R-ACT Theatre Productions is a non-profit community theatre group located in Beaver County with membership and participation open to anyone with a love of the performing arts.
Starting February 16th and again on the 17th, 23rd & 24th, R-ACT will be presenting Fractured Fairy Tales at the Avenue Theater on Brighton Ave in Rochester, PA. Showtime is 7PM.
Fractured Fairy Tales are edgy, twisted one act plays that are NOT the children‘s stories you may be expecting. You’ll see:
The Many Wives of Bluebeard
Nora the Narcoleptic
Not So Charming
Hansel & Gretel
The Piper
Tickets can be purchased at the door or on showclix.com.
Every adult in Beaver County should attend the Citizen’s Police Academy. It’s an informative, ten week classroom series that gives an inside look at the Beaver/Vanport Area Police operations. The purpose is to promote a greater awareness and better understanding of all local law enforcement’s continuously changing role in the community.
A different area of Police work – like criminal law and procedures, street crime enforcement/investigations and Youth programs –is covered each week with a variety of presenters.
Classes start March 12th. Applications may be picked up Monday through Friday from 8 to 4PM at the Beaver Police Department or the Vanport Township Building
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.
Roy “Mickey” Angst (right) accepts an award for WMBA from the state in 1958. Photo courtesy of Mark Marek, Coal Region Connections.
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.
Saturday, March 24, 2018. Class time: 1 PM to 3 PM
Learn to illustrate a flower in watercolor. Instruction will be given on basic techniques in composition, color value, and watercolor technique. COST: $65, all materials included.
Do you love to make people smile? Enjoy visiting with the elderly? The Crimson Line Auxillary Volunteer organization at Brighton Rehab & Wellness (formerly Friendship Ridge) is looking for volunteers of all ages. The group plans events and activities with the Brighton Rehab residents, which have included playing cards, reading & dancing. Help is needed for the many activities as well as simply visiting One on One…a listening ear, a kind face. Individuals can volunteer as little as one hour per month.
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.
WBVP morning show host, Arnold Felsher, in 1954. Courtesy of Owen Simon.
They say that one of the most important time slots to be on the air in the radio business is the early morning, or as it has become to be known, “Morning Drive”. Important because this was the time when many people are in their cars and on their way to work and thus the ability for a radio station to reach a large audience is probably at it’s highest point of the day. Couple that with being the first ever “Morning Man” when a station first started broadcasting, and one can see how important it was for the founders of WBVP in 1948, to make sure that they had the right guy for the job. Arnold Felsher was just that person and very much up to task. The following segment about Arnold was taken from the forthcoming book, “Behind The Microphone – The History Of Radio In Beaver County”, which will be published by Beaver County Radio in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of WBVP on May 25, 2018.
“The original 1948 lineup and broadcast day at WBVP, as has been said many times before, was an amazing collection of talented people. Arnold Felsher started the day off with the morning show broadcast beginning at 6 A.M. Felsher, a New Brighton native, was one of the more flamboyant and popular announcers of that era at WBVP. ‘ Arnie was a free spirit to put it mildly and would prove to be rather eccentric in his ways. On several occasions he would race downstairs before the 8 A.M. newscast and grab a child on his way to school and let him read the news on the air. Once he tried to call President Truman on the air and actually got thru to the White House switchboard.
On another occasion he put a fifteen-minute recorded transmission on the air and calmly strolled across the street to the General Brodhead Hotel to have a morning cup of coffee leaving the studio completely unattended. (Another staff announcer Chuck) Wilson would sputter and (Founding partner and general manger) Mr (Frank) Smith could only shake his head in amazement at the unique blend of individuals he had brought together.’ wrote Ken Britten about the first morning show host at WBVP. The program was sponsored at least in part by local steelmaker Babcock and Wilcox.”
Owen Simon worked at WBVP in the early days, who also happened to have his tonsils removed as a twelve year old at Providence Hospital in that era, reminisced in 2017 about a popular radio station promotion from those early days. According to Simon, Arnold Felsher would deliver ice cream from Burns Drug Store in Beaver Falls to children at the local hospital to help cheer them up. Evidently Felsher left a positive impression on the young lad as Simon came to work at WBVP just a few years later as the first stop in a long successful career in the entertainment business.
“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.
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.
Perhaps the most famous caller to be on the other end of the phone when a WBVP announcer would “go to the phone lines” during an talk show was none other than President Ronald Reagan. Dave Felts was the host of “Teleforum” in the early eighties and happened to be at the right place at the right time when The Chief Executive decided to dial in. Local Beaver County historical writer, Kenneth Britten, wrote about the famous call to WBVP in a 1990 article entitled “Local Radio”:
Dave Felts hosting “Teleforum” on WBVP in the early 1980’s.
“A historic moment in WBVP history occurred when David Felts was hosting the morning talk show. It was on the morning of Tuesday, April 22, 1981, as Felts was interviewing Democratic Congressman Eugene Atkinson on the air when the station received a call from the White House and Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. The assassination attempt by John Hinkly had (just) occurred two weeks and one day before and the President was calling from the hospital to speak with the Congressman (publicly) about needing his vote concerning economic development. For the President to call a talk show of a relatively small radio station was front page news. Dave and Congressman Atkinson were interviewed by members of the media from as far away as London, England.
The Staff and station received a Spot News Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters for that year along with others. WBVP had really cracked into the big time and became visible to Western PA as well as the World!”
“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by Freedom United Federal Credit Union.
The Beaver Area Memorial Library will hold its annual “LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY” on Saturday, March 3rd from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Homemade soups, breads, and desserts will be served. The cost of a bowl of soup with bread is $3.00 and dessert is $3.00. Take-outs will be available after 1:00 pm. The event will be held in the meeting room of the library, 100 College Ave. in Beaver. It is sponsored by the Friends of the Beaver Library and all proceeds will benefit the library. For more information, call the library at 724-775-1132.
