”UP & DOWN THE BROADCAST TRAIL: TV51 - WTVE-TV Reading, PA” S1 E1

This is the premiere installment, Season 1 Episode 1, of "Up & Down The Broadcast Trail", a Video Podcast, where I explore the various TV and Radio Stations I've worked for, and all the backstories, that led me to and through a successful career in broadcasting!

This time around: WTVE-TV Reading, Pennsylvania, my first job in television. There were strange twists of fate, chance encounters, persistence, and a little bit of luck that started it all!

I had been knocking around in radio, in various positions, after I had landed my first job at 98YCR - WYCR-York/Hanover, Pennsylvania, & WHVR-Hanover, Pennsylvania at 17 years old, in 1976, in between my Junior & Senior years while attending Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania, first as Public Affairs Director, then part-time D.J., and jack-of-all trades, production work, and eventually News Director. More on that in another episode!

This time around, you'll meet Jeffrey D. Miller, then News Director & Co-Anchor, and Suzy Sands, his Co-Anchor, at "TV51 Newsbeat", the hosts of the station's last incarnation of a local newscast.

WTVE-TV signed on as in independent non-network affiliated TV station May 4, 1980, technically part of the Philadelphia broadcast market, in Berks County. While viewership was significant, it was a tough sell to advertisers, who were convinced it wouldn't work, trying to change viewer's habits, that had been accustomed to watching the highly-polished Major Market TV Stations coming out of the City of Brotherly Love, particularly WPVI-TV, and its number 1 rated "Channel 6 Action News". Advertising is the life-blood of broadcasting, and without it, the station would have to find other sources of revenue, which were limited.

So, on a shoe-string budget, WTVE launched its "Total News" format, in the mornings and evenings, with a small but talented staff, when the station signed on for the first time that Spring, in 1980. Miller was there from the beginning, starting as a street reporter, Sands joining in 1982.

But, without a significant advertising dollars coming in, the station replaced its expensive syndicated programming with the Home Shopping Network, that expanded its hours throughout the day and night, leading to replacement of "Total News", with a scaled-down version, "TV51 Newsbeat", airing at both 5:30 pm & 10 pm Monday through Friday, with some newer faces, in 1982. Miller and Sands became Co-anchors, with Ross MacCallum on Sports. There was no Weatherman.

I was in the process of being let go from my gig as an afternoon Disc Jockey at "Hot Hits!" WFEC-Harrisburg in the Autumn of 1982 (unbeknownst to me, until it actually happened!), and, in a twist of fate, crossed paths with a former technician from the Engineering Department at WTVE, Chris Shearer, who quit the TV station after the entire staff there went 6 weeks without pay, and was hired as a D.J. at WFEC. When I was actually let go, Chris had told me WTVE was giving the news department one last chance to put on a successful newscast.

Thanking Chris for the tip, hell-bent on launching my TV career after graduating from Temple University with a Radio-TV-Film Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981, I pleaded with Chris to take me out to WTVE, and introduce me to everyone, without an appointment. Great guy that he was, he did.

I met Miller, who told me there was no budget for a Weatherman, but I finagled an on-camera audition anyhow, where I did my best impersonation of Jim O'Brien, the charismatic Weatherman at Channel 6 Action News, my mentor-who-didn't-know-it, that I grew up listening to first as a D.J. on "Famous 56" WFIL, then later, as a Weatherman, which apparently impressed Miller, even though I was quite green at the ripe old age of 23!

The proverbial writing on-the-wall took place when SelecTV, over-the-air scrambled premium pay TV, started airing on WTVE, first during Prime Time, then eventually around the clock, putting an end to local TV News on WTVE in the Autumn of 1983. But I had my first TV station experience, and the tapes to prove it, that I parlayed into my next gig at NewsWatch9 in Naples, FL.

As a kid growing up in Yardley, Pennsylvania, I was fascinated by weather, and loved Top 40 radio (think MusicRadio 77 WABC, and Famous 56 WFIL). When O'Brien transitioned from radio to then co-owned WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV), I knew in 3rd grade I wanted to be him.

This first installment of "Up & Down The Broadcast Trail" explores all of that, and more!

Thanks for reading, and watching! There is also the companion audio-only version of this wherever you listen to podcasts.

Please share on social media, check more videos on my R.J. YouTube page @rjheim10 (click and subscribe!), "TV Through the Tunnel of Time" TVThroughTheTunnelOfTime.com, and its synergistic companion All Genres/All Eras 24/7 web music radio station "Music Through The Tunnel of Time" MusicThroughTheTunnelOfTime.com, that pays homage to the way Top 40 radio used to be!