Voscar recalls fond memories at WAGM Radio in the 1950s
Special to The Star-Herald
These comments were made by Ted Coffin, the program director and my boss, at WAGM Radio back when radio was “radio.” That would have been in the late 1940s or early ‘50s. WAGM was the only radio station in The County and was in the R.W. Wight building on State Street, on the second floor over Roy’s Army and Navy Store, where the Salvation Army Store is now located.
This situation occurred as Ted, Harold Glidden, owner and general manager of WAGM, and I were making the rounds at the “World of Mirth” at the Northern Maine Fairgrounds with a tape machine recording interviews with some of the performers. “The World of Mirth” was one of the largest in the country and came into Presque Isle on Bangor and Aroostook Railroad flat cars and had to be unloaded and hauled to the fairgrounds by Coles Express tractors. The “World of Mirth” consisted of various rides, entertainment acts and displays such as the snakes and the inevitable “girly” shows. (More about the girls later).
While Harold was doing an interview with the snake handler, the guy hung the snake around Harold’s neck. Harold didn’t bat and eye and kept right on with the interview. Ted had different ideas, however. He didn’t take to snakes anymore than I did.
Which brings to mind another snake handler who brought a large rattlesnake into the radio station studio and one of the announcers, Steve Donahue, did the interview. Me, I took pictures standing on the windowsill. I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. Steve liked to sing and would join Ray Bradley’s western band group in singing “Floating Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon.”
Back to the “girly” shows. I was having fun with photography at the time and after the girls did their dance routines on stage, they would hurry backstage so I could make their photos, then they would rush back on stage for another number.
WAGM was a real cool place to work. I know this sounds corny, but we were like family. We even got together weekends. It was a great bunch of guys that worked there. Along with Harold, Ted and Steve, there was Dick Marshall, head announcer; Dick Meyer, Keith Fowles, Lester “Red’ Hughes (who actually started the station), and Margaret Hanks, who later became Mrs. Ted Coffin. There was Joyce Hutchinson, who became Mrs. Harry Wilder, Dawn White, Clayton “Smitty” Smith, Art Vaughan, Martha Nichols, Jimmy Price, Larry Garrity, Forrest Craig, Frank Knight and Dewey DeWitt. Dewey was a great sports announcer for many occasions and special events. There were others who came to get broadcast experience and then moved on to other stations.
The crew at the station always wore suits and ties while the women wore dresses. I even wore a tie and I had this cool leather jacket. I found some aluminum paint, and in large letters I painted WAGM on the left side.
The WAGM organization was served by Mutual Network and also had satellite offices and a studio in Caribou, which would broadcast for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Jerry Fleecy and Emmett Ross worked that end. Emmett is still living in Caribou.
I got my start at WAGM because I hung around the station in the evenings photographing Art Vaughn, the night announcer. A job opening came up at the station and Art mentioned it. I met and talked with Ted and got the job. I didn’t fill out an application or have a background check. I just went to work. I was sort of a Man-Friday. I started the morning as the janitor (not the maintenance engineer). I vacuumed floors, then I was the record librarian and also in charge of transcriptions, which were large records containing programs that we put on the air such as Eddie Arnold, Mary Foster the Editor’s Daughter and Box 13 with Alan Ladd.
Dick Marshall had a very popular program – Tele-Quiz, when he would call people with questions. They would receive a prize for a correct answer. I recall having fun with Dick while he was on the air once placing a copy of “Playboy” magazine against the studio window. Dick said, “There is a little distraction in here.”
Margaret had a woman’s program during which she would relay recipes. Her instructions with bread making were to put the dough “into a well greased bedpan.”
Frank Knight had an artificial leg and sometimes part of it would come loose. I recall nailing his foot back on.
Dick Meyer was a man of many abilities. He was an announcer, the news editor, wrote advertising copy and he was also handy with a plastic ukulele. Dick and I performed together with me strumming an old washboard with thimbles on my fingers and sang with my Donald Duck impression. This led to my being asked by Dick Marshall to create and broadcast a children’s radio program. So the “Donald and Oscar Birthday Club” was born and was on the air for at least six years. My theme song was, “If I Had Known You Were Coming I Would Have Baked a Cake.” I conducted the show even after I left the station and while I was with the Bangor NEWS. Dick Meyer and I did the show, then Jimmy Price joined me and he made various attempts in teaching Donald to sing. We adlibbed stories for the young listeners, making them up as we went along. I used five different voices including Donald, Black Bart, The Outlaw, the Old Timer and Chief Mud-In-Your Eye, or anyone else we needed. One episode was Duck Rogers in Outer Space.
