When I was growing up we always had
Nanticoke's own easy listening station,
WNAK, playing in the house. My parents were children of the 1930's, and came from somewhere in-between "The Greatest Generation" that fought World War II and the "Happy Days" generation of sock hops and
submarine races. Technically, I believe they fell into what was called the "
Silent Generation" - overshadowed by those who came before them, eclipsed by the Baby Boomers who came after them, conformist, moderately conservative, moderately progressive. Their music was not the
rock'n'roll of Elvis and Chuck Berry, but was something smoother, mellower, gentler.
WNAK catered to their tastes, playing a mix of songs from their childhood by performers like
The Andrews Sisters,
The Mills Brothers, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, songs by their contemporaries such as
Jim Reeves,
Englebert Humperdinck, and
Robert Goulet, Polkas (always popular in this Polish-dominated area), and hymns (also popular in a primarily Roman Catholic area), along with softer stuff by more modern artists like Elvis, Ray Charles,
Jim Croce,
Anne Murray,
The Carpenters, and
The Captain & Tennille. Each day would be punctuated by the ultra-conservative editorials of station owner Bob
Nielson and pieces by
Paul Harvey and
"This Is Pennsylvania" by Peter C. Wambach (featuring the line "It's a beautiful day in Pennsylvania,"), even "Old-time radio dramas" - actually funny little 30-second melodramatic commercials for C.W. Schultz and Sons Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning. Each broadcasting day would end with Jim Reeves' version of "Night Watch":
Bright stars are watching the world as it sleepsShepherds watch over the little white sheepThe lighthouse is shining for ships far at seaAs God keeps the night watch for you and for me.So sleep, sleep in peace and restDon't be afraid of the darknessAll's well for over the land and the seaGod's keeping the night watch for you and for me.*I learned a lot of older songs back then, while other kids my age were growing up listening to The Who and The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I would learn those songs, too, but later, as my older sister entered her teen years and blasted them from her stereo. (Later, during her college years, she would work as a DJ at
WNAK for a while.) I think my childhood is richer for this layer of musical experience that many of my contemporaries, whose parents were sometimes ten to fifteen years younger than my own, never got to have.
Over time the artists I heard on
WNAK have died off. Some, like Jim Reeves, died before I was born; others died when I was young. A few, like
Englebert Humperdinck, are still alive and well, touring and performing.
WNAK itself has died, in a sense. Years ago Bob
Nielson sold it to a corporation, which gradually morphed the station into a soft rock/easy listening format intended to appeal to the under-70 crowd. A while back Bob Nielsen died. A few weeks ago
WNAK changed formats again, now into a Spanish
easy listening station. It calls its format "
Caliente", but the times I have listened to it - well, without the lyrics, you wouldn't know the music was any different; even polka and mariachi songs are fairly interchangeable.
Now another artist I learned to love from
WNAK has passed away. Two days ago I learned that Robert
Goulet was gravely ill and in need of a lung transplant. Yesterday he died. Tragically, the world has lost one of its great voices - and a pretty fair actor, too. He will be missed.
*Hearing this song on a Sunday evening was always one of the saddest experiences of my childhood, because it meant that the weekend was ending, and it was time to start thinking about whatever homework I might have been assigned on Friday.
