveys, listing 40 songs...a Pick Hit and a Pick Album remained the same until 1970, when the came out with the Personality Power Survey, featuring 25 songs and a Personality of the Week photo. This could be a jock or a news person. Around late "71 the public surveys were discontinued. I believe the Top 40 format, or whatever it was, continued until around '76 or '77, when they finally went Adult Contemporary and moved the news to the top and bottom of the hour.....from the :55/:25, where it had been for close to 20 years.
 
The bomb shelter at the AM site was sealed up sometime in the late 80s or early 90s after the steps collapsed under Steve Johnston.

The 5KW transmitter that you saw in 68/69 was probably the BTA-5T. When I started there it was in aux service. When we put in the Gates 5 as the main we kept it. I ran it into the dummy load once a quarter just to be sure it still worked. It was there until we moved out of the building. I gave it away to a Ham rather than see it get cut up.

I had the good fortune to give Wayne Trout a tour of the "new" studio building, and the AM site several years ago. Great to hear his stories. Should've rolled tape.
 
I'm lucky enough to go to church w/Wayne. He's brought in the occasional piece of interesting memorabilia. Someone gave him an old mic which he thought may have been the actual one he used there ages ago. Tardis, if that was you, he was very appreciative! He was very glad for the tour as well, and sang your praises for being a good guy!
 
In the late 60s, WSBA also had Bill Campbell, who had the late night "Sound Experience". This is the first time I heard the group Lighthouse. And if I remember, didn't Ed Cole go to WSBA's sister station WARM?? And, does anyone remember Pride's contest that gave an ice cream party to the school that sent in the most entries?? By the way, it was won by Dallastown High School!!
 
WSBA was clearly the winner for travellers on the PA Turnpike . It carried further and better than any other Top 40 in the area. Almost to Philly if I remember.
 
By the late 60's, Top 40 radio was changing. Bill Drake's Boss Radio was sweeping the nation and WSBA was trying to keep up with the changes without changing their overall sound. They brought in Bill Campbell in fall of '68. Bill had worked at WLAN in Lancaster as well as WFEC in Harrisburg during the mid 60's. Bill could bring in the younger....more hip listener while still sounding somewhat adult in his delivery. Bill started hosting "the Sound Experiment", which ran from 12 midnight until 3am Sunday Mornings. It was a progressive rock program. Bill knew his music and was probably ahead of his time for WSBA....but it worked. The show gave WSBA a hipper image. The station was very conservative overall and Bill Campbell was just what they needed at the time to keep the teens and younger adults tuned in. As noted in earlier posts, WSBA was more adult during the midday hours, but pretty much played the hits after 3pm and all weekend.
 
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