VoyForums

[ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:48:37 01/11/09 Sun
Author: Penn Trafford Grad
Subject: Re: Al Calisti and WBCW?
In reply to: Ed Weigle 's message, "Re: Al Calisti and WBCW?" on 07:19:04 01/11/09 Sun

Oh, my God! Thanks.

When I listened he was blasting the Westmoreland County Commissioners for anything and everything, and an elderly guy named "Angelo" would call and talk about the need for government to do more for "senior citizens and the old people" (one and the same, of course).

Sometimes Al had to bleep Angelo but if you listened close, you could hear the offending language. It was like his tape delay needed a head-cleaner, Another woman who called was a drunk and all she did was laugh. He had a time getting her off the air. Clair I think was the morning guy and he was pretty smart. They had polkas on during the weekend and some old guy played big band music on Sundays.

It must have been fun to work there. Sounds like it could have been turned into a sitcom! Thanks again.



>Sure do! My first full-time gig in radio was doing
>afternoons for for Al and his wife Verna (Verna was
>the actual owner of the station)at WBCW. Their
>daughter Jackie was program director. Al was not only
>one of the most entertaining and controversial talk
>host on the air at the time, but he was a great
>broadcast engineer--He kept WBCW on the air. He was
>also Stan Wall's engineer, at WLSW and WQTW; in fact,
>it was Al, who went with Stan in 1973 to purchase the
>low-power transmitter they bought (for a song) from a
>preist at a Catholic college. Al and Stan installed
>it on the highest point on a mountain in Scottdale and
>it's now "Music Power 104. Like most kids, I would
>always get the blame for anything that went wrong at
>the station: Once a mic boom just snapped, while I
>was on the air and I uttered a bit of surprised
>profanity (no f-bombs) and sort of caught hell from
>Verna. Of course , Al came to my rescue. He even
>defended me when I accidentally left an electric
>burner on in the kitchen, one night after I signed the
>station off. Thank God he and Verna made a late-night
>stop by the station! Talk about mishaps--Once when I
>was on the air, Al, for some reason decided to work on
>the console. The front of it folded down and it
>awkward, to say the least, reaching underneath
>underneath , to work the controls. While I was on the
>air, peripherally, I could see Al poking a screwdriver
>into the console, amidst all those dangerous looking
>transformers. I saw an arc and Al reared back and
>said, "Ooh! You MF-ing SOB! Then he looked at me and
>said, "Did that hat go on the air?" Still on the mic,
>I calmly said "Yes. And now here's Peter Jennings
>report from ABC on 1530 WBCW." I switched off the mic
>and Al was laughing like hell. He said, "Eddie, I
>like it when you f-- up!" Nobody ever called the
>station with a complaint (I'm under no
>illusion--probably no one was listening to my
>show--The talk shows WERE that station). Al got away
>with quite a bit on the air, for that time. He used
>to have a raspy-voiced caller named Froggy, who would
>call in, just stir Al and the the folks up. The same
>guy would call in as an effeminate gay guy, who would
>rile up Al. It was all contrived, but it was funny as
>hell and made for great radio. Al used to all but
>eviscerate some of the local Greensburg politicians on
>the air, and, being a bit of a prankster, he would
>take it a step farther by sending job applications to
>the Greensburg court house for ridiculous things as
>'elevator operator.' (I'm not sure they even had an
>elevator).
>
>That little station had some notables come through
>it's doors, including Ron Klink and Mad Mike
>Metrovich. Our line-up, while I was there, included
>Dave Garrett, who hosted a morning talk show, followed
>by Al. Clair Thomas was a personable guy who also did
>talk and Little John Nalevanko and Frankie Ogrodny
>playing polkas. It was mom and pop radio, at it's
>best.
>
>Michael Jackson was at his pinnacle, at the time, with
>"Thriller" and one week we had heavily promoted an
>ABC "Spotlight Special," which I was to play late in
>my shift from two 33 r.p.m vinyl discs. Before and
>during my shift, I was getting dozens of calls from
>kids asking me when Michael was going to be there. I
>figured I'd have some fun. I began telling people
>that the studios would be sealed off and security
>might be heavy. Because you could look in the studio
>windows, I pulled down the blinds. Sure enough, come
>show time, kids were all around the sidewalk in front
>of the station, thinking they'd get a glimpse MJ. Al
>arrived, chased some of the kids away and stormed into
>the studio, asking what the hell was going on, who is
>this "Michael" the kids are asking for and why I had
>the blinds pulled. I told him of my little game. He
>laughed until he choked and said , "Eddie, you really
>are an a--hole!"
>
>Al and Verna hired a young polka show host one time--a
>little whisp of a kid, with an ego the size of Texas.
>My shift was after his (I was always following polka
>shows, in those days) and I had my assigned
>commercials to complete. I needed to come into the
>on-air studio to get what I needed. The kid locked
>the studio door! I banged on the door and the kid
>responded by cranking the studio monitors and putting
>on his headphones! Well, my temper was worse then
>than it is now. I called Al and told him that I was a
>minute away from breaking down the door, and a minute
>and five seconds away from breaking his little polka
>jock in two. Of course, Al was in stitches. It took
>him 20 minutes to get a hold of the kid and convince
>him that his life was in danger.
>
>Around 1984, Hank Baughman wanted to buy WBCW, when he
>decided to be an owner. Verna wanted 200-some
>thousand for it and Hank told her, "Christ, do you
>think you're selling CBS?" Too bad he didn't grab it.
> He ended up paying more for a station in Windber,
>which he sold after a little more than one miserable
>year.
>
>My ex-wife and I were in town from Chicago around 1994
>one weekend and I tuned to the station. I almost ran
>off the road. They were still running a commercial
>for a car wash I recorded-- in 1983! My ex didn't
>believe it was me. I called Verna and told her I'd be
>happy to come in and re-record it for free. She
>responded warmly, but, she explained that she and Al
>were getting up in age and it'd be OK to just let it
>run as is. It wasn't too long after that that Al died.
>
>I really liked Al and he truly was a one of a kind. I
>was actually kind of intimidated by him, when I was
>first hired, thinking he'd give this young punk a hard
>time. Turns out, we took an instant liking to one
>another and we never clashed. A girlfriend at the
>time liked to tell me it was probably because we spoke
>the same language--Filthy.
>
>Ed Weigle

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.