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.
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Last week, we profiled George Allen, a WBVP original staff member from 1948 and also one of four station employees through the years who later went on to own their own radio stations. In this edition, we take a look at another WBVP-WMBA protege who started out and learned the business at one of the Beaver County radio stations and later on would find himself signing payroll checks, Ted Ruscitti. A native of Hopewell Township, Ruscitti became fascinated with vacuum tubes and transmitters in an era when many of his high high school classmates were more likely to be chasing girls and cruising the local hang outs. Ruscitti was a whiz kid, and very accomplished around electronics while yet a teenager. The fact is, he built and put his own pirate radio station on the air headquartered in his parents house while still a student at Hopewell. Ruscitti’s station was self named “WINO”, and occasionally local residents will recall listening to Ruscitti’s broadcasts, which began after he got home from school in the afternoons during the late 1960’s.
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In 1970, John Bride had just bought WMBA from Miner’s Broadcasting Service. One of the things that was different then was the fact that, by law, radio stations had to have a a staff member on site with a first class radiotelephone operator license at all times. While the rule went by the way side in the mid 1980’s, back then, it created an opportunity for Ted Ruscitti, who already had a first class license, even though he was barely out of high school. Bride needed to find and hire someone with the first class designation to fulfill legal requirements, so that made Ruscitti an easy hire. It turns out that Ruscitti’s possession of a first class license was far from the only asset that he brought to the table. He hosted a very popular evening music request show on WMBA. The following is an excerpt about Ruscitti’s first duties as an announcer at WMBA from the recently published book, “Behind The Microphone, The History Of Radio In Beaver County, PA”:
“In the early seventies, while working for (General Manager of WMBA, Roy) Angst and (Station Owner, John) Bride at WMBA, Ruscitti hosted an evening music request show on WMBA, from five to six. According to (WMBA staffer during the 1970’s), Bill Fontana, the show was amazingly popular as listeners would regularly call in and sometimes wait on hold for great lengths of time to get an chance to talk to Ruscitti.”
Ruscitti’s technical skills also saw him overseeing engineering duties at WMBA not too long after being hired. So accomplished was Ruscitti with all aspects of radio, but in particular, his ability to fix and maintain just about any piece of broadcast equipment, that he was recruited and accepted a position at Pittsburgh rock station, WDVE, after only a short while at WMBA. Ruscitti became Chief Engineer and later on would be named Operations Director at the popular F.M. music radio station.
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In 1985, Ted Ruscitti received a call from a broker that WBVP and its sister F.M. radio station at the time, WWKS or Kiss 107 as it was known then, were for sale. The notion of owning two radio stations in his hometown area was too hard to resist, so after a quick plane trip to Providence, Rhode Island, and some dialogue with the owner of WBVP and WWKS at that point in time, Hall Communications, Ted Ruscitti and his wife, Marilee, formed M.T. Communications, Inc. and bought the two Beaver Falls based radio stations.
Ruscitti would own and operate WBVP and WWKS up through 1990 and made many significant advancements, including the return of live local radio from an automated system on the F.M. radio station, and the introduction of digital music played over the airwaves. The fact is, WWKS, or Kiss 106.7 F.M., was the first station in the area, and perhaps the nation, to utilize newly available compact discs, or C.D.’s. as they are commonly known, to play the music in the studio, which was ultimately broadcast over the airwaves.
These days, Ted Rusciiti continues to share his knowledge and talents as he is a very highly sought after nationwide consultant in the radio industry.
“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.