VIDEO:

Broadcast Pioneers Member Michael Stairs
at his Rosemont, PA home
Tuesday evening, September 13, 2016

On Friday evening, November 18th of 2016, member Michael Stairs was inducted into our Hall of Fame. For three decades, Michael has been the organist for the Philadelphia Orchestra. He could also often be found in the grand court of the Center City Macy's store playing the famed Wanamaker organ. Classical music expert Ed Cunningham, a member of Broadcast Pioneers, did the interviewing that evening. Michael passed away last month. A funeral service will be held on Saturday September 8th at 11 am at the Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Avenue, Bryn Mawr.

Michael Stairs was a native of Maine and studied piano in Presque Isle, and at age 10, gave concerts in Houlton and New Sweden (locally televised). In 1955, his father, a Baptist minister, was called to Wayne Park Baptist Temple in Erie, PA. Michael played on a weekly radio broadcast called Skypilots on Saturday mornings and a live broadcast on Sunday evenings from the City Mission. He held concurrent positions at the large Reformed Temple Anshe Hesed and South Hills Baptist Church.

Michael continued on to Westminster Choir College and played piano rehearsals for von Karajan, Steinberg, and Bernstein. This was followed by four years at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying organ with the famed Alexander McCurdy, piano with Vladimir Sokoloff, and composition with Matthew Colucci.

In 1985, Maestro Muti appointed Michael organist for The Philadelphia Orchestra. In the same year, he was appointed Organist and Choirmaster at Bryn Mawr’s Church of the Redeemer. In 1969, Keith Chapman hired Michael to assist him at the huge Wanamaker Grand Court organ.

Stairs taught Upper School music for 25 years at The Haverford School, but in post-retirement, was Artist-in-Residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. He also accompanied many local choral groups and is Organist Emeritus at The Redeemer. He married Margaret Connell a few years ago.

Watch the Video from Our YouTube Channel

(video courtesy of Broadcast Pioneers VP Brad Seecof and Metramedia Broadcasting & Studios)

AUDIO:

Member Jerry Immel sent us some interviews that he did with WRCV-TV booth announcers in 1958. He tells us:

When I was a student at Abington High School in 1958, we had an assignment to interview people who were doing the job I aspired to do. Here are the interviews I did at age 15 with Pat Landon and Earle Gill in the WRCV-TV announce booth.

LISTEN TO EARLE GILL!

Here's the Real Audio!
Here's the Windows Media!

LISTEN TO PAT LANDON!

Here's the Real Audio!
Here's the Windows Media!

Today's News Becomes Tomorrow's History!
(This is what our Digital Archival Project, DAP, is all about!)

A LITTLE BIT OF BROADCAST HISTORY!

IN TOUCH WITH OUR MEMBERS & THE INDUSTRY:

Put it on your calendar. Our September luncheon is a week earlier than normal. It is on the SECOND Wednesday of the month, September 12th. Why? Our usual third Wednesday is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. During this 24-hour fast, many Jews spend all day in the synagogue with intensive prayer.

Broadcast Pioneers wants everyone to be able to come and enjoy the meal at our September meeting, so we've changed the date. Our special luncheon is a "Tribute to Vince Leonard." Make plans to be with us for this very special luncheon. Mark your schedule. The Vince Leonard Tribute is on Wednesday, September 12th.

Broadcast Pioneers member Bob Backman
President of WRDE-TV
Broadcast Pioneers Luncheon
Bala Golf Club, Philadelphia
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
© 2012, Jerry Klein

Reports tell us that Broadcast Pioneers member Bob Backman, president of WRDE-TV is selling his television station, WRDE-TV. The sale price is currently not known. The buyer is Draper Media with other broadcast holdings in the area.

The station is licensed to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and operates on Channel 31. WRDE-TV is the NBC affiliate for the area. They have been so for the last 4 years. Studios are in Lewes, Delaware. This would make WRDE-TV a sister station to WBOC-TV, Channel 16, Salisbury, Maryland. WRDE holds a construction permit to build a TV translator fifty miles away, WRUE-LD, Channel 19 in the city of Salisburg.

Bob Backman, a long-time member of Broadcast Pioneers, will be inducted into our Hall of Fame on Friday evening, November 16th. Bob is also known as Cool Bobby B (The Doo Wop Stop) on Sirius XM Radio. Backman hosts our Rock and Roll luncheon every March. In case you're wondering, Bob is holding up his recording of American Pie from 45 years ago.

