Angst and Cooking (Part 2)

I had no idea this cookbook would warrant a part 2 post. But since I wrote that post in 2014 almost everyone mentioned has died. That first post is here; where I spent some time untangling all the Angst's: Alice, Helen, Roy, Bud, Lisa and I'm sure there were others. Just as the prior book was undated, so is this one. It seems intuitive that Volume 1 precedes Volume 2 but there was also a third one that lacks a "volume" appellation though it seems to precede both. Volume 2 has one magnificent difference, four pages of black and white head shots. I picked up this copy at a yard sale

The first  cookbook referred solely to WPAM. Then the first volume of this series lists both WLSH and WPAM on the cover. As you can see this one, Volume II, refers to WLSH on the cover, but mentioned WPAM on the inside text. Missing from my first post was the origin of WLSH. It signed on in 1952 as a 1,000 watt daytimer owned by Miners Broadcasting which also owned 1450 WPAM-AM and 1460 WMBA-AM. Bud Angst oversaw the construction of WLSH, so it's safe to say the Angst's were there from the get-go.  Bud died in 2016 and his obit [LINK] tells us a little more about all that:

"After graduating from high school Bud enlisted in the Coast Guard during WW2 & served as a radio operator in the Mediterranean. After the war Bud made radio his chosen career. Under the banner of Miners Broadcasting Service Bud & his partners established 3 AM radio stations in PA—WPAM Pottsville, WMBA Ambridge, & WLSH Lansford. WLSH signed on the air December 24, 1952 & it's where Bud called "home" for almost 40 years... In 1977 because of FCC duopoly rules, Bud became sole owner of WLSH. Miners Broadcasting Services was replaced by Pocono Anthracite Communications & all ties to WPAM & WMBA were severed."

That really fills in most of the gaps. That Facebook page also has great pictures of WLSH. That same obit mentions the programs that led to these cook books. "Alice's Ask Your Neighbor show spawned 2 very successful cookbooks during the 1970s..." Kelly Monitz Socha at Times News dates one of them to 1978. [LINK] That's further than I got back in 2014. But the Skook News reports that it was printed in 1974. [SOURCE] It further confirms the earlier edition that I found "There was another cookbook before "Volume 1", but it only had 16 pages of local recipes." 10,000 copies of Vol 1 were printed and then 20,000 copies of volume 2.

Alice Angst died in 2020, her obit [SOURCE] confirms that she's Bud's wife and that they met in 1946. She worked at both WPAM and WLSH, where she was the host of the long-running radio talk show, Ask Your Neighbor. It's branding appears on 2 of the 3 editions. Alice and Bud had two daughters, Bonnie (Bim) and Lisa. (Alice contributes a Roman Salad recipe and another for sausage stew.)

Helen Louise (Bouslough) Angst was the WPAM host, she died in 2021. Her obit [LINK] confirmed that she was a book-keeper at WPAM in Pottsville. I had assumed the program was simulcast but all sources confirm that Helen and Alice hosted their own shows, but co-edited the cook books. I think she was Bud's sister. (She contributes a classic Brownie recipe among other items.)

I wrote enough about Bud last time he was a beloved local figure in local radio, politics and civil society in the coal country around Lehighton. (He contributes one recipe for Broken leg hot punch.) Al Sword later worked at WTHT and became a newspaper reporter. It's hard to find more information about him despite the unique name. But Walter Reabold died in 2003 at the age of 76, he had long since left radio and was the manager for Progressive Merchants in Lehighton. (His wife Sarah contributed a good donut recipe, and a meatloaf with sausage to the cookbook.) Jack Meyers remains obscure. Sales people are like that.

Mark Osif remains a mystery but Mike Berzosky was still with WLSH as late as 1982 evidences by issues of the Hazelton Standard-Speaker newspaper. The Carbon-Tamaqua Unit of the American Cancer Society had it's seventh telethon back in 1986 and that too listed Mike Berzosk, though it's the last time I can find his name in print. He hosted the The Dutch Trader radio program, and it ran for at least 20 years so that makes sense. Jerry Tray pops up in a few sorts articles in the late 1980s, but most prominently in 1980 in a Pottsville Republican newspaper article about an FCC investigation putting him at WPAM and WZTA under Curran Communications apparently after leaving WLSH.

"Another former Curran Communications employee, Jerry Tray, told The REPUBLICAN that he had been ordered on numerous occasions by James J.  Curran Jr. to slant the news. Tray, who worked at radio station WZTA, Lansford, and who was fired in June, 1979, for having a "bad attitude..."

I found one great article about Howard Ondick, the man had guts. When ordered by a judge to stop recording a public meeting Ondick said "no."  Hilarity did not ensue. But under pressure in a room of reporters the prison commission backed down. [SOURCE] The man has chutzpah. His name later appears in conjunction with WPPA and WAVT in Pottsville, I'm pretty confident that's the same news man.

