The Eckert Family and WPAZ

WPAZ signed on in 1951 and signed off in 2009, 10 years ago. 56 years it a big window. But I've been totally unable to connect the Eckert Family to WPAZ.  I can state for the record that the Eckert Family was active in the 1950s concurrent with WPAZ under its' original ownership.

Founded by the Scott family, WPAZ was later owned by their company Great Scott Broadcasting. It's studios were located on Maugers Mill Road, in Pottstown, PA. Great Scott bought stations in Ohio, and down into Maryland and Delaware. WPAZ went dark on December 10th, 2009. then unexpectedly in 2010 the WPAZ Preservation Association (WPAZPA) began efforts to acquire WPAZ from Great Scott Broadcasting. The call sign was then changed to WBZH. This station also floundered and Four Rivers Community Broadcasting, which had backed the buyout took control over operations. In 2013 the call sign was reverted to WPAZ and the station filed to change it's license status to Non-Commercial (NCE). But don't mistake this for a community station. They are just another satcaster for Word FM.

The earliest show I found for the Eckert Family was in Pennhurst, PA at a Knights of Columbus Kids event on July 22nd 1951. It's the same year WPAZ signed on. They also played at Sleepy Hollow Ranch in 1953. [SOURCE]  I found another performance on September 5th, 1954 at a Fire Company fiesta at Lyons. They played as an "additional attraction" headlining below the Blue Mountain Jiggers.  [SOURCE]  An Advert for the Gratz fair in 1957 shows them playing on Friday, January 18th. Note Al Shade playing in March as well. [SOURCE] And the Lebanon Daily news has them at a Lions Club festival that year on Saturday September 7th with Buck Benson & The Country Neighbors.

There may have been a connection between the Eckert Family band and the Eckert Bros local chain of music stores with multiple locations (below) I can't find any advertisements for their stores after about 1977. The earliest reference I found was in a listing of Norelco dealers from 1965. But this is just based on geography and conjecture.

• 635 Penn St. Reading
• 101 (and 247) High Street Pottstown
• 940 Hamilton Street Allentown
  
• 5371 Fifth St. Temple
• Wescoesville, PA

So the Eckert family would have performed on WPAZ when the Scott family still ran the station. The band, whatever it was, appears to have been active from at least 1950 until about 1960. Shortly thereafter the music store appears. My rationale here is admittedly weak, but perhaps if we are lucky, someone will comment and fill in the gaps.