You may have read or heard that 92.7 WOBM has kicked off a “50 Memories in 50 Days” campaign as part of the countdown to March 1st which is the 50th anniversary of Ocean County’s first radio station making its inaugural broadcast from what was then our studio and offices in Bayville.

Anniversaries are often over-hyped but when you reach the “golden” one it’s a good time to look back and that’s what we will be doing.  Of course Topic A host Bob Levy is the only one still associated with the radio station who was here in 1968. He was the first sales manager and hired before the roof even went up on the original building.

Hometown View
(Kevin Williams, Townsquare Media NJ)
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However I can top Bob in being the longest full-time employee as I started in July of 1979 and are halfway to my 39th anniversary.  The two of us will likely provide some of the historic background during the 50 day period leading up to March 1st.

For me one of my lasting memories is how I was hired.  I was 23 years old and had been working for another local radio station for about a year doing news and a daily sports report.  The general manager at WOBM at that time reached out to me to see if I might be interested in a position there as they were looking for their first-ever fulltime Sports Director.

I initially balked at the idea for several reasons but after giving it some thought and with a little push from my parents I decided to at least come in for an interview.

I actually put on a suit (boy I wish I had a picture) and came to the office in Bayville where the GM promptly introduced me to Bob Levy, who I had heard of but never met.  I was told the first part of the interview would be handled by Bob who after a brief introduction asked me five local sports questions.

I only remember two of them: who was the football coach at Brick High School (Warren Wolf of course) and who was the former Lakewood basketball coach who left to become an assistant college coach (Bob Nastase).  I know I answered all five at which point Bob called the general manager in his office and told him to come and get me because I was the person they should hire.

Of course details had to be worked out and it took a week and a $35 raise for me to accept the job which I did.  I figured I would only be at WOBM for a couple of years before moving on to New York or Philadelphia.  The only moving I did was when we left Bayville for our current palatial home in downtown Toms River.

For more on “50 Memories in 50 Days” visit wobm.com. We’d like some of yours as well.

 

 

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