Tom Kutza in the WISL studio on his final day on the air
For those that lived in Shamokin from the 1960s through the 1990s it was impossible to thinnk that there would be a world where Tom Kutza would no longer be on the radio. However, that day came on May 22nd, 1998. After thirty-seven and a half years of being on WISL Tom Kutza said his final farewell to his WISL family.
WISL AM & FM Logos 1990s
So, Why would Tom Kutza leave WISL after so many years? Times were changing and WISL found itself in a tough position. Shamokin’s economy was not what it once was and owner Mick Haggerty was unable to provide the income and benefits that Kutza needed to continue in his role at the station. It was time to move on.
After leaving WISL, Tom would begin a new chapter in his life as the Tourism Director of Northumberland County. This new role would allow Tom to travel the county sharing the rich history of the area meeting face to face with the the community that he broadcast to for so many years.
For WISL, the post-Kutza years wouldn’t be as happy. After Kutza’s departure, WISL would continue on with a series of syndicated programs. By the fall of 2001, Mick Haggerty’s MJR Media would sell both WISL AM & FM to Clear Channel Communications for $800,000. WISL-AM would be taken dark shortly thereafter and WISL-FM would become WBLJ-FM as a simulcast of WBYL “Bill 95” in Williamsport.
Bill 95 Logo
This was not the end of the line for WISL. In 2010, WISL1480.com began broadcasting Tom once again found himself back on the radio, but this time, internet radio. Tom now enjoys his retirement, doing his weekly polka show, Letter’s To Santa, live broadcasts from the annual Anthracite Heritage Festival of the Arts and doing what he loves, connecting to people.
Tom Kutza at The Anthracite Heritage Festival Of The Arts
Now, lets go back to 1998 as Tom Kutza says his final goodbye on WISL.
AUDIO EXHIBIT
WISL (Shamokin) Tom Kutza Says Goodbye May 22nd, 1998
National-Dime Bank East End Branch – Photo from Shamokin News-Dispatch July 1958
In 1932 the Dime Trust and Safe Deposit Company merged with the Shamokin National Bank to become the National-Dime Bank of Shamokin. National-Dime was one of the largest financial institutions in Shamokin serving customers with personal and commercial loans, Christmas clubs, and savings and checking accounts. The bank’s corporate offices and main branch were located at the corner of Market and Independence Streets in downtown Shamokin, the current location of M&T Bank. In March of 1968 the National-Dime Bank merged with The Pennsylvania National Bank and Trust Company of Pottsville.
Pennsylvania National Bank And Trust Company Logo, circa 1968
In 1958, The National-Dime Bank of Shamokin was in expansion mode. A merger with the First National Bank of Trevorton was completed on May 28th 1958 with the Trevorton Branch of The National-Dime Bank opening on June 2nd. Around the same time, renovations were underway at the corner of Independence and Shamokin Streets for what would become the East End branch of National-Dime and their third location.
Advertisement promoting the National-Dime Bank East End Branch Open House – Shamokin News-Dispatch July 14th 1958
The official grand opening of the East End branch commenced on July 15th 1958 with an open house celebration. The open house was attended by directors of the National-Dime Bank, local leaders and featured a live broadcast by WISL Radio.
National-Dime Bank East End Branch ribbon cutting – Shamokin News-Dispatch July 16th 1958
It’s not surprising that WISL Radio would be on-hand to help promote the opening of the new, modern banking facility considering Henry W. Lark, owner of WISL Radio, was also the president of The National-Dime Bank of Shamokin.
National-Dime Bank Grand Opening article – Shamokin News-Dispatch July 16th 1958
The WISL Broadcast took place from 4pm to 10pm and featured interviews with a number of people of interest who were in attendance. The audio clip that we have to share includes one of those notable persons, Mary Roebling.
Mary Roebling 1958
Mary Roebling was a pioneer for women in banking, becoming the President of Trenton Trust in 1937 and also the first woman ever to become president of a banking institution. When Roebling took control of Trenton Trust, the country was in the throws of The Great Depression and the bank was facing $4 million dollars in debt with only $11 million dollars in assets. By 1951, she not only was able to pull her bank through the financial crisis but also increased the banks assets to $70 million dollars. That same year she also scored the bank’s biggest client to date by securing the business of U.S. Steel.
