WAEB Playlists 1960

 

I've written about 790 WAEB-AM once before. That was a post about to the Gene Kaye show. But WEAB has come up in passing at least half a dozen times. [LINK] Recently I found a stack of 1960s Record surveys. It lists the top 40 records and what's unusual is that this set is sequential. I have April 18th through May 16th of 1960. It's interesting when you read though it because Percy Faith "theme From A Summer Place" was #1 on Billboard for the year and it's not on the chart at all. But #2 Jim Reeves "He'll Have to Go" and #3 The Everly Brothers "Cathy's Clown" both place. You can compare the 1960 top 100 Billboard singles here [SOURCE]  I also scanned the surveys and uploaded them for your reading pleasure.  

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THEME HERE 

The back of each survey had the24-hour WAEB weekday schedule printed on the back. I typed that out here just to make this more searchable. From a 1964 schedule we can see that many of these DJs were still on WAEB 4 years later. The list then would be Jay "Jumpin' Jay" Sands, Ernie Stiegler, Gene "Jivin' Gene" Kaye, Joe "Tiger Joe" McLaine, Gary "Daddy G" Levine, and Perry "Merry Perry" Allen.  Let's delve into the bioagraphies of the 1960s crew. 

TIME	SHOW	HOST
6:00 - 9:00 AM	Clock Watchers	Kerm Gregory, Nedd Flemming
9:00 - 11:00 AM	Toast & Coffee	Ernie Stiegler
1100 - 2:00 PM	Flemming & Co	Nedd Flemming
2:00 - 3:00 PM	Hits for the Mrs.	Joe McLaine
3:00 - 5:00 PM	Discapades	Kerm Gregory
5:00 - 6:00 PM	Discapades	Gene Kaye
6:00 - 6:30 PM	News / Spotlight On Sports	Jay Sands/Ernie Steigler
6:30 - Midnight	Paging The Stars	Gene Kaye,  Joe McLaine
Midnight - 6:00 AM	All Night Show	Bud Nerr

Kermit L. Gregory - Kerm graduated from Muhlenberg college in 1951, meaning he may have been a DJ on the original closed cable iteration of WMUH as it started in 1948 at 640 AM. Gregory began his radio career as an announcer with WHOL in Allentown and joined WAEB in 1955. He went to WILK in Wilkes-Barre in 1962 as program director. From 1971 to 1982, Gregory was operations manager of KEZL in San Diego. While a WAEB disc jockey, he was the first host for Castle Rock at Castle Garden in Dorney Park as a summer attraction in 1956. He had actually returned to radio in the Lehigh Valley at WKAP in 1983 after a 20 California detour. By 1985 he was back at WAEB doing that Dorney park gig again but the Dorney park dance hall burned down the following November. He died in 1992 at the age of 58 in Cajon, CA. 

Nedd Flemming - Back in 1953 Nedd was the Sports Director on WEST in Easton, PA. Nedd was with WAEB at least as early as 1956. Broadcasting announced his promotion that year. Cash Box recording his move away from the mic in 1960. "Kerm Gregory, five year veteran of WAEB-Allentown, Pa., is now the station’s program director, replacing Nedd Flemming, who’ll devote more time to sales." 

Ernie Stiegler - Ernie died in 1990 at the age of 64. Actually a graduate of the University of Florida he was a sports broadcaster in college at 850 WRUF-AM, though multiple stations carried the university live sports feed. He hosted “Toast and Coffee” for year and became assistant manager eventually retiring in 1969 to go into advertising. 

Joe McLaine - Like many of these DJs he's named in passing in the book Masterpiece in Progress by Jeff Steinberg back in 1986. He's mentioned in Cash Box in 1959 at WAEB [SOURCE] running a contest. But in 1958 Broadcasting names him at another area station "  JOE McLAINE, formerly with WEEU Reading, Pa., as d.j., joins WHOL in similar capacity..."  So we know he went from WEEU then to WHOL, then WAEB. The 1966 edition of the Working Press directory lists him still at WEAB alongside  Jay sanders, Ernie Steigler, Gene Kaye, and Bobby Dee. 

