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 April of 1984, WMBA General Manager, Diane Brown,  was looking to hire a new talk show host for the Ambridge radio station and ended up starting a talk show career that lasted nearly thirty years when she gave the job to Rick Bergman.  The host at the time of “Air Your Opinion”,  Barb Trehar, had recently moved on to work at KDKA radio in Pittsburgh.

Stepping in to host “Air Your Opinion” as one’s first radio gig  on WMBA in that era was no small task.  The show was very popular and was a staple of the WMBA line up going all the way back to the station’s  start up in 1957.  Bergman was following a group of very talented and beloved hosts that had previously held court during the 9 A.M. to Noon time slot including Roy Angst, Nick DeSantis and Trehar.  Bergman, however, was up to task.  He blended an easy going, subdued style with a very quick wit and well read intelligence that was quite unique.  Bergman also offered a more liberal perspective on many social issues up for discussion on the airwaves and became a hit among many listeners.

In 1984, WMBA featured a line up that included Stan Presbysz serving as morning show host and Program Director.   Bergman then did “Air Your Opinion” from nine until noon.  Bob Conrad aired a news program during the noon hour.  Jaye Phillips and Debbie Smith hosted the popular “Yankee Trader” show from 1 until 3 P.M.  followed by a music show that aired until station sign off at dusk.

Rick Bergman did so well that he grabbed the attention of the competitors to the north in 1988, when WBVP and WWKS station owner, Ted Ruscitti, summonsed Bergman to meet him at the Sewickley Holiday Inn for a lunch meeting.  Bergman was hired and began a daily show called “Afternoon Talk” that aired on WBVP from noon until 7 P.M. The program featured a couple  of extended news blocks and live feeds from Channel 11, WPXI T.V. in Pittsburgh.

In addition to the attention received  from WBVP,  Rick Bergman had also shown up on the radar screen of executives  at KDKA radio and he was hired on at that station in 1987.  Bergman did part time work there as a weekend talk show host until 2013.

After leaving WBVP in 1993, Rick Bergman put his intellectual capacity to work and started a career as a public school teacher, where he continues to work to this day.

One of Bergman’s most cherished memories of working at WBVP and WMBA happened in the spring of 1986 when he received a press invitation to attend a press luncheon with President Ronald Reagan at the White House while working at WMBA.  As luck would have it, Reagan  opened up the forum for questions that day.  Rick hesitated at first, but after hearing another media representative quiz the president about the Iran Contra Affair, he got up the nerve to ask a question as well on the same subject.  Even though Bergman had hosted a daily talk show and had talked to thousands of people over the airwaves, this was different.  cameras could be heard in the background whirring away as he began to voice his question.  The eyes of Ronald Reagan bore down through his soul as the President’s  attention, along with everyone else’s in the room focused on Bergman’s query.  As Bergman tells the story, he nearly fainted, but did eventually ask a question and the President responded, but can’t remember much more.  The following day, a small reference to Bergman’s question and Reagan’s response was reported in a USA  Today follow up story about the press luncheon.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, Aliquippa Giant Eagle, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Auto Mall, 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 title of “Hometown Hero” can be used to describe Mike Romigh.  Mike grew up in Beaver Falls and still resides within the school district in the nearby borough of Koppel.  Even as a youngster walking the hallways of Beaver Falls junior high and senior high schools, Mike would dream about becoming a disc jockey, and being on the radio.  Often times this meant walking over the the studio windows of his hometown radio stations, WBVP and sister F.M. radio station, WWKS,  then located in the basement floor of the First Federal Savings and Loan Bank at the corner of 14th Street and 7th Avenue in Beaver Falls, and watching legendary announcers like Jim Reynolds and Bill Kelly work their craft.  In a recent interview, Mike talked about how his interest in radio had piqued his interest at a young age.  “I’m somebody who went to bed with a transistor radio under my pillow. So I would listen all night, until I fell asleep.  I would move the dial up and down and listen to the static, find the next station that would come in. It was something that really captured my imagination.”

After working at Hydril in Rochester for four years after graduating from high school, Romigh felt those radio waves, that he dreamed about as a youngster, calling him again, so he enrolled in a correspondence course offered by the Columbia School Of Broadcasting in Pittsburgh.  After completing the training, Romigh landed his first radio job at WFEM in Ellwood City. in 1981.

He wouldn’t stay in Ellwood City long.  That same year, Mike was hired by WBVP and WWKS, Kiss 106.7 FM General Manger, at the time, Scott Lowe.   Initially, Romigh hosted an overnight music show on both radio stations.  WBVP was a live radio program, and WWKS featured the recorded voice of Mike Romigh during predetermined breaks that were slotted in  by the automated music system used by the F.M. radio station.   His big break came in 1983, when Dave Felts, who was hosting the morning talk show, “A.M. Connection” on WBVP went on Vacation.  Chris Shovlin was now the General manager of the two Beaver Falls radio stations, and even though Romigh had never hosted a talk show before, Shovlin  asked him to fill in for a day or two.  The temporary fill in duty went so well, that Romigh was asked to do the entire week, and for the rest of his career, Romigh would now be known as a talk show host, as this proved to be the niche that he excelled in.

