WARC Memories

Table of Contents


2010 | 2000 | 1990 | 1980 | 1970 | 1960
In February 2023, we celebrated 60 years of WARC broadcasting. As we prepared to honor this milestone, we reached out to WARC alumni and asked for stories, memories and photos. Our thanks to all who made submissions!

2010’s


Emily Rahraven at a studio microphone.Name: Emily Rahravan ’18
Show: Consensual Sax
Song: It Had to Be You, Harry Connick, Jr.

We’d start the show with saxophone music, mostly playing the oldies, and giving a shout out to my mom. My co-DJ Alex Reganata ’18 said he wanted to do a radio show together. After the first show it became abundantly clear that he only knew about 10 songs total and didn’t really listen to music. For the next three years we mostly played doo-woop, electro-swing, and soundtracks from ’90s rom coms. Our favorite thing to do was read local Craigslist personals (before that section was removed from the site) on-air.

Jackie Verrecchia at an audio control panel.Name: Jackie Verrecchia ’17
Genre: Anything from the Chicks to Beyoncé
Song: Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks

My friend Kristen Migliozzi ’17 and I loved that we got to spend two hours a week uninterrupted jamming out to songs. We never made a playlist, we just made it up on the spot (often causing some radio ad libbing while someone frantically tried to find a song). We loved that all music was welcome on WARC and DJs just had to like music. When I talk to people about some of the activities I did in college I always light up about WARC because it was such a unique opportunity! I’m thankful Allegheny has kept the radio on and allows students to use their creativity.

Sadie Longo working in a studio.Name: Sadie Longo ’19
Show: Late Night Jams
Genre: Alternative
Song: Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen

My best friend Emily and I had talked about doing a radio show for most of our time at Allegheny. We finally did it our senior year, and it was way more fun than I ever imagined. I would say my favorite memory from our radio show was when we got our first caller. It was toward the end of our first semester, and we had been telling people to call in to request songs since the first show. We had someone call in and talk to us about the show and they requested a song. It was just a great experience knowing that people were actually listening to our show and enjoying the music we were playing.


2000’s


Group of Students.Name: Professor Joshua Searle-White
Show: Adventures in Storytelling
Genre: Student guests telling their original stories
Photo of some of the writers, actors, and technical staff of “Trigger Ethics”

In 2008-2009 Brian Kirklin ’09, Ali Heffner ’09, Paul Juette ’10, and Christy Carlson ’09, all students from my FS101, wrote, casted, produced, and aired a six-part radio drama called “Trigger Ethics” on WARC. It was a futuristic dystopian drama that ultimately had a cast of more than 20 actors, sound designers, and other participants. The launch party at WARC was a huge success. Read more about the launch party.

Headshot of Abby Bence BernsteinName: Abby Bence Bernstein ’06
Show: Magnetic North
Song: Daft Punk is Playing at My House by LCD Soundsystem

Favorite memory was moving from the Cochran Hall basement to the new studio!

Headshot of Amanda JonesName: Amanda Jones ’08
Show: The Jones Zone
Genre: Indie/Rock
Band: Band of Horses
DJ Name: Jonesy

I loved the PSAs- I think I did one to protect penguins once. Loved when people called in and remembered the ads as well as a song request!

Name: Shiri Akrish ’09
Show: What in the World?! Radio!
Genre: World Music Top Charts, and Shakira songs

My co-host Robyn Snelling ’09 and I loved our time at the station! It’s hard to remember a time before the ability to pull up any song on an iPhone or Spotify, but we had an old MP3 player between the two of us, some mixed CDs, and this new website that came out our Freshman year called “YouTube”. I started attending Allegheny after a gap year in Israel and still had a bunch of random Hebrew songs we could play. We sprinkled in some Indi-pop Punjabi music (Tunak Tunak Tun), Reggaeton, Shakira songs, and whatever else we could find. We felt like rebels not having to worry about bleeping out bad words (since most songs were in other languages) and loved the freedom of playing everything. Our show only got a few call-in requests (one or two real callers, my brother, and friends we persuaded to call in). The title of our show is what we imagined everyone tuning in was thinking. Like the scene in the movie Back to the Future, when Marty McFly gets carried away rocking out on stage at prom and the audience just stares back in confusion, we were a bit ahead of our time for Meadville. However, WARC is timeless and one of the many highlights of my undergrad experience.