You could do most anything in radio as it was only sound with no images. The listener could create their own images in their mind. I was also recording engineer and then conducted the disc jockey show, “Let’s Dance.” I recall giving a great build-up to a record performer and then forgetting the name of the song. I think I played the first rock record in the area, “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and the Comets.
A number of “Big Bands” would visit the area because of Presque Isle Air Force Base … Louis Prima and his Orchestra, Larry Green and The Cities Services Orchestra. I still have an album of 78’s that Larry gave me. Dick Meyer and I were on our way to Caribou one night to broadcast the Tex Beneke Orchestra performance in the former Caribou High School gym when we came across an accident at “Dead Man’s Gulch,” half-way to Caribou. We were there before first responders, so we did what we could for the accident victims until the police arrived. Then we went on to Caribou and did the broadcast.
A popular Christmas program was “Mrs. Santa,” created and performed by Mrs. Clifford ”Anne” Stimpson. Of course, the programs were live, including many of the commercials. One commercial spot was “ Bell Ringing Bargains” for Roy’s Army and Navy. A metal lampshade was suspended over the control board and the announcer would strike the lampshade with a pencil for a perfect ring.
It was sometimes a little cold in the offices and studios, and one winter morning, I removed valves from the steam radiators to let the air out, including the one in the control room. I forgot what I had done until the heat came back on with a rush and roar, filling the control room with hot steam while the announcer was on the air. Needless to say, I rushed in and replaced the valve. I never did enjoy red announcers.
With Presque Isle Air Base here at the time, the public affairs officer put together a special radio program of base activity. Airmen with radio experience took over the control room and a studio for these programs. I became a lifelong friend of Al Roberson with his Golden Voice. After he left the Air Force, he married a local girl and stayed in Maine. Often the airmen would read the base newspaper on the air. I was sitting in the studio during one such broadcast, and being a pipe smoker, had just lighted my pipe. Well, here he was with his large newspaper and me with a lighted match still in my hand. I just sorta leaned forward and touched the flame to the paper. It was fun watching him trying to read fast enough to keep ahead of the blaze.
One spring, the Aroostook River had an ice jam during one of Fort Fairfield’s famous annual floodings and threatened to take out the bridge during the night. Dewey DeWitt, Dick Meyer, Al Roberson and I planned to make a tape and photographs of the situation. We were standing on the edge of the riverbank when Dick, holding the portable tape recorder, stepped on to what he thought was solid ground. It was ice instead and Dick dropped into the ice clogged water, up to his waist. He would have gone out of sight if Sgt. Rufus Bernard of the Maine State Police and Fort Fairfield Chief of Police Leo Rafferty, standing on each side, hadn’t grabbed an arm and lifted him back on shore.
The bridge appeared to be stable, but it was difficult to tell in the darkness. Rufus and I and a man from the State Highway Department ventured onto the bridge to check it out. We discovered that about 20 feet of the deck had disappeared. About that time, a large cake of ice struck the bridge and it began to do a little rock and roll. Rufus yelled, “Let’s get out of here.” Running back to shore, we were running uphill one second and downhill the next second until we got off the bridge.
Fort Fairfield has a new bridge and a dike!
Harold and the other people at WAGM radio were planning to go into television and Harold asked me to stay, but the urge to go into photography full-time was a strong pull, and I left. Years later, I did return and joined WAGM Radio and Television as news editor for both stations. Keith Fowls hired me and became my boss. Stan Lyons was the manager for both stations. He had worked at the radio station in Houlton that WAGM radio started. Its call letters at the time were WABM. Dick Meyer and Dick Marshall were both there at the TV station, as salesman and copywriter, respectively.
There aren’t many of the old crew left now: Margaret, Dick Meyer’s widow, Geneva, Keith, Dewey and myself. The WAGM radio studios were moved to the Washburn Road where they broadcast for a number of years until the business was sold. The building is still there, but has been vacant for years and is falling into disrepair.
I wonder who signed the station off and played “The Star-Spangled Banner for the last time?”
