Radio and television are so much a part of our daily lives that it’s hard to think of a time when neither of these existed.
If you ask most people which was the first radio station to go on the air, they will say KDKA, Pittsburgh. That’s not quite so. It’s important to realize that when KDKA, Pittsburgh was licensed as the world’s first broadcasting station, radio didn’t “explode onto the scene.” Instead, radio listening already had been growing rapidly in the period after World War I.
Operators of amateur radio stations, called “hams,” had government licenses that were supposed to be for talking back and forth between two people. But instead of this, what they said over the air was being picked up by persons as entertainment.
People loved the idea of listening to music and talking that came over the air and into their homes. Soon, crystal sets were replaced by battery-operated radios with tubes, and loudspeakers replaced earphones. So in 1920 Congress passed a law to regulate this rapidly growing national phenomenon. The first license was given to KDKA. Within a few months, hundreds of radio stations were licensed.
Tyrone was typical of every community in America. Radios were on sale in local stores, and one of these was Burley Brothers, on Pennsylvania Ave. The “big thing” was to try to hear stations at great distances. People would brag about hearing Boston, or Chicago, or Clay Center, Nebraska.
Blair County’s First Radio Station
A visit by an Altoona man to his Tyrone cousins brought about the first radio station in Blair County. Charlie Burley told us how it happened. His cousin, Ernie Albright, of Altoona, came to visit because of something that really excited him. “Ernie was in the automobile business in Altoona,” Charlie began. “He came to the store, because we’d told him that there was a radio in the store that could pick up KFI, Los Angeles. He was very anxious to hear a radio station from 3,000 miles away.
“So we waited until after midnight, and we did pick up KFI. Ernie quickly saw the great potential in selling radios and decided to leave the automobile business and open a store in Altoona to sell radios.”
What better way to sell radios than to have a radio station right here! So Ernie built this area’s first radio station in the living room of his home on W. Chestnut Ave. in Altoona, and the government assigned the call letters WGAW. The station went on the air on June 30, 1922.
Ernie was a great promoter. He brought the well-known entertainers, Billy Jones and Ernie Hare to Altoona. They appeared on WGAW and stayed at the Logan House. After the broadcast, they gave autographed $20 bills to ladies in the audience. WGAW operated just a bit longer than two years. It went on the air June 30, 1922 with 100 watts, and ceased operation on July 19, 1924.
Gables’ Radio Station — WFBG
Gables Department Store was the “anchor store” for the City of Altoona and indeed for the entire county. So it was natural that the owners decided they had to have a radio station. WFBG was built, primarily with new control boards, transmitters, and two towers — one on top of each of Gables’ 11th Ave. and 12th Ave. buildings.
Gables Department Store was proud to have its own radio station, located in a prominent place on the second floor of the 12th Ave. building. Large, plate-glass windows allowed people to stand outside in the rug department and watch performances in the “Crystal Studio” of WFBG. Many young kids pressed their noses against this glass, captivated by this exciting new thing, radio.
Radio in the Depression
As the Great Depression wore along, people loved to listen to the radio to escape the worries of uncertainty about jobs, food, and the future. The only other station in the area was WJAC, Johnstown, which shared time with WFBG.
Pennsylvania State College’s WPCS could be received in Tyrone, with its agricultural programs and weather forecasts. WPSC eventually was closed because the college president was unwilling to purchase a $100 crystal required by the government and he saw no future for radio at Penn State. How ironic that today, seventy-five years later, Penn State is deeply into radio and TV.
Radio station WPI, owned by the Electric Supply Company, operated in Clearfield for about a year. WPI’s power, however, was only twenty watts and barely could be heard in Tyrone.
Tyroners in Radio
In this period, however, a number of Tyroners were involved in radio, primarily engineering. Norman Swayne worked as a transmitter operator for WFBG and later for WJSW. Henry (Hank) Kearney was a longtime WFBG engineer. Al Merritts was with WRTA, which began operation in the summer of 1947. And Jack Cupper was with WJSW.
