STUPID DJ TRICKS: Part 30

This one reaches a whole new level of stupid. Aaron Klein is the host of Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. It's broadcast on 970 WNYM-AM in New York, and on 990 WNTP-AM in Philadelphia. Klein describes himself as a Jerusalem-based investigative reporter and author. Other sources might point out that he's a birther, bigot, conspiracy theorist, and general purpose-polemicist. He also writes for the right-wing nutter website World Net Daily. He recently did something so outrageous I have to call it a radio stunt.


The core of Aaron's legitimate reporting is his specialization on the Middle-East. He often conducted interviews with adversarial factions. He refers to this in his 2008 book Schmoozing with Terrorists.
As a part of that ongoing theme he conducted an recorded interview with Abu Al-Ayna al-Ansari. Al-Ansari, is the leader of a Salafi group allied with the Islamic State also known as ISIS. In the pre-recorded peice, Al-Ansari spoke in Arabic, and his comments were translated into English.

The crux of the interview focused on a genuinely nuanced internal battle between Hamas and Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip in Israel. Klein had the good sense not to do the interview live... even to edit out a segment in which Al-Ansari threatened an anti-Islamic writer named Pam Geller. But he didn't have the good sense to perhaps speak to homeland security about it's more inflammatory contents. But Klein asked Al-Ansari about the intentions of ISIS toward the United States. Klein aired that. Al-Ansari declared that ISIS will not stop until its flag is raised over the White House. An American broadcaster airing threats against the United States directly from terrorists. I think that may be a first.

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. I suspect hes 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 Fridya 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 To 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.