Canton/Stark County, Ohio Radio History 1925-1980

16/03/2022

Lets Welcome Ken Speck to our group. He was a well known Country DJ at WCNS in the early 60s before becoming one of the "founding personalities" at the changeover of WADC to WSLR-1350 February 1, 1965.

28/07/2021

WOIO Radio gave a young Pete Franklin plenty to do. He was host of a general talk show "Ohio Calling" at 2:35 Weekdays and later had "Ohio Sportsline" at 5:30 as well as a salesman.. It was thought unusual that Franklin was a Sports talker..By August 1967 he had begun his long career in Cleveland at WERE, then WWWE.

28/07/2021

First ad for 1060-WOIO changing over from WHOF July 3, 1966-Canton Repository

27/07/2021

I've just learned that Geneaology Bank, where I get quite a bit of my newspaper archives, has recently added Canton Repository Newspapers on file from January 1, 1962-July 31, 2007, which should add some interesting new content to post..

Here, from June 30, 1970 is the announcement of Randall Ge**er as News Director of WJAN-TV 17, replacing John Baker, who earlier had been News anchor and News Director at WHBC from 1949-66, up to the founding of Channel 17.

27/07/2021

November 15, 1960:Ad for a "Landmark" Store remote broadcast at 12th Street and Cherry Ave. in Canton. Doesnt say, but I assume this was for WAND-900..Featuring Sal Butera and others. Landmark I believe was a farm/rural type store.

27/07/2021

Welcome Sal Butera to the page. He was at WCNS/WCNO (900, 106.9) in the early 1960s.

28/06/2021

October 7, 1949:
WCMW-FM (94.9) broadcasts the Massillon at Steubenville Football Game, with young sportscaster Jim Graner on Play-By-Play..Graner became famous at Channel 8 Cleveland and as Sportscaster on Channel 3 from 1961-75. Also did PBP for the Cleveland Browns with Gib Shanley for many years.

04/06/2021

1951 Cleveland Indians Radio Schedule, sponsored by Erin Brew and distrbuted by an Erie, Pa. Newspaper, mentioning the NE Ohio part of the Indians Radio Network including WHBC. Interesting part of the schedule is a June 25 exhibition game at Pittsburgh which was a Benefit game.

30/01/2021

In recent years, the Federal Communications Commission has made "History Cards" available online for the public to view. What follows is a card for the old WCER-900. These are actual official FCC records. They can be a bit confusing because they arent exactly in date order but among other things, we learn that WAND might have been on 1300 or 1540 khz. Let me know if you would like to see the Cards for other stations.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=65967&.pdf

23/12/2020

December 23, 1970:Akron Beacon Journal announcement by WOIO-1060 of special High School Christmas Choirs being broadcast Christmas Eve, sponsored by local businesses. These were all over the dial, especially Christmas Eve and Christmas Day back in this era..WOIO was still doing two-way talk at this time.

26/09/2020

Long time Akron Radio guy Rich Barnett was asking about DJ and sales person Nick Barry who had a long career in radio and theater in Northeast Ohio from the 1940s-1990s..He did pass away at the age of 88 July 14, 2012. Following is a copy-paste of the Canton Repository Obituary from July 17, 2012. One thing I did not know. His real name was Nick Bozeka, and his brother was Steve Bozeka, longtime spotter for ABC Monday Night Football and High School Football color man for WJAN-TV 17 Canton. Nick certainly had a long and illustrious career..Courtesy geneaology (dot)com

Nick Barry (Bozeka)

Repository, The (Canton, OH) - Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Nick Barry (Bozeka)

age 88 died on July 14, 2012 after a long journey with Alzheimer's Disease. A lifelong resident of the North Canton area, Nick graduated from Canton McKinley High School and Kent State University. He is preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Janet (Gillespie) Barry; parents, George and Dina (Dellas) Bozeka; and brother, Carl Bozeka.

