Bud Messner and/or The Skyline Boys

I had assumed from the beginning that Norman "Bud" Messner and the Skyline Boys were a package deal. This was incorrect.  I recently found a "souvenir folder" of The Skyline boys from WFMD in Frederick, MD: Zag Pennell, Lew Wade, Roy Parks, Dude Webb and Bill Bailey; No Bud Messner. Not that it's their only line up. This other image from the interwebs below still shares four members with the above list but Zag Pennell is replaced by Shorty King.  Notice there's no Bud Messner there either. 

I started this article about 10 years ago and in the  years since then the family of Roy Parks started a Skyline Boys website which is well researched. It's very helpful as it's clear we both have discovered different material. That site has a different group image with 6 members alongside Tex Ritter. The image is reportedly from the1950  WCHA calendar but I only know Hank Silby from the WRVA Old Dominion Barn Dance. The Skyline site unexpectedly lists him among the members; likewise Alan "Slim" Roberts was a member at that time. I would have guessed earlier but I have to accept the 1950 date. Generally speaking this is all normal. WWII was actively drafting young men at time this band was founded in 1941 and the triple constraint of family, career and travel often cause turnover in membership.

The Skyline Boys website makes clear that Bud Messner was linked with The Skyline Boys based on record releases and press as early as 1947 or 1948. I found a schedule in the Southwest Times of Pulaski, VA that puts them in a 30 minutes slot on 1230 WPUV in 1947. But there was a surprising number of variations. I have also seen releases which are billed as Bill Franklin and the Skyline Boys, or The Skyliners. It theorizes they met through WWVA. The Skyline Boys formed as early as 1941 and by 1946 Bill Bailey, Roy Parks, and Dude Webb were listed among the WWVA cast along side big names like Hackshaw Hawkins. 

From Wheeling their career took them to the Old Dominion barn dance on WRVA. The line up then was Hank Silby, Roy Parks, and Alan Roberts this lasted only 4-6 months, ending to do a tour with Tex Ritter. After the Tex Ritter tour began their Bud Messner Era which did produce at least 8 sides for Abbey Records and another 6 for Banner Records in 1949 and 1950. The continued to play with Messner through at least 1953. Billboard actually announced in January 1950 the inking of a contract between Abbey and Bud Messner.  Bud's wife Molly Darr sings on some tracks.

Bud Messner was born in Luray, VA in 1917 and began his radio career at WJEJ in Hagerstown, MD. It's about 90 miles from Luray. Per Billboard, The Skyline Boys were performing there mornings in August of 1950, unclear if Messner was still there.  Messner later had a a regular program on WCHA-AM. in Chambersburg PA. It's unclear how long Bud was there but the Skyline Boys are connected to it multiple times in 1949. The timeline is messy, that's also their time at WRVA and the Tex Ritter tour. More here. Purportedly Bud got a day job at Banner Records as their director of Folk Music. If that is true it would surely have greased the wheels for those releases with The Skyline Boys.  

Their airtime at WFMD appears to be brief as well. The "folder" I scanned above make it clear they performed on the station. One DJ is also pictured, Stephen Wainer. A 1955 issue of Billboard connects them indirectly, a DJ named New Wade who merely mentions The Skyline boys are heard daily at Wayneboro, PA; no call letters.  But in 1955 that would have to be 1380 WAYZ-AM, unless he meant Chambersburg. I found a single issue of The Carroll Record dated May 25th 1951 which listed off a few shows but notably "Skyline Boys from WFMD" for a gig on June 15th.  A July 1951 wedding announcement for Parker-Everhart confirms Roy parks is in the Skyline Boys and that they are on WFMD at that time. The Manassas Journal still connects them to WFMD as late as August of that year. Wainer was still connected to WFMD as late as 1954. There is a short ad for him in an issue of The Carrol that year. 

