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.

 

This week’s 70th Anniversary Moment is about Alan Boal.  Alan Boal was graduate of Freedom Area High School and was a Freshman attending the University of Pittsburgh when the opportunity to join the staff an upstart radio station in Beaver falls came around in 1948. Boal was part of the original group of announcers  Hired by WBVP radio station owners  and founders Frank Smith, Tom Price and Charles Onderka, and hosted a popular daily polka show from three until four in the afternoons on WBVP.

As one of the most well known announcers to have worked at Beaver County radio, Boal went on to achieve great things in broadcasting after his work at WBVP, eventually serving as a Latin American Correspondent and Bureau Chief in Miami for ABC.   Alan later returned to Pittsburgh in the mid sixties and  worked for WTAE television and radio. He also served for a period of time as the President of Pittsburgh Local American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or AFTRA.

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by Freedom United Federal Credit Union.