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.

That Drug Story About WLOZ

When you think weird, many folks think of Austin. Rod Wassenich of Austin, TX invented the whole "keep Austin weird" thing. But Austin is far from the weirdest city in America. In that category, I think Wilmington, NC is under rated in net weirdness... and it used to be much weirder. Their local college radio station, WLOZ being possibly the weirdest of all. Sadly WLOZ, was the former student radio station of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. More here. 

The rumor was that in 1981 the radio station was shut down after student DJs were caught selling marijuana over the airwaves. It sounds like an out take from the movie "Animal House." In 2001 the Student Media Board (SMB) voted unanimously to suspend operations of WLOZ indefinitely." The student paper The Seahawk opted not to say why specificity but this was not their Cheech and Chong moment. This was just the epilogue. [LINK]  The issue here was the the station had been without supervision for 3 weeks following the resignation of General Manager John Bundy. The station was dying of neglect not drug sales. They became Hawkstream radio in podcast form and petered out during COVID. [SOURCE] But that Seahawk article did refer to the infamous incident...

"Prior to 1982, WLOZ broadcast on the frequency now occupied by WHQR, Wilmington’s Public Radio station. WLOZ was forced off the frequency in the wake of an on-air drug sales investigation."

Somehow I doubt this was like Scarface.  I have not found any FCC actions related to this. It appears the University voluntarily sold or transferred the station to those nice quiet opera fans and made their problem go away. The erasure was so complete that even finding a WLOZ logo is difficult. Their FM era is documented in the usual radio year books. The 1982 Broadcasting & Cable yearbook lists the station on 91.3 at 10 watts: Karen Durda, GM; Angela Allen, PD; Jeff Newton, bus mgr; Carol Bella, MD; Linda Curtis news. The 1978 edition lists they as not on air (yet) but does list  Dr. I.G. Ciator as advisor and Rusty Waker as GM.

Broadcasting & Cable list the 1982 info again in 1984 but it was surely wrong by then because the frequency was being transitioned to WHQR by then. To my surprise the incident is referred to even in their Wikipedia article. It reads: "With some financial and fundraising help from Friends of Public Radio, WLOZ hosted the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts during the school year from December 12, 1979, until it was forced off the air in February 1981 due to a possible drug scandal."  A 1984 article confirms the supposed "drug bust" and the cable relaunch but gives the calls WSEA. Those may or may not have ever been used.

It's hard to find real hard evidence the station even existed. They appear in a handful of CMJ magazines from 1989, 1999, and 2000. The PM was TJ Blackburn in 1999. Angie Cooper in 2000. CMJ lists them on 89.3 CaFM at that time, but that may not have always been the case. The earliest citation I could find, a 1974 UNC student handbook described the station in terms that would require at least a part 15 operation, possibly more...

"WLOZ is a student operated educational radio station. With its offices in the trailer adjacent to the Physical Plant, it presently broadcasts at 91.3 FM to a listening audience within seven to ten miles of the campus. It provides valuable broadcasting and managerial experience for the staff, while also offering another means of campus communication. Interested students are always welcome to come by the studio."

It was Jen Waits at Radio Survivor who found a first-person source. [LINK] That interviewee, Michael Plumides, confirmed the story was real in all it's bong burbling glory. Different sources give different dates. One as early as 1980 Plumides put it in 1983. [SOURCE] I still have questions of course. A 1977 issue of the Seahawk reports the station has finally got it's FCC license. That means it was only an FM station from 1977 through 1983, and Cable FM from 1984 - 2000 or 1982 to 1997 depending on the source.  But what was going on before 1977? We already know WLOZ goes back at least another 4 years. 

A 1973 Seahawk article (above) which describes the FM debut of WLOZ and also cites a prior station: WCNU. I did find two sources which corroborate the WCNU calls. Even that same 1974 student handbook [SOURCE] describes a second station on campus. This one was in the student services building, not a trailer like WLOZ: 

"WCNU is the student operated campus radio station. With its office in the Student Services building (Pub), it presently broadcasts to three buildings. It provides valuable broadcasting and managerial experience for the staff, while also offering another means of campus communication. Interested students are always welcome to join the "soft explosion in Wilmington."

The 1973 Campus Communique confirms that WCNU predates WLOZ, but notably multiple staff members have programs on WFMD. [SOURCE] The language intimates the station is new, and another 1973 issue of the Seahawk confirms this and lists Mark Silver as Station Manager. A 1975 issue still includes Rusty but also lists David Davis, Craig Sexton and Greg Larrimore as staff.  Is that 1973 start date definitive? No!  It appears to have broadcast as carrier current station a decade earlier. A 2008 interview with Linda Moore reveals a different studio location and operations: 

"Campus radio was alive and well in the '60s and, as I remember hearing, from Doug Swank, who was an early advisor, the call letters were WCNU, UNCW backwards, that was the call letters and it was located over in Hidden James, in my office, at the time, and they broadcast with a little 10 watt station so that it just took in a very small area on campus. When I came, they were kind of on the move and we were able to get more wattage. Student government gave them more money for equipment. They had their own little place behind Hoggard. It was a little small wooden building that had been the campus police office that was very small but they took it over for the campus radio station. They flourished, on and off, until probably the early '80s when there were some very severe problems there with drugs..."