Headshot of Keith BrynerName: Keith Bryner, Jr. ’01
Show: Songs for Suburban Renewal
Genre: Punk, Hardcore
Song: Pounding for Vipers by The Party of Helicopters

I loved being able to introduce fellow Alleghenians to new music, as Music Director for three years and working with the punk kids in Meadville to put on shows at the Woodcock Township building, the Unitarian Universalist church downtown, and campus! Music has always been about community and growth to me, and I was so pleased that I got to know both campus and Meadville during my time with WARC.


1990’s


Headshot of Joe RineName: Joe Rine ’95
Genre: Early 90’s Grunge/Alternative
Song: Anything Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.

I remember the shows being really “choppy” and not flowing real well. Me and my co-DJ Jarrod decided to listen to the broadcast on our walkmans so we could talk over music like major radio stations do. We used to get calls from offices in Meadville, who unbeknownst to us were listening, asking what we were doing differently because our show sounded so good. Hi tech kinda stuff, I know but it really made a difference! Being the lunchtime DJ was a lot of fun. Would do it over and over again.

Headshot of Tom RichardsonName: Tom Richardson ’90
Show: The Tom & Kevin Show
Genre: Blues and Soul
Song: Grits ain’t Groceries by Little Milton

My favorite memory was calling into Billy Moore’s show to request “Just a Friend” by the Notorious Biz Markie. He played it, of course. I also enjoyed Classical Music Sundays.

Headshot of Adam VanHoName: Adam VanHo ’98
Show: Adam VanHo Radio Show
Genre: Rock and Talk

I just loved getting to put the headphones on and pick my own music to torture everyone with.

Name: “Johnny Thunder” ’92
Show: Thunder and Lightning
Band: Led Zeppelin

The 6am – 9am morning show was a tough slot, but we made it through snow, rain, hangovers, and sleep deprivation. We had the “sound of the day” contest, Eddie Fogg weather report, answering machine contest, and a failed attempt to continue our broadcast well past our allotted time. Me and my co-host “Jimmy Lightning” really enjoyed the local Meadville morning commuters who often called in and interacted with us, while our friends and fellow students were either sleeping soundly or off to class. Lastly, I have to give a shout out to “No-man”, our producer and sponsor who chose sleep after only a few episodes. Good times above the PO. Well done WARC.

Headshot of Fred RaponeName: Fred Rapone ’92
Show: Sunday Night Jazz
Song: Africa by John Coltrane

My love for jazz was fostered by my dad who listened to some great DJs on Pittsburgh’s WDUQ. I had friends who ran/managed WARC and often would hang out in the stacks, which were an absolute trove of excellent jazz albums. I thought it would be fun to have a show and my friends taught me the basics and then I was live. The most fun was poring through the stacks for material and planning out the show, but leaving room to let the music take me where it would. Most satisfying moment was the one caller (I think it was jazz instructor Floyd Williams) who asked if the jazz show was on that night.

Headshot of Dana PietoName: Dana Pieto Roolf ’93
Show: The Really Big Show
Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

My good friend Sarah Storm ’92 and I were the DJ’s for the Really Big Show. Our unofficial sponsor was “Beano”. We had so many good times, even when we did the news before having our own show. We were laughing so hard during a newscast — Sarah had started the news and I had to finish it. What great memories!!

Headshot of Christy Allbee GannonName: Christy Allbee Gannon ’93
Show: The Crash Site of Unrequited Love
Genre: 90s Alternative
Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Melanie Hutsell ’93 and I had a radio show on Friday nights and we would play music for students getting ready to go out. David Letterman was popular at the time with Top Ten lists, so we started creating our own Allegheny versions that we would share. “Top 10 Ways to Dump Your Date”, “Top 10 things to do with your money other than spend it on Christmas Gifts”, “Top 10 Blonde jokes”. Those are the tame ones. We also ran polls and sometimes we would get over 20 calls with students voting. My most memorable time however was when Nirvana came out with Smells Like Teen Spirit. We got calls to play that song four times an hour for weeks and weeks.


