![]() Julian, there's still a constant outcry from certain factions to defund PBS. Incidentally, WMGS, which broadcasts on WYZZ's old frequency is owned by an offshoot of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney's wealth vehicle. When WVIA radio came on the air, WYZZ added contemporary music and dumped most of their classical programming. in Wilkes-Barre, albeit with 100,000 watts of power. WYZZ, the first all classical commercial radio station in NEPA, began in 1958 (I think) and broadcast from the front parlor of a row house at 156 Prospect St. If you lived on the west side of the Wyoming Valley, you could pick it up with a big YAGI antenna. If you liked jazz, you're only option was WUSV, the University of Scranton radio station, which broadcast from a small antenna with 10 watts of power from atop one of the U's buildings. In the 50s, local radio stations played the top Billboard songs and in 1958, WARM (the "mighty 590"), switched to an all rock-n-roll format, the first in the area. Back in the 40s and early 50s, the radio networks broadcast some classical music, like the NBC symphony orchestra with Arturo Toscanini and Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoon, broadcast over WILK radio in Wilkes-Barre. I can't say that the area was known for quality music on radio. So if some others among the regulars here are similarly disappointed, let's raise our voices and see what it might take to get some of the "good stuff" back regrettably, the smug, pseudo-highbrow "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" escaped the axe. Admittedly, WVIA has attempted to make amends with the jazz buffs via a simulcast of something called the Chiaroscuro channel, but that can't begin to match the insights provided by music educator Jim Willkie - Chiaroscuro sounds a lot like the over-formatted "Top 40" created back in the Sixties - a sort of "Jazz Muzak". So it was with disappointment that I discovered that three of what I considered to be WVIA's best offerings - "Echoes", "Riverwalk Jazz" and particlarly, "Jazz After Hours", have all been "Scotched" - apparenly for financial reasons. Still, one of the things I always enjoyed when returning home was the area's long tradition of quality FM radio - something that began well over half a century ago with Wilkes-Barre's WYZZ, and was taken up when the local PBS was established back in the 1960's. ![]() ![]() I no longer spend most of my time "upstate" - a declining economy "encouraged" me to find another job in the Allentown-Reading area and rent out a house I own in lower Luzerne.
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