Member Bonnie Squires has a cable television show called, "Bonnie's Beat." She recently had Anne Sceia Klein on her program. Anne has run her own PR firm for a third of a century and since selling the business, she has authored a book entitled, "On the Cusp: The Women of Penn '64." Anne is the wife of former Broadcast Pioneers President and Chairman of the Board, Jerry Klein.

Last month, we told you about Kal Rudman's recent award, the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by Marquis Who's Who. Well, now Kal has another achievement. His face was prominently on a Times Square billboard, electronically announcing the awarding of the honor. Rudman’s likeness and name made the bright lights upon being added to the roster of Marquis Who’s Who Humanitarians in light of his philanthropic work and deeds.

Kal has served on our Board of Directors for decades and has served as Vice-President of our organization for seven one-year terms, longer than anyone else. Rudman was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 1998 and was our Person of the Year in 2007.

Kal also underwrites five scholarships each year for us to award to Temple University broadcast majors. Over the years, these have totaled almost 100 scholarships.

More than 4,800 local pets were adopted during NBC10 and Telemundo62’s fourth annual Clear the Shelters™ pet adoption drive. Launched in August 2018 and culminating on Clear the Shelters™ Day, Saturday, August 18, the stations’ pet adoption effort included the participation of 50 local animal shelters and animal rescues.

Ric Harris, President and General Manager of NBC 10 and Telemundo 62 said: “In partnership with 50 local shelters and rescues in our area, we are thrilled to announce that nearly 5,000 animals have been adopted since the campaign kicked off three weeks ago. On behalf of NBC10 and Telemundo62, we appreciate all the families who adopted animals making this year’s Clear the Shelters campaign a huge success."

Broadcast Pioneers Board Member Ed Eisen received an interesting e-mail in July. It was in broken English. It said that they have hacked Ed's computer, collected all his contacts' names and e-mail addresses, and had caught him watching porn. They told him he had a day to pay them $7,000 in bitcoin or they would share the info with his contact list. This is blackmail. Since Ed doesn't watch porn, he contacted the Philadelphia Inquirer and told them about this. He knew it was a scam. The Inquirer said in an article about this that this is mostly a bluff. They are just hoping you would pay. It cost them nothing to send the e-mails. If only 1% pay out of 10,000 e-mails sent, the perpetrators could receive almost three-quarters of a million dollars for a no cost venture.

Beasley Media Group celebrated Broadcast Pioneers member Debbi Calton’s 25th year rocking the midday shift (9 am to 2 pm) at Philadelphia’s Classic Rock station, 102.9 WMGK-FM.

When asked about her favorite aspect of her years at WMGK-FM, Calton replied, “The listeners. I’ve formed 25 year relationships with so many of them. We talk on the request line or see each other at concerts. Yes, we’re still going to plenty of rock concerts.”

Just in at press time.... Entercom has told us that Alex Silverman will become PD at KYW Newsradio on September 24th. Steve Butler, who is currently running the news radio operation announced his retirement earlier this year and will remain on board into next month. Silverman is currently Assistant PD for all news WCBS in NYC. WCBS is a sister station to KYW Newsradio. This is Silverman's second promotion this year.

Broadcast Pioneers member David Yadgaroff, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Entercom Philadelphia said: "We are thrilled to welcome Alex to the KYW Newsradio family. He’s a great fit to lead this iconic Philadelphia brand into an exciting next chapter.”

Silverman joined Entercom in 2011 as an anchor for WCBS Newsradio 880 and has since helped lead the station’s coverage of major news events in New York and around the country, including Hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombings and the Orlando nightclub shooting. He received a 2018 National Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the transportation crisis in New York. He recently helped guide WCBS through a modern refresh and reimage of its iconic Newsradio brand.

Part of Silverman's new duties will include supervising and planning the relocation of KYW Newsradio away from its current location (with KYW-TV at 16th and Spring Garden). The radio news operation will move to the new location along with all of the other Entercom owned Philadelphia stations. Corporate headquarters is said to also be included in the new digs. All are reported to be moving to a location along the Schuylkill riverfront.

Today's News Becomes Tomorrow's History!
(This is what our Digital Archival Project, DAP, is all about!)

