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WRTI
Station Managers 1948-1969
For many years, a plaque hung at WRTI, in the basement of Thomas Hall, memorializing each of the students who served as station manager over the years. As Mike Biel recalls, "It was out in the outer hallway to the right of the water cooler. If you were in the main studio hallway looking out thru the entrance, the plaque would be centered in your view on the far wall. Usually there was a desk below it."
When the station moved to Annenberg Hall, the plaque was taken down and never re-hung. The good news is that it was not lost. The bad news is that, for almost 30 years, it has languished, virtually unnoticed, on the floor behind a door in the WRTI offices. Some of the brass plates have been scribbled on; all show age and discoloration.
Two of the plates - for 1959 and 1969 - are missing. Presumably, someone took the 1959 plate for use as a model for the to-be-engraved 1969 plate (with Jerry Klein's name on it) right next to it, but they apparently got lost sometime during the move to Annenberg Hall. Jerry Klein, of course, was the first student station manager of WRTI-FM in Annenberg Hall and the last student station manager of WRTI-FM before the station was changed to all jazz and a largely paid staff following the end of the 1968-69 school year.
On September 21, 1998, current station manager Tobias Poole allowed Jerry Klein to remove the plaque. Jerry has taken detailed photos of the plaque and each of the individual plates, which you can view from this page (see the chart below). Jerry will next be taking the plaque to experts for restoration to what we hope will be something close to its original condition. Following restoration, we will return the plaque to WRTI so it can once again be displayed to all who pass through its doors.
Below is a list of the station mangers whose names appear on the plaque. Remember that for 1948 through 1952, WRTI consisted of only the AM station. From 1953 through 1968, both the AM and FM stations were in operation (WRTI-AM was shut down forever on December 6, 1968). The names for those years reflect both the AM and FM station managers, with some inconsistency in which was listed first. We don't know for sure who is listed first on the earlier plates. We know that many of the listings for the later years show the FM station manager first; however the 1967 listing has the AM station manager first. Also, the 1968 plates lists graduate assistants in addition to the two station managers.
Gerry Wilkinson, who helped compile our master lists of executive staff members (1948-52, 1952-56, 1956-63 and 1963-69) says there are numerous discrepancies between what we know from staff listings in program guides and other sources, and what appears on the plaque. That may be. What we list below is the information as listed on the plaque, correct or not.
We have arranged this list in a table with the same positioning as the plates appear on the actual plaque. Click on each of the links in the chart to view a photo of the corresponding plate. (They are small files - only about 6 to 8 kb each, except for the title plate which is about 26kb.)
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WRTI TEMPLE UNIVERSITY | |||
| 1948 - STANLEY ISENBERG | 1959 - ED KEEN, DONALD CUNNINGHAM (plate missing, presumably taken to serve as model for 1969 plate) | 1969 - JERRY KLEIN (plate missing and possibly never engraved) | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1949 - WILLIAM BROWN | 1960 - MARTIN KREINER, NORMAN FEIN | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1950 - MILTON HOLMES, ROBERT GRAHAM | 1961 - DONALD CUNNINGHAM, AL LABOVITZ, JOHN BULACK | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1951 - RUTH STEINBERG | 1962 - HERBERT SMITH, STEPHEN OXMAN | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1952 - JAMES HOLMES | 1963 - AL ZIMMERMAN, STEPHEN OXMAN | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1953 - CHARLES SHAFFRAN, JOSEPH ROSENBERG | 1963 - RICHARD COOPER, JEFFREY KULLIVER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1954 - CHARLES SHAFFRAN, JOSEPH ROSENBERG | 1964 - RICHARD COOPER, MARTIN PINCUS | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1954 - ROBERT CARLSON, STEPHEN COHEN | 1964 - GEORGE McGOWEN, SUSAN ROSENGARTEN | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1955 - STEPHEN COHEN, RUSSELL BOMBERGER | 1965 - ZIMRA BERKOWITZ, MICHAEL BOVE, DAVID McLAUGHLIN | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1956 - WILLIAM DEAN, DANIEL WOOD | 1966 - ROBERT CIRILLO, MICHAEL SAPERSTONE, JANE LESSNER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1957 - ROBERT LAMB, ARNOLD FINKEL | 1967 - JANE LESSNER, ROBERT DONZE | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| 1958 - NORMAN CHILDS, JOEL ALBERT | 1968 - RICHARD BAYHA*, MICHAEL BIEL | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER |
| No plate | 1968 - GALEN LONGWELL*, BENJAMIN SELISKER | XXXX - SPACE HOLDER | No plate |
* - Graduate Assistant
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