During the summer of 1968, Tommy Roberts purchased WKDN (AM) in Camden. He tried to make it competition for the major stations in Philadelphia and had some success.
About 1972, the station purchased the rights to the old radio series from the thirties and forties, "The Shadow." They aired the program on Sunday afternoons and sold the time to a local realtor. We have three excerpts from one day. First is a commercial, then the closing spot and a reminder to tune in again next week and finally the station identification.
Bruce Smallwood was an area broadcaster who worked at several stations including WWBZ, WDVR, WYSP and WPEN. He once told Broadcast Pioneers historian Gerry Wilkinson that he noticed during the ID, the city of license (Camden) was at half the volume as the rest of the announcement. When we were preparing the ID, we became aware that Bruce was correct. The reason? Tommy Roberts was trying to have the Camden station compete in the Philadelphia market. So he always had the IDs cut with the city of license at half volume. The FCC required that the ID consist of the call letters and city of license. No where in the rules did it state at what volume any of this must air. We have not yet identified any of the announcers.
From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Audio originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers historian Gerry Wilkinson
© 2008, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
All Rights Reserved
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