TODAY IS PEARL HARBOR DAY…AND A SPECIAL TRIBUTE WILL BE PAID TODAY TO BEAVER COUNTY’S FIRST FATALITY IN THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR 77 YEARS AGO DECEMBER 7TH. SECOND LIEUTENANT LOUIS G. MOSLENER JUNIOR OF MONACA WAS IN THE U-S ARMY AIR CORP ASSIGNED TO THE 88TH RECONNAISSANCE SQUADRON. MOSLENER WAS WAS KILLED WHEN JAPANESE FIGHTER PLANES BOMBED HICKAM FIELD IN 1941. HE WAS 23. MOSLENER IS BURIED IN BEAVER CEMETERY. A PUBLIC CEREMONY WILL BE CONDUCTED AT THE CEMETERY TODAY IN REMEMBRANCE OF HIS WORLD WAR 2 SERVICE. THOSE ATTENDING ARE ASKED TO GATHER AT 1:30 THIS AFTERNOON AT MOSLENER’S GRAVE. THE CEREMONY WILL START AT 1:55 P-M, THE TIME THE FIRST BOMBS FELL IN HAWAII.
Hundreds of Beaver County residents are remembering an airman who died in Afghanistan last week. Friends and family attended a memorial service for Staff Sergeant Dylan Elchin at Impact Christian Church in Moon Township Thursday afternoon. The 25-year-old will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in the coming weeks.
‘Tis the season. The Christmas season, that is. The season for shopping, celebrating, church activities and of course, gathering together with family and friends. Today’s Beaver County memory takes us back to the days of Christmas past. Beaver County Memories are presented by St. Barnabas Beaver Meadows.
“There would be policeman on every corner to cross you across the street. There would be so many many people and so much traffic. Everything was lit up, it would be snowing, flurrying. In the evening, because all the stores would be open at night, everything would be lit up and WBVP would be playing Christmas carols outside. You could hear them for blocks. It was so nice. The radio station had outdoor speakers outside. They had speakers mounted to the front of the building”.
These are the words of Carleen McKee, owner of CoHill fashions in Beaver Falls, recalling what it was like to shop in the town during the holiday season many years ago when she was a young girl. McKee’s interview was conducted as part of research done for a recent book published about the history of radio in Beaver County. One could sense during her colorful description that she was instantly transported back in time in her mind to a time and place quite different from they way things are now. Prior to the Beaver Valley Mall opening around 1970, shopping meant a trip to Beaver Falls, Rochester, Aliquippa, or many of the other other classic main street river towns of Beaver County. After arriving into the downtown, typically shoppers at this time of year would begin the process of lapping the shopping district several times until an available parking space could be found and then finally pulling in and feeding a parking meter with spare change taken from the ash tray of the family station wagon. Prior to heading out shopping, the family car would needed to have been taken to a local garage like Kugel Brothers Service in Rochester, or Young’s Texaco in New Brighton to get the real axel outfitted with a set of snow tires. Sometimes this even meant studded snow tires. Those big, heavy rear wheel drive vehicles from a few decades ago were not designed to very well as far as getting traction in the snow and needed the extra boost. Many times those service stations would keep the summer tires and store them for their customers over the winter until they would go back on the car in the spring.
A generation ago, Christmas dinner shopping was usually accomplished with a visit to one of the dozen or so Economy Supermarkets scattered throughout Beaver County. If you lived closer to Aliquippa, the food run might have meant a visit to C & L Supermarket. Most neighborhoods still had smaller stores that could suffice for stocking the pantry as well, like the Skyline Market in Patterson Township, McCarter’s Supermarket in Darlington, or the Penn Supermarket in downtown Monaca.
Midnight mass back then was really held at midnight. This was done as much to anticipate the arrival of Christmas Day, as it was to accommodate second shift workers just punching out for the evening at the steel mill. The tradition of a late night church service on Christmas Eve is still common, but in many cases, it happens around nine or ten in the evening, since there isn’t the need anymore to cater to thousands of worshipers who were just turned loose on the streets after completing their work around the midnight hour.
Getting a Christmas tree in this era usually meant giving a few dollars to a “hobo-esque” looking guy in a parking lot somewhere who had a string of full size incandescent bulbs lit up and draped overhead and a 55 gallon burn barrel that doubled as a wood stove to provide heat out in the elements. Trees were then usually just stuffed into cavernous rear cargo area of the aforementioned station wagons for the trip home. This would produce Christmas souvenirs all year long as prickly dried out pine needles would continually manifest themselves from various and sundry places throughout the interior of the vehicle.
Hopefully a snow would arrive in time for the big day so that sleds, that were recently purchased as gifts for the kids at Jamesway in Big Beaver or Zayre’s in Baden, could get a little action.
Advent Calendars that were purchased at the K of C gift shop in Rochester or the Maranatha Gift and Book store in Beaver Falls were now getting used every day and helped keep the anxious youngsters busy during this time of year.