Billie Schuetrumpf got married to Michael Harakel and fades from the record. Michael's obit mentions that she was still alive in 2017. Her name is one of the few here who also appears in that pre-duopoly edition of the cook book along with Theresa Homick and Mary Jane Yeager who are absent here. (Except that Yeager contributed a recepie for Lime French Dressing.) Lisa Angst Long Kowalsi passed in 2022, she had was the owner of her own accounting firm LA Long and Associates. Evelyn C. (Kenlin) Kowatch died just last year. She had been the Postmaster for the Andreas United States Postal Office and was retired. 

Herb Davis is one of several in radio with that name notably at WCKY and "Mr. Money" on the Channel 20 daily game show in DC "Dialing for Dollars. He is neither of those gents. Barbara (DeGiosio) Giantesano survived her husband Richard in 2020. Stella DiFebo died in 1992. Her obit says that she was born in Italy and was known locally as "Aunt Stella" as a frequent contributor to the "Ask Your Neighbor" cooking show on WLSH in Lansford. (She contributes very meaty recipes for venison, beef brisket, leg of lamb, bacon ribs.)
 

In 1989, Bud sold WLSH radio to Harold G. Fulmer III of Allentown. The Fulmer family continues to own & operate WLSH today. In 2014 WLSH and the American Cancer Society partnered to reprint the Great Radio Ask Your Neighbor Cookbook so in addition to my yellowed copies, there are fresh printings out there. They printed another 1,000 copies, and they're more affordable then the local collector items that are going for $50 now.

YANK's AFN Radio Guide

I have a few issues of Yank magazine from 1943 and 1944. The official name was "Yank, the Army Weekly." It was published from June 17, 1942 through December of 1945. At it's peak, there were 21 different versions being printed in 17 countries with a circulation of over 2 million copies. There were different editions for Britain, India, Philippines, Pacific, Continental, Far East and others. Because of that wide distribution and popularity, you can find most issues on eBay today for between $5 and $10.  All of the 1944 issues contain an AFN radio guide, and all of those guides list a mix of highlighted programs . But all of them list either Yank's Radio Weekly, or Yank Radio Edition. But there is little information available about that program. I found the answer in the British Edition of the March 12, 1944 issue.

"We are indebted to the American Forces Network for making possible a new half-hour radio program sponsored by Yank, and called Yank's Radio Weekly. It's to be strictly an ETO feature, and will be broadcast this, and every other Saturday from 11:30 until 12. The announcer, assuming he can keep the London fog combed out of his larynx, will be Pvt. George W. Monaghan of the American Forces Network. You can tune in on this new venture by dialing 1375kc, 1402kc, 1411kc, 1420kc, 1447kc, 218.1m, 213.9m, 212.6m, 211.3m, and 207.3m"

AFN produced other programs as well, Duffle Bag, and On the Record which also appear in the Guide. George Monaghan wasn't British. He was an American from Connecticut. He had been broadcasting since 1938, and had previously been an announcer on 1200 WTHT-AM in Hartford. More here.  The book This is the American Forces Network by Patrick Morley goes into more detail about Monaghan, and the relevance of other AFN DJs like Johnny Kerr. Their style was a big departure from the BBC style of the era. It's worth the read.


But back to the guides. Let's be clear, the guide was not a radio schedule. It was just a list of highlighted programs, times and frequencies.  Some of my copies are British editions and you can see they give different frequencies. I am sure that not all 17 countries editions had radio  guides. Both of my 1943 issues lack the guide but that may be specific to the edition. I scanned and included a selection below:


A115 - NOVEMBER 12 1944 (National Barn Dance, Amos & Andy, Mildred Baily Show, American Band of the AEF, Music Hall, Command Performance, Yank's Radio Weekly, Football)

A122 - MAY 14 1944 (Jack Benny Show, Command Performance, Fred Allen Show, Bob Hope Show, Charlie McCarthy Show, Yank Radio Edition, Take The Air)

A123 - JULY 09 1944 (National Barn Dance, Hit Parade, Duffle Bag, Gay Nineties Revue, Bing Crosby, Kay Kyser, Yank's Radio Edition, Amos & Andy)

A124 - JULY 16 1944 (Bob Crosby, Combined Orchestrations, Burns & Allen, Bob Hope, GI Supper Club,  Fred Allen, Yank's Radio Edition, Conducted by Faith)

A125 - SEPT 17 1944 (Andre Kostelanetz, Village Store, GI Journal, Fred Allen, The American Band of the AEF, Bob Crosby, Yank's Radio Weekly, Eddie Condon's Jazz Session)

A126 - SEPT 24 1944 (Comedy Caravan, Amos & Andy, GI Journal, Music by Freddie Martin, Conducted by Faith, Duffy's Tavern, Yank's Radio Weekly, Saturday Night Serenade)