"8:45 to 9:15 every Thursday Morning. Listen to Steve Wainer's Sunrise Serenade. Radio Station WFMD. The 930 Spot On Your Radio Dial. Steve will bring you the Taneytown News, acknowledge Birthdays and Anniversaries and spin the best in Recorded Music, the past and present."

There's still some noise in the signal. There is a gospel group active since 1995 with the same name. There was an unrelated bluegrass band, the Skyline boys on WREL in Lexington in the late 1940s. I also found a reference to one on WKVA Lewistown and WVAM in Altoona, PA which may or may not be the same.  The geography is at least more plausible. In 1952 there's a record of The Skyline Boys performing at WYVE in Wytheville, VA Dude Webb may been employed there at the time. That's probably also 1952. [SOURCE]  Purportedly Webb also worked at WROM, WHIS, and WSVA. In 1960 after retiring from touring, Bud Messner and his wife Molly Darr bought Chambersburg radio station WCBG. Molly had her own program there for 20 years, "Molly and Me." More here.

The Last US States Without Radio

To be clear, there was no way in 1913 that the Department of Commerce could produce a canonically complete list of every U.S. entity with a radio transmitter, licensed or not. So I argue that even in 1913 there were probably a large number unlicensed radio stations excluded from this accounting. The Department of Commerce Report for July 1913 listed a mere 168 land radio stations, and just 22 special land stations. I list the latter ones below for reference:

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	STATE	Owner
9YI	-	Ames	IA	Iowa State College of Agriculture
1XA	600	Amesbury	MA	Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co.
8XA	-	Ann Arbor	MI	University of Michigan
3ZH	300	Atlanta	GA	Georgia School of Technology
9XB	Variable	Beloit	WI	Beloit College
6XR	-	Berkley	CA	Frank Rieber
1XB	Variable	Boston	MA	Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co.
1XH	-	Boston	MA	Holtzer - Cabot Electric Co.
1YH	Variable	Cambridge	MA	Harvard University
1XP	300, 550, 600	Cambridge	MA	George W. Pierce
1XC	-	Chelsea	MA	William J. Murdock Co.
8YD	300, 400, 600	Detroit	MI	William J. Meisenheimer
9YN	Variable	Grand Forks	ND	University of North Dakota
3XR	-	Hyattsville	MD	J. Harris Rogers
6YL	-	Los Angeles	CA	High School
2YN	-	New York	NY	College of the City of New York
2ZH	-	Nutley	NJ	Arthur A Herbert
3XC	480	Philadelphia	PA	Frank B. Chambers
3XJ	500	Philadelphia	PA	St. Joseph's College
3ZS	450	St. Davids	PA	Chas. H. Stewart
9YC	-	St. Louis	MO	Christian Brothers College
3ZH	-	Washington	DC	H.B. DeGroot

You will note a concentration around the major metropolitan centers of the day: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. But relatively speaking 9YN and 9XB were in the middle of nowhere. The population of Grand Forks for example was only about 13,000, Beloit was hardly larger.  That's about a mere 2% of the population of Boston at that same time. Educational institutions were the foundation of experimental radio technology in that era. So their stations existing outside what might be otherwise supported by the urban density of radio consumers.

But this distribution begets the question: What were the last places in America to have radio? Well if we go by something very very granular like zip code or township there are places today still unserved by local radio. (I can personally attest to the large areas of the Southwest today without any radio at all; local or otherwise.) But if we go by state, we get some more interesting data, as each state contains multiple MSAs; even in Nebraska —where cows outnumber people more than 5:1. 

While in 1913 there were only 48 states in the union, our Department of Commerce (DOC) source data includes territories. Cuba, Samoa, Guam, Peking (China) and Puerto Rico all also appear on the DOC lists. So if 13 states special land stations already constituted > 27% of US states, where are the other 168 land radio stations?  At that time less than half of US states had radio stations. Two years later that list of land stations had grown to 192, and the list of Special land stations had grown to 118, spanning 29 states.

