President's Comments - May 2026

Spring is here and we have a full list of programs at the Historical & Genealogical Society of Indiana County (HGSIC). Please follow Events on the HGSIC website. We average two programs a month. For most of the HGSIC events, there are no charges, but we do ask that you reserve a space, so we have a head count ahead of the event. There is a wide variety of topics that are covered.

Longines Symphonette LCR-500 Slumber Center Electric Clock Light Radio

As I think back to what things I did as a kid growing up in the 1960s, I remember the time before Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games were seldom broadcasted on television. If you wanted to follow the Pirates, you had to listen to the games on the radio. In the 1960s, that meant AM radio.

I began actively listening to radio in the mid-1960s. Living about 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Rostraver Township, the Pittsburgh radio stations’ signals were strong and clear (as clear as AM radio signals could be). In my family, my parents listened to KDKA-AM. In the 1960s KDKA played adult oriented popular music. They had Regie Cordic in the morning who was later replaced by Jack Bogut. In the evening, there was Ed and Wendy King’s unique “Party Line”. “Party Line” was a call in talk show specializing in trivia and stories. What made the show unique is that you never heard the callers. Ed and Wendy would talk with the callers and then repeat what the caller said. There was usually a theme for each show. I remember hearing them tell “ghost stories” around Halloween. 

I would fall asleep listening to my dad’s new Sears transistor radio. Doing so, I would quickly run the batteries down. This led my parents to buy me an AM/FM clock radio as a Christmas present. It was the clock radio that I used through my time as an undergraduate at Penn State. For six months of the year, October through March, I would listen to “Party Line”. But in April through September, KDKA aired Pittsburgh Pirates baseball most weekday evenings. In the late 1960s the Pirates radio announcers were Bob “The Gunner” Prince, Jim “Possum” Woods, and Nellie King. Between listening to the baseball games and the popularity of Topps baseball cards in the 5^th and 6^th grades, I quickly became a baseball fan. 

1960s Sears Transistor Radio

KDKA began broadcasting on November 2, 1920, as the first commercially licensed radio station. On August 5, 1921, KDKA air the first baseball game. (The Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-5.) Regular broadcasts of Pirates baseball games began in 1934 with WSWW-AM and KQV-AM broadcasting the games. Eventually WSWW-AM became the sole broadcaster of Pirates baseball. 

The first radio station in Indiana County went on the air on December 26, 1932. Ross Steele, a local radio repairman, built a transmitter. He broadcast from the Ritz Theater stage, later the Manos Theater. The call letters were WRG. He discontinued broadcasting in May 1933 because he was unable to secure a federal permit to operate. The first commercial radio station to operate in Indiana County was WDAD-AM. WDAD went on the air on November 4, 1945. 

In 1954, the Pittsburgh Pirates Radio Network was formed. This was because the further away one was from the Pittsburgh broadcast transmitter one was, the spottier the reception was. The Pirates ownership realized that people listening to games would create fans who would attend games. WDAD-AM joined the Pirates Radio Network on April 21, 1954. The Pirates beat the New York Giants, 5-4, that day. The announcers that year were Rosey Rosewell and Bob Prince. It was Roswell’s last season broadcasting as he died February 1955 from uremic poisoning. Since 1954, an Indiana County radio station has been a part of the Pittsburgh Pirates Radio Network.

Now, with cable and the internet, one can watch or listen to almost any sporting event from anywhere in the world. But years ago, radio was the main source of sports broadcasts. Even today, I often turn off the television and listen to a Pirates baseball game. For me, this is a great way to experience a Pirates baseball game. The pace of the game allows me to develop what was referred to as the “theater of the mind”. "Theater of the mind" is the use of imagination, sound, or vivid description to create mental imagery.

What do you remember from growing up in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s? 

Keep following the HGSIC on our website and social media accounts to keep up to date with all that we are doing. Please consider joining us at one of our events. I look forward to meeting you!