WGAL - November 1943

When doing construction it's not uncommon to find bits of old newspaper in the walls. Recently during some demolition at the Columbia Market House [LINK] a construction crew found a newspapers in a bathroom wall dating back to November 15, 1943. Thanks to them, we have a 1490 WGAL-AM schedule from both Thursday and Friday, November 18th and 19th 1943. It's a peek back in time 76 years.  At the time WGAL was an affiliate with Mutual, and NBC Blue so some of these are syndicated programs where others are definitely local.  So let's take a look at that schedule.

THURSDAY, NOV. 18th
4:00 --Songs by Les Barclay
     *This is not Les Barclay the radio wave communication expert. While he was also a member of the National Council of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, it's just can't be him.
4:15 --W.W. Chaplin
     *William Watts Chaplin was a journalist for the Syracuse Journal, AP and the International News Service. He became an NBC as a War correspondent in 1943. WSYR has some of his archives.
4:30 --Full Speed Ahead
     *There was a variety program of this name on WEAF in 1952 which came from the Waves traingin school in the Bronx. But in 1943 this had to be the short lived music & variety show hosted by Colonel Manny Prager and His Cavaliers. He was a saxophonist with a popular novelty song "The King's Men".
5:00 --Sidney Moseley
     *Probably Sydney Moseley, a WMCA commentator who began doing segments on the Mutual network in 1942. His program "Headlines of Tomorrow" was syndicated by August of 1943. He previously worked for the Daily Express and New York Times newspapers.

5:15 --Dancetime
     *This is not Lucky Lager Dance Time. That didn't air until 1957. A 1941 issue of Movie-Radio Guide oddly describes the show as "comedy."
5:45 --Superman, Kellogs
     * The well known radio serial. Mid November would have been either the "The Mystery of Prince Philip" story arc or the start of the "Military Espionage" 16 part series.
6:00 --World News, Beneseh's
6:15 --1490 Club:-- Sports Army & Navy Store
     *This program continued to air at least into 1963.
7:00 --Fred Waring
     *More on Fred here.
7:15 --News of the World
7:30 --Horace Heidt Orch.
     *Big band leader, started on NBC in 1932 and moved into TV in 1950. He began on the NBC Blue Network in 1932 with Shell Oil's Ship of Joy. He went into TV in 1950.
8:00 --Maxwell House Coffee Time
     *A comedy/variety program then hosted by Fanny Brice and Hanley Stafford.
8:30 --Aldrich Family
     * A popular radio teenage situation comedy that aired 1939 - 1953.
9:00 --Kraft Music Hall
     * A popular variety program on NBC radio from 1933 to 1949
9:30 --Allen Roth & The Symphony of Melody
     *Roth was a conductor on multiple programs, and also music director for KMOX. The program was part of the NBC Thesaurus collection of pre-recorded programs.
10:00 --Abbott & Costello
     *The long-running radio comedy, aired in various formats starting in 1938.
10:30 --Penna on Parade
     *Probably The New Cumberland Army Reception Center's musical variety show. They toured PA in 1943 selling war bonds.
11:00 --Raymond Gram Swing
     *Raymond Edwards Swing, a newspaperman from Ohio who moved to Europe and became a foreign correspondent for a series of newspapers through both WWI and WWII. He wrote for the Chicago Daily News then the Wall Street Journal, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, The Nation, and the London News Chronicle.  In 1936 he got the slot at Mutual.

11:15 --Harkness of Washington
     *A series of news broadcasts featuring reporter and political analyst Richard Harkness, an NBC correspondent from 1942 - 1972. He was previously a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
11:30 --Music of the New World
     *Part of NBCs University of the Air public Service Program.
12:00 --War News--Sign Off