This has been a memory of Christmas Past, Part of the ongoing Beaver County memories series presented by St. Barnabas Beaver Meadows. Tune in every weekday for another Beaver County Memory right here on WBVP and WMBA. A complete transcript of this and other Beaver County memories can be found at Beaver County radio dot com.
Logistics Specialist 3rd Class Logan Davidson of Monaca and Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) Airman Recruit Gabriel Gonzalez, of Los Angeles, was photographed conducting morning colors on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). The flag was flown at half-mast to honor the 41st President, George H.W. Bush, the ship’s namesake, who passed away Nov 30. The ship is in port in Norfolk, Virginia, conducting routine training exercises to maintain carrier readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Zachary P. Wickline)
THE BEAVER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TODAY ADOPTED MANY RESOLUTIONS AND THE PROPOSED 2019 BUDGET. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO WAS THERE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…
A Beaver man has been convicted of murder…even though the victim’s body was never found. 69-year-old Loyd Groves was arrested and taken into custody at his Fourth Street home in Beaver back in 2015. Groves was convicted of third-degree murder this week in Clinton County in the death of one of his co-workers, Katherine Heckel. The two worked at the former International Paper Company’s Hammermill Plant in Lock Haven. Prosecutors said the couple had been having an extramarital affair, and she wanted to end the relationship; that’s when he killed her. Heckel was last seen alive on a summer day in 1991. She was declared legally dead several years later. The circumstantial evidence which led to Groves’ conviction included: Former colleagues recalled overhearing the couple have a loud fight before the two went to lunch on the day she disappeared. After she vanished, Groves never expressed concerns, and he exhibited signs of paranoia. He cut a section of stained carpeting from his van, and DNA evidence near the missing carpeting belonged to Heckel. Grove’s attorney says he will appeal the guilty verdict.
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.
Randy Cosgrove on WMBA in 1992. Courtesy of Dr. Michael Sisk.
“Let me tell you, young Mr. Cosgrove, when you are up on the roof of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, you must never pee into the wind”. Those were the words of legendary Steelers’ broadcaster, Myron Cope, during halftime of a Steelers – Browns game out on the roof top of the old, long gone stadium sometime during the 1990’s, as spoken to and recalled recently by Randy Cosgrove. The old Cleveland Municipal stadium, according to Randy Cosgrove, didn’t have any bathrooms that were close enough to the press box for the reporters to be able to use and then get back to their game coverage duties before the break was over, so outhouses were placed on the roof of the ancient facility to accommodate the broadcasters and journalists working in the press box. It seemed, however that on one very windy day along the Lake Erie shoreline, when Cosgrove traversed up to the roof to use the facilities during halftime, The outhouse was already in use, and to top that off, Myron Cope was relieving himself right out in the open. It was probably no big deal when you think about it. The roof would certainly have been water proof, nobody would have seen it, Myron needed to pee, and fellow Steelers announcer, Bill Hillgrove was probably getting impatient waiting for Cope’s return to the play by play broadcast that day, so Cope had to do what he had to do. However, the story became legendary when Cope zipped up his pants, buttoned up his overcoat and turned around to face Cogrove as he was heading back to the stairs. Evidently a very strong, south westerly wind off of Lake Erie that day had blown most, if not all, of what was meant for the roof surface back on Cope’s clothing, nearly soaking parts of it. Thus, the perspective of Cope’s quote earlier. Cosgrove loved to tell that story. He could imitate Myron Cope’s raspy unique sounding voice almost perfectly. Cosgrove had a way with words. He could tell stories and hold an audience as good as anybody. Randy Cosgrove, at that point in time, was working for the Pittsburgh Steelers as their public address announcer. On Tuesday, December 4th, the wonderful stories and captivating dialogue from Cosgrove were muted, to use a broadcast term, for good as he passed away at age 67 in a Pittsburgh hospital.
In addition to being able to describe the action on the field with great skill, Randy Cosgrove was a talented player as well, excelling in both basketball and baseball. He was inducted into the Plum High School Sports hall of fame, and played both sports, including earning four letters in baseball, while attending Ashland University in Ohio. Randy’s life would continue to revolve around athletics after graduating from Ashland in 1973. He found work as the the sports information director at Robert Morris University and later on became the Athletic Director at North Hills High School.
Randy Cosgrove, Bob frynkewicz (Fry) and Dave Justice at a WMBA event in 1996. Courtesy of Bob Frynkewicz.
In the late 1980’s, Donn Wuycik was committed to finding and recruiting the best talent for his newly acquired radio station, WMBA in Ambridge. Wuycik brought Randy Cosgrove aboard to fortify a strong stable of sports announcers that that also included Rob Matzie, Mike Vukovcan, Bob Pompeani, Mark Trombo, Tom Trkula, Bob Milhalik and even Aliquippa head football coach, Don Yanessa, during that era. The huge recruiting effort was put in place to accommodate the fact that WMBA was now poised to have a bigger impact than ever, as the station had recently been approved to broadcast 24 hours a day, and no longer was restricted to only carrying live high school sports broadcasts that occurred during the day time hours. Randy Cosgrove was a key part to the success that WMBA experienced after expanding its coverage to twenty four hours a day. Cosgrove would settle in on the sidelines and don a broadcaster’s headset and describe the action from numerous area high school football and basketball games on the evenings and weekends. In addition to that, he also co hosted a weekend sports talk show called “More Sports”, and later on, anchored a daily afternoon sports talk show initially called “The Early Line” and later on referred to as “Talkin’ Sports” on WMBA. Not many people, other than Cosgrove, could have filled the airwaves with enough, interesting information to sustain nearly twenty hours of sports oriented broadcasts every week, but he made it seem effortless. His shows were always well prepared and fun to listen to.