Roebling lent her success to the cause of women’s rights and constantly promoted women in business and spoke out against sexism in the boardroom. In addition to becoming the first woman to serve as a bank president she was also the first woman governor on the American Stock Exchange, was the founder of the first female-owned bank, the Woman’s Bank of Denver in 1978 and first woman member of Union League Club in Philadelphia.
WISL transcription disc Label from Mary Roebling Interview
Roebling was a friend and colleague of Henry Lark and made the trip from Trenton to Shamokin for the open house event. In the following audio exhibit, we have a rare recording of Roebling as she congratulates Henry Lark on his expansion of National-Dime. This recording was likely made on premise at the new East End branch and broadcast during the 4pm to 10pm broadcast.
AUDIO EXHIBIT
Mary Roebling at the Grand Opening of The National-Dime Bank East End Branch, July 15th, 1958
WISL Promotional Sign – “I Was A Communist For The FBI”
Radio was a much different medium in 1948 when WISL first signed on the air. Back then, radio was programmed much like television is programmed today with a schedule of different programming types throughout the day. Most radio stations had network affiliations and would run prime time and news programing offered by them. WISL was a Mutual Network affiliate and aired several of their programs. We will dig into this topic at a later date. For this post we will revisit a short-lived program that centered on one of the biggest political topics of the day, Communism.
The year was 1952, the “Red Scare” was in full force and was a very popular source of material in the entertainment industry. This program is centered around the character Matt Cvetic, a real-life FBI volunteer undercover agent. His testimony in 1949 helped to put away several members of a conspiracy to overthrow the US Government. After the trial, Cvetic sold his story and it became a serial in the Saturday Evening Post, a bestselling book and a Warner Brothers Movie.
The Frederic W. Ziv Company would later turn his story into a syndicated radio program. The series was produced without help from the FBI, as they refused to assist in the project. The program aired from April 23rd, 1952, through October 14th, 1953, with a total of 78 programs produced. This is where WISL comes in.
Article From Legion Magazine, October 1952 mentioning WISL
Shamokin’s WISL was one of the over 600 radio stations in the US that carried this 30 minute, weekly radio program. The image above is an original billboard poster for the program, promoting it Sunday evening airtime on WISL radio. This poster was found, of all places, lining a drawer in an old store in Shamokin. The owner found the relic when cleaning and gave it to Tom Kutza who has shared it with us.
We have compiled a sample of these programs in this post. Simply click below to relive radio’s golden age, the days of the “Theater of the Mind”. And now, “I Was A Communist For The FBI”, starring Dana Andrews, brought to you by the Bakers of Blue Ribbon Cake, as heard on WISL radio from 1952-1953.
AUDIO EXHIBITS
“I Walk Alone” – Original Air Date: April 23rd, 1952
“Card Game In The Clouds” – Original Air Date: June 4th, 1952
“The Red Record” – Original Air Date: August 20th, 1952
“The Wrong Green” – Original Air Date: April 1st, 1953
“The Crossed Heart” – Original Air Date: June 3rd, 1953
“Rhapsody In Red” – Original Air Date: August 19th, 1953
The Furhmann & Schmidt Brewing Company was formed in 1906, operating from a facility located at Commerce and Washington Streets in Shamokin. Known as simply F&S, They produced a variety of brews that could be found in tap rooms all over the city. Although the brewery closed in 1975, the memory is still very much alive. If you would like to learn more about the rich history of Furhmann & Schmidt, Larry Deklinski, Staff Writer for the News Item, published an amazing history of F&S.
F&S Premium Half and Half with Sealed Ageing store sign
Business was booming by the 1950’s and F&S began an eight year expansion program, ending in 1954 with a new bottling shop, garage and offices. To promote these enhancements a new advertising campaign was developed touting the “Sealed-Ageing Process”. The commercials presented here are part of that advertising campaign and aired on WISL in 1956. It’s likely that these commercials were written and produced by a large advertising agency and would have been hears on many other stations at the time, not just WISL.
An Assortment of F&S Beer bottles
These particular discs were uncovered in 2005 when Dr. Edward Twiggar, owner of the Lark Building, permitted the WISL team to remove the contents of the former WISL Studios. These original acetate discs were found in the record library in a section labeled “Tom’s Box”. These discs were in pretty rough condition. In order to get the best audio quality to preserve these historic artifacts we had these discs sent to Evergreen Computer Services to have them professionally transferred to digital files.
Below are photos of the labels from the records found in the former studios of WISL.
