Gpa's Radio Days

I think I've shared this picture before. I was working at WDYK in Cumberland, MD. It was the beginning of radio jobs in between churches to keep food on the table. At this time we had finished our endeavors to start a church in Cumberland. We were living in Pinto, MD., across the Potomac river from the Allegany Ballistic Lab. We attended a Mennonite church there and after some time became the pastor of the Glade Mennonite Church. It was up the mountain from Pinto, about 10 miles north of Oakland, MD.

I got my start at WRSW in Warsaw IN. At the time we thought we would be missionaries in Brazil and wanted to communicate back home by radio. Bill Burk, now a missionary in Brazil, was a 1st class engineer and got me on Sunday afternoon reading meters at the transmitter.

WDYK was sold about a year after I started so I went to WKYR in Keyser, WV as the news director. Pinto was about half way between Cumberland and Keyser so it was still very convenient. Roy III was born while we lived there. Dad, Mom and Dick had driven from Alexandria to see the new baby and on the way home some guy ran into the driver's side of their car. Dad seemed to be okay but three weeks later he had a heart attack and died in the hospital. Mom wasn't doing well after that and decided to move back to Juniata. We went too and moved in with Arlene's Mom. Now I had to change jobs again and became the news director [not a DJ] at WVAM in Altoona, PA.

Sorry I don't have any pictures from these stations, but I do have several stories. At WVAM I never ran the board. I was strictly news. National news was 'rip and read' from the teletype and I would stand at a microphone beside the announcer who was sitting beside me. Usually my five minute news was about two feet long and would hang down between me and the announcer. On this occasion, the announcer took his cigarette lighter and set my paper on fire. It's too bad there were no video cameras then. I'm sure it would have been a good picture of me trying to read the news and put out the fire at the same time. The announcer thought it was hilarious.

My next radio job was in Canton, OH. Christian radio stations were now starting up and I got a job with WTOF, the 'Tower Of Faith.' I ended up being their chief announcer and also sold radio time. I never cared for the selling part, but it was one of my better and worse [that's another story] radio experiences. Oh, yes, Jon was born in Alliance, OH, while I was at the new Minerva GBC and working at WTOF.

Again I'm out of work so I camped on the doorstep of TV channel 17 [I can't remember the call letters] until they hired me. Here I became their only announcer and was the TV producer when we accepted the call to pastor the Fairlawn Brethren Church. The manager thought I was crazy for accepting the church and giving up TV. Oh, yea, Carl Day worked there and had a kid's show. He had an alligator puppet and I can't remember its name. [I read in the paper the other day that he now owns Esther Price candies]. There's more, but I'm sure some of you can remember your own stories from Radford, VA.

After moving to Troy and concluding our ministry there, I sent my resume to WFCJ and never managed to get an interview. I ended up at WEEC in Springfield--on several different occasions. I left there to go to NW Chapel in Columbus and upon retiring we returned to the Dayton area, and I began working part time at WEEC. It's always nice when they'll take you back.

So this is my chapter on radio and TV. It could have been much longer, but we'll save that for another time.

Gpa Glass