WZUM Gone

Another of the iconic radio stations of Old Mon's youth has bit the dust; WZUM is officially dead. Actually, it's been a long time a'comin'. WZUM went off the air a year ago last week, and the FCC, after its mandated one-year wait, finally pulled the plug on the silent broadcaster.

The station had a 1000-watt daytime signal/24 watts nighttime that broadcast from Crafton, with its studios located in West Mifflin.

WZUM began in the 1962 as an R&B and top 40 station, run by Pittsburgh polka bandleader and eventual "Steeler Polka" performer Jimmy Pol, who later got control of the station (although some thought he was a National Record Mart front; stations and shops weren't supposed to mix back in the payola era).

You might remember a couple of its personalities: Mad Mike Metro, who jocked there from 1964-72, Bob Mack's "Wax Museum," aired from 1962-64, or a young Terry Lee who spun from the WZUM studios for a brief period between 1963-64.

Hey, do any of these DJs ring a bell: Terry Caywood, "Powerful" Paul Perry, Kit Baron, "Laid Back" Larry Allen, Al Gee, Michael Jon, Bobby Bennett, Jeff Troy or Mark Wallace? WZUM and its stable of jockeys was on everyone's car radio back in the day when AM mattered.

Pol or Perry would broadcast the "Polka Party" in the morning at sunrise. Great way to start the day, hey? It gets better.

Michael Jon was good enough to drop Old Mon a note, and fondly recalls brother jock Larry Allen following the polka wake-up call with a lead-in blast of Led Zeppelin (WZUM was one of the early local players of hard rock.) And you wonder why we graybeards loved AM radio?

During the early seventies, WZUM was a free-form AOR outlet from 10:00 am until sunset, but switched to religious programming under the call letters WPLW in 1974 after its purchase by Robert Hickling.

Following Hickling's death in 1998, it was sold to local broadcaster Mike Horvath and once again became WZUM. The station's airwaves flickered off and on for awhile; Horvath had to get the physical plant up to snuff.

The station returned to the air full time after a major transmitter and studio overhaul. They played eighties hits, and Mad Mike assembled a lineup of vintage DJs for a Sunday "Oldies Blast" live from Pietro's Pizza.

But after Metrovich's death, Horvath gave the blasts from the past 90 days to get out of Dodge; he had given up on local oldies music programming. That might have cost the station its niche in the Pittsburgh market; we'll never know.

He changed the on-air format to traffic reporting, smooth jazz, ethnic music, local sports and talk, but within a year, WZUM was mostly airing religious programming. Relevant Radio bought the station in 2005 and converted it to 24/7 Catholic radio, which lasted until 2009 when Sovereign City took over.

WZUM aired easy listening music in its place and was later floating trial balloons at the Delmarva Educational Association for programming or a possible sale, but it didn't pan out.

The station switched to southern Gospel by May and called itself "The Promise." Sovereign City sold the licensing rights to Virginia-based religious programmer Believe and Achieve Family and Educational Center. It only prolonged the agony by a few more months.

The station ceased operations in March of 2010 when the studio was padlocked for non-payment of rent; in another month, the broadcast towers shut down and all the equipment that could be salvaged was sold to engineer Randy Dietterich.

Its license technically remained active until now, and a couple of well-intentioned but not so well-heeled purchasers tried to revive the station. But after missing several rent payments, Crafton council directed that the three broadcast towers, which were located on leased borough land, be dismantled (they were), and that made any possible license transfer a moot point.

Now the license goes into auction, and the WZUM call letters are probably gone forever from Western Pennsylvania, along with a piece of Old Mon's youth.


Mad Mike does the "Camel Walk" with the PORCC All-Stars

those oldies but goodies

The Daddio of the Raddio from Old Radio

Did you grow up in Pittsburgh during the sixties? Then you remember the music scene.

Porky Chedwick: The Daddio of the Raddio, Your Platter Pushin' Papa, The Boss Man, the Pied Piper of Platter, Porky was all those things and more. Porky did all the dances, and his oldies/R&B playlist - and make no mistake, he originated "race" music in this neck of the woods - had kids flocking to his hops, and he still does an odd gig or two. DJ'ing out of WHOD/WAMO in Homestead, he was the man. I can still hear his theme, "Bongo Blues" (until his Porky jingles replaced it) playing in my head.