F&S disc label
F&S disc label
F&S disc label
F&S disc label
What you will hear are two groupings of commercials for this F&S Sealed Ageing campaign. The first set, (cuts #4-11) was intended to target a male or general audience while the second set, (cuts #43-47) are targeted at a female audience. You will also hear some isolated jingles to be used during local commercial production. A full jingle, short open jingle and short closing jingle are included.
In addition to the commercials that were found on these discs, there are few extras included. These were saved by Tom Kutza on a cassette tape, many years ago and feature a different “Sealed Ageing” jingle from the one heard on these discs. You will also hear WISL’s Bernie Sacks on some locally produced commercials, including one that features a “man from Mars”.
So now, let’s go back in time with F&S and WISL!
AUDIO EXHIBITS
F&S #4 (Sealed Ageing – Seals In Goodness) 1956
F&S #5 (Sealed Ageing – Brand New Taste In Beer) 1956
F&S #6 (Sealed Ageing – Flavor & Goodness) 1956
F&S #7 (Sealed Ageing – New Taste) 1956
F&S #8 (Sealed Ageing – Try And You’ll Cheer) 1956
F&S #9 (Sealed Ageing – Taste For Yourself) 1956
F&S #10 (Sealed Ageing – If You Haven’t Tasted) 1956
F&S #11 (Sealed Ageing – More And More People) 1956
F&S #43 (Sealed Ageing – Summer Months) 1956
F&S #44 (Sealed Ageing – With Dinner) 1956
F&S #45 (Sealed Ageing – Buy Your Husband A Case) 1956
F&S #46 (Sealed Ageing – When Friends Drop In) 1956
January of 1998 marked the 50th anniversary of WISL radio. By this time the station was owned by Charles “Mick” Haggerty and was suffering the effects of a faltering local economy. Within a couple of years Morning Man and WISL cornerstone Tom Kutza would leave the station and move on as Northumberland County Tourism Director and the stations (AM and FM) would be sold and the AM taken dark.
While tough times lay ahead, WISL was celebrating 50 years and looking ahead with high hopes. To mark the occasion, News-Item Staff Writer Mark Gilger put together a nice write up of the station for their January 16th issue. We feature this article in today’s post.
WISL Radio Marks 50 Years
BY MARK GILGER STAFF WRITER
SHAMOKIN – WISL Radio in Shamokin, which has delighted thousands of listeners through the years with its wide assortment of programming, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The 24-hour, seven-day-a-week station, which is co-owned by Mick and JoAnne Hagerty of Palmerton, is planning several promotions and live broadcasts from various locations during the up coming year. Mr. and Mrs. Hagerty, who serve as officers for MJR Media Inc., purchased WISL Radio AM and FM stations on Sept. 4, 1997, after leasing both stations since May 1996. The AM station was purchased from Laurel Broadcasting while the FM station was bought from Northeast Broadcasting of Northumberland Inc.
Charles Petrie first station manager
WISL Radio was founded on Jan. 25, 1948, by Henry Lark at its current location at the corner of Rock and Sunbury streets, which is known as the Lark Building. The first station manager was Charles Petrie, Dick Owens succeeded Petrie as station manager. Other managers through the years have included Bernie “Saks” Friedman, Art Sherman and John Berry.
Tom Kutza, popular longtime radio personality, has worked at the station for 37 of the 50 years it has been in existence. The dedicated disc jockey has witnessed a lot of changes in radio through the years and has many fond memories of his radio work “We’ve carried it all through the years including basketball and football games, heart-a-thons, library Christmas tree projects, the Stanley Coveleskie monument project, numerous live remotes from different locations celebrating special events, live broadcasts in the studio using the old boom microphones, religious shows, news talk shows, sports talk shows with Bernie Romanoski Sr. and many other programs,” Kutza said. Kutza, who has interviewed hundreds of celebrities over the years, added, “My favorite program of all time has been the ‘Letters to Santa’ show. I really love that program.” Kutza, 55, whose name has be come synonymous with WISL Radio, started working at the station after graduating from high school. The “station historian” has many photographs and other keepsakes pertaining to the station. The disc jockey, who resides in Elysburg, said the biggest changes in radio today include more talk shows and updated equipment. “I love doing my talk show “ Kutza said. “That’s the highlight for me because I get to meet so many people. I love coming to work and I’m proud to be a part of this station and area. We have the most dedicated listeners in our community. I’m thrilled I’ve been able to work here so long and it’s really amazing for a small station like WISL Radio to be on the air for 50 years.”
