The LuLac Edoition #2315, December 31st, 2012

Photo: (libreto.com) 

JUST ONE MORE THING….. 

As the hours slip away, here are a few items we didn’t get to in our Year End Review. By including them so late, please do not minimize their significance. We’re about 3 hours and 45 minutes before 2013 so let’s start NOW. 

LOCAL LOSSES 

2012 saw the loss of former Judge and State Senator Charles Lemmond who passed away in the spring, former Wilkes Barre City Controller Mercedes Leighton, former Wilkes Barre City Councilman Eric Redick, West Pittston politicos Gary Del Sera and Sam Agolino and former principle in Sordoni Industries, George Sordoni. Also, there was the death of wrestling legends Francis Yogi Michael. They were all quality people and will be missed.

GETTING PICKED OVER 

2012 saw appearances by two local businesses on “American Pickers”. Host Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz paid a visit to Kunkle Motors in well, Kunkle, thus the name.. When I first Mrs. LuLac, she drove a Saab and Danny Meeker serviced it for her. The duo stopped by and bought stuff from Danny’s grandson. Later in the year, they visited my good friend Leo D'Angelo Sr. at his store, La Salle The Image Makers. I bought many a suit from Leo through the years (including my purple double breasted number) and was glad to see the American Pickers guys spar with Leo and his son. It was a great show but why does Leo still have more hair than I do???? 

MEDIA MOVES 

Rusty Fender’s long reign as Traffic Whiz ended at Entercom Communications in early November. His alter ego, Shadoe Steele also was let go leaving oldies lovers who loved Steele’s interviews wanting. Steele will reemerge in January at a Hazleton Area station in early January….Sportscasters made a move out of the area. WYLN’s Kenny Carra relocated to the Central Pennsylvania area and WBRE TV’s Colin Riccobon moved on. Colin did a terrific job covering the Olympics in conjunction with NBC’s coverage……Kyla Campbell from the WBRE Morning Show moved her considerable talents to the Washington, D.C. area…..the big buzz about “The Talker” was the David Madiera program. The Talker replaced Don Imus with the good doctor. Imus was tried three times and cancelled three times in this market. First he was on Bob Cordaro’s Sports Station in the 90s, replaced Terry McNulty on WARM in the late 90s and then re-emerged on The Talker. The “I Man” just doesn’t wear well in this area………meanwhile Joe Peters is doing well as a political commentator on WNEP TV as well as his Saturday Morning duties on The Talker. My good friend Brian Hughes continues to hit it out of the park every week with his Sunday Magazine Show on the Cumulus Stations……and finally kudos to WILK’s Nancy Kman for all the abuse she took from callers to the Morning program who were convinced President Obama was the devil and that Mitt Romney would be our 45th President. Nancy took the slings and arrows but should remember that just when you think there are more of them than us………….there aren’t. The election results told us that in great detail.

Our 1967 logo.

The Buckinghams. (Photo Wikipedia) 

BAND OF THE YEAR-'67 

If someone asked who what band was the most popular in terms of charted records for the year 1967, you’d most likely answer either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. But you would be wrong. The year 1967 was a banner year for the Buckinghams. The group had 6 chart hits in 1967. They were: King of A Drag Don’t You care Lawdy Lawdy Miss Clawdy Mercy Mercy Mercy Hey Baby. To have 5 hits in one calendar year is nothing short of amazing. That’s like a hit every six weeks and everyone except “Lawdy Lawdy Miss Clawdy” was in the top ten.