Happy birthday WIBX

[Clipper]

Happy birthday to WIBX and thank you for all those years of successfully keeping Utica and CNY informed and entertained.

I remember listening to WIBX in my grandmother's kitchen in the 50's. She had a little Fada brand radio that sat on a shelf over the kitchen table and my grandfather listened to a tall floor model radio in the living room. When you went into their house you could find gram listening to soaps in the kitchen and gramp listening to a ball game or the news in the living room.

When we lived in the CNY area WIBX was always programmed into the radio in my vehicles and was the station I listened to every morning on the way to work. Since we moved here I STILL listen to WIBX's Bill Keeler in the morning. He is a friend of my son's and his show is live streamed on You Tube in the morning. I always check the WIBX web page right after checking the WKTV page and the obits in the OD. Depending on what Bill is going to talk about or who he may have as a guest I may live stream his show through one side of my headphones while watching our local news on tv. (Is that what is called multi-tasking? LOL) I am a news junkie. I spend a lot of time reading on the MSN home page, I subscribe to both the OD and the Rome Daily Sentinel on-line as well as our own local paper, always check the WIBX, the OD, the Rome Sentinel, and CNY News on CNY Central out of Syracuse.

Wishing WIBX many more successful years of serving the Utica and CNY area news, talk, sports, and the occasional seasonal music that actually doesn't assault the ears.

[BHU]

I also listen to Keeler on occasion & enjoy his show. His show also was on our local Fox affilite shown live from the studio but I don't think it is anymore. I've been listening to WIBX for years going back to when they had their own local talk show hosts instead of guys like Brian Kilmeade & that moron who comes on at noon, Jimmy Failla. That guy is the biggest hack who ever sat behind a microphone & I don't get why WIBX has him on. Failla must pat THEM to run his yap. And I thought Limbaugh was a jerk.

[Clipper]

All those stations network and pay for syndicated programming. Very little in the line of talk radio is local any more. I still follow WUTQ "talk of the town" occasionally. That is on from 6-10am every day. Between them and Bill Keeler I stay pretty much attuned to what of interest is happening around the city.

[chris]

Dec 8, 2022 17:43:05 GMT -5 Clipper said:

All those stations network and pay for syndicated programming. Very little in the line of talk radio is local any more. I still follow WUTQ "talk of the town" occasionally. That is on from 6-10am every day. Between them and Bill Keeler I stay pretty much attuned to what of interest is happening around the city.

I listen WHAM 1180. They use to have Rush lumbough on in the afternoon. On Sundays they have a show about computers and tech stuff. I like listeningto it. And long time ago ( cause Im a night owl) listened to Art Bell. We use to have a great Jazz station but guy retired and Im not crazy about the other Jazz station we have.

[Clipper]

I used to listen to Art Bell at night when I was able to find him on the dial while driving a truck late at night.

[kit]

In the early 1960s when my band, The Nitecaps, was playing on location in Ogdensburg NY, we performed 6 nights a week and had Mondays off. When we were through playing Sunday night I would gather up all my dirty clothes and drive back home to do my laundry and keep in touch with family. The trip home was 144 miles and took about an hour and 45 minutes (at 3:00 in the morning). During the trip I'd listen to WBZ in Boston at 1030kc. which was a 50,000 watt a.m. radio station, so reception was exceptional at that time of night. My favorite program was "Night Light" which was hosted by Dick Summer who had the best radio voice I've ever heard, and his programming was very entertaining. He'd play outstanding music, and occasionally read some poetry that he had written. His show kept me wide awake until I got home.

Radio was a complete era of entertainment in the early days when TV was just an infant, and WIBX was always there for our entertainment - day and night. When I was a kid our family always listened to WIBX for the comedies, dramas, westerns, and suspenseful thrillers in the evenings, and I listened to the Arthur Godfrey Show in the mornings. A time I'll never forget. December 5, 2022 was WIBX's 97th birthday and they're still going strong. Happy Birthday WIBX.

[Clipper]

Was WBZ the station that carried Wolfman Jack? I love listening to him at night.

[BHU]

I use to listen to Art Bell when I worked the graveyard shift way back when. Some really off the wall stuff right there. Jim Bohannen was another syndicated show that came on at 11 I think. Bell passed away, don't know if Bohannen is still around.

[Clipper]

That off the wall stuff was what was most entertaining.

[kit]

I never listened to Wolfman Jack, but the most well known DJs from WBZ were Dick Summer and Larry Glick.

[Clipper]

I don't remember either of those two Kit. I guess the only real draw to Wolfman was his voice. If you were cruising the dial looking for something to listen to, his voice would catch your ear. Not long after I got out of the Navy and while job hopping before I went to work at Central NY Coach Lines, and eventually at Griffiss, I worked for a year or so for AH St. Louis welding supply and industrial gas on River Road in Marcy. I made local deliveries and once a week I worked until five locally and went back at about 10pm to leave for Newark and Iselin NJ where I would load compressed hydrogen in Newark before proceeding to Iselin for specialty medical gas mixes. The truck radio was the only thing that kept me awake on those long days and nights. I actually worked 8 hours, went home for 5 hours, returned to make the 14 hour round trip to NJ, and when I got back the next day they actually required me to unload the truck and then make local deliveries until 5 o'clock THAT day. I was young, stupid, and a glutton for punishment. Not much has changed. Now I am OLD, stupid, and a glutton for punishment. lol

[BHU]

Hey Clipper were you at GAFB when they closed? That base closing really put a hurt on our economy when they closed it. I think something like 5000 jobs were lost.

[Clipper]

My boss, myself, and the division chief in engineering actually shut off the lights for the last time at the 485th Engineering and Installation group in Depot 1. I worked until the last day because transportation was part of the logistics division and it was that last day when I was able to ship the last of the vehicles in our motorpool. I was the transportation branch chief and my boss was the logistics division chief. Our unit had been de-commisioned, our commander had already been reassigned, and the highest ranking engineer in the engineering division was tasked with shutting down the unit. We were the only three left in the building in that final week. After 25yrs there I actually cried when I drove out the gate for the last time. The three of us had spent the final week processing and shipping the assets that had been transferred to other units

[BHU]

I couldn't believe it when they announced it was closing. Everyone was hoping Sherry Boehlert could pull enough strings to keep it open, but it didn't work out. Damn shame.

[Clipper]

Sherry Boehlert did not haul the water that Al Pirnie did. Pirnie served for many years on the Armed Services Committee and was well known to the Dept. of Defense. My mom was an aide to both of them. She ran the Utica and Rome offices for both of them. ( I still have her US Congress official business placard) The night of the great Northeast black-out my mom and I were at a campaign dinner for one of Pirnie's re-election campaigns (my dad was working nights) I ended up driving Mrs. Pirnie and Dr. Bradford Millet's wife home in the dark. It was very eerie driving up Genessee St. in the pitch black. My mom and dad were great friends with both of their families. The last time I saw Sherry Boehlert I had coffee with him while we were both changing planes at the Airport in Pittsburg. We both were on the same flight out of Syracuse. He was on his way back to Washington and I was traveling TDY to tinker AFB in Oklahoma City.

The governor intervened at the time and suggested that if a base had to close it should be Plattsburgh due to the smaller size and missions based there. All he accomplished was for the BRACC Committe to close BOTH bases. Thanks alot Mario, haha.