FRIDAY, NOV. 19th
7:00 --War News
7:05 --Musical Clock
     *There was a Musical Clock program hosted by Stu Wayne on KYW but it only began in 1947. But this may have a connection to Gambling's Musical Clock. That program ran on WOR from 1925 - 1959.
7:45 --Reveille Round Up
     * Reveille Round Up with Greg Donovan and the Hometowners was an NBC program. It was mostly folk and Western type music by the Hometowners orchestra: Betty Bledennett, songstress; Larry Wellington, accordionist; Earl Randall, vocalist, and Kenneth Carbonel, guitarist. You can hear an episode here.
8:00 --World News
8:15 --Lopez Orchestra
     *In 1943 this has to be the Vincent Lopez Orchestra. They started out on WJZ in 1921. The timing is odd however as he was mostly performing at the Taft Hotel by 1943. But he was also recording a 15-minute program AFRS in 1944 called Luncheon with Lopez.
8:30 --Devotions, Rev Ranck
     *Probably Rev. J. Allan Ranck, active evangelist in the Allentown area in the 1940s.
8:45 --Listen to Liebert
     *This is a mystery MBS syndicated show. IT hit the airwaves no later than 1941. and continued through at least 1946. The Al Leibert out of WINZ. I've never seen so little written about a program in syndication.
8:55 --United Press News
9:00 --Music From Manhattan
     *This is not Sammy Kaye's Music From Manhattan TV program. That started in 1958. This is some other mystery program.
9:30 --Daytime Classics
9:45 --El Capitan Money Man
     *I wish I knew what this was. Possibly related to the El Capitan theater.
9:55 --Women in the News
     *Faye Emerson's 5 minute news segment sponsored by Old Dutch Coffee. Emerson moved to TV in the 1950s and hosted her own late night talk show.
10:00 --A to Z in Novelty
     *Aired on KFDM, KMJ and WLNH in 1941, and still on WHLF in 1948. Because of KMJ I am sure this was a syndicated NBC program.
10:15 --The Open Door
     *A CBS soap opera that aired 1943-1944, staring Charlotte Holland and Erik Hansen sponsored by Royal Puddings.
10:30 --Shady Valley Folks
     *An MBS hillbilly variety program out of KWK St. Louis. It ran through at least 1947.
10:45 --1st Piano Quartet
11:00 --Road of Life
     *A soap opera starring Irna Phillips that aired  on radio from 1937–1959 and relaunched on TV in 1954.
11:15 --From Algiers
     *This is probably NBC and/or CBS correspondents reporting from Algiers.
11:20 --Kentucky Karnival
     *A variety show that started in 1939 originating at WGRC in Louisville via MBS.
11:30 --Happy Joe & Ralph
     *A kids show hosted by Ralph Binge and Joe Gentile starting on CKLW in Detroit (Windsor, ON). They moved to WJBK in 1948 and moved to TV in 1951, closing up shop in 1956. More here.
11:45 --Luncheon Club
12:15 --Dolly Madison News
     *Aired at least 1939 thru 1951. Probably an NBC program. (Not President Madison's wife.)
12:30 --Mirth and Madness
     *Airing from 1943 - 1946 this was a variety show of music and comedy emceed by Jack Kirkwood backed by the Irving Miller Orchestra
12:45 --Luncheon Club
1:00 --U.S. Marine Band
     *The first Marine Band radio program was broadcast in May of 1922 over NOF in Anacostia, D.C. Weekly broadcasts. By June it became a weekly broadcast.
1:30 --Carol Sisters
     *A female singing quartet who replaced the Dinning Sisters in November 1943. Actively performing until at least 1953.

1:45 --Carey Longmire: Crystal Rock
    *Longmire was an NBC news analyst and foreign correspondent. He covered London during the blitz,  Paris in WWII, and Spain during the Franco regime. He was state-side and based at WHAS by about 1945. WOR picked up his program in 1947.
2:00 --Guiding Light
     *Another soap opera created by Irna Phillips. Aired as 15-minute segments. Starting in 1937, on NBC, it was transferred to CBS Radio during 1947
2:15 --Lonely Women
     *Lonely Women was a radio soap opera very focused on WWI. The theme was women separated from their men by war. It's another one conceived and written by Irna Phillips.
2:30 --Light of the World
     *Another soap opera. This one ran from 1940 to 1950. Strangely I've only seen it described as Bible stories dramatized in contemporary settings. It was sponsor General Mills.
2:45 --Easy Listening
3:00 --Women of America
     *This was an NBC program sponsored by Procter & Gamble. It ran at least into early 1944. The agency was Benton & Bowles. A June 1943 Billboard referred to it as a serial. Child actor Rosemary Garbell appeared on the program in February of 1943.
3:15 --Ma Perkins
     *Yet another soap opera which heard on NBC from 1933 to 1949. CBS picked it up from 1942 to 1960. Yes from 1942 and 1949, the show was heard simultaneously on both networks. Originally sponsored by Oxydol detergent. Oxydol was the laundry soap for which soap operas get their name.
3:30 --Yankee House Party
     * A variety show featuring organist Frank Cronin and the Bobby Norris Orchestra. Originating on the Yankee Network on the FM side. It was also picked up by the Mutual Network.
3:45 --Right to Happiness -Adv.
     *Another Irna Phillips soap opera. It started in 1939 and continued until 1960.