James "Jay Sands" Sidoti - Sidoti is an Italian surname if you were wondering. He was a local guy from Eastson, PA. His radio career began in 1951 at WEEX in Easton, PA. But he had actually taken a radio training course at the New York School of Radio Technique in 1950. He  later worked at WGPA in Bethlehem. He first got into WAEB to do news in 1957 eventually becoming news director.  In 1963 he became program manager.  His "clockwatcher" radio show was popular in the Lehigh Valley from 1957 to 1971. He worked in TV sales and service and works some slots at WSAN and two years at WKAP in the early 1970s. He went back to WAEB and hosted the Gold Mine Club on WAEB from 1980 to 1987.  He died in 1987 at the age of 57.

Gene Kaye - Article here. 

Bud Nerr  - Bud seems to have had a short career in radio. Bud Nerr pops up on these surveys in the Spring of 1960 and in one issue of Cash Box in 1959 next to Al Martino in a group shot [SOURCE]. 

DJ Dopey Duncan

 

Born in 1920, Luther W. Gehringer was better known as “Dopey Duncan.” His career spanned four decades as a Pennsylvania radio personality, musician, comedian and entertainer. I discovered him through a 90-minute cassette I found in a box of mixed used tapes. It was marked "WXKW Dopey Duncan with the date 5-27-1990" on the front. I quickly learned that this program aired only a few weeks after his death. [SOURCE] There isn't a single word online about this program. My copy may be the only one, or the only copy left. My theory is that it may have belonged to one of those folks in that studio 35 years ago, probably now deceased. 

I have digitized and uploaded that digital audio HERE. 

From the library of Jose Fritz

At the time of the recording, 1470 WXKW-AM was part of the HGF Media Group which included: WLSH-AM, Lansford; WMIM-AM, Mt. Carmel; WKHL-AM, Salladasburg; WSPI-AM, Shamokin;  WMGH-AM, Tamaqua; and WXKY-AM/WQXA-FM, York. The radio program was a special, but the host said that the Country Hall of Fame show was ongoing, weekly. The host introduced himself as "Old Cactus Ed" and in the studio with him were friends of Dopey Duncan: Les Baer, Paul Galgon, and Ken Happel. He goes on to include  station management like  Chris Collier, PD, Harold G. Fulmer III the station owner, Bob "Monk" Rabenold GM, and Rick Musselman GM of the HGF Media group who suggested they put the special together.  

The tape label further lists the names Ed Baumer and Sammy Anderson. Edwin G. Baumer did mid-days at WXKW through at least 2007 closing out a 35 year radio career. Ed was best known as “Cactus Ed” on WXKW. He also worked at WZZO, WKAP, WEEU, WRFY, WHUM, WGPA, WSAN, and WHOL. Likewise, Sammy Anderson was both staff and a guest, he was their station manager back in the 1970s. He knew Duncan personally and in 1992 the Morning Call newspaper stated that they were both "part of the golden era" of WKAP. Sammy started out as a newscaster in Erie and Lancaster, and then moved to radio starting at WNAR in Norristown. Over 5 decades he worked at WSAN, WAEB, WEZV, WKAP and WXKW. Sammy the station manager when WXKW changed to a country format in 1977 when the station was still owned by Rust Communications. Famously from 1998-2000, Sammy was host of “The Sinatra Hours” on WKAP. At one point Sammy also had an afternoon call-in show there called “What’s on Your Mind?”

A little disambiguation: The station we now call WSAN, and was WXKW in 1990 was WKAP from 1995–2006. This gets confusing in this story because the "original" WKAP we will discuss here was 1320 AM, also in Allentown, PA. Today it's 1320 WTKZ-AM, but the station signed on in 1947 a 1,000 watt daytimer on 1580. It held the WKAP calls from 1947–1994 and is the station these people mean when they speak of WKAP. When Les Baer talks about doing mornings with Duncan for 18 years, he's describing 1954 - 1972 at that station. A 1958 issue of Broadcast cites their program as Hooper Rating as #1 in the market. In the mid fifties Paul Galgon did an afternoon show together called the Cross Roads store. That lasted 3-4 years. Gehringer ultimately spent about 24 years on WKAP. It may feel incongruous but in the 1950s WKAP was an MOR station which in 1972, flipped to Adult Contemporary.

