By Frank “Smokin” Truat
July is a pretty special month for WTBQ Radio. As I mentioned earlier this month, July 1st was the 30th anniversary of my ownership of WTBQ. Towards the end of the month, on July 27th, last Saturday, WTBQ celebrated 55 years of broadcasting. How did WTBQ come to be in 1969?
The station was the creation of media entrepreneur Ed Klein, who was a news guy his whole life. He started as a paperboy in Brooklyn in 1933. Ed was a World War II Army veteran who discovered Warwick on a trip over Mt. Peter in 1962 along with his wife. He loved the beauty and serenity of Warwick, and saw the need to bring local news into the area as most news came from the city papers and television. He started the weekly Advertiser and also the local cable television company. In 1969, Ed saw the need for local radio and purchased a six-acre lot, applying for a license from the Federal Communications Commission. He told the seller of the property that he needed to clear a bit of the property for the tower. Little did the seller know that clearing would be the size of a football field! Ed was on a mission and got the station on the air when the FCC approval came. Remember, Ed was a news guy and used instrumental music to fill in when he was not reporting the local news. Ed was eventually convinced to add music with vocals, the hit songs, as the station grew in popularity.
He would eventually sell his newspaper, cable television and the radio station, only to continue creating new media outlets and became the managing editor of the Hudson Valley Business Journal as well as writing his own autobiography in 1996. I would spend many lunch meetings with Ed and plenty of time in his office picking his brain for ideas.
We lost Ed in 2008, but I still hear his voice from time to time. He never made a fortune in all his endeavors, but it was never about the money, it was about his passion for getting the news out. Many times, the phone would ring during my morning show and it would be Ed reminding me that I was a few minutes late with the news or we missed something I should have been talking about. So, this anniversary is for Ed and what he created. I’m sure that even he would be amazed at how many people his radio station has touched over 55 years.
For all those who had radio shows, for the thousands of guests who have been on the air, for all the organizations and charities that have benefited from his station, I am extremely proud to keep his vision going strong. Ed never believed in retiring, he passed away still doing what he truly loved. I get that and feel the same way!
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