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 city of New Castle has produced its share of talented broadcasters through the years. Popular WBVP and WMBA hosts in more recent years, John Nuzzo and Gary West were born and raised there.  In addition, Mark Razz, who was a WBVP and WWKS show host and program director from the 1980’a and 1990’s, along with broadcasting pioneer Chuck Wilson, who spoke the first words on WBVP in 1948, started their careers at New Castle radio station WKST.  Among other stars to rise out of Red Hurricane country and travel through Beaver County at WBVP was native son Steve Granato.  The following is a biography about Steve Granato appearing in the recently published book “Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA”:  “New Castle native, Steve Granato, first appeared in the hallways of WBVP and WWKS in 1982 as a part time announcer.  He would return to his New Castle hometown station, WKST and WFEM in Ellwood City in 1984, where he had originally started as a high school boy before coming to Beaver County.  In 1986, Granato came back to WBVP and WWKS to serve as Program Director and on air host for WBVP. After leaving WBVP and WWKS, Granato worked  as a Program Director and on air talent in Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland and in Columbus, OH as a Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeart Media. Steve is currently the Operations Manager of four radio stations in Naples-Ft. Myers, FL for Renda Broadcasting.”

One enduring story in particular about  Granato, and his time at WBVP, involved the aforementioned Mark Razz, local pro wresting legend, Bruno Sammartino and a Nationality Days Broadcast. The following is  Also taken from Behind The Microphone, the History Of Radio In Beaver County PA, describing a live broadcast from Ambridge Nationality Days from around 1988: “Bruno Sammartino, was invited to appear at the WBVP and WWKS live broadcast set up at Nationality Days. Surely having such a beloved and popular sports figure on the air and live in person at Nationality Days would be a coupe.  Sammartino arrived as planned and proceeded to do an interview live on KISS 106.7 F.M., WWKS, with host Mark Razz. After that interview ended, Sammartino went over to join Steve Granato at the other end of the booth, who was broadcasting live on 1230 WBVP. Whether it was the fact that Steve Granato’s shorter height, or that Sammartino was getting bored, or maybe that the quieter Granato was just an easier target, who knows, but shortly after the dialogue on WBVP began, Sammartino jumps up and put Granato into a headlock and then proceeded to give Granato a series of “noogies”, rubbing his knuckles across the top of Granto’s head, just like a grade school bully in the coat room would do to the class nerd.”  At the time, WBVP was paired with a sister F.M. radio station known as WWKS, or Kiss106.7 F.M.  WMBA was still owned by a separate company back then and hadn’t become part of the family yet.

These days, Steve, and his wife, Mary Kay Granato, live in Bonita Springs, Florida.

“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.

In 1959, a young boy attending classes at Beaver Falls High School entered a contest sponsored by The Pittsburgh Pirates.  The winner would be given a chance to actually sit in with the regular Pirates radio announcers  and help call a Pirates Baseball game.  Whether it was his natural love of baseball, the charismatic humor of the young lad, or his deep bellowing voice that caught the judges attention isn’t certain, but Jim Reynolds was selected as the winner and began his announcing career in the press box of Forbes Field alongside popular Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince. Not long afterwards, Reynolds would darken the doorway of WBVP and get hired on to host and evening music program from 6 P.M. to Midnight, where he shared the duties in that time slot with another Beaver County broadcasting legend, Syl Sergi.

In the recently published book, “Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA”, contributing author, Kenneth Britten penned these words about Jim Reynolds: “In 1959 yet another boy was hired for the staff. Jim Reynolds had just won the yearly Pittsburgh Pirate Sports casting contest and had broadcast a number of Pirate games on KDKA with veterans Bob Prince and Jim Woods. (WBVP General Manager Frank) Smith hired him immediately and no one would ever realize it but Reynolds would go on to become the longest hired veteran in the station’s history. He would last 28 and one half years at WBVP.