Gehringer was born and raised in Allentown, PA and according to his obituary, Duncan's singing career began in 1941. One blog claimed that he performed on WSAN Barn Dance in 1939. I can't corroborate that claim, or even the existence of that show, but he would have been 19 years old. In character he wore a recognizable costume: a checkered suit, big goofy hat, string bow tie and trademark oversized yellow shoes. His obituary describes his live weekly broadcasts from a ranch mock up in Dorney Park's Castle Gardens in South Whitehall Township. He took stage dunking an oversized doughnut in an oversized cup; a vaudevillian trope. It's not said in most bios but Duncan served in WWII in the U.S. Army's 124th Horse Cavalry in Burma. That was probably 1942 - 1945. Merrill's Marauders started their activity in 1943. They were so effective that all the soldiers of Merrill's Marauders were each awarded the Bronze Star. There is something important here to be said about his psychology but I'm not qualified to say it.

Despite the 1941 start date, the earliest print references to Dopey Duncan appear in 1945 after his return from WWII.  In May of that year The Chronicle newspaper describes him as a "Show Clown" performing alongside the Ozark Mountaineers. Another account has him as the stage comic for Willis Meyers, that's probably Willis's his Bar X Ranch Boys 1947-ish. Meyers also performed with "His Swing Band" in the 1940s. (That'd be Western Swing of course.)

By 1947 Gehringer was his own headliner performing with a band as Dopey Duncan and the Top Hands. Thought one ad in 1947 instead refers to Dopey Duncan and "His Gang." These may not have been very formal groups as later that month he performed with "his Melody Rangers." In those ads he played dinner events, Outdoor markets and carnivals every month. By 1948 the group name seems to have settled on Top Hands. His first known appearance in a trade magazine was in Cash Box in February of 1952. In a March of Dimes Radio event Dopey Duncan is listed from WKAP. [SOURCE]

"From 9:00 P.M. to the early hours of the morning, deejays alternated on stage with their turntables, spinning disks to the joy of over 2,000 dancers. In sequence, the following jockeys appeared: Paul Galgon, WKAP; Syd Paul, WHOL; Clem Walters, WAEB; Dopey Duncan, WKAP; Marshall Cleaver, WKAP; Ted Weider, WHOL; Art Getz, WSAN; Betty Lou George and Vern Craig,- WKAP; and Tom Early and Joe Prentiss, WAEB. For a two-hour period, three of the. Allentown stations carried the d.j. proceedings direct from the ballroom."

The tape opens with some oldies. The first song on the tape is "Riding Down to Santa Fe" and dates to 1946, sourced from a transcription. Les Baer gives the band members as Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Norm Arlen, Art Martin, Ralph "Spoony" Spohn. I think Spoony is the same fellow who played fiddle for Uncle Jack & Mary Lou back in 1939, and sometimes performed with the Sleepy Hollow Ranch Gang. He may or may not have played with them on the Hayloft Hoedown at WFIL. The second song on the tape is from 1947, "Will You Be My Darling." The line up was Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Art Martin, Spooney Spawn on fiddle and Bill Foscht (sp) on accordion. (Pardon any errors on these names, some of these folks are obscure and there's no way to confirm spelling.) Later on the tape were modern solo acoustic recordings, mostly gospel tunes. 

But back to that tribute broadcast for a bit. WXKW started out as WSAN-AM today but had the WXKW calls from 1985 to 1995. It claims to be the oldest station in the Lehigh Valley; which at the very least means it's one Dopey would have known, if not performed on.  The station has it's roots in two predecessors. The first signed on as WCBA on May 24th, 1923 initially broadcasting out of Heimbach's Kaumagraph Repair Shop. At the time they broadcast at just 5 watts on 1070 kHz. Two years later they relocated to 1180 kHz. WSAN received its first license on June 30, 1923, issued to the Allentown Radio Club for 10 watts on 1310 kHz

In 1927 WCBA and WSAN had to share time on 1350 KHz. Together they moved to 1500 kHz and then 1440 kHz and eventually 1470 in 1941. They were hopelessly twinned.  In early 1937, an application was filed to formally consolidate the two stations under the WSAN call sign with the two stations sharing stock in the owning company WSAN, Inc. Dopey may have been on FM in the 1940s. In 1947, WSAN-FM was added, originally on 95.9, then moved to 99.9 but it was deleted in 1956. I believe that station was a simulcast in most of that era. It became WKAP in 1995.