Soon, Romigh was a regular host of “A.M. Connection” at WBVP. The timing was perfect, in a sense, for a talk show host, anyway.  Thousands of local workers had been laid off from the collapsing steel industry in Beaver County, so there was a huge opportunity with scores of people wanting and needing information about coping with financial and employment stress coupled with the fact that they had all day to listen to the radio.  Romigh was well connected with local labor, and worked in a Mill himself for a while, so this was the perfect storm for him.

Romigh was more than just a soothing voice on the airwaves at WBVP and WWKS.  In those early years, he organized efforts for the radio stations to raise money by selling hot dogs and soda out of a Coca Cola trailer on 7th Avenue to help the City of Beaver Falls to purchase new American Flags for the street poles.  On another occasion, he raised awareness through the “A.M. Connection” talk show about the missing Christmas Lights in Beaver Falls.  Not only were they found in storage over at Col-Fin Specialty Steel in Fallston, Romigh, along with Frank “Sluggo” Couts,  and other station employees, brought the lights to the radio station, cleaned them up and arranged for an electrical contractor to install them for the upcoming season.

After leaving WBVP and WWKS in 1985, Romigh took his talents south to WMBA and hosted a talk show initially called “Straight Talk”, later to be renamed “Live Mike”.  He joined a stellar staff at the Ambridge radio station that also  included Bobbie Vaughn, Al McDowell, R.D. Summers and Sam Nicotero.

Around 1987, Mike Romigh was hired by KDKA Program Director, Chuck Dickman, to do Weekends and part time fill in work.  For a while, Romigh worked at Both WMBA and KDKA, but in 1990,  He began to work on a regular basis at KDKA and had to drop WMBA from his hectic schedule.  Romigh became the regular host of the evening shift at KDKA for about 10 years and afterwards, crossed state lines and hosted the morning show on top rated Youngstown radio station, WKBN, in 2008.

Romigh’s career came full circle when he landed at his hometown radio stations in

Beaver Falls at WBVP and WMBA, again from 2014 to 2017.  He brought back the popular “Teleforum” talk show name, and served as Program Director.

Mike Romigh now works for the Beaver County Humane Society.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, Aliquippa Giant Eagle, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Auto Mall, 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.

In 1948, WBVP was making history on many different fronts.  Aside from being the first radio station  in Beaver County, WBVP was on the cutting edge of another historical event, that of having a woman talk show host.  Gertude, or “Gert” Trobe was one of the first women, anywhere, to be involved with broadcasting when she began her show as part of the original staff that station owners Frank Smith, Tom Price and Charles Onderka had assembled together in Beaver Falls.   The following is an except from the forthcoming book “Behind The Microphone – The History Of Radio in Beaver County”, which is being published in conjunction with the 70th Anniversary of WBVP in May.

“Following the news, one of the most beloved announcers in the Beaver County Area, of all time, Gertrude Trobe, would take control of the airwaves. (Beaver County historian and local author) Ken Britten summed up the significance of Ms. Trobe’s contributions. ‘Shortly after going on the air, Mr (Frank) Smith hired Gertrude Trobe to become the first woman’s director thus making WBVP the first radio station in history to have a full time Woman’s Director in charge of special programming aimed directly at the female market. You must remember radio was only 28 years old when WBVP went on the air and was still in its infancy. The hiring of a Woman’s Director made news throughout the industry.

Mrs Trobe was already well established on the faculty of Geneva College where she taught English, Drama and Communications. After being hired at WBVP she would become one of the leaders in female broadcasting within the industry, winning and receiving many awards, honors and certificates. She would become one of the founding members of the New York based “American Women In Radio and Television”, become recognized for introducing many radio firsts and be listed in “Who’s Who”.

Initially beginning by broadcasting daily 15 minute programs, she would eventually do a daily 45 minute show called “You and Your Home” that ran for thirty years and two shorter programs entitled “Market Place” and the “Shoppers Guide”. She would also be fondly remembered for her annual “Christmas Tea Party” and her many travel cruises.’

The Cookie Teas hosted by Gert Trobe over at the Brodhead Hotel  on 7th Avenue in Beaver Falls were some of the  the biggest events staged by WBVP every year.  the Cookie Teas were held up in the Grand Ballroom around Christmas time.   The events were for ladies only, were free of charge to attend and usually featured a buffet and guest speaker and sometimes a singing group or two.  Women who wanted to attend had to call WBVP and make a reservation.  The Cookie Teas were so popular that they needed to be held twice in the same day to accommodate the crowd of 500 to 600 ladies that would attend each year, given the 250 person seating capacity of the Brodhead Hotel’s Grand Ballroom.  (WBVP Engineer) Jim Roush also added in a December, 2017 discussion, that once the Cookie Teas were advertised on WBVP,  the phones in the office would receive a deluge of calls and all of the available reservations would be gone in a day. Gert would get dress shops and other sponsors to donate supplies, prizes and other things that were needed to pull off the Cookie Teas each year.”

Gert and her husband, Max were fixtures in the local community.  Max Trobe was a popular dentist in Beaver Falls and was involved with and attended many radio station social events through the years.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by  Albert’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, Beaver Valley Auto Mall, 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.