News

April 16, 2008

WARM Radio voice falls silent

MIKE McGINLEY mmcginley@timesleader.com

His voice conquered the airwaves of Northeastern Pennsylvania for more than two decades.

As a member of the “Sensational Seven” on WARM Radio in the late 1950s and the 1960s, George Gilbert Schumacher provided listeners with news, commercials, music and public service announcements, which friends say made his one of the most recognizable names in the Wyoming Valley.

Gilbert, who died Saturday at age 76 at his home in Clarks Summit after battling cancer, was a mentor to many, especially during his tenure as program manager, where he helped launch careers. He saw the station become top in the market and carried it through a change in ownership after former governor Bill Scranton sold the station in the 1950s to Susquehanna Broadcasting.

“Being hired by George Gilbert meant you’d hope you could meet up to the responsibilities and obligations, because he required nothing but the best,” said Joe Middleton, a former newspaper columnist for the Wyoming Valley Observer who covered WARM radio and was eventually hired by Gilbert at the radio station.

During the ownership transition, Middleton said Gilbert was instrumental in reformatting the station and reaching out to listeners by helping to establish a separate news division. He also formed the “Sensational Seven,” a group of seven disc jockeys who quickly gained 60-70 percent of the market’s radio listeners, according to Middleton and Vince Kierney, an original member of the group who now lives in Colorado Springs.

After Gilbert’s show, which aired daily from noon until 3 p.m., Gilbert would introduce Kierney and referred to him as the “Blonde Adonis,” which Kierney said was a reflection of Gilbert’s humor since Kierney, at the time, was balding.

“He taught me an awful lot, about programming and announcing,” said Kierney, who remembers Gilbert changing his voice to sound like a mouse and having conversations with the mouse, Squeaky, on air.

“It was almost like a mouse and man discussion,” he said. “This guy was so imaginative.”

Other members of the “Sensational Seven” included Harry Newman, Don Stevens, Jack Murphy, Jackson Gower and Len Woloson.

Gilbert hired Vince Sweeney in November 1978 after taking one of his many drives to listen to radio stations from out of the market. On a trip to Williamsport, he recognized Sweeney’s on-air talent and offered him a job at WARM.

Sweeney said he was in the newsroom for just a couple hours before he realized everyone loved Gilbert, and eventually he realized why.

“To say George was a legend is true. To say that he was a giant in broadcasting is likewise very true; and, it’s also true, in my opinion, to say that George was the person who was most singularly responsible for the incredible success that WARM enjoyed for so many years,” said Sweeney, a former WBRE-TV weatherman who now heads the Luzerne County SPCA.

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