Gehringer appears in the Morning call News paper in 1955 singing, and telling jokes but in an article written in Pennsylvania Dutch, which I can tell you... is very confusing for Google Translate. It thinks it's in Luxembourgian, but it's sort of readable. His morning show with Les Baer was called “Two on the Sunny Side.” The Morning call newspaper claims that ran for 18 years. By the mid 1960s Dopey was doing live broadcasts on Sunday mornings of a brunch radio show from the locally renowned Walp's Restaurant on Route 22, it later moved to  911 Union Blvd in Allentown, PA.  The restaurant closed in 1998.

Who's Who in Television and Radio #5 (1955)

Malvern records released a few 45s with Dopey in the 1960s. His one self-produced LP was recorded live from Walps Restaurant. [SIDE A] and [SIDE B] That record definitely went through multiple pressings. More here. He also had an undated 8-Track released, it has 3 tracks of comedy and 3 songs on the 4th track. It was also probably self released. The American Heart Association released a 90-minute Dopey Duncan tape as a fundraiser in 1991. A description of that tape reports that it was recordings of his old 1950s WKAP program. Apparently that's quite rare now. [SOURCE].

Gehringer semi-retired to Eustis, FL in 1977, at the age of 57 and began playing locally. He survived a stroke in 1986 and was partially paralyzed, which he mostly recovered from. In 1988 Dopey gave a speech at a roast. His closing statement from that event closes out the tape. You can see that video here, and the associated blog post here. He didn't revisit his material from the fifties. Instead he performed new material and had a whole stand up routine about being elderly and living the retired life in Florida. He even talked about his stroke, and recovery. 

Despite those serious moments the recording is utterly hilarious. He even does some Pennsylvania Dutch. But he says nothing about WKAP. So while it's not rich with radio history, it's a real taste of why Duncan was so popular in his day.  He died in 1990 at the age of 77, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound seated in his backyard. I almost skipped that part but you can hear in the voices of his friends something that remained otherwise unsaid. All his peers passed on over the next 20 years. Ralph "Spoony" Spohn died in 2001 [SOURCE]. Sammy Anderson died in 2002 [SOURCE]. Les Baer died in 2015 [SOURCE], Paul Galgon Sr. in 2001, and Ken Happel in 2019. Ed Baumer died in 2021 [SOURCE].

The Gene Kaye Show

 

Not Danny Kaye or Carol Kaye, Harold Kaye, Lenny Kaye, Nora Kaye, Sammy Kaye, Paul Kaye, not even Buddy Kaye. There are after all quite a few successful and at least semi-famous Kayes. (He's also no relation to the Jeff Kaye whose DJ'd at WHIM, WRIB, WKBM and WBZ.) But this is the first time I've written about Gene Kaye, and Gene Kaye isn't even actually a Kaye. He's a Kolber.

Back in 1998 Gene Kolber was the honoree in an event celebrating his 40-year career in radio around the Lehigh Valley. The Laneco Christmas Spectacular is no small show, it's hosted at the Stabler area which seats over 10,000. At the time Kaye was still doing a weekly oldies show at 99.9 WODE from 6:00 to 7:00 PM Sundays. I haven't been able to confirm but I think he's still alive today and 93 years old. That flyer above is from 1964, the top single on the flip side is "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen.

Even then Kaye claimed to be the first DJ who broke an Elvis record on the air. As the story goes, he snapped a 45 rpm single of "Don't Be Cruel" right in half live on his program at WIEL-AM in Elizabethtown, KY. His show "Tunes around Town" aired 6:00 to 11:00 PM and within minutes there was a feisty crowd outside. That would have been way back in 1956. According to Billboard it was the #2 single that year, right behind "Heartbreak Hotel" also by Mr. Presley. 

Let's take a short sidebar into the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis’ “That’s All Right” came out in 1954, his first commercial single. But the Billboard Hot 100 did not exist until 1958.  Prior to that, they had only 4 charts, mostly similar to what Cashbox was publishing previously (below). It's also notable that in 1956 the Top 30 "best sellers" chart was expanded to a Top 50. Not that it affected Elvis that year; all his charting singles were in the top 15.

