I just learned this morning that one of my first "bosses" in my radio career - from my college days - passed away a couple of years ago. His name was Joe Plasko. Joe managed Penn State student radio station WDFM (the predecessor to the current Lion 90.7) during my last year as a student there in the early 1980s, and he, I and a couple of other announcers platooned hosting the weekly Saturday night heavy metal show, "Metal Wind."
Learning of Joe's passing brought back memories of those days. I still have cassette tape recordings of some of our "Metal Wind" shows (I cringe to listen to my voice back then). That was in 1981-83, when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was big, Motley Crue was just starting out, and I was buying import metal albums right and left from Arboria, City Lights and Altoona's Music Hut. "Metal Wind" aired from 9 to midnight on Saturday nights, and I usually hosted once per month (sometimes more if somebody called off sick or hung over). I was spinning everything from Black Sabbath to Saxon, Iron Maiden to Trust, and lots of obscure metal as well. Once in a while I'd play local metal as well from Nitro or Harpo (there wasn't much recorded local metal around back then, unlike now). "Metal Wind" whet my chops for eventually co-hosting WFBG's "All Night Album Rock" when I landed my first professional radio gig after graduation.
Joe was very knowledgeable about metal back then, and we'd always spend plenty of off-air time sharing notes about new bands we heard, albums we bought, etc. After graduation, he eventually became the Tamaqua Bureau chief for the Times News newspaper in Lehighton.
I might have to break out some of those old WDFM tapes and give a listen. I'll just cringe and bear it when I hear my own voice back then...
Rest in peace, Joe...