1980’s


Headshot of Brice Kirkendall-RodriguezName: Brice Kirkendall-Rodriguez ’87
Show: Manhattan Mix
Genre: New Wave, Punk, Alternative

We had printed program guides, t-shirts, regular newscasts and special programming. There are too many memories to recount in detail. It was a thrill on evenings when I could not keep up with the request calls and somber when I happened to be in the news studio when the teletype rang more alarms than I had ever heard. I asked the air studio to patch me in as I reported the loss of seven astronauts from the Space Shuttle Challenger just as it came across the wire. The experience gave me a profound respect for the power and importance of media and its relationship to its audience. I served as Chief Engineer, General Manager and Production Director during my time at WARC and the rewards of the experience convinced me to try the work professionally. I worked for six years in commercial radio following college and was on-air in Boston, San Diego and Santa Barbara. While I enjoyed my experiences in commercial radio immensely, nothing matched the creative freedom I was able to experience at WARC.

Name: Carol Glatz ’88
Show: Cerebral Celibacy
Genre: alternative, new wave
Song: Flying Lizards’ cover of Money

I had the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift and I loved being able to look out every so often at people working late in the art studio (which you could see from the radio studio) and to dedicate songs or take requests from them. I remember someone used to tape requests written in large letters onto the glass window because it was easier than hunting for a payphone. I remember doing rip-and-read off the wires for the morning newscasts, trying to rework the text on the spot because it tended to be made up of long, run-on sentences and you’d try to sound like you knew what you were talking about even when you didn’t. This experience helped a lot later when I worked on the news desk of Vatican Radio: short sentences!! I remember there was a very limited number of songs that went over 5 minutes that you could dip into when needing a bathroom break or to run down to the vending machine for provisions, usually a diet soda and a Hostess Cherry Fruit Pie, or to prop open or wait at the door for the next DJ at 2 a.m. I remember we had to write our playlists on these long reams of paper (?) and I always wondered if anyone ever bothered to go through these illegible lists. I loved going through the stacks of vinyl and the “A-box” (new releases) to write short reviews on these small white labels stuck on the cover and to discover so much new music that way. CDs were just becoming more affordable, but the CD player that was there tended to skip a lot and I was too used to being able to create the perfect segue the old way, visually lining up the record needle and grooves. I remember there were some pretty “hokey” Public Service Announcements that we had to play every hour. Some DJs could do some amazing pieces by layering, fading and blending at just the right moments the music on the turnstile with the PSA on repeat to make them much more entertaining.

Headshot of Eric HansmannName: Eric Hansmann ’83
Show: Dance Music for the Apocalypse
DJ Name: Captain Sensible
Song: Smash it Up by the Damned
Genre: New Wave and Punk Rock

It was an exciting time as the station was receiving promo LPs from many newer bands on small labels. Some of these bands would become very popular via MTV a few months after WARC began playing them. The Go-Gos, Adam Ant, the Clash, the Bangles, Thomas Dolby, REM, the Replacements, and many others come to mind. I was lucky to snag interviews with Colin Moulding of XTC, Adam Clayton of U2, and JJ Burnel of the Stranglers. These were taped and broadcast on WARC. Shorter edited forms of these interviews were published in The Campus. It was an exciting time as popular music was starting to change. College radio stations led the charge. Many of the DJs were very excited when new albums would appear in the studios. I wish I had a few photos to share from those days. My WARC and Allegheny College experiences paved the way for opening and managing a record store in Morgantown, WV, from 1985 to 1998. I’ve been lucky to host on-air shows with three other college, non-profit stations since my first January 1980 WARC shift.

Name: Richard Earley ’89
Shows: Post Party Playtime; Earley in the Morning
Song: New Beginning by Bucks Fizz

First year we arranged to broadcast from my dorm (Baldwin Hall) using a friend’s room (Kirk Henderson ’89). We distributed fliers, made a banner, etc. It was a lot of fun. But I really love the memory of very late-night broadcasts, when probably no one was listening, feeling total control of the airwaves. Also loved the record library and picking my albums. It was always a gamble to pull something from the “A box” (new, high rotation releases) that I wasn’t familiar with. Once had to bat the needle off a track that contained a crescendo of profanity. Station managers were really welcoming and agnostic about show styles.

Photos courtesy of Kirk Henderson, ‘89.

Headshot of Martin GreenName: Martin Green ’81
Show: Make a Joyful Noise
Genre: Contemporary Christian
Song: Praise the Name of Jesus
DJ Name: Evangelist Martin Green

My show was about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, interviewing leaders of various faiths in the religious community, and playing contemporary Christian music. My favorite memory was having Mary Cudzil ’82 and John Mehling ’83 on my show. From the Catholic community, Mary played her guitar, John played the banjo, and they sang two songs together live in the studio. The songs were: “Though the Mountains May Fall,” and “Sing a New Song unto the Lord.”

