In Philadelphia, there were two permanent hosts of "Cinderella Weekend" on WCAU radio and television. They were Alan Scott and Bill Hart. However, Broadcast Pioneers member Ed Harvey did quite a number of those programs. He filled in for the host when they were on vacation, sick or otherwise not available. He also did many of the broadcasts when they originated outside of the studio.

We have in our archive, one such radio program with Ed Harvey as host. It originated from the Tower Theater at 69th Street in Upper Darby.

Charlie Higgins, a long-time tech at WCAU e-mailed:

I remember going on a remote for Cinderella Weekend to Sewell, New Jersey. It was quite a job then as we had to take heavy Ampex Model 400 recorders on which to record plus the necessary mixing equipment, microphones, cables, etc. I cannot recall who the announcer was though.

I also remember having to rush a piece of equipment to replace one that had failed to the Tower Theater in 69th Street for Cinderella Weekend.

The mixers we used then were RCA Remote Amplifiers such as OP-7 (a four position mixer) and an OP-6 (a single position mixer) that had a VU meter on it for monitoring levels. The OP-7 was fed to the OP-6 of course. As an emergency we also carried an RCA OP-5 a four position battery operated mixer.

...John Edwards was an announcer on WIP and WFLN before coming to WCAU. John worked in radio as well as in the TV Announce Booth. He was really a very nice man and excellent to work with always. He was a bachelor. His full name was John Francis Xavier Mulligan. How about that? I think that Edwards was included in there too but I cannot remember. He died suddenly of a heart attack.

John Edwards was the announcer on this particular program and it was produced by Fred Karch. The air date was Monday, August 20, 1956. It was recorded earlier for airing at that time. The audio starts with John Edwards slating the program.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Audio originally donated by the Ed Harvey estate
Special thanks to Broadcast Pioneers member Phil Shuman
© 2009, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
All Rights Reserved

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