It's said he made a million dollars at the hops and either gave it away or had it embezzled from him - and he doesn't care. He said God took it from him because He knew the Daddio couldn't handle it. One benefit of his legendary disdain of money is that it kept him clean of the payola stain that covered so many other top dj's of his era.

Once Porky played Martha Reeve's "Dancin' In the Streets" from a downtown broadcast site and told his radio listeners to stop what they were doing and dance to her beat. Kids all over the area stopped their cars in tunnels, at stop lights, and at intersections and got out and danced. Traffic was tied up for hours as it was estimated that 10,000 teens were tuned in while on their way to town to catch Porky's act.

Terry Lee/TL: He spun wax out of McKeesport's WMCK/WIXZ and featured Music for Young Lovers complete with reverb, a biggie back in the day. All the cool cars had it, along with a red light in the back seat. Every radio in the cars parked along South Park's China Wall (a lover's lane frequented by romantic teens and peeping tom police with high voltage flashlights) had his show dialed in. TL managed the Arondies and Swamp Rats (nee Fantastic Dee Jays) and played the heck out them, along with "High on a Hill" by Scott English and "Have I Sinned" by Donnie Elbert. He closed out the show with "Goodnight, My Love," not sure of the artist. He made so much money at the hops that he had security with him to get the swag home.



Clark Race: A KDKA jock through the 1960s, Race had a 50% audience rating, meaning at any one time, half the teen radios in Pittsburgh were tuned to his show. He also hosted the wildly popular TV show "Dance Party," a local American Bandstand. Everyone checked it out just to see if they knew anyone boog-a-looing or slow draggin' on live TV, or better yet, someone that had ditched their steady for a less left-footed partner. He broke Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes" and Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet." Clark Race was also a fixture at the hop scene.

Mad Mike Metro(vich): Mad Mike's show originated from WZUM in Carnegie and was broke into different segments. The more popular were Mad Mike's Moldie Oldies and the Progressive Teen Sound, a showcase for what was basically garage and surfer rock. He's the dude that launched Tommy James' career and he was a regular at West View Dance Land. One famous story has the early Rolling Stones playing live and drawing a crowd of 200 while Mad Mike's competing gig drew 2,000. Mad Mike died in 2000.


Mad Mike from Magic Music Machine

The Other Biggies: I couldn't find much on these guys, but they were giants in the 1960s - Charlie Appel, still a part-time DJ and full time reverend, from Monroeville's WPSL (he still has a crew of followers known as the Apple Corps), Brother Love of WAMO, who introduced progressive music to the Burg, and Bob Livorio of WKPA in New Kensington, another renowned hop jock.

The Dance Halls: I'm from the South Hills, and my memory can still dredge up the Linden Grove in Castle Shannon, the White Elephant in White Oak, I think, though it burned down long ago, the Lebanon Lodge in Mt. Lebanon, Sully's in Brentwood - that burned too, occupational hazard, I guess - and West View Dance Land where everyone got down to the Battle of the Bands. Kennywood did some dances, too. A few romances and many boozy parking lot fights were started at these venues. How else would a self-respecting Pittsburgh teen kill the weekend?

The Songs: Culled by memory in no particular order: "Wisdom of a Fool," The Jesters; "The Wind," Diablos; "69," Arondies, "Whip It On Me Baby," Billy Guy; "My Heart Cries," Etta & Harvey; "You're Pushing Too Hard," The Seeds; "High Flying Wine," The Igniters; "Fried Onions," Lord Rockingham; "Love You So Bad," The Empires; "Baby Let Me Bang Your Box," The Bangers; "Someone," The Contrails; "Ain't No Big Thing," The Electrons; "High on a Hill," Scott English; "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O," Larry Dale; "Shop Around," The Mad Lads; "Love Is So Tough," The Fantastic Dee Jays; "Don't You Hear Me Calling Baby," Ronnie Haig; "Have I Sinned," Donnie Elbert; "Psycho" & "The Witch," The Sonics. Our song? "Everlasting Love," Robert Knight, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," Frankie Valli, and "So Much In Love," The Tymes. One song wasn't enough.

If you can remember most of these names, places and tunes, congratulations - Altzheimers hasn't won yet. And by the power invested in me by The Boss Man, I dub thee an official member of the South Park Cruisers Club, circa 1967. It was a very good year.