The Legend of Chickenman

Chickenman was an American radio series created by Dick Orkin. It spoofed adventure books and comic book heroes. The series was created in 1966 and originally aired on 1000 WCFL-AM, in Chicago, IL. It began as part of the Jim Runyon Show.  The show's protagonist, Benton Harbor, (presumably named for the Michigan town) was a shoe salesman who spent his weekends fighting crime. He also he hangs around the Police Commissioner Benjamin Norton's office and annoyed the Commissioner's secretary, Miss Helfinger.

CHARACTERS:

• Benjamin Norton, Police Comissioner, -  Dick Orkin
• Miss Helfinger, Comissioners assistant  - Jane Roberts
• Chickenman, Benton Harbor - Dick Orkin
• Chickeman's mother, Mildred Harbor - Jane Roberts
• Trooper 36-24-36 - Jane Roberts
• Narrator - Jim Runyon

Each episode began with a four-note trumpet sound from the song Thunderball and Chickenman's Buck-buck-buck-buuuuuck" chicken call. Orkin expected to run with the gag for two weeks. The original series eventually lasted over 5 years! That original 1966 series was released in 2003 as The Original, Complete & Unexpurgated Story of Chickenman, all 273, 2.5 minute episodes in a 14-CD set. Yes it is that popular. This was presaged by the 1966 LP The Best of Chickenman, released first on Spot records then ATCO. More here. Many LPs and posters read "exclusively on..." then a set of local call letters. There was nothing exclusive about Chickenman. By some reports, at it's peak the program was syndicated on 1,500 radio stations.

While the series was the brain-child of Dick Orkin he needed people to voice the parts.  Jane Roberts, a Chicago theater actress who worked at WCFL as the traffic reporter voices almost all the female parts in the series. Dick handled most of the men, Jim Runyon was the narrator. Jane's background was mostly in theater: Kraft Suspense Theatre, and a stretch at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Runyon has already been a DJ on WBHT, WHTN, WLW, WLWT, WTVN, WLWD, and KYW before he made it to WCFL.

Orkin began his radio career on WKOK in Sunbury, PA as a teenager. He worked part-time at WGAL while attending Franklin & Marshall college  He graduated in 1956 with a BA in speech and theater and headed for the Yale School of Drama to earn an MFA. He returned to Lancaster in 1959 to be the news director at WLAN. [SOURCE]  He headed off to KYW (back when it was in Cleveland) in 1963. He remained there until In 1967 when he moved to Chicago to work on WCFL. Runyon had already been there for 2 years. Runyon went back to KYW (then WKYC) in 1969. The two had worked at both stations together.

In 1973, Orkin began producing 52 special weekend episodes called Chickenman vs. the Earth Polluters. In 1976, a special LP was created by Orkin and ad man Bert Berdis: Chickenman Returns. This was followed by 65 episodes of an updated radio show in 1977, Chickenman Returns for the Last Time Again. In 1995, for the 30th anniversary of the series, Orkin brought Chickenman out of retirement for a tribute episode on This American Life. This was all in addition to the original 195 episodes. The man was nothing if not prolific.

Weirdly Chickenman never really went away. It is still played on a number of stations regularly AFRTS, 99.3 KPCH in Ruston, LA; 103.3 WFJV in Crystal River, FL, 101.1 WVRE in Dubuque, IA; 1430 WION-AM, Ionia, MI... a couple Canadian stations, and inexplicably several stations in Australia. For these feats and others, Dick Orkin was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2014.

