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.

The story of Frank Smith, Tom Price and Charles Onderka emigrating from Pittsburgh to put WBVP on the air in 1948 has been well celebrated and covered earlier this year as part of this series.  However, that was not the only group of broadcasting entrepreneurs to leave their homeland and put roots down in Western Pennsylvania.  Beaver County was also the final destination for another group of radio pioneers in 1957 when Miners Broadcasting Service, Inc. ventured from Pottsville, PA to start up another radio station in Ambridge.   While most people know Pottsville as the home of Yuengling Beer, it was also the home of WPAM, 1450 A.M., a radio station owned by Miners Broadcasting Service  that was started in April of 1946.  Miners Broadcasting Service was made up of  eight residents from the areas of Harrisburg, Pottsville, Tamaqua , Hazelton, and Lansford, Pennsylvania,  including Joseph L. Maguire, Kenneth F. Maguire, John T. Maguire, John W. Grenoble, Evan Evans, Patrick J. McCall, John Koch and James J. Curran. In 1952, Miners Broadcasting Service put its second radio station, WLSH, 1410 A.M., in Lansford on the air.  

The late 1940’s and 1950’s were a great time to be in the radio business.  Television was not yet dominating the advertising world, and there was lots of excitement over new community radio stations that had been recently turned on all over the United States.  One can assume that the fortunes for Miners Broadcasting Service and their two radio stations out in the eastern side of Pennsylvania were pouring in, so the decision was made to move westward and add a third radio station, the one we now know and love as WMBA, to their portfolio.  Allegheny County Courthouse records show that in 1954, Miners Broadcasting Service, Inc.  purchased a little over ten acres of wooded land atop a hill along Big Sewickley Creek Road in Bell Acres for $4,000 from Vincent and Marie Berkopec.  Not long afterwards, trails going up the hill were cleared, and a small transmitter building was built and two 200 feet tall guyed towers were erected on the property that still serves as the point of broadcasting for WMBA. The Berkopecs owned other parcels of land adjacent to the one that they sold off to Miners Broadcasting Service.  One of which was down closer to the highway and, while the property has changed hands over the years, it still features a small tavern, called “Berky’s”, which is named for the former land owners.  So, in a unique coincidence, even now a days, the Berkopecs, through the bar that bears their name near the WMBA tower site, are at times, still providing assistance in the form of  comfort and refreshment to weary WMBA staffers, as they most likely did for the original station owners who had the huge task of turning the thick wooded land into a broadcasting headquarters.

The aforementioned Ken Maguire, one of the partners with Miners Broadcasting Service, along with his wife, Mimi, daughter Phyllis and son Ken, Jr., moved west to oversee the startup of WMBA.  The family reportedly settled in nearby Edgeworth. Phyllis was also rumored to have helped out with some of the engineering duties at the station. Roy Angst served as the station’s first general manager.  The upstairs floor of Action Tire on Duss Avenue in Ambridge was converted into an office and studio set up for WMBA, and that was where the station conducted business into the early 1970’s.  Ken Maguire, Jr. also worked with his father during the upstart days of WMBA. Maguire, Jr., later on worked at WDVE in Pittsburgh. The younger Maguire went by the name “Kevin McGuire” when he did his air shift on WDVE and was well suited for the job at the Pittsburgh based rock format radio station.  Reportedly, Maguire, Jr. had a the classic deep sounding, smooth, night time F.M. disc jockey voice that all radio announcers back then wanted to have .   Other announcers and staff that were part of WMBA in those early years were Dave Denniston, Dudley Woodrow “Woody” Lester, Ray Fallon, and Walter “Red” McCoy, among others. 

“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.