Tom Kutza, seated, disc jockey at WISL Radio in Shamokin for 37 years, and station owner Mick Hagerty relax in the control room. WISL Radio is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. (News-Item photo by Mark Gilger)
Mick Hagerty had nothing but praise for the longtime radio personality. “Tom’s is an institution at WISL. When someone thinks of WISL, they immediately associate Tom’s name with the station. His show is a tradition and we plan on maintaining that tradition for as many years as we can.” Hagerty said plans are being made to have Kutza conduct his talk show from his home to make it more convenient for the radio personality, who has endured health problems in recent years.
Mick Hagerty said various promotions are being planned throughout the year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the station. He said remote broadcasts will be done from different places including the historical Victoria Theatre in downtown Shamokin. Memorabilia trinkets pertaining to the 50th anniversary will be made available during the next several months. The station owner commented, “We plan to upgrade our equipment and hire more sales people and disc jockeys. We want to in crease our power on both stations (1480 AM and 95.3 FM). We also are looking into setting up a booth at Knoebels Amusement Resort so we can do live remotes from the park”
Hagerty said the format for the FM station, which features “oldies” music, will remain the same while the programming on the AM station will be upgraded.
“WISL Radio Marks 50 Years” From The News Item January 16th 1998
What was the cost of advertising on WISL in the 1970s? This rate card was used to determine how much airtime on WISL cost for specific dayparts and durations.
During this period WISL was still owned by Radio Anthracite (Henry W. Lark). There are a couple of important things to note on this rate card:
First, WISL AM & FM are listed and each station has its own branding; WISL-AM as “The Voice of Information” and WISL-FM as “The Sound of Entertainment”.
Second, this rate card not only show the rates for local advertising, but also national advertising rates. While it is uncommon today, national advertising buyers would look to a small market station such as WISL for national advertising buys. The national slogan used was “A Quality Station in a Quality Market”.
Third, both WISL-AM and FM had a broadcast day that began at 6am and ended at midnight. While both stations were authorized for both day and night service, they elected to sign-off during the overnight hours.
What was the cost of advertising on WISL in the late 1980s and early 1990s? This rate card was used to determine how much airtime on WISL cost for specific dayparts and durations.
During this period, WISL was owned by Laurel Broadcasting and was a standalone station. WISL-FM 95.3 was operating as WSPI “Spy 95.3”.
In August of 1964. WISL radio and Shamokin were catching their piece of the national spotlight, (at least on some level), in the pages of a well known teen magazine. That summer Teen Life Magazine brought their traveling record hop parade to town, just in time for Shamokin’s Centennial celebration. Teen Life Magazine had their own DJ, “cleverly” named T.J who’s job was to travel from town to town across the United States and host record hops, many times bringing a music start or two with him.
from left to right: Doug Moody, Tom Kutza, Kenny Dino, T.J. and Diane Christian
This time, it was Shamokin’s turn. Along with SMASH Records A&R man Doug Moody, T.J. met T.K, (better known as Tom Kutza) and Bernie Flynn of WISL radio. According to Tom, quite a crowd showed up for the even which included live performances from Kenny Dino, a singer who was trying to build a career for himself at the time. Dino’s only chart record was a 1961 release entitled “Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night”, which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot-100. Dino’s career included a list of strike-outs which included turning down a chance to duet with a young singer named Paul Simon, as well as having his record company refuse to allow him to record the song “Suspicion” which would become a huge hit for Terry Stafford.
Also in Shamokin that night was Diane Christian. Diane was in a number of vocal groups in the early 1960s including The Rosettes, Diane & The Darlings and the Chic-Lets. By early 1964 she was pushing a solo record on SMASH called “Has Anybody Seen My Boyfriend” which did not receive any national attention.
from left to right: Ron Schreffler, Vinny D, Bernie Flynn, Jake Berkheiser, Tom Berkheiser and an unidentified record hop attendee
The local music attraction that night was a group called the Tremelos, not to be confused with the English group, The Tremeloes who had a string of hits in the 1960s including “Silence Is Golden” and “Here Comes My Baby”. This Tremelos group consisted of some local boys; Ron Schreffler and brothers Jake and Tom Berkheiser. Schreffler would later join the group D’Kool & The Kasuals, a band of coal region guys who were signed to and recorded for the Cameo/Parkway label in Philadelphia. The band toured all across the region promoting their biggest hit “She’s Good To Me”.