Like (Arnie) Felsher, (Syl) Sergi and several others, Reynolds would become known for his individual style and strange sense of humor. As the morning man for many years listeners would encounter daily zany meetings with Fred the Abominable Snowman, the Mole, Lena the Leopard Girl, Madge the gum chewing waitress and Poopsie the Mystery Girl. There would be daily dinosaur hunts, national days, morning marches, morning polkas and Uncle Jimmy’s Strange Time.

Reynolds also once did an entire Christmas show in the middle of July, pretended to do a program while the studio was flooding and once offered to pay $20 to any girl who would show up in a bikini on a day when several feet of snow had fallen and it was 20 below zero.”

One of the most talked about events over the course of the seventy year history of WBVP was when Jim Reynolds, who went by the nickname, “The The Teddy Bear”,  got married.  Another excerpt from the book recounts the event: “The year was 1982, and to this day, Jim’s marriage to his bride, Debbie Reynolds at the Beaver Valley Mall was one of the biggest, most talked about events in the history of the Beaver Falls radio operation. Thousands of spectators crowed into the center court area of the mall to witness the highly publicized and live broadcast nuptials that would be performed by then Mayor of Beaver Falls, and pharmacist at Hoffman’s Drug Store in Beaver Falls, Leo Hegner.  The wedding party was made up of local radio royalty, including fellow station staffers Chris Shovlin, Steve Granato and Terry Pease. Images of Jim walking down the aisle with his lovely bride on his arm flanked by scores of people in a shopping mall teeming with all sorts of great stores seem surreal nowadays. Almost fairy-tale like.
Everyone did their part just as Jim wanted it. Everyone looked very nice, the men dressed in dark tuxedos and the bride in pretty white.”

“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.

In 1967, the original owners of WBVP, Frank Smith, Tom Price and Charles Orderka sold the station to a company headquartered in Connecticut by the name of Hall Communications, which was formed just a few years earlier by newspaper column and comic strip syndicator, Robert Hall. Hall Communications continues to thrive in the radio industry and currently operates twenty one radio stations in six different markets. One of the reasons for their continued success is the contributions from the Reed Family.  Specifically, a father and son.  Dick Reed was part of the original operations when Hall Communications was formed and became the Vice President who ran the operation on a daily basis in the early days.  Dick’s job was made somewhat easier because he had a great staff that he could count on, namely, his son, Jim Reed, who was a true “utility player” in the radio business who could build a studio, fix the equipment, and then host a radio show.

Both Reeds would assist in the operations on WBVP and WWKS in Beaver Falls.  Dick Reed was “The Big Boss” in the corporate office whom General Manager, Chris Shovlin would report to.  Dick Reed would also come to town on occasion to meet with the staff and was a fixture at the annual Hall Communications convention meetings.  Once a year, the executives at Hall would host a company wide gathering and training session in one of the cities where they owned radio stations and invite employees from all of their radio stations to attend.  In 1984, that year’s event was held in Beaver Falls at the Holiday Inn, now known as Park Inn by Radisson, near the turnpike exit. People who attended that meeting still recall sales trainer, Tom Howard, doing a presentation for the sales people using orange colored bricks. Chris Shoviln remembered his interactions with the elder read and recounted them in the recently published book “Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA” : “Dick was an absolute gentleman.  He ran the radio properties. Dick was the first Vice President of the company under Bob Hall.  Nothing got to Bob Hall without going through Dick Reed. Dick Reed ruled with an iron fist, but he was one of the nicest, most generous, kind people I ever met.  Just a tremendous guy. You could look him in the eye and know you were getting the truth. You could trust him. He wanted you to run the company like he ran his. They were great people.  They were the best people”.

