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.

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.