Since the mid 2000’s WISL Radio has broadcast live from Shamokin’s Anthracite Heritage Festival of the Arts on Memorial Day weekend. Each year is a little different, however one thing that remains consistent is WISL Morning Mayor, Tom Kutza is the host of the program.
Courtney Roberts, Bernie Flynn, Al Michaels, Jeff Mattox & Tom Kutza at the 2022 WISL Reunion.
Every year we have been able to provide some WISL history mixed in with other interviews including political figures, local entertainers and WISL listeners. This year, we decided to take a slightly different approach. In 2021, we unveiled our WISL Studio Museum in the Shamokin Museum located at Bamse Coffee at 150 East Lincoln Street. With this focus on the history of WISL, we felt it would be appropriate to focus our broadcast as a WISL Reunion Show.
The response was incredible and we were able to bring quite a few WISL alums together to reminisce about their time at Shamokin’s hometown station. In this exhibit, we present the entire WISL Reunion Show. Listen as Tom Kutza chats with Bernie Flynn, Courtney Roberts, Al Jeffries, Dave Leonard, Chris Roberts, Bob Woodley, James Wagner, Edward Washuta, Joe Anthony and Mikey D in this incredible reunion.
Street view of the former Courtesy Oldsmobile-Pontiac-Buick at Thrid and Walnut in Shamokin from 2015
Third and Walnut street in Shamokin had been home to a car dealership for many years. In the 1960s it was Ford dealer Dusick and Hoberg. By 1990, the building served as a General Motors dealership selling Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and Buicks and was operating under the name Courtesy.
Newspaper Advertisement Announcing the Name Change to Courtesy – Daily Item April 24th, 1990
In this exhibit, we present a radio commercial for Courtesy Oldsmobile-Pontiac-Buick from September of 1990 with Ron Hughes providing a rundown of the entire staff of the dealership.
In 1952, WISL submitted an application to the FCC proposing to add a one-hundred thousand watt television station on channel 65. Radio Anthracite, parent company of WISL would eventually pull their application and WISL-TV would never become a reality. You can learn more about the story of WISL-TV HERE.
Broadcasting – Telecasting TV Application Announcement – November 3rd, 1952
In the application process, Radio Anthracite submitted their proposed tower location and through the power of technology, we can pinpoint exactly where the WISL-TV tower would have been constructed.
Here is a Google Maps view of 40°48’02.0″N 76°33’26.0″W, the proposed location of the WISL-TV tower.
In the early days of radio, attracting national advertising accounts could make up a large portion of a radio station’s annual revenue. Radio stations were typically represented by national advertising firms that would broker advertising contracts for individual radio stations.
This advertisement was published in Radio Annual, a directory of all radio stations in the country. The directory would provide basic information on each radio stations including details such as, power, network affiliations and the names and roles of the station’s management team. These directories also sold advertising and radio stations could pay to include more specific messaging that would help to entice an advertiser to spend money in their market.
Here we have one such advertisement from WISL promoting the market estimates for Shamokin heading into 1953. We can see how economically robust Shamokin was in the early 1950s.
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
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
Yoch’s Bakery Advertisement for Shamokin Centennial in 1964
If you lived in Shamokin prior to 1977 you will certainly remember Yoch’s Bakery. You may even remember the smell of fresh baked bread walking to and from school or work, but do you remember Yoch’s on the radio? WISL aired many commercial over the years for “Yoch’s Dutch Maid Bread” and we are fortunate enough to have a couple of these classic commercials to share.
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.
When WISL radio signed on in 1948 there was quite a bit of money up for grabs in the Shamokin area. Independence Street was full of businesses, local jobs gave residents money to spend and WISL had the medium that could bring the consumer to the stores. WISL did not just target the local advertising market, they also looked to the national advertisers for revenue opportunities. However, being a fledgling station, WISL had to promote itself to the advertisers, otherwise known as the agency advertising buyers.
Our featured exhibit is one of the print ads featured in Broadcasting Magazine during the years of 1951 and 1952. In the early 1950’s Shamokin was doing a booming business with a growing economy and WISL was spending money to make sure Madison Avenue knew where to send their advertising dollars. This particular print ad was published in the January 21st 1952 issue of Broadcasting Magazine.
WISL Advertisement from Broadcasting Magazine January 21, 1952