WARC Allegheny T-Shirts sandwich man graphicName: Phil Dineen ’80

So it was, I suspect, ’78 or ’79. WARC had a t-shirt contest. I won. Can’t quite recall but I think I won some albums. I am attaching a scan I did recently of what’s left of the t-shirt. Hard to believe I still have it, it is falling apart.

Headshot of Eric DonaldsonName: Eric Donaldson ’82
Genre: Classical Music, but eventually all forms

Developing the schedule was an interesting process, especially if/when someone couldn’t do their show for some reason and then couldn’t find a sub! Carrying all of those albums across campus and up the stairs to the studio in every type of weather…all for the chance to be on the radio! It was a wonderful community of music lovers.

Headshot of Jeff KernName: Jeff Kern ’85
Show: Rock & Roll Power Hour
Genre: Rock
Song: Take in on the Run by REO Speedwagon

Favorite memories include spinning discs with my partner and frat brother, Dave Lame ’83, and all the people from the surrounding area calling in to request songs.

Headshot of Jim HootonName: Jim Hooton ’81
Show: Yo Mamma Show
Genre: Eclectic
Artist: Dead Kennedys

I DJ’d with Chris Kelly ’81 on Thursday nights from 10pm to 2am in 1980-81. One of our motivations for doing the show was access to the 13,000 awesome records. I’ll admit that a few of them got converted into my personal cassette collection. Chris and I had different musical tastes. He liked Leo Kottke, and I liked Big Band and New Wave. But we figured no one was listening to us since the show was so late, and the broadcast signal barely made its way all around campus, so we played very random sets that had nothing in common with each other. One night I found a Dead Kennedys album in the collection. Another DJ had written on the album something like: “It’s a little spicy, but it’s worth a spin.” So I played it. As I recall now, the lyrics were something like “KKK F*ck You! KKK F*ck You!” After 30 seconds or so of laughter/panic, we figured we didn’t want to get WARC taken off the air, so we switched to something a bit more benign. We were right, no one was listening to us. We never heard a word from anyone about our song selection.

Headshot of Chris ShipleyName: Chris Shipley ’84
Show: Irresponsible Music

Beanie Fertig ’84 and I played whatever we could put our hands on. Very little preview and a bit of chatter in between. Beanie and I had the early morning (6am, as I recall) wake up show our junior year. Let’s just say the station didn’t always have a punctual start to the day. In fact, on at least one occasion, I awoke to Beanie putting the station on the air. Turns out that it’s not very effective to set your clock radio to the station you are supposed to fire up in the morning.

FrizbeeName: Steven Brown ’84
Genre: Jazz
Song: Here We Go Again by Ray Barretto

I enjoyed bringing a New York Urban Flair to the Radio Community. I always felt as if I was constructing a bridge between Meadville and New York!

Name: Marty Schmidt ’80

September 29, 1978, 6:45AM. Kurt Lazaroff ’80 and I were getting ready to do our morning show. (I played music, Kurt read the news.) Kurt ran out of the teletype room waving a piece of paper and shouting. I signaled for him to use the intercom and we had the following exchange: K: “Marty, Marty, the Pope died.” M: “I know, that was about a month ago.” K: “No. No. He did it again.” We got things sorted out and Kurt announced the news that John Paul I had died after only 33 days as Pope.

Headshot of Tim Price Headshot of Mike TrippiNames: Tim Price ’83 and Mike Trippi ’82
Show: Joan of Arc Memorial Barbecue
Genre: Punk, New Wave, Post Punk, Psychedelic Rock
Song:That’s Entertainment by The Jam
DJ Names: Rebus Kneibus and Rat Scabies

We would begin by telling the listeners that we were honoring a song that was a huge hit on commercial radio (one that we personally felt was greatly overplayed). Then we’d play the song, but after about 30 seconds, the listeners would hear the sounds of air raid sirens, bombs exploding, guns firing, and cars crashing, as the record slowed down, sped up, and even played backwards. Some listeners loved the parody but others would call in really upset. For us it was just a great big laugh and we had so much fun doing it.