Keith Reeve, who had married Natalie Gardner, of Tyrone, became a popular disc jockey on WVAM for several years before entering the ministry. His distinctive, clipped-British accent became very identifiable with radio fans who tuned in to hear “Keith Comes Calling.”
Lois Huey, a Tyrone native, became the sales manager for WJSW for several years before joining WFBG-TV when that new TV station was born in 1953.
Longtime WFBG manager, Roy Thompson, who built WRTA, was interested in serving the Tyrone area. So a remote studio was constructed on the second floor of the Lugg & Edmonds Department Store. Will Walk, Jr., of Tyrone, was the first announcer on the broadcasts from Tyrone. He was succeeded by “Bud” Flenner.
Jerry Woodring brought his country-music group to this studio quite often. Jerry and his brothers, along with the Frey Brothers, became local celebrities because of their broadcasts.
Not to be outdone, WJSW radio came to Tyrone in a big way with the “Doctor Dollars” program, from the stage of the Wilson Theater. The title of the program was to prove exasperating for John and Ginny Dollar, who had just moved to Tyrone. Many people couldn’t understand why Tyrone’s new optometrist was doing a quiz show on the stage of the Wilson Theater.
Television
The first television signal in this area came from WJAC-TV in 1949, on Channel 13. Five years later, it moved to Channel 6. WFBG-TV, Channel 10 was the first television station to have live local programming, which emanated from the Wopsy transmitter site. Many Tyrone groups were invited to appear on Charlie Flynn’s interview show to promote local happenings.
Later, “Big John Riley” would have a local talk show on Channel 10 and would endear himself to the people of central Pennsylvania. Each year the “Big John Riley Festival of Life” is held at Bland’s Park.
Early TV
Like radio, television had its beginnings as a hobby or a curiosity. Charlie Burley told us of one chilly, but exciting night in the 1920s when his cousin Ernie took him up to the lookout at Wopsononock Mountain to see television. They strung up a long aerial wire and Ernie hooked up storage batteries to an array of equipment he had put together. It consisted of a receiver, a motor to spin a small disc (about the size of a silver dollar and had spiraling holes), and a screen on which the light coming through the holes would be focused.
It was a television set that Ernie had built, and that night a New York City station was going to transmit pictures through the air. Sure enough, as they stood there freezing in the cold wind, they picked up the beeps. When Ernie got the disc spinning at just the right speed, they saw a very jumpy but identifiable image. This was at least ten years before the first television set was manufactured.
Before we leave Ernie Albright, we should mention that he was a very ingenious inventor. He built the world’s first snowmobile! It was a motorcycle with two skis on the front. This was in the early 1920s.
A TV in Every Home
One of the pioneers was Dave Black, whose Tyrone Appliance store brought RCA television sets to many Tyrone area homes. Dave was the RCA dealer and was joined in the retail sales of TV sets by stores such as C.T. Snyder Electric, Lugg & Edmonds, Rotherts, Blatchfords, Swayne’s, Chiofar, and Wolf’s.
WTRN Comes to Tyrone
On January 12, 1955 Tyrone’s own radio station went on the air. It was a big day, because over a hundred local dignitaries and members of Tyrone organizations appeared on the dedication program that lasted from noon until 4:45 p.m. The studios of WTRN originally were located at the northern end of the Templeton Building.
At the beginning, the station ceased operations at sunset and signed off for the day with a recording of “Sleep” by Tyrone’s own Fred Waring. This had been Fred’s theme song for his nightly radio broadcasts on NBC.
The original WTRN staff members included Will Walk, Lee Ray, Jack White, Tom Hogan, Ron Houser, Othella Peggy Miller, Norm Swayne, Gil Wogan, Mac Rorabaugh, Jerry Woodring, and owner Cary Simpson. John Eschbach would join the staff a few weeks later.
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