John Carlton
Broadcast Pioneers Luncheon
Bala Golf Club, Philadelphia
Wednesday, June 19, 2002

On Wednesday, June 19, 2002, at the Bala Golf Club in the Wynnefield section of the city, the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia held their last meeting until September for 2002.

Our speaker was Broadcast Pioneers member John Carlton, well known to the Philadelphia broadcast community as the voice of the Atlantic Go Patrol traffic reports of the sixties.

In January of 1968, Carlton and his helicopter pilot landed on the roof of a burning senior citizens apartment house. The two ran throught the structure waking up residents and getting them to safety. Just moments after the aircraft took off from the structure's roof, the building collapsed. The January 1968 newspaper article next to John (above) featured all the details of the rescue. John Carlton was a true hero and we're proud to have him as one of our members.

We have processed audio from the speech which includes two Go Patrol reports where the helicopter crashed. (John walked away from a total of ten air mishaps.)

The first one was from February 1963 and was actually on the air. While John sounded calm on the air as if nothing was wrong, the helicopter he was flying in, was dropping like a rock. At the last minute, the pilot got it to land safely. The second report was from December 1964 and was not on the air, but "tape was rolling." Fortunately, John Carlton walked away from both.

We have complete audio of his remarks. They are divided into five parts for quick and fast loading. Once you have the audio playing, it will automatically move from part to part without you having to do anything except listen.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Gerry Wilkinson
Audio of Go-Patrol reports originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member John Carlton
© 2007 & 2016, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
All Rights Reserved

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com