Name: Scott Phillips ’89
Shows: Shut Up and Listen (solo show); Earl and Eunice Go Fishin’ (w/ partner Laura Klopfer ’90)
Songs: A Town Called Malice by the Jam; Superman by REM

Laura Klopfer Wright ’90, (now deceased) was an amazing DJ/show partner. I was really into the music, but not so quick with a comment, and she was lightning fast and super funny. She was a great dancer and just drew people to her. Our show, if I recall, was during my junior and senior years, and was in the 6-10 pm slot on Friday nights, which was right before our Phi Kappa Psi parties. Laura was an ADPi, and the frat and sorority were close in those days. Friends would call in and request songs and I have great memories of broadcasting from the top floor of what is now the Alumni Center, window open, Laura cracking me up, and spinning awesome alternative rock music.


1970’s


Name: John Schumacher ’74
Genre: jazz, primarily contemporary
Song: Theme from Shaft

Todd Fulmer (’73) and I did the Sunday afternoon jazz show in 1972-73. We were both avid fans of Maynard Ferguson, who performed in that time period at Edinburgh College, so our playlist was heavy on Ferguson and other contemporary jazz big bands. I remember one angry listener calling to complain our playlist was more appropriate for New York City than for Meadville. We believed good jazz was universal.

Headshot of Harry KlomanName: Harry Kloman ’79
Show: The Jokebox

I was news director for two years and business manager for one year. Between newscasts, I also did a show called “The Jokebox,” for which I played comedy cuts and comedy music. I came across an album from the 1960s by the satirical humorist Tom Lehrer. One of the cuts, called “In Old Mexico,” was marked: “Do not play this on the air under any circumstances.” Naturally, I was curious. In the narrative before the song, Lehrer talks about Dr. Samuel Gall: “His educational career began, interestingly enough, in agricultural school, where he majored in animal husbandry, until they caught him at it.” That was apparently incendiary stuff for WARC in the 1960s. Needless to say, I played the cut on my show. Also back in the very early ’60s, there was a rule at WARC: You could NOT play rock ‘n’ roll music on their air. Times change.

Name: Bruce McIndoe ’79
Genre: Jazz, but also CSN, Cars, Police, Van Halen…stayed away from disco
Song: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

I was the nerd at the station and acted as the Chief Engineer for a period. Was totally into the mixing console “the board”, record players (and stylus), the tape decks, and of course the power amps and transmitter. This came in handy when the language on the station caused the local electronics shop to pull his FCC license from the station. We had to scramble to get licensed to continue operation.

Headshot of Jay SilberblattName: Jay Silberblatt ’77
Genre: Progressive Rock
Song: Firth of Fifth by Genesis/Steve Hackett

During 1975-76, I was the WARC News Director. From 1976-77, I was the WARC General Manager. I have vivid recollections of the Revox reel-to-reel machines, the patch cords, and the board that we used to produce the news. We had a noisy UPI teletype machine and an ABC news feed that we used for “actualities” to compliment our news broadcasts. It was all very professional. Our music library was filled with racks and racks of vinyl albums that were played on several Technics professional turntables. We stressed segues between songs and no dead air. What great fun.

<https://sites.allegheny.edu/alumni/files/2023/02/Christina-Hausner-1.png>Name: Christina Hausner ’77

Mary Ellen Kienast ’77 and I had a classical music show that began at 9AM on Sunday mornings. Getting up and out at that hour in my junior year of college (1976) was like 3AM would be now. Our show’s opening music was the overture to Wagner’s ‘Die Walkure’. We had several shows with themes like Russian composers and death music (?) and always wondered whether anyone was listening.

I also did an 11PM newscast with Steve Levinsky ’78. You had to show up early to decide what news you would pull off the wire to read, and literally tear the paper into strips representing the various stories. Unfortunately, unlike some of the other alumni, I don’t recall any exciting breaking news that we read. Rather, what I remember most vividly was succumbing to convulsive and infectious laughter (over anything or nothing) and putting in a PSA (public service announcement) cartridge while we tried to regain our composure.

Name: RB Swift ’74
Genre: Early 1970s rock
Bands: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Jeff Beck, the Dead, John Mayall

I started as a news announcer in fall of 1970. I remember announcing the death of Charles De Gaulle in 1973. I think several of us combined shows to do a Beatles call-in event and had a surprising response considering the band had broken up three years before. Scott Robins ’74 — who drove a green car known as the WARC Mobile because of a sign taped on the door — and Robert Busker ’74 were also involved in this.