INTERVIEW: Wilfredo Seda

Wilfredo Seda is a genuinely inspirational figure.  His career has literally made history in bringing Latin radio and TV programming into a historically white and conservative region of the country. He is a man who needs more than a blog post, he needs a biographer.

Seda has been the host of Jazzarama on 91.3 WLCH since 2013. His love of music and of Latin jazz in particular makes him a natural for the station and a boon for the radio waves of Lancaster country.  The county has three Spanish-language radio stations including 1390 WLAN-AM and 1580 WVZN-AM. But it is his station, WLCH that speaks most to the local Hispanic community. In Jazz and in Lancaster his is a name people know. But his career was even more storied than you might guess.

1. How did you first get into radio?
I was one of the first to have a Latin radio show in central Pennsylvania... Part of it is growing up in new York.  You had Latin Music, you had Jazz, you had different genres that were a part of it. Now what I do is a program at a 91.3 WLCH in central Pennsylvania that's called "Jazzarama" that embraces Jazz and Latin Jazz.

2: What station was that first show on?
That was WGAL-AM and it was interesting. There was a family [The Steinman family] that controlled the Newspaper, [Intelligencer and New Journal] controlled the TV station [WDEL-TV and WGAL-TV] and controlled local radio, FM and AM. It was one of those communities. It was later decided by the FCC they controlled too much media, and eventually they had to divest some of their interests. But I came in at a point where they still controlled Newspaper, TV and radio. The radio program was two fold. During the week a Spanish language news program then on the weekend: Spanish Language Salsa and Latin jazz... it was "Impacto Latino", it means Latin Impact. That was in 1976. [WGAL-AM became WDDL in 1977]

3: Was WGAL your First Radio gig?
Yeah. I went to school for communications at Queens College, University of New York.

4. Were you involved in their College radio station, WQMC? 
I didn't even think about that at the time. It wasn't until I came to Pennsylvania. It was totally alien.

5. So where did you go after WGAL? 
I went to work for the local public Broadcaster which was WITF. I was with them at the TV station from 1980 to about 1983, then from '83 I did some work on their public radio station in Spanish as well... until about '84. During the interim I also did some work with NPR. They used to do a national Spanish language program called “Enfoque Nacional” [National Focus.] On the East Coast I used to contribute pieces; it was like a weekly news magazine.

6. Can you tell me about your interest in Latin jazz?
You have to remember that Latin music, if you're a New Yorker... you have Tito Puete, Tito Rodriguez, Machito.  Those genres that combine with jazz were embraced by the Latino community and evolved into what we now call Salsa which encompasses so many genres. When my program first started Sundays 8:00 to 10:00 PM you would ride along on a summer night and the music was blaring all over the neighborhood. That was the real connection.

Music has been woven into my life. But not only Latino music... I'm 65. I was at Woodstock. Growing up, rock was something important in my life. When Carlos Santana was on stage it flipped me out because that was my music connecting with rock music. That was part of an evolution that Carlos Santana brought to the rock scene. The percussion and his guitar playing —that was me. I am happy to say I was one of the few Latinos to be at Woodstock!

7. When I listen to your current show “Jazzarama” I always hear a wide variety of styles. Is that your personal taste or just Latin jazz as a genre? 
When you hear my program you hear jazz and Latin jazz come together. Latin jazz in the late 50s and 60s was Caribbean rhythms mixing with jazz. That has evolved, now it's rhythms from all over the world. The other thing is that if you're a Latino, you can play straight up jazz. Is that Latino jazz or isn't it? That's what I try to embrace. It's all music. It can grab you from different aspects... I expose folks to that on my program. Also, I always try to do a segment of my show on vocals: in English, in Spanish in Portuguese. But with a construction of jazz. Todo toyo. So I embrace all of that, not only instrumental but vocals.

