Remembering The Mighty 5-90 WARM in Northeast PA.

This month is  the 55th anniversary of The Mighty 5-90 WARM.  With that in mind, Joe Middleton writing in the Pittston, PA Dispatch, goes down memory lane recalling June of 1958 and the “New WARM Radio.”

Until May 1 of that year, WARM was operated by Northeastern Pennsylvania Broadcasting Inc.  The principals of that corporation were William W. Scranton and Martin F. “Bud” Memolo. They sold WARM to York, Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna Broadcasting for $195,000. The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale on June 11.

Shortly thereafter, “The New WARM” rose phoenix-like out of old ABC network programming into top-40 radio with its live mix of music, news, public service and sports.   Rapid fire changes came to WARM under general manager Art Carlson, program director George Gilbert and chief engineer Charlie Morgan.

In June 1968, for the 10th anniversary of WARM, announcer Jack Murphy proclaimed, “The Susquehanna idea was to create a sound that could start like a rumble in a coal shaft and skyrocket to the heavens — it would be in the air everywhere — but more than that it would be a harbinger of things to come.”

WARM was the first media outlet, electronic or print, in the market to use the concept of regional selling. Before Susquehanna, people in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre only listened to the radio stations, read the newspapers and watch the television stations in their hometowns. And merchants only advertised in such. But the new WARM strip-marketed those two cities and consolidated the areas around Binghampton, Elmira, New York, Carbondale, down to Hazleton and the Poconos into “Warmland.”

The rating service at the time, Hooper-Pulse, crowned WARM the highest-rated radio station in the country at its peak. One reason would be the Susquehanna commitment to news and public service. The new WARM was the first ratio station to develop a separate news department so the on-air personalities wouldn’t have to do re-writes from the papers or rip and read wire copy. “First News First” is where people found out what was happening in WARMland.

CHECKOUT: 590 Forever WARM Radio website: Click Here.

Longtime Morning Host
Harry West

Operation Contact, Operation Snowflake, Flashback, P.S.B.B., Look Up To Learning, Sound Off and Viewpoint, the editorial voice of Warmland, served the community for following WARM’s civic duty.

In 1971, WARM became the charter radio outlet for the State College private service “AccuWeather.” WARM, though, never copyrighted or trademarked “AccuWeather” and founder Joel Myers did.

As a standalone news operation, WARM proved its worth doing the coverage of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. In a business where the average employment is three years, it is a tribute to WARM that personalities Ron Allen, Bobby Day, George Gilbert, Jerry Heller, Ray MaGwyre, Terry McNulty, Joey Shaver, Harry West and Tommy Woods are remembered to this day because of their long tenure there.

Today, WARM is owned by Cumulus and airs the Tune Oldies Channel. LISTEN-LINE: Click Here.

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Tom's Take: The Mighty 5-90 WARM was the only Scranton/Wilkes-Barre AM that covered the metro cities day and night.  The market really started to change in 1979 when Wilkes-Schwartz bought the 98.5 FM frequency from the Baltimore Family, who also owned WBRE-TV28.  The all-news format on 98.5 was jettisoned for Top 40 WKRZ-FM.  First song played: "New Kid In Town" by The Eagles.