| Recollections: |
3/3/2002: "My name is Frank Kelly. I worked at WPWA
through the changeover to WDRF, from 1953 through 1957. I started in my junior year
in high school, more or less hanging around and learning to run the control board. One
night Duke Whitfield, the evening counrty music DJ asked me if I'd like to do the
headlines, and I was hooked on radio. I worked at the Brookhaven location all day
Saturday and Sunday, as DJ, staff announcer, newsreader, and engineer. Sunday
mornings I was alone and also answered the door and the telephone. I stayed, never
making more than $1.75 an hour, until I went to WDEL in Wilmington for less per hour but
more total salary.
Some other announcers I worked with during that period were:
Jimmy Lynn (not Lynne)
Jock Lawrence
Jim Reeves ("Judge Rhythm's Court")
Jeff Scott
Cris Harwood
Jack Stant
Del Parks
Milt Nixon
Bruce Davis
Bob Johnson
Marion Pedlow
Lord Jim (Ferguson)
Arky Craft
Cy Swingle was the Station Manager.
Actually, I was on the station briefly even before 1953 because I was on the St. James
High School team on "Scott's Hi-Q" hosted by Bob Johnson and carried weekly on
WPWA.
Jock Lawrence did the morning show, called "Industry's Wake Up". For a
while, he also did the "Shooster's Night
Watch" show from a Chester hamburger joint to end the broadcast day. Later,
Cris Harwood (the Man of a Thousand Voices) did the Shooster's show with his wife as a
co-host.
Marion Pedlow (who was the widow of WWII hero Colin
Kelly) did a women's show from her
home. We just opened the mike and she talked for an hour, not even playing records.
Jimmy Lynn did "Teenorama" in the afternoon. The audience was high school
kids, who came and danced in the studio or, during the summer, on WDRF's patio next to the
station.
Lord Jim did a kind of local gossip show, and Arky Kraft did a sports segment. Jeff Scott
was Program Director when I arrived, but moved on to KYW in Philadelphia, and then later
to one of the networks where he did a segment on car racing.
Del Parks replaced Jock Lawrence as morning man, having previously worked at WPEN in
Philadelphia.
In addition to Bill Haley, another sort of celebrity worked briefly at the station: Lynn
Dollar, the redhead who escorted people to the Isolation Booth on the $64,000 Question on
TV, worked briefly with a partner as a disc jockey at the station.
Oh yes, one more bit of trivia: the station's phone numbers were CHester 4-4321 and
SAratoga 9-7148.
If you'd like to see what the Master Control at WPWA looked like in the Brookhaven days,
see the attached photo. This isn't WPWA, but master control included all this same
equipment and looked virtually identical to this picture.
As you can tell. I remember WPWA/WDRF fondly. Radio got in my blood, so after a
little (44 year) hiatus as an engineer and marketing director, I now work part time as a
staff announcer at WDUQ News-Jazz-NPR at 90.5 in Pittsburgh. If anyone knows where
any of the people I've mentioned are today, I'd love to hear from them.
Thanks for the web site and the memories.
- Frank Kelly, fkelly@adelphia.net
"I can't recall if it was WPWA or WDRF
at the time but we [the kids from Parkside] hung out at the "Station".
We danced at the "Patio" a new addition on the side of the station. One of the
bands we danced to was Bill Haley and the Comets or Saddlemen. I can't remember which name
they used but they were still country and western and Bill was just a local DJ with a
band. It was the early 50s and I also remember a DJ by the name of Jimmy Lynne. We thought
he was a lot cooler than Bill Haley. We were also members of the Uncle Ah Ha show.
I'm not sure about the name but, we believed he was a professor at a local college.
Among the advantages were being Jr. DJs, newscasters, and sportscasters. This was
great fun until one of the guys used a word, over the air, that was not very
acceptable and so ended our stint as Radio Broadcasters. By the way Cal Shull was the
Record Librarian at the time and could name any popular song after just a few
notes. We knew Lou Kapelski [my brothers worked for him on the Ferry and he lived in Parkside] and thought he was
the richest man in the world. Maybe he was...HE GAVE US A DIME FOR HALLOWEEN!!"
- John Winfree, jwinfree@nni.com
|
