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.