Broadcast Pioneers member Dave Stanley started out at member Mel Gollub's station, WIFI. Then he moved into country radio and finally into television, anchoring at KYW-TV, Channel 3, here in Philadelphia. Today, Dave is retired and living in North Carolina. We asked Dave to do some writing for our newsletter. He agreed and it's presented in three parts. The first installment this month and the other two in October and November. Dave tells us:

So, I’m sitting on the front porch, enjoying the summer heat, humidity (and mosquitoes) when out of the blue I get a call from Gerry Wilkinson asking if I’d like to write an article for the newsletter. I replied, “I would love to! It would be fun, it would be easy” Gerry said: “But not about you. (Okay, scratch easy). Write about someone else. (Uh, boring) Write about some of your friends.” (Impossible) What friends? This is broadcasting. You get a promotion. Folks come up and shake your hand, congratulate you and hope you get T-boned at Wawa.

I mean, let’s be honest here. Broadcasting is a tough business. It is fraught with paranoid people. And that’s only if they can make it through their first rating book! But the business is also filled (thank God) with very kind, sensitive, compassionate, understanding, forgiving and patient people. In fact, had it not been for a person like Mel Gollub (aka) Mel Stewart, a highly successful businessman, former radio icon at WIP and Broadcast Pioneers member, I would have been fired from my first job within minutes after I showed up for work. No exaggeration, my career would have ended before it even started.   

“And that was Chet Atkins with Freight Train. Gee, I wonder where that train is going. Maybe it’s going to Peter, Paul and Mary.”

My first, on-air, spontaneous ad-lib!!! (In addition to being one of the worst and least creative transition lines ever, truth be told it wasn’t even spontaneous. I had written it down about 2-hours earlier.) Nevertheless, as bad as it was things were about to get a whole lot worse.  

Through a friend I heard of an opening at WIFI -FM, a small, but powerful FM radio station. The show was called WI-FI Folk. The station may have been small, but given the number of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area, there was nothing small about the size of the audience. It was the sixties, an era of multiple protests involving some very serious and significant issues of historic proportions; Civil Rights and Vietnam. On the plus side, WI-FI Folk was right there at the ready with the musical soundtracks of the time. More importantly, on a self-serving level, after being hired on a Friday with a start date of Monday, I was also ready! (Well, uh, actually that’s not quite true.)

My friend may have said something about me needing some kind of a license. Once I learned what that was and where I could get it, I made a panic dash downtown, got the book, studied all weekend and sweated a lot! I was, however, when the time came, totally prepared to take the test on the Monday morning before starting my career that night. Pass. I would be issued the 3rd class license with the dreaded element (all technical) broadcast endorsement right on the spot. It was tight, but doable. I could show up for work, hang my license on the wall, flip the mike on and at least that’s how it would have happened had the guy who had been giving the test for centuries not called in sick for the first time ever in his life. I could still take the test, but wouldn’t know the results, or get the license for about a week.

And, there it was. My entire broadcasting dream began that day on a lie or as I prefer to think of it a “desperation stall.” Station owner Mel Gollub arrived to work the following morning not even sure he wanted to keep me around after listening to me the night before. At the very least, he expected to see my license hanging on the wall. That didn’t happen for about a week. Mel kept asking, and I kept stalling. Although I always suspected he knew what was really going on. I finally got my license and my dubious skills improved just enough so as not to get shown the door.

Broadcast Pioneers member Mel Gollub
air name: Mel Stewart
WIP Radio, Philadelphia
1956

I can honestly say that had Mel not put up with me and given me that opportunity I would have probably returned to the Lutheran Publication House in East Falls and retired as a shipping clerk.  

So, in reality, I have a true pioneer to thank for my career in broadcasting; a broadcaster, whose career began in 1944 at the age of 15 at WHAT while he was still in high school. Just a few years later he would be broadcasting on Philadelphia’s powerhouse, WIP, under the name of Mel Stewart. But it certainly wouldn’t end there. In the 1950’s he saw an opportunity, took a chance and thus became one of the first successful FM station owners. As Mel explains it:   

“I thought that this was the time to own a radio station. Why not apply to the Federal Communications Commission to start FM broadcasting on 92.5? I did just that in 1957 and sought permission from the F.C.C. to use the call letters WIFI. I used the slogan: ‘HI-FI on WI-FI’ starting in 1958. The term ‘WI-FI’ (for the Internet) wasn’t commercially used for 4 more decades. In 1961, I built, owned and operated Atlantic City’s first FM station: WRNJ (95.1) atop the Ritz Carlton Hotel. In 1975, I built, owned and operated WLRB (92.7): the first FM licensed to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.”

