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.

Don Kennedy was from Beaver and is one of the many WBVP personalities through the years that also graduated from Geneva College.  The following  excerpt is  from the forthcoming book “Behind the Microphone – The History Of Radio In Beaver County ”  and is about Don Kennedy and his days at WBVP:

“The evenings on WBVP would feature Beaver native Don Kennedy with music selections that included a classical music hour from nine until ten and a segment entitled “Day Is Done”, which aired during the final hour of broadcast and included popular music and poetry readings, among other things. Kennedy traditionally ended his show, and the day at WBVP, with the song “I’ll See You In My Dreams” and a extending a good night greeting over the airwaves just before sign off at Midnight.  Alan Boal alternated on occasion with Kennedy in the evening time slot as well. ” 

In 1951, although Geneva College was still sixteen years  away from having it’s own student run radio station, which would eventually go by the call letters of WGEV, Don Kennedy played a prominent part in  furthering educational opportunities for other students at the time.  Kae Kirkwood, archival Librarian at the McCartney Library at Geneva College, reports the following about about Don Kennedy from an an archive posting from February of that year:  “A radio studio is set up in the annex behind Alumni Hall. Student Donald Kennedy, a radio announcer with WBVP, has built a complete and compact radio unit. Weekly productions of the Radio Broadcasting Club will originate in this studio, and be broadcast by WBVP.”

The archives  at the McCartney Library at Geneva College also show the following about about Don Kennedy from a September, 1952 entry : “Don Kennedy, Geneva senior and WBVP radio announcer, is signed by DIX records, Pittsburgh, as a recording artist.  Don’s first records have already been issued. (Don goes on to become a well-known radio and television personality in Atlanta.)”

Kennedy began his radio career at WPIC in Sharon in 1947.  About a year later, Kennedy was one of the original staff members when WBVP signed on the air in 1948. After serving in the military in  Korea, Kennedy settled in Atlanta and began doing some on air work at WSB T.V.  In 1960, Kennedy founded and put WKLS F.M. on the air in Atlanta, and in 1976, Kennedy was the head of a company that put WATL T.V. Channel 36 back  on the air in Atlanta.

According to an online biography, recently, Kennedy has served as the network coordinator for the Atlanta Braves radio network and the Georgia Tech Football and Basketball networks. Kennedy also syndicated a weekly radio program called “Big Band Jump”, which aired on WBVP, on Sunday Mornings from 7 until 9 A.M. in the 1990’s and 2000’s, as part of over one hundred stations in The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Kennedy is also the voice of several cartoon characters on cable’s Cartoon Network and narrator for award winning documentaries seen on the nine television stations of Georgia Public Television. 

“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.