8. Lancaster now has three different full-time Spanish Language stations and it all started with your one program. What's next?
Now WLCH has the FCC approval to move into Reading. We are working out details. As you know we have to be very precise. We have to work out the logistics. We're also working on a TV piece through an arrangement with Comcast Lancaster. We simulcast some of our programming on TV particularly our morning program “Cafe Con leche.” We're looking at similar arrangements in Reading.

9. Philadelphia didn't have any Spanish programming on the FM dial until 2006 [104.5 WUBA] Why do you think Lancaster more diverse than Philly? 
The thing about Philadelphia is just business. Years ago radio stations had little news departments they don’t do that anymore. I Heart Radio [formerly Clear Channel] owns god knows how many stations… nothing is local. That's a problem not only here in central Pennsylvania but across the country.


10. It seems like local news is very important to you
I believe in public radio; public radio that responds to the needs and concerns of the community. We have a station, the local PBS station WITF that I worked for years ago, that airs NPR programs. It's fine, I like NPR programming. But what's happening on a local basis? How does the local community accesses that and have beyond a one-minute interview to be able to talk about local issues? We've [WLCH] become it. People can come and be on the morning program, whether you speak English or not, on what out local issues beyond the one-minute; for 20, 25 minutes. That's what we've become for Latinos and non-Latinos. That we've really become the broadcasting entity for the community period.

11. Are you the same Wilfredo Seda that ran for mayor of Reading, PA in 1995? 
Yes I am. I went to Reading and I was very much part of the civic leadership there and I was part of a charter change effort. The city government was administered by an elected council, which was at the same time the executive branch. But those people had no expertise, necessarily, in the departments that they were running. Anyway, there were enough folks that decided this wasn't working out. We elected a charter change commission, which I was a part of, and then decided to change the structure of the government and then had the voters approve it. I chaired that effort. Then I decided to run for mayor under that new charter. I came in second. I got that juice out of me.

12. I would vote for you.
Thank you. I just love to share my experience. That's all I can do.

DJ Ray Myers

Raymond Robert Myers was born in 1911 in Lancaster, PA. He was steel guitar player who performed on radio around the region. He was the fifth in a family of nine children and started in music in high school with the trombone then harmonica, only later transitioning to a Hawaiian steel guitar.

He began playing it at local events in churches and amateur contests. With the toes of his left foot he held a steel bar to note the frets and with his right foot he held a custom pick to strum the strings. Did I mention he had no arms?

Playing guitar with your feet has a certain way of attracting attention and though his mother had avoided putting him on a side show,  in 1933 he contacted Robert L. Ripley and in short order Ray was performing at the World's Fair in Chicago, IL. More here.

He returned home to where his family now lived in Paradise, PA. Local radio station in Lancaster, WGAL-AM gave him a slot where he continued to do programs remotely for Ripley which were nationally syndicated on NBC. At the time Ripley was the host of The Baker's Broadcast from 1935 to 1937. A performer from the WWVA-AM Jamboree named Cowboy Loye Pack heard Myers and wrote him a letter. Two weeks later Ray sang his first song on WWVA in Wheeling, VA.

His performances on WWVA spread his fame as a novelty musician in ways that the side-show Ripley program couldn't.  Next year, 1938 found Ray playing on WEEU-AM in Reading, PA with Uncle Jack Nelson into 1940. In 1939 he had a short stint at WHAS-AM in Louisville, KY but returned to Reading within months. But he went on to perform on WSVA-AM in Harrisonburg, VA, WKBN-AM in Youngstown, Ohio and WCHS-AM in Charleston , WV. Some of those dates he played with Radio Dot and Smokey. IN 1943 he had his own show again, this time on WHIS in Bluefield, WV. He remained there less than a year before returning to Pennsylvania. His own mother gave an account of his touring and is the primary source for that information here.

The trail goes cold for almost a decade but Myers had a daily show over radio station WPDX-AM  in Clarksburg, WV as a trio with the Mays Brothers and Cindy Coy. It is probably the same group known as the "Cindy Coy Trio" on WILE-AM in Cambridge, OH in 1949. They signed to Donnett Hit Records that year and were never heard from again. Myers is known to have been playing on WLAC in Nashville as late as 1963. He died in Gordonville, PA, in May 1986.