WESB: It’s a special day for radio station 1490 WESB.
In honor of its 70th anniversary today, WESB is taking the month of April to celebrate.
“We’ll be featuring old jingles, old music and even a newscast about the flood that hit Bradford the same day the radio station signed on,” said program director Dan Griffin.
According to the radio station, Joe Cleary and Bill Peters signed on April 5, 1947.
Back then, WESB and The Era were affiliated. In fact, Joe Cleary created the ’Round the Square column back in 1949. The Era once estimated that he wrote more than 13,000 of the columns in his life.
As for WESB’s beginning, “WESB came onto the air with a splash, marking its first day on the air during the historic flood of 1947,” an Era article about Cleary stated.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the station’s call letters have local significance: with E, S and B standing for Edwards, Satterwhite (as in the family of Era publisher John Satterwhite) and Bromeley. These were the last names of the original owners.
WESB says Cleary and Peters offered an alternate meaning.
“W-E we; S serve; B Bradford,” they said, with Peters noting the “rich significance” of the call letters. “W-E-S-B. We serve Bradford and vicinity.”
The station will also be sharing “a proclamation from then-mayor Hugh J. Ryan about the debut of Bradford’s first radio station,” too.
TAYLOR ROOFING: We’re hoping our readers can answer a question Hal Harmon Sr. of Bradford asked.
On March 30, The Era published an article for Taylor Roofing’s 125th anniversary in which we stated that the business built a new building at its current location when Bradford Area Public Library was built.
Hal writes, “My memory tells me that the Taylor Roofing building has been there as long as I can remember in its current configuration and at one time was a car repair shop with the word motor in its name.
“If I’m right I’d like to know. If not, chalk it up to old age.”
Do any readers remember if it was a new building then, or if Taylor Roofing moved into an existing building?