He is survived by sons, Mitchell (Shawn) Barry of North Canton, Richard (Janet) Barry of Woodridge, Ill.; and daughter, Dena (Jeff) Logan of Dublin, Ohio; brothers, Angelo and Steve (Helen) Bozeka; and sister, Tula (Pete) Fostines; grandchildren, Jason (Susie), Kevin, Laura, Kristen, Shannon and Brian Barry, Katie and Christopher Logan. Nick served his country honorably in Europe during World War II as part of the 87th Division, 312 Engineer Battalion. At Kent, Nick majored in theater and radio. He was part of a theater group that toured the Ohio River on the Showboat. 'We did everything - acted, sold popcorn, went out in advance to get permission to land.' His professional career began on the radio as THE disc jockey of the area at WCMW and spent many nights at area high schools working sock hops. It was at this time he changed his name to Barry and headed the 'Tip Top Tune Club' which had over 3000 card carrying members. In 1986 he was inducted into the Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. He later switched to radio sales, heading up sales departments at WCUE, WAKR, WONE and at Creative Technology. Both he and Janet were very active at the Players Guild of Canton for over five decades. Some of his most memorable plays were: I'm Not Rappaport, Don't Drink the Water, Pippin and Plaza Suite with his favorite recurring role being Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Nick also appeared in productions at Canal Fulton Summer Arena, Akron Coach House, Akron Weathervane and Kenley Players. Nick and Janet traveled the world cruising to ports of call from Bora Bora to the Mediterranean.

Visitation will take place at Rossi Funeral Home from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18 with Trisagion Services to be held at 7 p.m. The funeral ceremony will be held on Thursday, July 19 at 11 at St. Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church, 221 25th St. NW, Canton with Rev. Dr. Nicholas V. Gamvas officiating. Interment will be in Forest Hill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to St. Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church or The Canton Players Guild; or checks can be made to the Alzheimer's Association, with a notation in the note section of the check that it is for the 'Nick Barry Memorial Fund', the address is: 70 West Streetsboro St., Suite 201, Hudson, OH 44236

(ROSSI, 330-492-5830)

Rossi Funeral Home
Repository, The (Canton, OH) - Tuesday, July 17, 2012

26/09/2020

We mentioned about Nick Barry of WTIG in 1960 in the previous post. He had a long history in Northeast Ohio as an announcer, Disc Jockey, sales person and Theater actor, most notably as Ebenezer Scrooge in Canton Players' Guild "Christmas Carol" Productions into the 1990s and possibly beyond. In rhe 40s and 50s he had great popularity as a disc jockey at parties and civic functions..Here is a Saturday February 9, 1952 Massillon Evening Independent ad about the WCMW "Studio On Wheels" doing a week of live broadcasting in Massillon.

WCMW from its first days on the air in 1946-1961, The call letters meant "Canton-Massillon" radio. One can speculate that WCMW-1060 was virtually "Massillon's Radio Station" until the advent of WTIG-990 in 1957.

25/09/2020

First New post in a long while..Christmas related but this is too funny..WAND-900 had a Holiday giveaway of $100 a month groceries for all of 1960. And $100 bought a lot of groceries in 1959-60. This is from the December 21, 1959 front page of the Akron Beacon Journal. Out of 50,000 entries the winner was--Station Manager Nick Barry of Rival Massillon Station WTIG-990!

08/03/2020

Baseball On Radio May 4, 1949:
WAND-900 in Canton had Cincinnati Reds-Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball at 1:30. WAND was a member of The Reds Radio Network in 1949 and 1950. WCMW-1060 aired the Cleveland Indians-Philadelphia Athletics Baseball game at 2PM

02/03/2020

Veteran Broadcaster Bill Morgan, after close to 20 years at WJER-AM Dover, takes over the 10-Noon shift at WHBC-AM 1480 beginning tomorrow..Good choice.

18/02/2020

A little background:
WHBC Radio will be celebrating 95 years on the air March 9, 2020. Much of the history, especially in the early years up to 1936, involved Rev. Edward P. Graham of St. John's Catholic Church in Canton, and most of the earliest broadcasts were religious talks by Rev. Graham. As the station grew in stature slowly, more and different genres of programming were added. While early WHBC history rightly focuses on Fr. Graham, there was another man on the technology side that is just about forgotten today. His name was Nolan S. Walker. From about 1928-Into the mid 30s any technical or electronic improvements in the station were largely a result of his efforts.