Below is a chart of the 1913 and 1915  Land Radio Stations (abbreviated LRS for space) and their totals by state. You can readily see that while the total count grows the total number of states had not changed significantly. We see that the US radio footprint was geographically consolidated.

State	Abbreviation	1913 LRS	1915 LRS
Alabama	AL	2	1
Alaska	AK	29	35
Arizona	AZ	2	2
Arkansas	AR	-	-
California	CA	11	21
Colorado	CO	-	2
Connecticut	CT	1	2
District of Columbia	DC	3	4
Delaware	DE	-	-
Florida	FL	6	10
Georgia	GA	1	2
Hawaii	HI (TH)	9	12
Idaho	ID	-	-
Illinois	IL	1	1
Indiana	IN	-	-
Iowa	IA	-	-
Kansas	KS	3	3
Kentucky	KY	-	-
Louisiana	LA	3	4
Maine	ME	2	1
Maryland	MD	2	3
Massachusetts	MA	8	9
Michigan	MI	8	10
Minnesota	MN	3	1
Mississippi	MS	-	-
Missouri	MO	-	-
Montana	MT	-	-
Nebraska	NB	1	-
Nevada	NV	-	-
New Hampshire	NH	1	1
New Jersey	NJ	3	6
New Mexico	NM	-	-
New York	NY	13	16
North Carolina	NC	4	5
North Dakota	ND	-	-
Ohio	OH	3	5
Oklahoma	OK	-	-
Oregon	OR	3	6
Pennsylvania	PA	2	3
Rhode Island	RI	2	4
South Carolina	SC	1	2
South Dakota	SD	-	-
Tennessee	TN	-	-
Texas	TX	5	5
Utah	UT	-	-
Vermont	VT	-	-
Virginia	VA	4	5
Washington	WA	6	9
West Virginia	WV	-	-
Wisconsin	WI	2	2
Wyoming	WY	-	-

The difference between land stations and special land stations is mostly nuance. In 1913 the Department of Commerce described these special classes collectively as "experiment stations for the development of radio communications technical and training school stations..." But they established a call sign format for these sub-types "The first letter will be X, for experiment stations; Y, technical and training schools; Z, special amateur stations." All of these, at least generally speaking, are still radio stations. Many in each category later became recognizable, entertainment-focused radio stations. But many others ceased to exist entirely.

The year 1922 was the tipping point. There is a 1922 reference in a Radio World article identifying Mississippi as the last US state with no radio stations. In September of 1922, Radio News reported that the states of Kentucky and Mississippi got their first stations with WHAS, and WHAU respectively leaving only two states —Delaware and Wyoming, without radio stations. That Summer they excitedly reported that Wyoming was the last, after the sign on of WHAV in Delaware. Wyoming joined the club on October 3rd with the sign on of KFBU. More here.

But by November of that year WHAU in Corinth, MS shut down. Owned by the Corinth Radio Supply company, this had been the first, and only licensed radio station in Mississippi. So Mississippi slipped behind Wyoming and became the last US state with no radio stations, albeit only briefly. In 1923; the Department of Commerce licensed four more radio stations in Mississippi: KFNG, Coldwater; WCBH, Oxford; WDBT; Hattiesburg; and WCBG, Pascagoula, closing the issue. More here.

The Fate of WGSA-AM

1310 WGSA-AM is an obscure little AM station. It existed for about 30 years but it's difficult to find any information on it beyond a few radio board commentss. It's listed in the usual Radio Annuals with varying sign-on dates in 1955 or 1956 under the ownership of Gardenspot Broadcasters. The real date is July 26th 1955. The American Radio History website even has a QSL letter [LINK] from September 1955 which refers to it's recent sign on. It started with 500 watts and jumped to 1,000 watts in 1956. It was operating at 5,000 watts by 1964.  Gardenspot also owned WIOV and WCBG-AM in Chambersburg. A 1962 issue of Broadcasting Magazine specifies that Samuel H. Youse (of Gardenspot) owned 33% of WABW in Annapolis, 25% of 1590 WCBG-AM and 90% of a then-unnamed application in Lebanon, PA.

