This year commemorates the 70th anniversary of when Beaver County’s first radio station, WBVP, was heard over the airwaves for the the first time on May 25, 1948.  To mark the historical event, each week, another “70th Anniversary Moment” will be showcased on the airwaves and published on the station’s online feeds.

One of the popular options for young people graduating from high school in the 1970’s and 1980’s, who didn’t want to go away to college, was to enroll in one of many local broadcasting schools.  Broadcasting was an exciting,  popular field and these programs offered the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to get a job at a radio station in a relatively short period of time.

Ambridge native, Dan Dunlap, was a graduate of one of the local broadcasting schools, Columbia School Of Broadcasting in Pittsburgh.  Dunlap had just finished his coursework at Columbia and showed up at the Duss Avenue studio of WMBA with a tape in his hand  around 1985. Travis Green, also known as Jim Green on the airwaves at WMBA,  served as the Program Director at  back then and remembered meeting Dunlap.  Green said: “Dan was nervous and timid, but he sounded great. His audition tape sounded real good.  I told him even back then on that very first day of meeting him, that he would do very good in the business.  So, I asked Dan if he could start that day, and he about dropped his drawers”.

Travis Green was right about the sound of the talent on the cassette tape that Dan Dunlap brought with him to WMBA that day.  Dunlap has a beautiful, velvet toned, smooth,  low pitched baritone voice that doesn’t seem to go with his smaller physical stature.  If Dan didn’t make it in the broadcasting business, he could easily have found work as a base singer in a barbershop quartet.  Listeners loved the sound too.  Not too long after starting at WMBA, Dan Dunlap starting doing part time fill in work at WWKS, Kiss 106.7 F.M. in Beaver Falls.   Dunlap was so smooth, so professional in the way he could say even mundane things like the call letters of the radio station, that young part timers at WBVP and WWKS during 1986 and 1987 would reportedly gather at the studio window just to watch Dan work his craft.   While it’s never been researched, Dunlap is thought to be the only announcer ever to achieve such fame among fellow employees at the Beaver Falls radio headquarters.  Dunlap could read the lottery numbers and make them sound like a romance novel.  His tone and delivery style would mesmerize people.  He was, and is, that good.

Other radio operators began to fall in love with what they were hearing as well. Dan Dunlap also started working part time at WSHH, Wish 99.7 F.M. in Pittsburgh in 1986 and Eventually was hired on full time as the afternoon host.  WSHH was often referred to as “Beaver Falls South”, because many WBVP and WWKS employees ended up working at that radio station as well.  Dunlap teamed up again later on in Pittsburgh with other people familiar to WBVP , WWKS and WMBA listeners, including  Steve Granato, Chris Shovlin and Current WBVP newsman, Pat Septak, who also worked  at the Greentree based station in the 1990’s. Judy Marcella and Mark Peterson were sales staffers in Beaver Falls who also worked with Dunlap at WSHH and it’s sister A.M. counterpart radio station, WJAS. 

For a couple years, around 2008, Dan Dunlap, along with his wife Sue Dunlap, hosted a Saturday Morning variety talk show on WBVP and WMBA appropriately called “The Dan and Sue Show” .  Dan loved radio so much, that even on his day off at his full time gig in Pittsburgh, he elected to spend his free time on the airwaves.

Dan Dunlap continued to  talk to listeners on Wish 99.7 F.M. until 2014.  Since then he has become a very highly sought after voice over artist, working with many major businesses like Netflix, Charter Communications, Bristol Motor Speedway, Dietz & Watson, Edward Jones Financial, Cox Media, Field & Stream and Tin Cup Whiskey along with many others.  Locally, Dan Dunlap continues to do the voice over work for the annual Medic Rescue membership drive commercials which are on the air now on WBVP and WMBA.

70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Abbey Carpet and Floor,  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing,  Aliquippa Giant Eagle, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Auto Mall, Beaver Valley Sheet Metal, Castlebrook Development, The Community College Of Beaver County,  Farmers Building and Savings Bank, Freedom United Federal Credit Union, Hank’s Frozen Custard and Mexican food, The Health Huts, Kitchen City, Laughlin Insurance Agency,  Rochester Manor and Villa and Young’s Jewelry and Coins.

This year commemorates the 70th anniversary of when Beaver County’s first radio station, WBVP, was heard over the airwaves for the the first time on May 25, 1948.  To mark the historical event, each week, another “70th Anniversary Moment” will be showcased on the airwaves and published on the station’s online feeds.

The line up at the end of the 1980’s on WMBA  featured Jaye Phillips on the Mornings,  Al McDowell hosted the morning talk show called “Straight Talk” and  Bobbie Vaughn did an afternoon show on WMBA.  Rob Matzie would help produce the talk show for Al McDowell and did many of  the remote broadcasts.

In March of this year, Rob Matzie met Mark Peterson for lunch at the Maple Restaurant in Ambridge, and while the Hot Roast Beef with gravy sandwiches were good, the two hours of story telling were great.  Peterson later used much of the conversation shared that day in the book, Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA.  Well, who’s kidding who, the Hot Roast Beef was great too, but we digress.  Anyhow, the following excerpts about Al McDowell have been taken from the publication:  “Al McDowell had already enjoyed a successful media career in Pittsburgh by the time Donn Wuycik hired him to host a show on WMBA.  McDowell had done television work on WTAE, Channel 4. McDowell still resided in Upper St.Clair and commuted in to Ambridge,  getting in about 9 A.M. everyday and taking up residence in a middle cubicle in a back room located down the hall from the Merchant Street studio of WMBA.  Matzie used the far cubicle and the other cubicle was typically used by a variety of part timers. McDowell would have his USA Today paper in hand and read the paper for an hour, followed by hosting the talk show, which aired from ten until noon. Matzie reported that typically,  Al McDowell would be out the door by about 12:30  in the afternoon after recording a commercial or two and then, being the man of routine that he was, he headed to Ro

ok’s East side Saloon on 4th street in Ambridge everyday for a couple of Martinis.  Not just any Martinis either.   Matzie shared that Al McDowell would bring his own Martini glass with him everyday, and then have the bartenders at Rook’s make his daily Martini’s in his own glass. “That was his daily ritual” offered Matzie.”

One of the more popular promotions that WMBA staged in the late eighties and early nineties was “Breakfast With Santa”.  The event featured a live broadcast hosted by Al McDowell at various Pappan’s Family Restaurants in the area. Rob Matzie reportedly would drive the WMBA van and go pick up Santa Claus, who, by the way, lived on 11th street in Ambridge  in those days, and then head to the Breakfast with Santa promotion.  It was a perfect idea, grandparents would  arrive in huge numbers, bringing with them their  their grand kids.  The grandparents all enjoyed listening to Al McDowell on WMBA and this gave them a chance to see him broadcasting live and meet him.  The grand kids  in tow got to sit on Santa’s lap. 

70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Abbey Carpet and Floor,  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing,  Aliquippa Giant Eagle, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Auto Mall, Beaver Valley Sheet Metal, Castlebrook Development, The Community College Of Beaver County,  Farmers Building and Savings Bank, Freedom United Federal Credit Union, Hank’s Frozen Custard and Mexican food, The Health Huts, Kitchen City, Laughlin Insurance Agency,  Rochester Manor and Villa and Young’s Jewelry and Coins.