590 MIGHTY MEMORY #118

WARM'S BILL KELLY DIES AT 71 

Bill Kelly was one of my first bosses at WVIA FM/TV. He was tough, demanding and wanted you to get it right. There were many times in my young broadcast career that I got it wrong. But I never forgot those wrongs because he told me how to make them right. We traveled on my very first air plane ride to Chicago to an NPR conference. It was so long ago they had to roll the steps to the plane. Avoca to Pittsburgh to Chicago. back then.
Then there was the WVIA FM Navy blue/orange bus that would travel to the Bloomsburg Fair in the 70s. Only two seats because the rest of it was carved out to be a mobile museum of WVIA Radio. When I was starting LuLac, he invited me to meet the "heavyweights" of politics he was interviewing. 
We had lunch at Grotto a few years back and he became quite embarrassed when I told him that I took his criticism and lessons with me to other jobs using what I learned as a tool for success. He started out as a young teacher but never stopped educating. All you had to do was be open to what he was trying to convey. 
I was proud that he was a reader of LuLac and 590 Forever. He died this week at 71, way too young. He leaves a trail of incredible broadcasts from WARM as well as WVIA TV that will keep him in our memories and hearts. 
ADDITIONAL NOTE: I see that some newspapers as well as The Boxer Brigade (those guys sitting in their mom's basement at 3pm still not dressed anonymously commenting behind the protection of a keyboard) were running their pinkies about Kelly's salary at WVIA TV and FM. He earned every cent. Kelly was not a Health Care CEO who sat back and got a salary because they earned their dollars from what people needed. It is hard to build memberships in something everybody can get for free. It is hard to get movers and shakers who have bucks to invest in something that will not give them a financial return. In my view, Kelly was underpaid for what he did with that station in his 4 consequential decades there. Those "Boxer Brigade" characters wouldn't last a day in a real job which is why I guess they want their ignorance to be hidden in a cellar with the anonymity they so richly deserve.  

https://david-yonki.blogspot.com/search?q=bill+kelly  Links to Bill Kelly on 590 Forever site. 