Randy Cosgrove and Jimi Miller broadcast live during Nationality Days on Merchant street in Ambridge on WMBA around 1989. Courtesy of Mike Romigh.
It was more than just sports for Randy Cosgrove. He had talented writing and reporting skills, and in 1994, was part of a group of WMBA staffers that received a Golden Quill award for coverage that the station provided regarding the crash of USAir flight 427 in Hopewell Township. He also found time to hit the streets and help sell adverting for WMBA in his first tour of duty, which lasted until 1998, and again during his encore performance with WBVP and WMBA in 2014 and 2015.
In between the two eras when he worked at WBVP and WMBA, Randy Cosgrove was still close to the sports action and enhanced the sports experience with his talents, as he always did on the airwaves, when he served as The Athletic Director for Ambridge Area High School, a post he held from 1998 through 2012.
NFL Hall of Famer, and Beaver falls native, Joe Namath, talks to Randy Cosgrove at a 2014 live broadcast on WBVP and WMBA at the Beaver Falls Elks Club.
In a sales meeting at WBVP and WMBA in 2014, Randy Cosgrove pitched station management on the idea of starting a sports talk show that would air on Saturday mornings . Cosgrove knew how to sell and said he said those magic words that all radio station mangers love to hear: “I’ll find a sponsor for the show”. After hearing that, It was no surprise that the deal was sealed with station brass, and Cosgrove had permission to see his idea through. Probably only about 45 minutes after presenting the idea to radio station officials and getting the green light to proceed, the ever ambitious Cosgrove was out in Chippewa Township, PA proposing a sponsorship of his new forthcoming show to Sal’s Ristorante and Bar. Nobody could say no to the level of passion Randy brought to the table, and by about the time that he had finished his spaghetti and meatballs that day, he had the show sold and ready to go on the air. Cosgrove’s incarnation, and his lasting legacy at WBVP and WMBA, “The Saturday Sports Slam”, was born. Initially the show was co hosted by Cosgrove and current Beaver County Radio Program Director, Frank Sparks. It continues to air on Saturday Mornings from 8 until 10 A.M. with Matt Drzik and Greg Benedetti sitting behind the microphone.
Visitation for Randy Cosgrove will be on Friday December 7th from 2 until 4 and 7 until 9. at the Copeland Funeral Home in Coraopolis. Visitation will also take place at the Coraopolis United Methodist Church form 1 until 2 P.M. on Saturday, December 8th.
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.
(Beaver Falls, Pa.) Randy Cosgrove, who worked for Beaver County Radio on two different occasions, has passed away at the age of 67 after a long battle with health issues. Cosgrove was probably most widely known for his stint as the Public Address Announcer for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 15 years before resigning in 2012.
Randy Cosgrove and Dave Justice at a WMBA live remote broadcast in 1996. Courtesy of Bob Frynkewicz.
Randy was a wealth of sports knowledge and he loved sharing that with everyone with whom he crossed paths with. Cosgrove was most recently hired as the Athletic Director at Bishop Canevin earlier this year.
Cosgrove started out at WMBA back in 1989 when he hosted a sports talk show on Saturday mornings with Bob Pompeani called “More Sports”. He eventually moved to weekday afternoons and hosted a show called the “Early Line”. Later on, the show was named “Talkin’ Sports”. Cosgrove worked for WMBA until 1998 when he moved on to become the Athletic Director at Ambridge School District, a position he held until 2012.
Randy Cosgrove, Dr. Michael Sisk and Dante Petrella at a live broadcast on WMBA at Monaca Wal Mart in 1992. Courtesy of Dr. Michael Sisk.
Cosgrove then returned to Beaver County Radio in 2014 as an account executive and started a new Saturday morning sports show along with current Beaver County Radio Program Director, Frank Sparks, called the “Saturday Sports Slam”. The show continues to air on Saturdays from 8 until 10 and is currently hosted by Matt Drzik and Greg Benedetti.
Randy Cosgrove was a graduate of Plum High School and Ashland University. In addition to the previously mentioned positions, he also worked at Robert Morris University and The Pennsylvania Special Olympics. Most recently he resided in Coraopolis, PA where he was active as a church trustee and in youth sports programs. Cosgrove also served for a period of time as an
Randy Cosgrove and Bob Pompeani at Miller and Sons Chevrolet in Aliquippa in 1998. Courtesy of Rosanne Robinson.
Advisory Board Member for Beaver County Children and Youth Services.
Randy will be sadly missed by all that knew him. Our condolences go out to the entire Cosgrove family.
