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| The WYNS logo from 1965. As you can see, the frequency was then 1150 instead of 1160. |
It’s been a year since my last post, simply because between work and cleaning up a new property that my wife and I purchased last autumn, I haven’t had much time to wax nostalgic. In recent times, however, I’ve found myself feeding a recent need for nostalgia by occasionally listening to WLSH, a local station that has been on the air since 1952.
During Decembers, it was common to hear Christmas music playing on my parents’ radio; the other times of the year were easy-listening tunes from the 1950s to the 1970s, with an occasional 1980s soft-rock song thrown in to catch you off guard. If we didn’t have WLSH on, however, the radio was tuned to 1160 AM, which was WYNS located in Lehighton. In the 1980s, WYNS played hits from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and had a daily trivia contest in the morning, in which the winner could get a free Egg McMuffin at the Lehighton McDonald’s. You could only win once a month, and I — as an 8-year-old — would “win” once a month with the assistance of my parents.
Along the way, WYNS became WBYN and bore no resemblance to how I remembered it as a youth. WLSH, however, has been consistent, by and large, for decades. That might change, though, because it was announced recently that the station has been purchased by new owner and the future of the station, as of this writing, is unknown.
I don’t write this to lament change, but to rather wonder if the changes that we’re going through with regard to the concept of radio are really for the best. Regardless of whether or not terrestrial radio was something that could have endured for generations beyond mine, the question is whether or not it’s something that is “good” for us in terms of a sense of community. While technology is exploding and the Internet — via streaming and podcasting — has helped the reach of many “radio” shows, the size of the reach also increases the size of distance between the host/station and the audience. Instead of the audience being the town in which the station is located, the audience is now anywhere on the globe. A “community” has gone from the counter of the local diner to an online message board or Twitter account.
I’m sure that if I grew up in the 1930s, I might have taken a similar view of radio; after all, their audience went from the diner to several towns away. My concern would have no doubt been the same, but for different reasons.
I’ll always have the memories of monthly trivia, oldies songs, and an Egg McMuffin from Lehighton.
