The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

(Left to right) WIP engineer Frank Pfaff, unidentified female, John Facenda and Sam Serota
WIP Election Headquarters
1951

This shows WIP Radio doing election coverage. The station was the Mutual Broadcasting System's affiliate in Philadelphia at that time. Whether any of these election broadcasts were fed to the network, we do not know. If you can identifiy the unidentified female in this shot, please e-mail us.

By the way, engineer Frank Pfaff started in broadcasting at WFI (which later became WFIL Radio) and then went to WIP in 1931 where he stayed until 1972.

Avrom Steinbrook, a visitor to our website, has identified the male on the extreme right as Sam Serota, who for years headed up the WIP Education Section.

Eric Serota, the eldest grandson of Sam, e-mailed:

I immediately recognized the man on the far right, as my grandfather, Sam Serota, who not only was involved with WIP, but also WPEN, and WCAU-TV. He was also present as the Master of Ceremonies during President John F Kennedy's visit and speech at Independence Hall on July 4th, 1962. He "got the party started" as they say, by introducing a few distinguished heads of state, before the president spoke. He was also a member of the Poor Richards Club, City Council, and thus worked closely with and/or knew the likes of Ben Gimbel, John Wanamaker, Frank Rizzo, etc.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com