BILL KELLY'S OBIT 

A. William "Bill" Kelly Jr., 71, of Drums, passed away peacefully at home Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018. Born in Scranton and raised in Towanda, Bill was the son of the late Bill Sr. and Louise Kelly. A 1965 graduate of Towanda Area High School, he already possessed a passion for broadcasting for which he would dedicate his life. 
At age 12, Bill and his friends made and operated a homemade plywood radio control board in his basement. Hired two years later by his hometown radio station WTTC, Bill described everything from Harry James music to horse-pulling contests. On-air, news, sales and management roles followed. Nine stations in two states came quickly, culminating at the then powerhouse number one Top-40 WARM radio in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre. Realizing his love of broadcasting was a light bulb moment for which Bill was extremely grateful. His second revelation came when he began using the airwaves to help others. Twenty-years old and station manager of WYBG in Massena, N.Y., Bill raised money for a new ambulance and launched a successful "Save the YMCA" campaign. 
At WARM "the mighty 590," his "Winter Walk" for the March of Dimes, a 20-mile trek from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre, raised $20,000 for children with birth defects. Two years after the Hurricane Agnes flood, he reminded listeners of the Susquehanna's natural beauty from his canoe in a one hundred-mile "Great Canoe Expedition." 
Public service projects like these led him to WVIA, a newly developed public broadcasting television and radio station in Pittston. He volunteered at WVIA until he was offered a job as the station's first community relations director in 1974, beginning a 40-year career in public broadcasting. "Festival 75" was Bill's first fundraising event at WVIA. The 11-day membership campaign raised over $135,000 which was 10 times the amount of previous efforts. 
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting recognized WVIA with a single national award for fundraising, making it a model for public stations across the country. By approaching cable networks directly to carry WVIA, Bill expanded its audience to markets as far away as Long Island once again earning another national award, this time for audience building. 
 In 1991, after 16 years contributing to the success of WVIA, Bill took the helm as the station's president and CEO. During his tenure, he refocused WVIA to become a community minded station and created topical programming of regional importance. Bill oversaw the station's transformation to become the region's first HDTV station in 2001 and dedicated the Sordoni High Definition Theater/Studio in 2007. Over four decades at WVIA, he has been recognized for leadership roles in development/marketing, TV and radio programming and production, cable television development and corporate communications. Bill executive produced and hosted WVIA's award winning State of Pennsylvania programs regularly interviewing governors, senators and other political newsmakers; as well as the station's acclaimed Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal series where he interviewed local civic and business leaders. 
Bill enjoyed a long relationship with his alma mater, Bloomsburg University. He graduated in 1971 from the College of Education with a bachelor's degree in English. He was an adjunct faculty member teaching courses in speech and mass communications from 1981 to 1990. He was selected as the Young Alumnus of the Year in 1988 and delivered the university's winter commencement address in 1994. Appointed to the Bloomsburg University Council of Trustees in 1995, Bill served as the vice-chairperson from 1997-2002 and chairperson from 2002-2006. He has received the Pennsylvania Medical Society Walter F. Donaldson award for outstanding medical journalism, the Northeastern Chapter March of Dimes Outstanding Volunteer Leadership award and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Executive Management Institute. He was a popular public speaker and consultant, having addressed medical societies and bar associations on videotape depositions. His past community service commitments include, but are not limited to, serving on the boards of the Community Medical Center in Scranton, The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Hospice of the Sacred Heart and Children's Service Center, the President's Advisory Council of Keystone College, Marian Sutherland Kirby Library, The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Volunteers in Medicine and over three decades at the Sordoni Foundation. With a general passion for life, Bill was an outdoor enthusiast, especially fond of camping, boating, biking and skiing. He was an avid reader with a deep interest in history. He also loved music, inspired by hymns and choirs that reminded him of his mother. Bill is deeply missed by his wife, Susan Prusack; son, Sean Kelly and wife, Kelli; daughter, Kristin Doran and husband, Joe; daughter, Megan Mitchell and husband, Tom; daughter, Jodi D'Alessio and husband, Craig; stepchildren, Matthew Green, Steven and Luke Matyi; grandchildren, Kylah, Kamryn, Bryce and Collin Kelly; Graham and Harper Mitchell; sisters, Dottie Jennings and Wendy VanNest; and lifelong friend and mother of his children, Janice Kelly. Bill loved and cherished his family and enjoyed nothing more than becoming a grandfather and getting to spoil his grandchildren. 
 A celebration of Bill's life will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Christ United Methodist Church, 175 S. Main Road, Mountain Top. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday and 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to cureCADASIL at www.cureCADASIL.org and/or Volunteers in Medicine at www.vimwb.org.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #119

WARM NEWS AND ELECTION NIGHT

(Newspaper article: Joe Klapatch) 
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jerry Heller was the News Director of WARM when this photo was taken in the early 70s, not just a "radio announcer". 

Since it's inception as a radio station in 1940, WARM Radio took Election Night very seriously. WARM had news coverage going back many decades before it hit its peak in news gathering in the 60ss, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Throughout that era, WARM had people on the street gathering interviews and data. 
The station usually partnered with newspapers in the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Area. The Times Leader and Scranton Tribune were usually the "go to" outlets that The Mighty 590 relied on. 
WARM News on Election Night was for the most part, First, Fast and Factual. 
Election Night and the results were part of the legacy of news and information that made WARM The Mighty 590 the place to dial in for the people of WARMland.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #120

THE FIRING OF BOB OLIVER 

One of the most controversial personnel changes at WARM Radio became very public in  October of 1969. Bob Oliver first was a Newsman at The Mighyt 590. Known as Robert Oliver, I first heard him when he broke the news of the death of the 31st President, Herbert Hoover. 
Later Oliver gained an air slot on WARM after the departure of Tommy Woods who went to WTOP in Washington, D.C. 
Oliver's transgression was minuscule and pale in comparison to some of the stuff you heard on the radio later on. I mean this was no Howard Stern broadcast. 
Here is the press news on what he said and what caused a very unusual and public dismissal. To this day, many people repeat the phrase about his firing and the reason why, "No good deed goes unpunished!"