Headshot of Ralph KeyesName: Ralph Keyes ’74
Show: The Bourbon Monster
Genre: Varied folk, country, bluegrass to hard rock and a little whipped out jazz
Song: Alcohol by the Kinks

I was there for the 10th reunion. Dave Amity nee Goldman sold T-shirts. The slogan made reference to “upping your power” as I remember.

Name: Jon Nielsen ’72
Show: Big Jon Show
Genre: Billboard top 40, emphasis on rock and anti-war protest songs
Song: White Room by Cream

It was 1968, in the upstairs studios of the old Student Union Building, and everyone was focused on the Vietnam War. The show was late night, and was nonstop music with little interruption. Behind me sat our little group of anti-war activists quietly plotting our next move…

Headshot Gary LangsdaleName: Gary Langsdale ’75
Genre: 60s and 70s
Song: Stay with Me by Rod Stewart

My program was all night music, Wednesday mornings from 2am – 7am. I remember call-ins from the Campus (newspaper) staff who were laying out the paper for publication; trying (unsuccessfully) to study for Dr. Steen’s Calculus every-Wednesday 8am quiz while changing records every 3 minutes… Also, (when I was News Director) I remember having an FCC complaint filed by the local commercial radio station because we did a live broadcast from the County Courthouse on election night (1972 Presidential election, Richard Nixon won re-election).

Headshot of Ed TownsendName: Ed Townsend ’74
Genre: eclectic
Song: Who are the Brain Police? By Frank Zappa

I had a morning show (9 to noon, maybe), and I played a lot of different things. I remember doing a half hour of just various versions of Johnny B. Goode. One day I was well into my show when I got a call from a female student, who asked, “Can you play something nice for a change.” I put on some Cat Stevens.

Name: George Bradley ’76
Genre: Contemporary Rock
Song: Crazy Eyes by Poco

Getting to work at WARC was one of my most enjoyable activities at Allegheny. I started by working in the record library. We filed new albums as they came in and also pulled records for the DJ’s shows for the next day (they could also bring their own records). We could listen to the latest albums while we were working at the pay of 75 cents per hour. One of the great perks was that we were able to take records home to listen and record on blank 8 track tapes! I worked every term from the beginning of sophomore year through graduation. Being a DJ was also fun. Since I graduated in 1976, much of the music I played is now considered Classic Rock. I played music by still well-known bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jethro Tull, and the Beatles of course (my favorite band, Queen, was just beginning to be popular but I did get into some of their music). My good friend Jeanette introduced me to some other great bands that I did not know as well at the time such as Traffic, Mott the Hoople and Poco. I found some other bands that are fairly obscure today such as Moxy and Spooky Tooth. And I also played popular artists such as Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens (another favorite), and early Linda Ronstadt (my favorite female singer of all time). My first show was a foreshadowing of the Bob (“We play anything”) format but I quickly realized that was a poor choice of “format” for a college radio station. Queuing up the records to be played is a lost art. I also gave the news, which I enjoyed tremendously. We recorded “actualities” from ABC, gathered local, national and international news from a ticker tape, and Allegheny news from campus sources. My favorite newscast of all was the fall term of junior year when my great friend Bernie and I were the news team for the 11 PM newscast on Friday nights. We even had a sportscaster, Dave (aka “The Big Mac”) and movie critic, Harry. Our last newscast concluded with a nod to Huntley-Brinkley, a famed team of NBC news: “Good Night George”, “Goodnight Bernie” “and Good night from WARC.” Thanks to Jay Silberblatt ’77, who managed WARC and is now President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and everyone who made WARC so much fun and so memorable.

Name: Jim Rosenberg ’74
Show: Night Train
Genre: Jazz
Musician: Albert Ayler

There are several funny memories — and several foolish moments — but maybe the only one I should share was a call one night from Prof. Walsh, who said how much he enjoyed listening to the show. I never studied chemistry under Walsh and didn’t really know him, but I always appreciated the call — the only one I ever received from a faculty member. I also have good memories of Ralph Keyes ’74, who was the newscaster on the occasions when I was subbing for whomever ordinarily engineered the Sunday afternoon opera broadcasts. Hello Ralph, wherever you are.