• Best Sellers in Stores (Top 50)
  
• Most Played by Jockeys
• Most Played in Jukeboxes
• The Top 100

This is relevant because the success of “That’s All Right” was incomparable to "Don't Be Cruel" and misunderstanding those charts might lead you to misunderstand the relevance. 1956 was a huge year for Elvis; he had 5 top 50 singles that year. Elvis's success changed pop music for decades. I'm not sure why Gene busted that platter, but in 1955 Elvis had zero singles on that top 50. 1956 was year of Elvis's first and second studio records; both eponymous. Before that were only singles, mostly regional. So if the incident was before mid-March I'll believe that Kaye just didn't' see the future of Elvis yet. If it was after... I'm not sure I believe it at all. But it does appear in the September 15th issue of Billboard under VOX JOX under the sub-heading "Presley Panic."  It reports fans demanded he apologize for the incident. His unnamed sponsor responded by buying a 15 minute segment to feature nothing but Elvis. For what it's worth, the book Elvis: A Radio History from 1945 to 1955 by Aaron Webster stops before this incident occurred.

from kimsloans.wordpress.com

Gene never really went national. But throughout his career he remained a locally popular figure.  In 1959, he tried to make The Devils career, hurriedly re-recording their single "The Devil Dance" when the Capitol Records plant was on strike.There's a great promo picture of him with Jan and Dean in 1960. I thought he was just at 790 WAEB-AM in this period but his headshot is in the September 4th issue of Billboard repping WAAT in Trenton NJ and naming the Four Freshman as his favorite vocal group. I did confirm that in the May 1961 issue of Cashbox (below) The December 1960 issue notes his hiring from WAEB and his original show the Notre Dame bandstand."

"Gene has given up his career as deejay Gene Kaye ( WAAT-Trenton, NJ) to join Richard Osias in the builder’s new music firms. Kobler, a lawyer, will act as administrative liaison man between the Osias parent organization and its recently formed artist management firm, Janel Enterprises. He will help guide the fortunes of Janel, two music publishing firms, Docir and Pao, and Perri Records."

His career largely peaked in the 1960s. In 1961 he appears in 16 Magazine with Annette Funicello. In 1963 Lesley Gore was appearing at his Sock Hops. Billboard published a picture of them together in the June 22nd issue that year. Galaxies IV played his Fairgrounds show in 1962. [Source] In 1964 he appeared in Cashbox to hand an award to Bobby Rydell for being very wholesome. That same year the Beach Boys appeared at his Dance Party event on the Allentown Fairgrounds. In 1965, Little Richard, The Chiffons, and the Sir Douglas Quintet performed at Gene Key's Summer Festival of the Stars. In 1966 he appeared with the Bobby Fuller Four on the Ed Hurst Aquarama TV program. One of his few TV appearances.

I think that's the same year that Jay and the Techniques won one of his talent contests which got them signed to Smash records. Which is probably the reason that in 1968 he got a quote about the band members' draft status into KRLA Beat magazine. He began to champion local band The Cyrkle in 1966 but that ended with Sheryl Records, Inc. v. The Cyrkle  in 1968 and Kolber Vs. Cyrkle in 1969. Remember Kolber was an attorney himself. But so was Marty Fried in The Cyrkle. In a sharp reversal of the normal outcome... The Cyrkle won (so much as that is possible) and were able to collect royalties. For his part, Gene never said much about it.

If all these dates are to be believed, Kaye started out at WIEL in 1956, then jumped to WHOL in 1958, then WEAB in 1959, and WAAT in 1960. He stayed there until at least 1961. It's unclear when he started at WAEB again but he had a show by 1964 which I can confirm via the Fabulous Forty flyer below.  That 1964 line up is a solid line up: Jay "Jumpin' Jay"Sands, Ernie Stiegler, Gene "Jivin' gene" Kaye, Joe "Tiger Joe" McLaine, Gary "Daddy G" Levine, Perry "Merry Perry" Allen. I may write up the whole list some day. I found a 1962 regional survey for WAEB on line and its line up varies a bit. McLaine is still there as is Stiegler and Sands but Keys isn't. The two other faces are Kerm Gregory, [link] and Don Bruce [link].

