Almost everybody in this town has fond memories of and everyday encounters with the radio. Our town's considered one of the most important in radio's evolution; formats were developed and many musical careers were "made" here. Now there's a book that encapsulizes the history, the personalities and the magic.
Put together by Alan Boris, a local radio historian and founder/director of the Philadelphia Radio Archives, "Philadelphia Radio" is part of the "Images of America" series issued by the hyper-localized Arcadia Publishing (the operation just put out one on Roxborough, too.) The photos-with-short-captions layout style makes the work seem more of souvenir scrapbook than a serious history, though the vintage images are intriguing and Boris does pack a lot of useful information into his text.
Didja know that most of the early (1920s) AM radio stations in Philadelphia were housed in and backed by department stores - like WFI at Strawbridge & Clothier and WLIT at Lit Brothers - later merged as WFIL? The stores set 'em up so they could sell their pricey radios and featured their own in-house orchestras, vocal groups and comedians as the live, on-air entertainment. The stations were so happy to get feedback from pioneer listeners that they'd send you a special "thank you" note.
Boris also has some interesting insights about FM. Introduced in the late 1940s, the format was doing so badly that WFIL AM & FM owner Walter Annenberg experimented with repurposing the FM station as an early form of fax transmission device - sending an 8 page version of the Philadelphia Inquirer (which he also owned) over the airwaves to home-based printers. So now we've kind of come full circle with electronic delivery of newpapers to tablet computers, haven't we?
Naturally, the stars of radio past are well represented in the tome - from Stan Lee Broza, "Uncle Wip," Ed Harvey and Frank Ford in the "Golden Age," transitioning to the "Rock Era" of WIBG and WFIL good guys, the conscious soul team (Jimmy Bishop, Georgie Woods et al) at WDAS and the progressive rock explosion. Image wise, no one's better represented than Ed Sciaky, who often had a photographer hanging around when a star visited his radio shows!
Did Boris miss a lot? Probably. For sure, I can tell you he left out a lot of the guys from WMMR's "Golden Age" that are STILL active in the biz - like Nick Spitzer (of public radio's "American Routes,") "World Cafe" host David Dye, Fox (and formerly CBS) Radio newscaster Bill Vitka, Sirius/XM's big bunch (Mark Goodman, Carol Miller. Earle Bailey, Joe Bonadonna, Michael Tearson), Blue Note Records executive producer Michael Cuscuna and, um, yours truly, too. Maybe he can do a second edition?
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