SMASH records logo
Tom Kutza remembered the “slimy” record promoter who went by the name Vinny D. (pictured along with Bernie Flynn and The Tremelos). Tom recalled that he wore a gold ring on his finger with the letters “V” and “D” embossed on it. According to Kutza, they were staying at a local hotel in Shamokin and surprise everyone in the morning by skipping town without paying their hotel bill.
Regardless of the moral deficiencies of the Teen Life Magazine entourage, Tom said that everyone had a great time at the hop. Tom and Bernie even got their pictures in the August edition of Teen Life, turning the tow young DJs into national celebrities of sorts. Tom told us that after the magazine was published he started receiving “fan” mail from the young female readers, wanting to know more about the “DJ that digs the Big Beat”. Tom was happily married by that time and wanted to stay that way, so those letters only live on in legend.
Here is the original Shamokin portion of the write-up from the August 1964 edition of Teel Life Magazine. We hope you enjoy the 1960s teen speak.
WINNERS IN SHAMOKIN: Shamokin, Pennsylvania is celebrating its 100th birthday come the end of June. Shamokin has also something extra-special to celebrate – their own prize-winning DJs, TOM KUTZA and BERNIE FLYNN, who melt the hot wax as they spin the winners over WISL. Tom and Bernie dig the Big Beat. I can testify to that. The boys had me stomping up a storm when I invaded their territory, together with DOUG MOODY, that curly-headed, blue-eyed A & R Promo Sales Chief for SMASH records. It was a SMASH NITE at the TEEN LIFE Record Hop, emceed by Tom. Bernie and Yours Truly. Doug supplied the SMASH records. For days before the TL hop, Tom and Bernie blasted away over WISL warning one and all not to miss the TL-SMASH Hop… obviously all of Shamokin heard the warning and came to our Hop. It was a wonderful kind of madness. Between dance sets we had LIVE entertainment. KENNY DINO was greeted as though her was a BEATLE, or something. Anyway, Doug and I will be back in the Shamokin-Mt. Carmel area soon. Keep tuned to WISL for dates.
EXHIBIT
This is a PDF of the original “Dialing The DJs with T.J.” Teen Life Magazine spread.
A couple months ago we were introduced to Tom Kollins and had the pleasure of spending some time on the phone reminiscing about his days at WISL. Tom provided a wealth of knowledge, some fascinating recordings and just plain good conversation. We are honored to present to you the Tom Kalinowski story. Thomas Kalinowski’s involvement with WISL radio goes back farther than anyone we have been able to interview for the WISL Hall of Fame. He was only 12 years old in 1948 when he auditioned with the Kelly Bogetti Orchestra for a live music spot at the station. Tom says that Kelly Bogetti billed him as the “youngest accomplished Hawaiian guitarist in the Anthracite area.” Although they didn’t get the job, this would not be the last time Tom would climb the stairs at Rock and Sunbury Streets.
By 1952 Tom was entering his senior year at St. Edward’s High School. For career day that year, St. Edwards students took over WISL. With some assistance from the staff, they read commercials and did the station breaks for the day. Through this audition, Tom impressed the management and was asked to join the station. His first role was night announcer. The shift began at 6pm and Tom would head to the station each night after school was out. His duties consisted of various station breaks, and reading news, sports and other announcements between the Mutual Radio Network programs the station aired in the evening. Tom said he would sign the station off by playing a transcription of the “Star Spangled Banner” around 11 or 12 at night.
WISL Schedule Tuesday, September 8th 1953
In June of 1953 Tom graduated high school, and about that same time John Persico, who was the morning disc jockey at WISL had a blow out fight with Charlie Petrie, the station manager. Petrie subsequently fired Persico and Tom was asked to take the morning spot. The morning program was called “Wislin’ Time” and was a typical DJ show. Tom says they would play records, do interviews, and give the news, sports and weather. This was local radio and Tom was a one-man-band. He said “you needed a lot of energy to run that kind of a program.”
According to Tom, you needed to be a jack-of-all-trades to work in local radio at that time. While at WISL Tom was a Disc Jockey, play-by-play announcer for both football and basketball, did remote broadcasts and even tried his hand at advertising sales, “because every station wanted you to hit the streets and try to sell.” Some remotes that stood out in Tom’s mind include broadcasting live from a horse show held at a riding ring on Trevorton Road and broadcasting live from the American Legion when Ralph Marteri’s band came to play.