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #121

WARM AND THE HISTORY OF MODERN MUSIC

WARM Radio ran a syndicated program in the spring and later summer of the History of Modern Music. It was a comprehensions look at how popular ad rock and roll music evolved. 
There was a two fold purpose. The first was to give on air personnel down time. The second was to do something entirety different and out of the box. 
It worked. Here's an ad promoting it. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #122

BILL KELLY'S MARCH OF DIMES WALK

WARM's Bill Kelly, later to become the most consequential GM in the history of Public TV in this region, was front and center when he embarked on a WARMland "hike" to help the March of Dimes. Here's an article on the effort, it's progress  and its culmination.  
A side note here. During The Blizzard of '78, I was working at WVIA FM and TV. I think I worked from Sunday night until Wednesday afternoon.  Bill Kelly was then second in command to George Strimel and gave me a ride home after staffers were able to make it in.  As we drove through the Pittston Junction area, Kelly remarked, "I remember this area well from my walk". 
To this day, years after that foray, people remember that walk, his yellow outdoor gear and the good he accomplished that day for The March of Dimes and The Mighty 590!

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #123

WARM HELPING THOSE IN NEED 

WARM Radio always had a strong community bond. The station would go out of their way to help a good cause. As a matter of fact, WARM even had a Public Service Director, Pete Gabriel.  Now in the current broadcast age, few if any stations are hard pressed to even know what that position means. 
From March 22nd, 1970, here an article from The Tribune. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #124

WARM BROADCASTS OVERSEAS TO FIGHTING TROOPS 

WARM Radio brought a little bit of home to the troops in the 70s as they fought in Southeast Asia. Here's an article regarding how that effort came to be. From June 15th and the Scranton Times report on it.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #125

WARM AND THE 5th DIMENSION

The 5th Dimension was a stand out pop group that came on the scene in 1967 and endured as a group and solo entities in the persons of Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo through the early 80s. Countless Top Ten hits as well as a summer replacement show and a variety program hosted by Davis and his wife Marilyn are part of their rich resume. 
In the middle of this run, there was WARM Radio and their jocks. Now dubbed "The Good Guys", WARM helped sponsor the concert. Here are pieces of a full page ad that ran in The Scranton Tribune as the big day approached. 
Thanks to our friend Joe Klapatch for helping us out on this one. 
By the way, the ad ran on in the winter of 1970 and at that time The 5th Dimension had these songs on the radio. One was "Blowing Away" which was leaving The Top 40 while the next "Puppet Man" was just arriving on the scene.

 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #126

WARM CHRISTMAS DAY PROMO 

December 22nd, 1956. This ad ran in the Scranton Tribune promoting a Christmas special that captured the true spirit of the holidays. It was a different time and a different era. Christmas began a week after Thanksgiving and not on Halloween. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #127

AL KORNISH NAMED GM AT WARM 

The start of the Mighty 590 era was still a year away, the station called WARM needed a leader. .The station needed a guy in the driver's seat to put all the pieces together and maintain them. Or possibly make a transition to a larger format. The guy to do all that was one Al Kornish. Thanks to our friend Joe Klapatch, here's an article from the Scranton Tribune of March 19th, 1957. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #128

WARM'S BOBBY DAY MEETS DION 

Former WARM broadcaster Bobby Day recently had the opportunity to meet Dion. You remember Dion DiMucci, he of the Belmonts and rock and roll fame, right? 
Dion was playing The Kirby and spent some time with the WARM mainstay saying he remember the days at Sans Souci and Rocky Glen Park for WARM days. 

 From  left to right are Bud O'Mailia, Dion himself, Bobby Day and Doctor Lombardo. Here are three of Dion's best from 3 decades.

and this one from his 1980s album "Yo Frankie" where artists like k.d. Land, Paul Simon and Dave Edmunds lent a hand.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #129

WARM RADIO PROTEGES FROM WSCR 

This is a very interesting ad from June 25th, 1958. WSCR was the Top 40 Radio station that was competing against the "New WARM". The guys on the top of the ad, Terry McNulty and Ron Allen later went to WARM Radio. McNulty was the first News Director of WARM Radio and became the prime newscaster taking over fo Harry West who moved to the Morning Show. 
Ron Allen manned the 3 to 6pm shift for years until moving into sports. 
The man in the middle was ed Hughes who stayed at WSCR until 1969 when he was named Mayor Gene Peters Communications Director. Hughes ran for Mayor in 1977 but was defeated in the primary by Reverend Vernon Searfoss. Hughes also served as treasurer of the Professional News Media Association of NEPA. 
One of the interesting segments of this ad is the inclusion of a program aired Monday nights featuring Skitch Henderson. Henderson was the Conductor of the Scranton Philharmonic and later became the band leader for The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson took it over in 1962.  
The hybrid programming though on WSCR is telling. Top 40, personalities most of the time but THEN a shift in gears to Classical programming. Now I'm sure this was a business and advertising decision but in the early days of the New WARM, this wouyld never happen. 
WARM built its success on being consistent an redundant in that consistency. No deviation from  message and format, plus the picking off of key WSCR staff made WARM number 1 in a hurry. They sayed that way for years ever after.