Publications list WGSA in directories as late as 1990, but it appears they went dark prior to 1988 while owned by Joel Michaels Media. LNP Columnist Larry Alexander described their playlist as "All elevator music, all the time" but he also praised their local programming. It's unusual for the era,  but Sam Youse had started out at 104.1 FM, WLAB-FM in Lebanon, PA. He was there as early as 1950., possibly earlier as that station signed on in 1948. Pennsylvania celeb DJ Dave May worked there from 1958 to 1972 and has great first hand information in the following account:

"The station went on the air in July 1956 as a 1KW directional day timer located on top of Ephrata mountain with a two tower array. The original owner was Garden Spot Broadcasters and the managing partner was Sam Youse. Sam was an engineer (1st class phone license). In that time, it was required to have a First Class License physically on duty whenever the station was broadcasting. The chief engineer was Ralph Haneman, a WWII vet with myriad experience in all phases of electronics. The two of these persons manned the station in shifts whenever the station was on the air. Some early personnel included Johnny Wells, Lee Scott, and Ed Loder, who along with Ralph comprised the announcer/DJ staff. With great support from local business advertising, the station was profitable from the start but the workload on the staff was enormous. I was hired in January 1958 when the station was but eighteen months old."

Early staff in addition to Sam Youse, and Dave May also included chief engineer Ralph Haneman,  Johnny Wells, Lee Scott, and Ed Loder.  I don't know that it's related, but after Dave May left WGSA, Sam Youse posted a help wanted advertisement in Broadcasting Magazine:

"Immediate opening, experienced broadcast engineer to assume duties of chief AM/FM/Stereo knowledge able automation and solid state electronics. Need good technician, good maintenance. Call or write Samuel Youse, General Manager WGSA/WIOV Ephrata PA 17522"

The station had limitations from the beginning. In 1962, the daytimer was able to increase power from 1,000 watts to 5,000 watts with a three tower directional array. But their new, more powerful signal was directional to the West to protect co-channel 1310 WEMG-AM in New Jersey. That's away from the population dense Philadelphia suburbs, and toward more rural central PA.

I want to state for the record that "Entertainment Radio" is not a good brand name. But it was 1975 so there's some context there. Though only a minority owner, Sam Youse was still managing the station until the sale of WIOV in 1984. By then WGSA-FM had been WIOV-FM for 15 years and had dropped the Easy Listening format for country music at least 10 years prior, and their transmitter moved to a new site to accommodate their 50k watts.

In 1984, WGSA was sold by WIOV Inc. (then owned by Brill Media) to Joel Michaels Media. Brill had only purchased WGSA and WIOV in August that same year, only waiting 4 months to dump the aging AM station. At the time Brill was more focused on getting WAGO-AM up and running in Reading, PA. That enthusiasm eventually was recorded in case law as the WAGO Vs. WEEU legal kerfuffle which is also worth reading. [LINK]

Whatever Joel Michaels Media may have planned for WGSA, they had difficulty keeping the station on air. It's listed on an old tripod site as "Off Air" [LINK]  Then in the May 1997 issue of R&R is the following sad announcement:

"Condolences to the family of Mike Rubright, who was killed in a motorcycle accident Sunday (5/11). His wife Patty who was riding with him, is in critical condition at Reading Hospital. Rubright is survived by three teenage sons."

Dave May summed up the fate of WGSA as follows:

"[The] sale of the stations and deregulation of the industry probably spelled the decline and demise of WGSA AM, and indeed the continued success of WIOV made it the desirable station purchase. AM went dark and the transmitter and towers were dismantled. WIOV continued to use the studio space and eventually scrapped the automation system... I'll always have a soft spot, though for WGSA and WIOV where I got my first full time radio job in January 1958."