In this week’s issue… Times-Shamrock celebrates centennial, lights tower – St. Barnabas expands in PA – Missing traffic reporter found dead – GBH names new leader – New PD on Jersey Shore – TV news vets plan farewells
By SCOTT FYBUSH
Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada
*It’s an annual tradition in downtown Scranton, PENNSYLVANIA the night before Thanksgiving: thousands of people fill the streets around the corner of Penn Avenue and Biden Street, enjoying a street fair, music, food trucks and, right at the stroke of six, the lighting of the Christmas display that’s strung up and down the tower of WEJL (630) atop the Scranton Times building.
And this year, he invited a friend to do the honors – which means it was your editor up there high above Scranton actually lighting up the tower and cueing the fireworks display that started the holiday season in northeast Pennsylvania. It was a thrill indeed, not least because this is a special year for WEJL.
While the Times was hardly the only newspaper to own an early radio station, the Lynett family boasts a unique history: it is, as best we can tell, the only family-owned newspaper/radio combination to have survived an entire century.
After operating WQAN as a noncommercial, shared-time operation from the 1920s until 1950, the station transformed into commercial WEJL and eventually spawned a family-owned broadcast group, Times-Shamrock, that built up a larger cluster in Scranton and expanded to other markets such as Milwaukee and Reno.
Next month, the Lynett-Haggerty family will be honored for their centennial with a Spotlight award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, a well-deserved honor for an enduring family media legacy.
CALENDARS ON CLEARANCE

If you don’t have your 2023 Tower Site Calendar yet, now is the perfect time to get it. Because we have lowered the price to just $14.
The calendar has great photos of broadcast sites near and far (everywhere from Navajo Nation on the cover to Boston to Toronto to Texas, and beyond), plus a lovely “centerfold” you can keep on your wall for 2024.
It’s still shipping regularly, and you can have yours in just a couple of days!
Order your copy and you’ll see what we mean.
If you have already ordered your calendar, make sure you check out the other items in the store, too!