When WISL Radio signed on the air for the first time in January of 1948 it was truly a “state of the art facility.” The second floor of the Lark Building, a former bank, on Sunbury Street, was completely remodeled into a modern radio studio complete with a main control studio, news booth and a performance studio, in addition to administrative office. The walls were covered with acoustical tiles and the floor was finished with cork. This clean, new space was certainly a sight to behold.

The Lark Building on Sunbury Street Many Years Before Becoming Home to WISL Radio

Throughout the 1940′s and 1950′s RCA published a magazine entitled “Broadcast News,” highlighting the accomplishments of the stations that purchased and used their equipment. In radio’s “golden years” the equipment was as impressive as the media that they helped to produce. The chrome lines and Art Deco style of what would otherwise be very boring electrical equipment made studios into showpieces and RCA was very proud of their product. Almost every installation of the era was featured in this publication complete with fantastic pictures of the facilities they equipped. In September of 1949 WISL was featured in Broadcast News. Thanks to this magazine, supplied to us by western PA radio veteran Clarke Ingram, we can look back in time to see what WISL Radio looked like in the early years. Even more spectacular is the article that accompanies these photos, written by WISL’s first Chief Engineer B. T. Marshall. He outlines all the equipment and technical details of the WISL installation. The article has been transcribed for easy reading on the internet, and the original document is located at the end of this post in PDF format.

Less than 20 years later WISL’s transmitter building and the equipment contained within would be destroyed by fire. Click Here for information on the 1968 WISL Transmitter Fire.

WISL Directional Problem Solved With Four-Tower Array

By B. T. Marshall (WISL Chief Engineer)

Radio Station WISL (Radio Anthracite, Inc.) which is located in Shamokin, Pa., has been serving the anthracite region of central Pennsylvania for over a year. The new 1 KW AM broadcast station was conceived in the minds of a small group of public spirited citizens with a desire to provide complete local radio service to Shamokin community which lacked primary radio service at night prior to the advent of WISL.

ANTENNA ARRAY LOCATION

Engineering studies and surveys started in 1946 resulted in the filing of an application for 1000 watts on 1480 KC, with night-time protection provided (by a four tower antenna array) for existing stations on this channel. The antenna array (see Fig. 1) had to be located southeast of Shamokin in order to serve the purpose of its design. This particular area, at first, yielded no prospect for a suitable site because of the rising brush covered slopes of Big Mountain and the man-made ravines resulting from previous coal stripping operations. An aerial survey finally revealed a flat section, on the slope, large enough to accommodate the array. After a C.P. (Construction Permit) was granted, work began in June of 1947. Building construction and equipment installation proceeded smoothly. However, some delay was encountered while laying radials since huge rocks just below the ground surfaces mangled the laying plow. A highway rooter was finally equipped with a feed pipe. This massive piece of equipment pulled by a heavy duty “cat” planted 720 radials in four days. Equipment tests, shaping of contours, and proof -of -performance were started in the late fall of 1947. Due to the rugged terrain and danger of driving into stripping holes at night-the FCC granted permission to take field measurements in the daytime. Two-way radio was used to maintain contact between field cars and the transmitter.

STATION EQUIPMENT

The transmitter house and studios were completely equipped with the latest RCA equipment, including the 1 KW AM transmitter (BTA-1L), 76 series consolettes, 70-D transcription turntable, two complete audio, test and monitoring rack equipments and necessary RCA studio and control room microphones.

TRANSMITTER

The 1 KW transmitter and associated rack equipment were located as shown in Fig. 3. Transmitter design includes the RCA 250 watt transmitter (BTA-250L) which is used as the exciter for the 833-A Power Amplifiers which operate in a class “C” push-pull circuit. Plate modulation of the final amplifier is accomplished by two RCA-833A tubes, operating in class “B.” The complete transmitter occupies an approximate floor area of only 14.5 square feet. The studio consolette and turntables were arranged in front of the studio window as pictured in Fig. 3, to provide a convenient arrangement for the operator.

With both studio and transmitter ready for final equipment tests, WISL was granted permission for program tests in January 1948. All tests proceeded satisfactorily and since operation started, no air time has been lost due to equipment failure.

High Resolution Photo of WISL Transmitter Room.

MEDIA EXHIBITS

This is the original article as published in the September 1949 issue of “Broadcast News.”

September 1949 “Broadcast News”

Letters To Santa Graphic from Guinan’s Advertisement (Shamokin News-Dispatch, December 2nd 1951)

Growing up in the Shamokin and Mount Carmel area, it’s likely that when you hear someone say “Letters To Santa” it brings a warm feeling to your heart. It may bring back memories of preparing your letter for Santa, probably with the help of your Mother or Father, and then either mailing it to WISL Radio (a.k.a. The North Pole) or going with Mom or Dad to drop it off at a local business, who would make sure it would get to Santa, then racing home from school, or maybe waking up extra early to hear Santa Clause read your letter live on WISL Radio.

