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 1986, big things were happening at WBVP, and for sister F.M. radio station, WWKS, or KISS 106.7 F.M.  The stations had recently been purchased by Hopewell residents, at the time, Ted and Marilee Ruscitti.  Ted Ruscitti was focused on getting the most out of the 47,000 watt F.M. radio station that he had just acquired, and that meant some radical changes.  The first decision was to do away with the generic, automated soft rock and liven the delivery up a bit.  Then next choice ended up being a no brainer as well, hiring a morning show announcer that would attract lots of listeners.  The search for the new show host didn’t have to go far.  Mark Razz was just a few miles up the road, working at WKST in New castle, and he was a perfect fit.  He was, and still is, a bright, quick witted host with a keen sense of the community and sports world.

Mark Razz, aka Mark Radziewicz,  grew up in Bellville, New Jersey, not far from the bright lights of New York City. It was his college years at nearby Slippery Rock University that brought him out to Western Pennsylvania, and kept him in Beaver County after graduation until 1991.  Razz became a very popular personality on WWKS, KISS 106.7 FM by offering a daily line up of creative skits and dialogue with trusty sidekicks from across the hallway  of the Beaver Falls studios, at the A.M. counterpart of the operation, WBVP.  Often times Steve Granato and Tom O’Neill would join Razz on the show and help out with popular bits like “The Morning Calendar”, “The Dreaded Morning Oldie”,  “Sleezy Tabloid News”, and the “Lou Pappan Happy Birthday Greeting.”

Razz was also a prominent fixture on the other side of the dial, as he did sports play by play on 1230 WBVP.  One of his more famous broadcasts was the first ever football state championship game featuring a  Beaver County team in 1988, when he joined Bob Barrickman in the booth at Hershey Stadium for the Aliquippa-Berwick  class AAA state title game that year.  While it would end in a Quips loss, the game produced a few neat highlights, including the following snippet of Mark Razz calling a Jake Kelchner touchdown pass when Kelchner, who would later on star at West Virginia, played for Berwick High.

After leaving WBVP and WWKS, Razz headed to WAAF in Boston, and then to K-Rock in New York City where he worked with Howard Stern, and even did a stint on satellite radio before settling in as his current roll of Music Director at WXTU in Philadelphia.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Sheet metal, Castlebrook Development, Freedom United Federal Credit Union, Hank’s Frozen Custard and Mexican Food,  Laughlin Insurance Agency and Rochester Manor and Villa.

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 “Morning Man” has always been one of the most prominent segments of the broadcast day, and typically, A radio station will search far and wide to find a person with just the right mix of talent, humor, and ability to relate to the listeners to fill this role.  A couple weeks ago in the “70th Anniversary Moments” series,  we looked at the first “Morning Man” for WBVP,  Arnold Felsher.  Today we will reflect on the man the guided Beaver County mornings for over twenty years in more recent days, John Nuzzo.

John Nuzzo was the youngest of twelve children growing up in nearby New Castle.  Being the youngest of so many siblings, John, no doubt, learned at a very young age to speak up in order to be heard or noticed among all the family members in the house.  That household probably also helped develop John’s keen sense of humor and quick wit and eventually led to Nuzzo doing some stand up comedy work.

Before starting at WBVP in 1992, John had worked at WKST in New Castle, as well as radio stations in New Hampshire.  Upon being hired as the  WBVP morning show host and Program Director, John immediately put his talents to work and introduced innovative new ideas to the line up including “Ask The Commissioners”, which is still airs on WBVP and WMBA on the first Thursday of each month.   John also coined the name, “A.M. Beaver County”, as the official moniker of the morning time slot that is also still in use.  Listeners to “A.M. Beaver County”  in John’s era were treated to his daily “Brain Tweezer”, a popular trivia question guessing game that would have people trying to call in and correctly answer John’s query , at times, for the entire remainder of his program.

John Nuzzo was also very instrumental at forging relationships in the community on behalf of WBVP, and later on WBVP and WMBA.  During his tenure, the radio stations began to appear at  various county wide events like The Beaver County Maple Syrup Festival and The Beaver County Airshow.  He also began a popular monthly interview series with experts from Penn State Cooperative Extension that is still on the air.  Nuzzo also convinced station management in 1999 that this  newfangled thing called “the internet” was worth looking into and helped arrange for and set up the station’s first email account and website

John Nuzzo helped open other doors and create new opportunities for WBVP and WMBA.  In 2008, he recruited fellow New Castle broadcaster, Gary West, to host “A.M. Beaver County”, so John could then hold court in a new three hour local talk show, “The John Nuzzo Show”, that aired from 9 A.M. until Noon, which is where John stayed up until his retirement in 2014.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Freedom United Federal Credit Union, Laughlin Insurance Agency and Rochester Manor and Villa.

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 1954, a group of eight people that made up Miners Broadcasting Service, Inc., headquartered in  Pottsville, PA,  purchased a ten acre plot of ground on a hill  in Bell Acres that would eventually become the tower site for WMBA.  Miners Broadcasting Service was already operating WPAM in Pottsville, which came on the air in 1946.  The Angst brothers,  John “Bud” Angst, and Roy “Mickey” Angst were both involved with the operation at WPAM out east as talented talk show hosts.  Both men loved politics and Bud even served as a Commissioner in Carbon County  at one point in time.  Roy was sent out west in 1957 along with Managing Partner, Ken McGuire, to help get their new radio station in Ambridge,  WMBA,  on the air.  Roy also served as WMBA’s first General Manager.

One of the things that Roy brought over from WPAM was the concept of the local call in talk show.  In the early era of WMBA, Roy hosted a show called “Air Your Opinion”, that continued to air on the station for decades, later on hosted by Nick DeSantis, Barb Trehar and Rick Bergman, among others.  Roy’s interest in politics was an asset to the on air conversation and most of the time, he was able to blend in his opinion on local issues quite successfully.   His staunch opposition to and almost daily disputes over policy, procedures, issues in town, or really, almost anything,  with then Ambridge Mayor, Walter Panek, made for very entertaining programming.  So heated were their feuds that on more than one occasion, Angst found himself in a courtroom having to answer to charges filed by Panek, one such case going all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court before being dismissed in 1962.

Roy Angst continued to work for WMBA until 1972, after which he moved back east.

Former competitors, WMBA and WBVP, began simulcasting programming in 2000, when the owner of WBVP at the time, Iorio Broadcasting, Inc., bought WMBA from Donn Communications.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by Freedom United Federal Credit Union and Rochester Manor and Villa.  Archived editions can be viewed on the 70th Anniversary Moments page.