The younger Reed, Jim, was enlisted by his father to traverse out to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania from company headquarters in New England and help out with moving WBVP and WWKS to a new building, which continues to serve as the physical location of the company,  around 1980.  That project also included the huge task of remodeling some dentist offices in the upstairs floor of the radio station headquarters into a collection of four broadcast and recording studios, along with an engineering and technical room, conference room and work areas for the announcers.  The first floor of the structure at 1316 7th avenue, that  previously existed as Sakraidas Dress Shop, was converted into  office space for the sales and business department with Jim Reed’s help and oversight.  Jim Reed and his fellow engineering team members including Ed Monskie, Wayne Gignac, Jerry Bowers and Bob King also installed a revolutionary device in the radio industry at the time, a programmable computer like giant machine with five reel to reel tape players and dozens of individual

tape cartridge slots known as a “16M Basic A Automation System”.  The

new room-sized contraption produced the music and played recorded segments of the announcers and mixed in commercials as directed, without the need for constant human interaction over the airwaves of  WWKS, or Kiss 107 F.M. as it was known at the time.

Jim Reed would also host air shows and help with remote broadcasts during his stays in Beaver Falls.  His father, Dick Reed continued to run the show at the Hall Communications corporate offices as Group Manager out East and was the one who facilitated the sale and handled the negotiations with Ted and Marilee Ruscitti, who bought WBVP and WWKS from Hall in 1985.

“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.​

In 1989, a recent California University Of PA graduate named Carl Anderson was brought aboard to host the afternoon show on  WWKS, or Kiss 106.7 F.M.   WWKS was a sister F.M. radio station to WBVP at that point in time and was operated out of the same building in Beaver Falls.  Anderson grew up in North Huntington Township out in Westmoreland County, PA and for a period of time after being hired on,  he drove the fifty plus mile commute on the Pennsylvania Turnpike daily to and from his job in Beaver Falls.  About a year later, the position of Program Director for WWKS opened up when Mark Razz accepted a position in Boston and moved on from WBVP and WWKS.  Anderson was appointed Program Director and also took the reigns of hosting the morning show. By this point in time,  Anderson had also put roots down in Beaver County and had moved to Chippewa.  Under Anderson’s leadership, the Beaver Falls F.M. radio station enjoyed some of its most successful years as far as popularity and familiarity among area listeners.  The station was constantly out and about appearing at events all over the Western Pennsylvania Area including the Three Rivers Regatta in Pittsburgh, Concerts at Star Lake Ampitheater and other prominent regional locations.  During his tenure as program director, WWKS morphed from a soft adult contemporary music format to a slightly harder “Adult Rock Hits” format.  Later on, another more aggressive change to a hard rock was made with Anderson running the show when the station switched to a cutting edge hard rock presentation and re-branded itself at “The Force” in 1993.

Two things combined in the mid nineties to send Carl Anderson’s career in a different direction.  WWKS, or The Force,  was gaining ground and becoming quite popular especially among younger demographics.  Also going on at that particular time, President Clinton had just signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which deregulated the broadcast industry and allowed the same person, or company to own multiple stations in the same market.  Those two things made acquiring WWKS  not only possible, but an easy decision for Secret Communications, who also owned and operated WDVE in nearby Pittsburgh.  Secret would now have another rock station with a younger audience to compliment its heritage classic rock format on WDVE.  The deal was made, Carl Anderson went to the Secret Communications’ Pittsburgh Offices with the other WWKS employees and began his rise in the radio world.  Lots of changes would happen fast and soon Anderson found himself in charge of launching a new station format on another station now owned by his new bosses, WJJJ, 104.7 F.M. in Pittsburgh as Program Director of the smooth jazz radio station.

Around 1997, Anderson was lured away from Pittsburgh to accepted a position with a cluster of radio stations in Richmond, VA.  This move was yet another step in Anderson’s rise up to the top of the ranks in the radio industry, which eventually saw him serve as a Network Vice President, and Market Manager.  The following recap of Anderson’s Career was recently published in the book, Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA : “His training in Beaver Falls paid off big time as he became Program Director at a new upstart radio station in Pittsburgh called Smooth Jazz 104.7 in 1996.  After a stops in Richmond , Chicago and Washington, D.C., Carl’s programming and management skills were noticed by ABC radio network executives and he eventually settled in as Executive Vice President of Programming and Affiliate Relations in Dallas, TX. After that, Carl became the Senior Vice President for Programming in the West Region For ABC.  Later on Carl became national News Talk and Brand Manager For Clear Channel before finally landing in Tuscon, AZ as Market President of a six station cluster owned by Clear Channel/iHeart Media in 2016. Carl now serves as Chief Operating Officer of Premiere Auto Group in Tuscon, AZ.”

