Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is a federally recognized, state chartered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving the Philadelphia Broadcast Community since January of 1962.

Afternoon Luncheon
in your own homes
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020

Reservation required!

rsvp@broadcastpioneers.com

Election for the board and executive committee:

You will be receiving an e-mail ballot by the end of the week.

Please follow the instruction in it and return promptly.

Note: only currently paid in full members as of June 30, 2020 will receive this email.

Renewal notices went out the end of June, If you have any correction please forward them to us.

As of the mailing there were 378 fully paid active members and 108 members in arrears .

Dues need to be returned by Aug. 30, 2020 to receive and be included in the membership directory.

Luncheons:

The board has decided not to have any in person luncheons through the end of the year due to the current state regulations.

We are looking into other options, and open to ideals for them.

Hall of Fame / Person of the year.

Due to the uncertainly of the situation the board has OK a motion to cancel this years HoF/PoY banquet.

We are proceeding under the assumption that we will be able to hold one in 2021.

Scholarships:

In spite of the current situation we are still planning on awarding scholarships in 2021. If you would like to sponsor one for the 2021 event please contact us for details.

Archive Project:

Work is proceeding on the archive project.

A consolidation of the digital material is currently taking place, so that all digital files are located in one location.

Once that is accomplished we will start to re-label the files with meaningful names, add appropriate meta data, and start to enter them into a digital content management package.

The physical archive will under go a similar process, matching up the physical media (photos, video & audio tapes, newspaper and magazine articles, books, nick knacks, memorabilia costumes - yes we even have costumes), to the digital content

This is a time consuming and expensive project. Both the phyical storage and the digital storage is a major part of our yearly expenes.

Web site:

Inconjunction with the archive project we are currently evaluating the best way to redo the web site. Since the bulk of the material that is currently part of the website is also a part of the archive combining them seems to make sence.

Membership Zoom meeting

We will try to have a general membership meeting on Aug 19th at 12:00 noon to confirm election results, and talk about the future plans for the Pioneers. We will be limited to the first 80 or so that respond, so if you are interested in attending please RSVP to rsvp@broadcastpioneers.com by Noon on Tuesday Aug 18th. You will be sent a link with the instuction on how to attend.

Last issue's mystery picture answer:

That was Nona Safra former WIBBAGE girl and former wife of Ken Matz

She is currently an Alaska resident moving there in 2011

Part I

ED HURST: BROADCAST ICON
by
Ed Eisen

Ed Hurst was in his junior year at Atlantic City High School when he walked into the studios of a local station on a talent hunt seeking announcers. “Let me hear a 15-second ad lib on that piano in the corner,” the program director suggested.

“The piano has black keys and white keys and legs like I girl I know,” was the impromptu response offered by the 16-year old. Hurst was hired on the spot at WFPG. Salary: $14.40 a week.

As they say, the rest is history. Over the next seven decades Hurst went on to become a broadcast icon in the tri-state area. Harry Hurley, last year’s Broadcast Pioneers Person of the Year said of him: “Without Ed Hurst there would be no Dick Clark.” Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia honored Hurst with the same distinction in 1989.

After FPG Hurst joined the Navy, went to work at an NBC affiliate in Miami, tired of the steamy summers and was hired as a “personality jock” at the then Philadelphia Bulletin-owned WPEN at a salary of $55 weekly. His 6 a.m. Sunrise Symphony nearly cost Ed his gig.

Names like Chopin, Debussy, and Brahms were so badly mangled he received notice from management that his longevity at the station could be short lived. That was not to be. Instead, Hurst, always playing the jester teamed up with the buttoned-up, straight-laced Joe Grady. The dynamic duo originated the 950 Club on WPEN from 1946 until 1955 and later on TV when they morphed into the Grady and Hurst Show, the first to spotlight teens dancing in a studio, a forerunner to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

In 1958, Hurst joined WRCV radio and TV, now known as KYW. He produced and performed on The Grady and Hurst morning radio program and hosted a TV show called Summertime on the Pier.

The Steel Pier in Atlantic City was the idyllic venue for such an enterprise. The pier was a mile-long structure that got its name from its steel underpinnings. The rest was made largely of wood. For many years it was home to a variety of programs designed for the locals and those who descended on the resort during the summer months.

Opened in 1898 with cowgirl Annie Oakley as the star attraction, the Steel Pier was known as The Showplace of the Nation, featuring an amusement park with high-diving horses, water-skiing dogs and human cannonballs, exhibits and sideshows. It was used as a venue for live music, and played host to the Miss America pageant.

Among the performing acts were Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the Rolling Stones.

Hurst originated the Summertime on the Pier show, a live two-hour television broadcast from the Marine Ballroom at the end of the pier. The program drew large audiences from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Summertime on the Pier was an immediate success in 1958. It skipped the next season but returned in 1960 surviving into the 1970s. Hurst’s regular co-host was the late Jim O’Brien. Broadcast Person of the Year Jerry Blavat co-hosted for a couple of seasons.

Summertime started on WRCV-TV before moving to Philadelphia's Channel 3 in 1960, WCAU-TV in 1966 and WPHL-TV in 1967. From 1968 it was syndicated to New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Washington, Atlanta and San Francisco. In 1970 Summertime moved to WPVI-TV and officially adopted its informal title of The Steel Pier Show, continuing until 1978.

No footage of this or any of the other 1960s broadcasts has surfaced and all are presumed to be lost forever. Hurst worked on many other television shows and later returned to radio, continuing his career into the 21st century.

I was awestruck when I peered at Ed for the first time through a glass-plate window at Steel Peer in 1982. Only months later the old structure was destroyed by fire. Joe Grady, his long-time partner for 41 years was not present this Saturday. So there was Ed Hurst of the dry wit back again spinning records for WPEN after 23 years in television. He looked up at me and waved. It would not be the last encounter.

Now 93, retired, widowed and living at his home in Margate, Hurst ticks off with encyclopedic recall names in his musical firmament:

Perry Como: “One of the sweetest entertainers I ever met.”

Eddie Fisher: “A pain in the ass.”

Tony Bennet: Tony is only two weeks older. He calls to see how I’m doing.”

Nat King Cole: Such a gentleman. We maintained our relationship until he died.”

The story of how Grady and Hurst transitioned from their top-rated 950 Club on WPEN to the TV screen became a ground-swelling battle of two media titans.

Read about it next month in Part II of Ed Hurst: Broadcast Icon.

Our special thanks go to TUTV - Temple University Television and The Kal & Lucille Rudman Media Production Center.

They have underwritten a grant to be used to fund two years of all our newsletters. That's until December 2019. We thank them so much for their support!