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| WTEL Control |
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| Italian hour host |
| Hispanic Hour |
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| daily 7pm-8pm |
Summer, 1960
George Hopkinson and Quentin Sturm had just acquired the station.
Campbell says "I had returned home to Philadelphia for the summer and sent a resume and tape to every station in town. Hopkinson
offered summer job which was perfect between semesters I worked 80 hours a week, noon to sign-off (a daytimer) including Sundays.
First thing Sunday morning was to turn on amplifier and watch level at a gospel church then run board at studio until sign-off.
There was an Irish hour with Pat Stanton at 11am Sundays. Weekdays the German hour, the Polish hour and others. Each had their
own cues which differed from each other (a bit confusing for a while) boardman had to read their commercials in English when
they finished in their own language. Each host was charming and delighful to work with...although that Polish guy was sometimes
difficult :-)
"The operations manager was a great fellow named Doug "Bud" Hibbs, who used another name on the
air". Campbell relates, "He did everything from air work to painting and was very helpful to a novice broadcaster.
Sometimes English copy was handwritten, in beautiful cursive, and
the announcer got a carbon copy. For the entire summer I was saying 'Labor Road' on one spot..which I later discovered was
Tabor Road".
READER WRITES:
Three partners, my father, John E. Hopkinson, his brother George D. Hopkinson, and Quentin "Q" Sturm acquired WTEL in
the Spring of 1959. They adjusted the format from mostly European languages, e.g. Polish, Latvian, etc., to mostly Spanish
to appeal to the growing Hispanic population. John died in January 1964.
Thanks for mentioning the history of WTEL. The station contributed a lot to Philadelphia radio. The owners greatly appreciated
all that Philadelphia radio and the city had to offer.
Anastasia Hopkinson
Annapolis MD
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