Though it's highly plausible. I found no records at all for those carrier current years. It was the 60s, so I'm sure that 1982 wasn't the first bong hit at the station if it existed.

Rev H.B. Rittenhouse on the Radio

Rittenhouse is a name that resonates in Philadelphia. Rittenhouse Square is one of five Philadelphia parks originally planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme. Originally called Southwest Square, Rittenhouse Square was renamed in 1825 after David Rittenhouse. Rev. H.B. Rittenhouse may or may not be related to the above. But I suspect he is. Regardless, his surname certainly wouldn't have hurt his prospects in radio. No surprise then he broadcast on at least nine different radio stations.

His book of gospel songs above mentions no call letters. H.B. had no home station of his own. He leased time where he could find it and advertised in local newspapers. One article describes him as preaching at the Church Of The Nazarene in Hagerstown, MD.  A movie-radio program guide from July of 1942, lists him on 930 WFMD-AM on Saturday the 11th at 3:15 PM and again at 8:00 PM. He did a Monday through Friday slot on WFMD at 7:3- AM. The same document lists him at 8:00 AM simultaneously on WFMD-AM, 1090 WBAL-AM and 850 WEEU-AM. He also was working at 1300 WFBR-AM on Wednesdays. The January issue of the same magazine also has him on 550 WSVA-AM.


A 1942 program listing [here] lists him on 1450 WWDC-AM on Saturday October 10th at 11:15 PM. I also discovered a single clipping that he broadcast on WIBG-AM in 1945. Today WIBG lives in South Jersey on 1020. But back in the 1940s, it was on 990 in Philadelphia. Today WNTP occupies that slot on the dial. A 1943 issue of the Frederick News Post wrote "Rev. H. B. Rittenhouse Everyday 1:00 - 2:00 P. M. 1240 On Your Dial." The calls aren't listed but then or now it'd be WJEJ-AM.

In 1960 he married Andy and Betty DeWitt, he was her uncle. He appears to have settled in Friendsville, PA in the 1970s. His name appears in numerous obituaries alive and officiating. I'm certain it was him as he officiated the funeral of Theodore Coddington in the same town in 1974, and Claudine M. McCullough in 1977, in 1985 at the funeral of Ritchey J. Kahl, and Cleda Blanche Coddington in 1989. His wife, Betty Rittenhouse died in 2007 at the age of 81.

Doc Williams on WWVA

I had some real difficulty researching Doc Williams, despite his career longevity.  Early this year he died. The plethora of obituaries filled in some long standing blanks. Doc was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914, and grew up in Tarrtown, PA about 35 miles North east of Pittsburgh.  His real name was Andrew John Smick, his family were Slovak immigrants.  He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to start his first band with his brother Cy and a neighbor, Joe Stoetzer. He'd already been working in the coal mines with his father and had different long-term plans. He began his radio career in Cleveland in 1932 on "The Barn Busters" at WJAY-AM in Cleveland, OH. More here.  The barn Busters was a bit of an amateur show, but his charisma there led to a gig with a bigger band, Doc McCaulley and his Kansas Clod-Hoppers.

They had a 15 minute show each morning at 8:10 AM. McCaulleywas a West Virginia native, and pretty well set the young Mr. Smick on the path so to speak. He then formed his own country band, the Alleghney Ramblers still with his brother Cy, and Curley Sims on mandolin. In 1935 they left Cleveland tor a gig on KQV-AM in Pittsburgh with a new name as well, the Cherokee Hillbillies. Just a few months later they picked up Miss Billie Walker as a singer and became the Texas Longhorns and traveled to WWL-AM in New Orleans.Sometime between 1936 and 1937 Andy Smick became Cowboy Doc, then eventually Doc Williams. The book Mountaineer Jamboree by Ivan M. Tribe covers this in fantastic detail.

By 1937 they were back up north on WJAS-AM in Pittsburgh, simulcasting on KQV-AM and WHJB-AM in Greensburg, PA with a 8:30 AM program. This was when Doc Williams band became the Border Riders. Some biographies claim they were already the border riders while in Louisiana, this remains in contention. Later that year they auditioned at WWVA-AM and got the 2:45 afternoon slot. they also started performing on World’s Original WWVA Jamboree.  the program was later re-named Jamboree USA. It was the second-longest-running live country music show. He signed off every show with the words "Keep your chin up and keep smiling."

According to legend in 1940 he even turned down a job at WSM-AM in Nashville on the Grand Ole Opry.Doc has spent most of his long country music career at WWVA-AM, except for brief periods at WREC-AM, Memphis, Tennessee, and WFMD-AM, Frederick, Maryland also around 1940. That year  WVA-AM increased its power from 5,000 watts to 50,000 watts in 1941. Despite all that success, he only began touring in 1949.

Williams outlasted everyone, he was on the Jamboree for 61 years. In 1984 he was inducted in the Wheeling Hall of Fame. Williams officially retired in 2005 the WWVA-AM Jamboree ended. He published his autobiography, Looking Back, in 2006. [Link]. Today 1170 WWVA-AM is a news talker. The most  amazing thing about his career is that he never had a national single, and never recorded for a major label. That 78 above on Wheeling records, his own label founded in 1947. In Canada they released a dozen or more sides on Quality Records. If you want any of it today you have to buy it on his website docwilliams.com. He died just this winter, on January 31st 2011. He was 96 years old.