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #130

TERRY McNULTY: MORNING MAN AT WSCR 

Since WSCR was a type of proving ground for WARM, we thought we'd include this ad from 1959 featuring McNulty before he was "The Big Fella" on The mighty 590. WSCR was owned by Tom Rice, was an NBC affiliate and ran top 40 music. 
The station was later acquired by WARM Radio legend of the 70s, Bob Woody who turned it into 13Q. 
When the station finally went dark,  the call letters went to a Chicago Sports station.  Here's that ad. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #131

THE PROMOTION CONTINUES

The mystery of the Question Mark is solved when a photo appears of Jack Murphy. Apparently the people promoting The New WARM put a Question mark in the previous ad in the Tribune to accelerate conversation and get people talking. Or maybe Jack was too shy to take a photo. Either way, a month later, after some buzz, the Sensational Seven tableau was complete in sound, print and sight.  This ad ran on September 7th, 1958. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #132

THE PROMOTIONS BEGIN

When WARM Radio signed on the air on June 19th, 1968 as the NEW WARM, the promotions began. Here's an ad from August 3, 1958. Right out of the gate, WARM Radio was RADIO 1. Check out Don Stevens and George Gilbert. This was the original Sensational Seven. 
Notice that Jack Murphy's photo had a Question Mark. There are many who feel this was a WARM tease to get people talking. For more than a month, that Question Mark made the rounds of teen hang outs, beauty and barber shops and every summer poll in what was to become WARMland. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #133

JUNE 1958 

THE MIGHTY 590 SIGNS ON  SIXTY YEARS AGO 

Sixty years ago this month, WARM Radio became THE MIGHTY 590! An era of music, information, news, and public service began! WARM took the area by storm and remained a dominant ratings leader until the summer of 1976 when WGBI FM (once a beautiful music station) went to rock and roll automation. 
From '76 on, WARM then began a transition to hybrid formats of sports and entertainment, then personality and talk,  straight talk, and now primarily network sports. 
WARM's, current format is primarily all network with very little local interactions. Strange but that was the way WARM started in 1940. 
The frequency  is two years away from 8 full decades. There were many programs, personalities and formats along the way. But many will agree that from 1958 to 1976, those were were the halcyon days of The Mighty 590! 

 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #134

WARM RADIO SOLD IN MAY OF 1958 

This article from the Scranton Tribune of May 2nd, 1958 tells us that WARM Radio was sold to Susquehanna Broadcasting. A few weeks later, the staid format of WARM Radio became "The new WARM, the Mighty 590" and nothing was bigger than that for years in the local radio market. 

 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #135

WHEN WARM TV BECAME WNEP 

Here is a story from January 1958. It involves the changing of the call letters of WARM TV to WNEP. Currently WNEP is one of the most iconic and successful TV stations in America. And it all started with WARM. 

 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #136

WHEN WARM OPERATIONS MERGED

Our friend Joe Klapatch provided us with these stories from The Times Tribune dated November 13th, 1957. It outlines the story of how different broadcast entities merged with WARM broadcast operation. Then there was a story about how it affected the stock in the company. (Check out the story on the politics of the day in the city of Scranton).  

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #137

BIG DAVE THE WALRUS GETS  INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION 

On May 12th 1968 during that very turbulent time in our history, one of WARM's former employees hit the international limelight for his work in North Korea. David Vrablic, known to 590 listeners as Davey Jones, he of The Davey Jones locker fame, was chronicled the story. 

590 MIGHTY MEMORY #138

WARM RADIO AND THE SONGS OF FEBRUARY 1968 

Fifty years ago this month, WARM Radio's surveys had a mix of pop, bubblegum and rock. As news of the Tet Offensive permeated First News First, The Lemon Pipers had the number one position on the Top 40 charts. 
Number 3 was The Cowsills follow up hit, "We Can Fly", number 17 was Herb Alpert's "Carmen", numbers 21, 22 and 23 were debut songs by "Otis Redding" (Dock of The Bay", The Dells with "There Is" and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels "Personality/Chantilly Lace" medley.