Jolly Jack Robel
Tom remembered Jolly Jack Robel, an accomplished Polka band leader from Shenandoah, who would come to WISL once a week for an hour long Polka show. Tom said that they would have a great time doing the program, but would have an even better time hitting up a local saloon after the show was over. Other memorable programs included The Little Giant’s Sunday program. The Little Giant owned a meat market at the east end of Independence Street. Legend has it that during the war, his was the only shop in town with meat, leading to questions of the quality and source of his stock. Nevertheless, in the post-war years, The Little Giant’s program on Sunday mornings was very popular. So popular in fact, that many would catch the early mass on Sunday to be sure they wouldn’t miss the program. In addition to the meat market and radio show, Tom also remembered The Little Giant having a zoo of sorts, located at the entrance to Irish Valley, where kids could see and pet deer, goats and the like.
WCBG Logo from Matchbook Cover circa 1956
Tom’s time at WISL would come to an end in 1956 when he auditioned for and won a job as the morning man at a brand new radio station in Chambersburg, PA; WCBG. With this move also came a name change, he now began going by the name Tom Kollins, a name that would stay through the rest of his radio career.
Shortly after joining the staff at WCBG, Tom was approached by the local competition, WCHA, to come work for them. Tom agreed and found himself back in Central Pennsylvania working for another station owned by WCHA in Milton, WMLP. Tom recalled that one of the new hire rituals at WMLP was to send the new guy to the Buoy Hardware store, located across the street from the station, to try to sell advertising time. Tom says that the joke was that “old man Buoy was like Ebenezer Scrooge, was grumpy, would keep all the lights out in the store except where he knew you would be, and would never buy advertising.” That is until Tom went in. He said that either Mr. Buoy was trying to play a trick on the station or he was just simply ready to advertise, because when Tom went in, he bought some spots. When Tom returned to the station with the spot order, no one could believe it.
WCAR Detroit Publicity Photo circa 1962
Tom’s time at WMLP didn’t last long, as soon as contractual obligations were concluded with WCBG, Tom was brought back to Chambersburg and began working at WCHA. At WCHA Tom hosted a music program and did play-by-play for various sports. You can hear Tom at WCHA in the audio exhibits section of this post. These recordings were found by Tom on reel-to-reel tapes in his home and have not been heard for many years.
By 1960 Tom would find himself moving halfway across the country, thanks to a major market disc jockey who was traveling the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Tom says this disc jockey caught his program and told his boss in Detroit about this guy he heard in Pennsylvania. Tom was offered a job with WCAR in Detroit where he would finish his radio career.
Tom Kollins at the Detroit Athletic Club circa 1973
In 1965, Tom decided to make a career change, following a passion he had for Billiards and began playing pool professionally. Tom was a very accomplished pool player winning the Michigan Straight Pool Championship twice. From 1968 to 1973 he was the Billiard room manager at the prestigious Detroit Athletic Club. By 1977 Tom had found a new passion, one for the game of Snooker. This passion would find Tom traveling the world playing the game and holding the United States National Snooker Championship title five times. CLICK HERE to learn more about Tom’s fascinating Snooker career.
Tom Kollins on the Golf Course
Today, Tom enjoys retirement with his family and lived in the Detroit area. We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to share in Tom’s interesting history, we sincerely thank him for allowing us to make another WISL friend.
*** UPDATE ***
We are sad to report that Tom passed away on June 22nd 2020 at the age of 84.
Fire tore through the WISL Transmitter site located on Big Mountain on February 17th 1968 completely destroying all equipment and forcing the station of the air for a brief period of time. Below is an article published in the Shamokin News-Dispatch on February 19th 1968, the Monday following the fire. Thanks to Heather Sharp-Makal for uncovering this newspaper clipping.
Shamokin News-Dispatch Story February 19th 1968
On the same day that this article was published, WISL also ran a nice sized advertisement proclaiming that the station would be back on the air shortly and thanking listeners for their support and patience.
WISL AD from the Shamokin News-Dispatch February 19th 1968
Amazingly within days of being taken off the air by fire, WISL resumed broadcasting at 9am on February 21st 1968. A new transmitter building would be built in the coming months and would serve the station for more than three more decades. Below is the article from the Shamokin News-Dispatch announcing that WISL has returned to the air.