Name: Larry Weiss ’74
Song: Domino by Van Morrison

I was on the air every term during my AC years. During my time at WARC some of the more popular shows/personalities were Brucie D, “Sir Delt and the Whale”, and the oldies shows of Dave Borrebach ’72. During my junior year I was also on the Board as Sports Director. My WARC experience was the springboard to a 42 year career in commercial radio that began at WMWG in Meadville.

Headshot of Art ReedName: Art Reed ’74
Genre: Jazz and newscasts

I was Chief Engineer in 1972, and GM in 1973. Our biggest accomplishment was persuading ASG to allocate funds to convert the station to FM Stereo. We accomplished that and purchased a new console and transmitter and other needed monitoring and audio processing equipment. Radio is an aural medium. Accordingly, I have been working on a project to digitize several boxes of reel-to-reel tapes from 1971-1974, and also from the WARC 25th anniversary in 1988.

In addition to the normal operations of the station, we undertook one major project, and a controversial 10th anniversary celebration event.

The major project was the FM Stereo conversion of WARC. By 1973, FM stereo was quite common, and many students owned FM stereo receivers. Much of the station’s equipment was 10 years old, and wearing out. In particular, the transmitter, an all-tube model, was becoming increasingly unreliable. In order to make the conversion, we needed not just a new transmitter, but also a stereo console, audio processing equipment, modulation monitoring equipment, and a new tape recorder. The cost for all of this was nearly $10,000, but a typical WARC budget was around $2,500 annually. Ric Rivette ’74, Andy Zakrajsek ’74 and I worked with ASG and the college administration to obtain the necessary funding. The college pitched in the price of the transmitter, and the ASG budget provided the balance, as I recall. We were able to place orders for the equipment before the summer break. I drove up from Pittsburgh in August and spent several days installing and wiring the new console and other auxiliary equipment that had arrived over the summer. That way, the new console would be in operation for new DJ’s to learn when the fall term began. The transmitter didn’t arrive until early October, and we were able to swap it in shortly thereafter. We didn’t have any special event to commemorate the inauguration of stereo transmission, perhaps because earlier that year, our 10th anniversary event was a source of some controversy.

For the aforementioned 10th anniversary of WARC remote broadcast, we decided that it would be a good idea to do some community outreach to Meadville in the form of a storefront remote broadcast. We had a relationship with “Big Steve’s Record Shack”, which was located on Park Avenue, directly below the studios of WMGW Radio. We hauled our turntables and console down there, and set up in his picture window, and broadcast from there during daytime hours for the week of our celebration. We were giving away stuff that we acquired from businesses in the area: food certificates from local fast-food outlets, gift certificates to Steve’s, and the like. Steve was a former employee of WMGW, and there was no love lost there. Some people seemed to think that we were “sticking it in their eye” by setting up shop directly below them, but that wasn’t the intent. Nonetheless, WMGW filed a complaint with the FCC, alleging that we were violating our non-commercial status by mentioning the businesses that provided the giveaway items. We were of the opinion that we weren’t actually running commercials, so no rules were violated. While the licensee of the station was Allegheny College, the name on the application was Allen Edwards, the college Treasurer. He called me on the carpet and read me the riot act about receiving a notice of violation. I explained our position, and his response was “Don’t do it again!” He wrote back to the FCC and promised that we would sin no more!

At that time, we instituted a 24 hour operation. Somehow we could find seven people crazy enough to populate the 2-7AM shifts. We increased our news presence, instituting 1/2 hour newscasts at 7PM and 11PM, thus introducing more people to the process of copy editing, and assembling a coherent newscast consisting of national, local, and campus stories. In November 1973, we did major coverage of the Presidential election, featuring a remote broadcast from the Campus Center, anchored by Ralph Keyes ’74, with studio news people and coverage from Republican and Democratic HQ’s in Meadville, via phone. We featured “All things Considered” from NPR. In those days, they sent us a week’s worth of reel tapes with the shows on them, pre-dating their status as a live network provider. We also had programming via tape from Pacifica Radio, and the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Also featured in the fall of 1973, a three-hour remote broadcast of a 60’s Dance Party in the Campus Center lobby, hosted by Bill Cissna and Dave Kent.

We made a concerted effort to provide entertainment and information to the campus and community. I’d like to think that we were successful in our endeavors.