Mrs. Kimberly Vogan of Atlanta, Ga. is Mr. Nolan's granddaughter. She has owned the originals of very rare photographs and other documents from the late 20s-early 30s depicting Mr. Walker and others in these technical improvements at WHBC..For all that, the below ad from the Repository is promoting a "Midnight Radio Special Concert" on June 23, 1930 with "radio stars" including the headliners of the radio portion, Brooks and Ross, "The Energine Boys" on a special visit to Canton from Station WLW Cincinnati. This is believed to be one of the first "remote broadcasts" ever attempted in Canton and it is believed by myself and Ms. Vogan that Mr. Walker wired the Moonlight Ballroom for the broadcast. My plan is once I get some solid info date wise on Ms. Vogan's photos I will post them here, so Nolan Walker can finally get the credit and attention he deserves for having a big part in the early history of WHBC Radio.

07/02/2020

Large Canton Repository ad for the Canton McKinley-Massillon Football Game as aired over WCMW-1060/94.9 November 21, 1947. Sportcaster Vic Decker was on the play-by-play.

22/12/2019

December 24-26, 1949-Christmas Highlights (And there were many) on Canton's WCMW-AM 1060 and FM 94.9. As I usually say, I would love to hear the local parts of these airchecks..Would be fantastic.

10/12/2019

Radio schedules December 11-12, 1957:

10/12/2019

WHBC presented The Lawrence Welk Show Three times a week at 5:50 PM..December 11, 1957 Canton Repository.

29/08/2019

November 24, 1939 Partial WHBC Ad-1200 on the dial.."The Listening Habit of 11 Counties." Canton Repository

November 24, 1939:Part of a longer WHBC Canton ad promoting their recent new studios (Where they still reside today) and improved programming, moving beyond simply the sermons by Fr. Edward P. Graham..The most notable syndicated program was The Lone Ranger, Monday-Wednesday and Friday at 6:30, sponsored by Bond Bread

28/08/2019

Good story from Bill Coffield, who Was Program Director of WCNS-900 in 1964:This is copied from the Cleveland/Akron/Canton Radio-TV page. Photos courtesy Bill Coffield, whom I would love to have join this page at some point..

"Back in 1964, I was PD of WCNS-AM 900 in Canton. I was on the air in the late afternoon, when I received a call for a man, identifying himself as Herman Clebanoff. He said his orchestra was in town for a private concert, but he was personally promoting himself and wondered if he could come to the station. It was winter and WCNS was a daytimer, so we would be signing off soon, but he was just a block away. He got there in a few minutes and we would sign off at 5:15, but it was a very enjoyable 15 or 20-minute interview. I mentioned that I would love to attend his concert. He said, even though it was private, he was permitted to bring family members so on that night and for about 2 or 3 hours I was the son of Herman Clebanoff. And it was a wonderful concert."

11/08/2019

Canton's Sesquicentennial (150th) was 64 years ago this week in 1955. WHBC as might be expected was in the middle of it all, including a live "Breakfast Club" ABC Broadcast from Memorial Auditorium Friday August 19, 1955..Would love to hear that one..

29/05/2019

Fascinating January 2018 NY Daily News Article on the late Donald Mellett, whose crusading to clean up Canton of gangsters and corrupt Police Officials in the 1920s cost him his life and gained a Pulitzer Prize for James Cox's Canton Daily News which ultimately was folded into the Repository in 1930. One wonders if Mellett had lived and Cox's Daily News would have remained viable if Cox would have bought out the Repository himself and ultimately gone into Canton Radio or even Television much sooner..Who knows?

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ohio-newsman-gunned-exposing-corrupt-cops-1920s-article-1.3783707

Until Don Mellett came to town, Canton, Ohio, was a smudge-faced, grubby-handed factory city where vice was encouraged.