“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.

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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.

Last week, we profiled George Allen, a WBVP original staff member from 1948 and also one of four station employees through the years who later went on to own their own radio stations.  In this edition, we take a look at another WBVP-WMBA protege who started out and learned the business at one of the Beaver County radio stations and later on would find himself signing payroll checks, Ted Ruscitti.  A native of Hopewell Township, Ruscitti became fascinated with vacuum tubes and transmitters in an era when many of his high high school classmates were more likely to be chasing girls and cruising the local hang outs.   Ruscitti was a whiz kid, and very accomplished around electronics while yet a teenager.  The fact is, he built and put his own pirate radio station on the air headquartered in his parents house while still a student at Hopewell.  Ruscitti’s station was self named “WINO”, and occasionally local residents will recall listening to Ruscitti’s broadcasts, which began after he got home from school in the afternoons during the late 1960’s.

In 1970, John Bride had just bought WMBA from Miner’s Broadcasting Service.  One of the things that was different then was the fact that, by law, radio stations had to have a a staff member on site with a first class radiotelephone operator license at all times.  While the rule went by the way side in the mid 1980’s, back then, it created an opportunity for Ted Ruscitti, who already had a first class license, even though he was barely out of high school.   Bride needed to find and hire someone with the first class designation to fulfill legal requirements, so that made Ruscitti an easy hire.  It turns out that Ruscitti’s possession of a first class license was far from the only asset that he brought to the table.  He hosted a very popular evening music request show on WMBA.  The following is an excerpt about Ruscitti’s  first duties as an announcer at WMBA  from the recently published book, “Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA”:

“In the early seventies, while working for (General Manager of WMBA, Roy) Angst and (Station Owner, John) Bride at WMBA, Ruscitti hosted an evening music request show on WMBA, from five to six. According to (WMBA staffer during the 1970’s), Bill Fontana, the show was amazingly popular as listeners would regularly call in and sometimes wait on hold for great lengths of time to get an chance to talk to Ruscitti.”

Ruscitti’s technical skills also saw him overseeing engineering duties at WMBA not too long after being hired.  So accomplished was Ruscitti with all aspects of radio, but in particular, his ability to fix and maintain just about any piece of broadcast equipment, that he was recruited and accepted a position at Pittsburgh rock station, WDVE, after only a short while at WMBA.  Ruscitti became Chief Engineer and later on would be named Operations Director at the popular F.M. music radio station.

In 1985, Ted Ruscitti received a call from a  broker that WBVP and its sister F.M. radio station at the time, WWKS or Kiss 107 as it was known then,  were for sale. The notion of owning two radio stations in his hometown area was too hard to resist, so after a quick plane trip to Providence, Rhode Island, and some dialogue  with the owner of WBVP and WWKS at that point in time, Hall Communications,  Ted Ruscitti and his wife, Marilee, formed M.T. Communications, Inc. and bought the two Beaver Falls based radio stations.

Ruscitti would own and operate WBVP and WWKS up through 1990 and made many significant advancements, including the return of live local radio from an automated system on the F.M. radio station, and the introduction of digital music played over the airwaves.  The fact is, WWKS, or Kiss 106.7 F.M., was the first station in the area, and perhaps the nation, to utilize newly available compact discs, or C.D.’s. as they are commonly known, to play the music in the studio, which was ultimately broadcast over the airwaves.

These days, Ted Rusciiti continues to share his knowledge and talents as he is a very highly sought after nationwide consultant in the radio industry.

“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.