Anyway the two surveys narrows down the window for his return to WAEB to be in 1963 or 1964. In 1968 Gene Kaye was named the National sales director of the parent company Rust Communications. But by 1969 his record hops were passé, FM radio was on the rise and free FM was on the rise. He focused on marketing for a long time. In his own words "Mitch Epstein helped me immensely after I realized that radio was no longer for me."

But he returned to the airwaves in 1988 at WAEB and played 1950s and 1960s rock, a format already called "oldies." In 1999, Jeff Frank brought back a bunch of DJs for a "Legends Weekend" to be held at WODE then an Oldies station. The DJ lineup included: Gene Kaye, Jay Edwards, Johnny Michaels, “Frantic” Freddy Frederick (aka Freddy Milander), Mickey Haggerty, Super Lou, Jim Lloyd, Barry George, Jim Reed, Bob Pharo, Guy Randall Ackley,  Neil Stevens,  Guy Harpo, Bill Sheridan and Jeff Frank. Rod Wolfe posted the tapes on Youtube. [SOURCE]

Jose Fritz Collection

By 2000 Kaye had started booking reunion concerts: Freddie Cannon, The Tokens, Lou Christie, The Angels, The Crystal all the old groups, at least the ones that were alive. In 2002 The Morning Call newspaper announce Kaye was to return to WODE again with a regular program.

Some of the best collected information out there on Gene Kaye is to be found in the book Deadwax From the Vinyl House by Justin Cipollini. You can check it out here.  Gene Kaye died in 2008. He is survived by his daughter, Suzy Kolber, who is a sportscaster for ESPN.

Rushing Clear Channel

I recently read that Clear Channel(specifically CC Media Holding) reported a Q4 loss of $191.3 million for 2013. Compare that to their Q4 loss in 2012 of $43 million. In that same period, Clear Channel Outdoor reported a loss of $148.4 million. The rest of the year as not kind to them. For all of 2012, the company posted a loss of $424 million, compared to a $302 million loss in 2011.  [Source here] Liberal blogs jumped all over this with some dubious math blaming Rush Limbaugh. I'm no fan of his program but the link is dubious.

The connection they use is his salary. In 2008 Rush signed an 8 year contract for about $400 million. That's not his annual salary, that's his total gross revenue under the deal. He's not earning 50 million per year. He received a signing bonus of 100 million. So (300 ÷ 8 =37.5). His prior deal signed in 2001 was worth $285 million. So Rush landed a 35% raise with his renewal. But in the interval Clear Channel had some problems. Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital took Clear Channel private in 2008 and in the process racked up 200 million in debt. 

Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman was quoted as saying “We are very pleased with our Company's progress in strengthening our businesses over the past year, and we look forward to continuing our momentum into 2013...”  I would not be nearly as optimistic after losing 700 million dollars. Moody's estimates that they will be in the hole 16 billion by 2016. Currently they are proposing selling their debt as notes for a total of $500 million that would be due in 2021. Ouch. Their problem is not overpaid talent, it's compound interest on debt.

It's just not accurate to suggest that dropping Limbaugh is a solution to this problem. His ad revenue is probably down, but he's not a money-loser. Despite the efforts of some activist groups such as StopRush, his program rolls on. The focus on his advertisers is savvy, but it doesn't hurt Rush personally. It hurts Premier radio Networks and the radio networks that carry his program such as Clear Channel and Cumulus. But none of those companies release quarterly numbers on ad revenue tied to his program and it's certainly not to their benefit to do so.

I was in Amish country recently and I found that at 2:00 PM I could hear Rush at 5 different spots on my radio dial: 910 WSBA-AM, 580 WHP-AM, 790 WAEB-AM, 830 WEEU-AM , and 1390 WLAN-AM. Those originate in York, Harrisburg, Allentown, Reading and Lancaster respectively. Those were just the ones that came in clearly on a car radio. A total of 600 affiliates still carry his show, nationally. So despite the price tag, those ad revenues are probably well into the black. I would expect that in 2016 when his contract runs out that Rush will have to take a haircut. But in the interim I don't expect any changes.