Name: Francis “Ric” Rivette ’74
Song: Chestnut Mare by the Byrds

I became involved with the campus radio station because I knew a number of folks who had radio shows and — because of my involvement with ASG — I’m certain Art Reed ’74 hoped I would assist in finding the money to upgrade what we now call the “technology” on behalf of the radio station. Perhaps now this would be viewed as a conflict of interest but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

One of the impacts from the remote broadcast Art mentioned is that someone determined that the on air folks were supposed to have a limited FCC license, which no one had. As a result a number of us piled into my Ford station wagon and traveled to Pittsburgh to sit for the exam. I am pleased to report that I believe everyone passed, although the requirement of licensure was not strictly enforced.

Also as a result of Art’s efforts and the fact that the station now ran 24 hours a day and the campus buildings were never locked, the station(then located on the second floor of Cochran Hall) became a place to gather, especially after the women students had to be returned to their dorms. TVs were scarce on campus. This was especially so if you were not a member of a fraternity.

At this time most music was on vinyl and the shelves sagged under the weight of all of the albums. Because some of the DJs were less than gentle, albums had to be replaced on occasion, and Art located a service to provide replacement albums for a very modest expense compared to retail. This created an opportunity to stock up on albums, some of which I have still today.

Not to be overlooked was a comedic radio show done by Sir Delt and the Whale. As Sunday dinner on the campus was a disaster, they decided to visit the various bars and eateries in Meadville to evaluate the food after having agreed that the meal would be free because of the promotion on the radio station.

After 50 years I still keep up with a surprising number of folks who had shows.


1960’s


Headshot of Charles BierbachName: Charles Bierbach ’69
Show: Late night Jazz

My show was the last of the day and I was required to close down the station. We had a record we used to play to sign off in the required manner. For my last show, I chose a different record that had the sound of atom bomb explosion. I was roundly castigated.

Headshot of Steve RossName: Steve Ross ’65
Position: Station Manager 1963-64

I threw the switch for the first Broadcast to the song from Gypsy, Everything Coming Up Roses. We broadcast special programming with the assassination of President Kennedy. We were an ABC Network Affiliate as well, WARC won the Great Lakes Regional Award of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System!

Headshot of Cheryl LangName: Cheryl Irwin Lang ’69
Show: GLORIA
Song: Gloria by Van Morrison

Two Phi Delts ran the sound booth. Both were great guys. I loved the song, GLORIA, maybe because I was five foot four. One time I had a dear friend, John Jones come in and play his twelve-string guitar.He was really good. I only did the show freshman year, but it was such fun.

Name: Don Speicher ’67
Show: Innovations
Song: Heroin by the Velvet Underground
Genre: 1960’s Rock & Roll and interviews

Dorm dating and the war in Vietnam were issues we talked about on my show. Obviously some issues were more important than others. A friend and classmate David Frost ’67 also had a show and as I remember David had the most extensive collection of R & B music I had ever seen or heard. Since many of the artists in his collection were Black and their music was not widely available on the radio of the day, David’s show got a remarkable following from the Black community of Meadville, an unusual college/town interaction.

Headshot of Bill KlaukName: Bill Klauk ’66

I joined the station, I believe, in the fall of 1965 as an engineer. I was making a reel-to-reel tape recording at the station one evening (I think it was November 1965) when everything electronic came to a rapid halt, then immediately started back up. For those familiar with the 1960s equipment, turntables and tape recorders slowed way down when you lost power and then returned to normal speed when power was reapplied, so when listening to a playback it sounds like everything went into slow motion. Anyway, I found out the next day that the entire northeast US had experienced a blackout but at least for us at Allegheny, the nationwide grid had worked properly and we only lost power for several seconds. For many years I had that recording and was able to relate how I recorded the blackout.

Headshot of Peter TescheName: Peter Tesche ’69
Show: Music for Lovers Only
Genre: Romantic
Song: Theme from A Man and a Woman by Francis Lai

Our team consisted of friends and fraternity brothers (SAE) Jay Kolsky ’69, Pete Tesche ’69 and Malcolm Doubleday ’69 (engineer). Those were the days when “listening rooms” in the Student Union building were one of the few places available for couples to be “alone” (no curtains, though, on the windowed doors to the rooms). Each room was equipped with some form of sound system including a radio. This was the target audience, although the signal I believe was strong enough to reach nearby off-campus housing. As time went on, the format of the show “deteriorated” as the music changed to contemporary rock and bad jokes.