R.I.P.: Bill Kelly, Longtime NEPA Broadcaster

Bill Kelly

Veteran Northeastern Pennsylvania broadcaster A. William (Bill) Kelly Jr., 71, of Drums, PA passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018.

A 1965 graduate of Towanda Area High School, he already possessed a passion for broadcasting for which he would dedicate his life, reports the Towanda Daily Review.

At age 12, Bill and his friends made and operated a homemade plywood radio control board in his basement. Hired two years later by his hometown radio station WTTC, Bill described everything from Harry James music to horse-pulling contests. On-air, news, sales and management roles followed. Nine stations in two states (including WHLM AM & FM in Bloomsburg, PA) came quickly, culminating at the then powerhouse number one Top40 WARM 590 AM radio in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre.

Realizing his love of broadcasting was a light bulb moment for which Bill was extremely grateful. His second revelation came when he began using the airwaves to help others. At 20 years old and station manager of WYBG in Massena, New York, Bill raised money for a new ambulance and launched a successful “Save the YMCA” campaign.

At WARM “the mighty 590,” his “Winter Walk” for the March of Dimes, a 20-mile trek from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre, raised $20,000 for children with birth defects. Two years after the Hurricane Agnes flood, he reminded listeners of the Susquehanna’s natural beauty from his canoe in a one hundred-mile “Great Canoe Expedition.” Public service projects like these led him to WVIA, a newly developed public broadcasting television and radio station in Pittston. He volunteered at WVIA until he was offered a job as the station’s first Community Relations Director in 1974, beginning a 40-year career in public broadcasting.

In 1991 after 16 years contributing to the success of WVIA, Bill took the helm as the station’s president and CEO. During his tenure, he refocused WVIA to become a community minded station and created topical programming of regional importance.

Bill enjoyed a long relationship with his Alma Mater, Bloomsburg University. He graduated in 1971 from the College of Education with a bachelor’s degree in English. He was an adjunct faculty member teaching courses in Speech and Mass Communications from 1981 to 1990.