“Letters To Santa” article (Broadcasting Magazine December 12th, 1949)

The program was “Letters To Santa” and was arguably the longest running program on WISL Radio. While it’s difficult to track down the exact details of the show’s origins, we do know that it dates back as far as 1949, one year after WISL Radio signed on. According to an article written in the December 19th, 1949 edition of Broadcasting Magazine, the program drew “thousands of pieces of mail from every community, both urban and rural, in the area” and featured two announcers who would alternate reading the letters live on the air. The program ran 15 minutes in length and was usually sponsored by one local business.

Radio Listings as published in the Shamokin News Dispatch December 23rd, 1954, Notice “Letters To Santa” airs at 4pm

The program continued throughout the 1950’s, airing at various times during the day, sometimes at 11am other times at 4pm. The popularity of “Letters To Santa” grew and by the early 1960’s was being hosted by WISL News Director Jim Riley. The format was fairly the same, letters would come to the station and would be simply read on the air by Riley. However, in 1961, that format would change and WISL’s “Letter’s To Santa” would take on a whole new meaning to children in the area.

Tom Kutza has always loved the Christmas season and has even considered himself to be one of Santa’s helpers. When he joined WISL in 1961, he said to himself, if he had anything to do with the “Letters To Santa” program, he would arrange to have Santa read the letters to the children. It wouldn’t be long before Tom got his wish. Jim Riley accepted a job with WHLM-AM radio in Bloomsburg, PA, and upon his departure Tom took over the “Letters To Santa Program.”

From this point on, not only would children get to hear their letters read on the air, but WISL Radio would “fire up their connection to the North Pole” so that Santa himself could read the letters live on the radio.

Guinan’s Department Store Ad from The Shamokin News-Dispatch December 2nd, 1954, telling kids to drop their letters off in their Toyland section.

Over the years there were many sponsors of the “Letters To Santa” program. In the 1950’s there was W.C. Hack & Sons and Guinan’s Department Store, both of which showed their support in newspaper ads in the Shamokin News Dispatch. Kutza said that during the 1960’s Reed’s Dairy was one of the major sponsors, and that kids could give their letter to the Reed’s delivery man to be read by Santa. Burger King was also a sponsor over the years, and kids could take their letters to the restaurant to get them to the big guy.

W.C. Hack & Son’s Ad from The Shamokin News-Dispatch November 24th, 1953. Note the mention of “Letters To Santa” at the bottom of the ad.

Kutza said that it has been interesting to see how toys have changed through the years. When he took over the program the children would “write for dolls and tinker-toys, but today it’s all computers and high tech gadgets.” The program has brought it’s share of heart breakers to the air as well, Kutza said that there were many letters asking Santa to “please get Daddy a job for Christmas” or “bring Daddy back from the war.” He shared with us a couple of the memorable happy stories from over the years:

Father Herbert Skurski from St. Stephen’s Church was loved by the children. Known as “The Magician” it saddened many when he was sent by the Archdiocese to a church in Nova Scotia. The Father was well known in the Shamokin area, so it wasn’t surprising when one youngster wrote a letter to Santa asking if he would please pick up Father Skurski in Nova Scotia on his way to Shamokin and bring him back for Christmas. Well, as luck would have it, Father Skurski was headed back to Shamokin for the season. Can you imagine how happy that youngster was to find that Santa had honored the wish and delivered Father Skurski to Shamokin, just in time for Christmas Mass?

Another story takes us back to the days of the Vietnam War. A young boy wrote to Santa “if it’s possible, could you bring daddy home for Christmas?” Kutza said that these letters were always the saddest, knowing that all this little guy wanted was his daddy home for Christmas, and that nothing could be done to make sure his wish came true. However in this case there was a little Christmas magic in the air. Christmas morning came and the little boy came downstairs from his room, hoping to see his daddy standing there. He looked and looked and there was no sign of his daddy. Sad and disappointed that his daddy was not there on Christmas morning, he looked at his mother and said “I guess Santa couldn’t bring daddy home.” What the boy didn’t know was that in the early morning hours, while he was sleeping his father did come home and was asleep upstairs. The boy’s mother said he should go look upstairs, maybe Santa had left him up there. Needless to say, Santa delivered, and their family was reunited for Christmas.

In 1998, Kutza left WISL and “Letters to Santa” came to an end, at least in it’s original form. Five years later, in 2003 the News-Item approached Kutza, who at the time was the Tourism Director of Northumberland County, about bringing the program back, this time through the magic of the world wide web. Kutza agreed and now children from anywhere in the world can send their letters directly to Santa and hear them read by him nightly through the News-Item’s website.

The tradition also continues on the WISL internet stream weekday night at 7pm through the month of December. Kutza said he is so thankful that the News-Item saw the value in this wonderful program and brought it back to life.

We were able to locate a couple vintage “Letters To Santa” programs from the 1990’s, they are presented here for your enjoyment. We are always looking to add to the archives, so if you or anyone you know may have recorded a “Letters To Santa” program on WISL feel free to email us at [email protected]. We will be happy to pick up cassettes or reel to reel tapes, transfer them to a digital format, return the originals and provide a digital copy in return. We would love to be able to share more Christmas Magic from “Letters To Santa.”

AUDIO EXHIBITS

Letters To Santa program from the early 1990’s

Letters To Santa program from 1995

Tag: 1940's

Radio Station WISL: Broadcast News September 1949