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WYGL AM 1240 Selinsgrove

With WMLP, Pete Gabriel also later worked at WARM. He did afternoon drive. He used to use "Big Boy Pete" by the Olympics as his theme. Last I heard he was in Illinois, but that's a very long time ago.
Also with WMLP. I lived in Hazleton, so we couldn't get it. But I remember going to Knoebel's with my family as a kid. This is 1971. My dad had a '60 Cadillac and anytime we went anywhere, I sat in the front and commandeered the radio. That trip to the park that Sunday afternoon was the first time I heard WMLP and it sounded great. It actually sounded quite a bit like WFIL, which was my favorite station. That afternoon, I heard a jock whom I've never forgotten. He sounded quite a bit like "King" George Michael of FIL, later of WABC. His name was Big John....something. Anybody have any idea who it was?.
 
Pete Gabriel has been in the Youngstown, OH area for years...retired from radio, but apparently has graphic arts business...http://www.agraphicmouse.com/


I was a gofer for WBRX in Berwick when he was there along with Pete Baker (moved on to Harrisburg) in the early '60s probably 61 or 62.
 
That Person on MLP was John Knight. There was another person there that later went to WAEB. His name was Jim Kurtz. There was a mulititude of people that worked there that went on to be successful. Bill Kelly (WVIA) was a alumni. There was a young intern that worked for us from Bucknell that later went on to be Larry King's Producer.

It was a Great place to work and had a proud history and really proved local radio's importance during Hurricane Agnes and who can not forget Jim Jacobs (JJ and dances at the "Green").

He always ended his air shift with "Put the potatoes on the stove Loretta. I am heading home".

AM radio will never see these day again. What a medium.
 
I had thought it might be Johnny Knight (never heard him on the air)but he has a website which I can't seem to locate which talks about his radio experience in Lewisburg, then Milton, on to Reading, Altoona and some other PA locations. Bill Kelly was at WMLP in 1970 (I covered a weekend shift for him then), Jimmy Madison (Jim Kennedy went to WFEC Harrisburg, then on to Virginia and, sometime in 1976, he was in Atlanta working as an A/R man for
Epic records and connected with a new rock group called "Boston". "JJ" went
to Anderson, Indiana and from there not sure of his whereabouts. I remember
working weekends with Brian Kaye (from Williamsport). I also remember a guy with the airname of "Gar Krone" but not sure which station he worked for
then..any idea?
 
I remember Kar Krone. He had worked at most of the stations in the CSV at one time or another.His famous sign off line was " Shoot low they are riding Shetland Ponies". Jim Jacobs (JJ) had passed away a good number of years ago. His son had worked for WMLP for a few years and then went back to be with his Dad before his passing.

John Knight (John Crawford) did have a web site. I think he might have even written a book or two.

These were the Hay Day of AM Radio.

I have a lot of pictures of the WMLP Days. Need to dig them out.
 
Thank you for the update on "JJ". Always remember getting "called on the carpet" or chewed out by the PD it was in 1967 when I worked parttime weekends and then afternoons (M-F) I got out of school on a work release.
I came on in afternoon drive (although the time was 2PM on a schoolday and
not necessarily afternoon drive. I jammed on the top of the hour with Marvin
Gaye's "Hitchhike" right out of the box. JJ came storming into the control room and said, "It's too early to be playing that kind of song..you've only got
housewives and moms at home listening, not the kids!!" (I really wanted to
play Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" but chickened out. Then WMLP dayparted the music and some fast R&B hits and even some Beatles were
rated "R" for restricted airplay only after 4PM! My only picture (black and white no less) is one showing JJ (Jim Jacobs), Bill Stutzman, and Freddy Boom Boom Cannon from Phila taken backstage from a concert somewhere in the Valley in 1964!
 
I worked with Johnny Knight (AKA John (Jack) Crawford) at WMPT in the mid 70's. He left and went to Cincinatti and into his first love engineering, he has a web site under tha name of Jack Crawford.

Brian Kaye was Ken Breon from Williamsport, he also worked at WMPT under his own name.
 
Back in the spring of 1967 we were upstate trout fishing and ran across WMLP on the way home. They had a female jock on the air and she sounded pretty good. Anyone remember her. At that time...She was way ahead of her time!
 
I remember a girl DJ who called herself "Joanie Kaye" I believe but do not
remember her real name or where she came from or went to. I was a part time weekender then along with George Vaughn. Could it have been
John Yingling's wife who did a horoscope or "Dear Abby" type feature on air?
 
That was her. I heard her on a Sunday afternoon. I don't know if she was John's wife. I recall the station sounded pretty good at that time, and was the only contemporary formatted station in that area. The Williamsport stations, as I recall were all MOR and during the day at least...not much more came in. At night all the skywave regulars were all there.
 
Bossjock 56: I suspect by your "handle" you were once affiliated with Famous
56, WFIL, Philly? or a Susquehanna station like WARM or WSBA? I visited the WARM studios in Avoca with Bill Stuart (Bill Stutzman) and our WMLP engineer/owner Vic Michaels one late night in Feb 1967...great station..
met Joey Shaver (who was on air at the time), and I remember listening to Harry West and one other fella who worked in Philly back then or maybe it was
the other Susquehanna station WSBA York. Anyway, I grew up listening to
philly radio mid 60's WFIL (where Dick Clark once worked before Bandstand)
and Joey Reynolds (formerly of WKBW Buffalo).

Steve Williams
 
Stonecold49: Never worked for WFIL...but my bossjock 56 handle reflects the fact that Famous 56 WFIL was the station that made me want to get into the industry. The guy at WARM who worked in Philly may have been George Gilbert, who left WARM for a time in the early 60's to work at WIBG. Dan Donovan once worked at WSBA in the mid 60's and ended up at WFIL from 1970-to '79 or 80.
 
You're right! It was George Gilbert. I remember Dan Donovan at both WSBA and then later WFIL. Philadelphia became most famous for legendary jocks like Hy Lit, Joe Niagra and Jerry Blavat (The "Geator")
and Jim Nettleton who later went to WABC in the late 70's along with
George Michael.
 
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