Of course Mel wasn’t the only broadcast personality to make the transition to station ownership. Over the years many others have also successfully done the same. Among them is a radio personality who put his career path on steroids. So much zest, in fact, it took not one, but three names to pull it off; Bob Backman (aka) The Real Bob Steele (aka) Cool Bobby B.

Next month, Dave continues talking about his friend, Bob Backman and in November, Stanley concludes with his memories about Mike Bove.

The Early Days of WDVR! (Part three)

This was written by Broadcast Pioneers member Marlin Taylor and originally appeared on his website. Marlin was the original Program Director and Station Manager for WDVR Radio (today known as More FM). Taylor was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2015. We'll be running the WDVR story in three parts. The first ran in July, and the second part was in the August issue. The third and final episode runs this month. This is even more special because of More FM being sold to Entercom. . Here's Marlin Taylor's third and final installment.

An advertisement from the Philadelphia Inquirer
for WDVR Radio (Now More FM)
May 1964
(To see a larger version of this ad, click here!)

This is a portion of a full-page ad which WDVR Philadelphia ran in the Inquirer daily morning newspaper in May of 1964 … listing every song that the station would play that day between 9 AM and 11 PM.

WDVR was just celebrating its first anniversary, having begun broadcasting in May of 1963 … 55 years ago. It was the last FM station permit to be granted in the city of Philadelphia, and even then had its limitations … operating with an antenna very low in height and with low output power — which, as you may know, are both critical to an FM station’s coverage.

An advertisement from the Philadelphia Inquirer
for WDVR Radio (Now More FM)
1964
(To see a larger version of this ad, click here)

Even though our signal strength was poor and coverage limited, we were obviously offering content and a product people longed to hear. Why else would we, after only a year on the air, have greater listenership than the several other FM stations who had larger staffs and greater resources?

As for many of those artists listed, you may not remember them … quite a few I barely remember — and I programmed them. However, there are several, such as Percy Faith, Roger Williams, Frank Chacksfield, the Living Strings and Chet Atkins, who are still being played today on SiriusXM’s Escape channel. And, this is 55 years later! Some things, some music can and does stand the test of time.

With the sale of More FM (what used to be WDVR), Marlin said on his website that it's the end of an era. More FM is the sole reminding "standalone" independent station in a major market anywhere in the country.

In another article, Marlin wrote this as part of the story:

I still wonder what Dave Kurtz was thinking, what was his plan of action once WDVR was built? As I write in my memoir, after meeting with him in his home, he took me to the facility. It was ready to broadcast except for one thing. It needed a staff. People to create programming and operate it.

How long had it been in this completed stage, sitting there ready to be “fired up?” Had others contacted him or had he begun to search for someone to manage and program the station? I have no answers.

First, while Dave had some thoughts about programming, there was no indication that he had anyone in mind to hire. Once he learned that I had two years earlier put a new station on the air in the Washington, D. C. area (WHFS), I was hired on the spot. And then, why would Jerry Lee just happen to visit WHFS the following week and find that the person he met there would shortly be moving to Philadelphia to manage the launch of a new FM station, WDVR?

That’s all the information Jerry needed. It wasn’t much more than 48 hours later that I received a call from Jerry saying, “Marlin, we’ll be working together in Philadelphia!”

There’s a lot to learn from Gerald D. Lee, universally known as Jerry Lee. First of all, understand that you gotta do what you gotta do in order to succeed.

Jerry Lee never liked working as a “street salesman,” but the only way to get the new FM station that we were responsible for launching off the ground and generating income to pay the bills was to have advertisers. With Jerry being hired as Sales Manager and there being no budget to hire others to do the selling, it was Jerry’s job.

One by one, he’d bring another client in the door. First, John B. White Ford and the Consumer Products Division of the Philco Corporation as co-sponsors of the all-night program, to require that we’d be a 24-hour-a-day operation. Then, Aaron Levin’s Galleries on the Mall, Mikolosky Windows & Doors, Burdumy Motors, C. A. Rowell Department Store, just a few that I can remember.

While I pretty much grew up with a “Can Do” attitude, seeing Jerry in action confirmed that staying pro-active and constantly on the offensive were keys to a meaningful and effective life! If you need proof, just take a look at the 55-year track record of the station at 101.1 on the FM dial in Philadelphia.

(Left to right) Max E. Solomon, Irving Berlin and Shelly Gross
at Independence Hall, Philadelphia
1949