Harold worked at WRAN during the early 1970s, and wrote the following a few years ago which was passed along to us...

Glenn Pollock's late wife Ann Williams worked as a news person at the station with Jeff Ofgang and, later, with me. Glenn was on the air at WRAN doing fill-in work when the regular jocks were on vacation, etc. Ann passed away in Chicago in 1985 after working in radio in that city.  Glenn moved to Utah and returned to New Jersey about 12 years ago.  He says that his WRAN stuff is buried in boxes in his folks' basement. I volunteered to help him find it.  He knows he has memorabilia as well as air checks.

In talking with Glenn last night we brought up several more names.  There's Dick Bailey, of course, who managed the station in the 1970s.  And Gracie Utter, who still lives in Wharton. John Baumgarden sold time as did Cal, whose last name I can't recall.  There was Barry Shandalow and "Krazy Kat," whose real job was as a supermarket butcher.  One-time New Jersey Herald reporter Vic Berardelli did an advice-for-the-lovelorn show on the station late at night when the signal coverage struggled to get to the K-Mart on Route 10. Oh so many memories.

Coincidently, I was walking on Blackwell Street last week and caught site of a plaque on the wall of a building.  It indicated that that building was the site of the first WDHA-FM studios in the early 1960s.

An AM "talking house" transmitter wouldn't give you too much range.  An FM transmitter of the same sort would give better coverage and sound quality. I have had occasion to work with such things recently.  A TIS authorization would give much greater range but I don't know if FCC approval would be forthcoming.  At least one municipality I know of in the Watchungs uses such an authorization as a community-type radio station.  County College of Morris has been on the air with such a set-up for several years. The transmitters for that service are a bit more expensive too.

Speaking of County College, I understand that when Bruce Morrow was losing the business at WRAN he offered the station to the college but they turned it down.  What a missed opportunity that was!!  How many colleges have a commercial AM radio station as a training facility?  It could have been the nucleus of a great broadcast curriculum.
 
 

NEW! Listener Bill Petzinger wrote us the following email: "I stumbled upon your web site devoted to WRAN. I often wondered over the years what became of the station and its "air personalities." I was a big fan of Gene Schneider and Jackie Rose. If memory serves, I believe Gene's oldies show aired on Saturday nights. I was only 15. I also enjoyed Jackie Rose's show because we could call in our requests. I remember one time going to a live broadcast of Johnny Randolph's show at Bertrand Island. Randolph played the song 'Black Betty,' and, jumping around so much, made the record skip on air!"