Nels Hobdell
His Story
The following is an e-mail from Nels Hobdell to Gerry Wilkinson....
So, Muderick has heard me "...from time to time around town on various stations..." (This was a reference to something Mike said on our WHERE ARE THEY NOW? page.) Well tell him I was sure that SOMEBODY was listening... Here's a quick rundown of my travels: Started at WCHE in West Chester (Where Charlie Tomlinson was also just starting in selling). Spent about two years at Ernie Tannen's old WEEZ in Chester (Bove and Donze got me the job.) Two more years in the U.S. Army as a Broadcast Specialist and playing rock on KJCK in the thriving metropolis of Junction City, Kansas. (But, I swear, I never rented a Ryder truck there...). A brief stint with WASH in D.C. Ten years at the old "Wish", WWSH here in Philly, where I was Program Director. Three years as PD at "Sunny-104", Star's predecessor. Five years doing afternoons at Kiss-100. Various part-time stops along the way at 'PEN/Magic, WIP, Smooth Jazz, and elsewhere. For the past six years, I've been with Express Broadcast Services. We're the guys who do traffic for KY and most of the other stations in town. We also provide news, sports and weather for many of the region's stations. Depending on staffing neeeds, I am liable to be pressed into service on any of our stations. But you can generally find me doing afternoon news on WDAS AM and FM. I'm also the "booth" voice for WYBE, TV-35. Great to hear from you. I do have a fairly recent mug shot if you'll send me your address. (I could attach a quick-cam shot, but the room's mess...) Ham Radio: N3KAH (I monitor the U of P repeater system on 70cm at 442.4 or 443.8 mHz or the "I-95" machine on 2 meters at 147.195.)
From Gerry Wilkinson....I spoke to Nels on the telephone today, January 7, 1998. I called just before he was ready to do the news on WDAS-AM, my old stomping grounds. After he did the cast, we talked for a while. Nels still sounds great. He has gotten into computers somewhat doing upgrades on his own CPU. We talked about the business today and the way things used to be. He has at least two sons, one is named Nels P. Hobdell, IV. The other one he didn't name. Well, he did name him, he just didn't tell me. It was great chatting but Nels had to go after about 25 minutes because he had another newscast coming up, this one on "New Jersey 101." They keep him hopping there.
From Gerry Wilkinson....
On Monday, April 27, 1998, I paid a visit to Nels Hobdell at Express Broadcast Services. The operation both for traffic and news is very similar to Metro Networks. (See Walt Mocrytzki's page.) We chatted for about an hour. I could tell that Nels still has his programming abilities. As we discussed Philly radio, Nels really had an insight on our market. While we may disagree on minor things (like whether it matters what programming is on overnight on WPHT, talkradio 1210 (the old WCAU-AM) as far as the ratings for the morning show. I think it matters and Nels doesn't), he still had his finger on the pulse of the industry. He did the news on WDAS-AM and we continued chatting. Mostly about the industry. Mostly about radio. He has that burning desire about radio that I still see in some of our WRTI friends like Ed Sciaky and via e-mail, Gary Torresani. I guess you can't get it out of your blood, can you? One of the stations that we talked about wasn't even a Philly station, WRDR at the jersey shore. Nels was saying how they were "trying to young it up." Fran Odyniec and I were just talking about that the previous day. They do sound good. After all, "when they pulled the plug of WWSH, they had a 7 share," but couldn't sell advertising. They audience according to Hobdell was "60 to dead." Watch it Nels, we're getting close to the age bracket ourselves. I wouldn't be surprised to see Nels pop up somewhere as PD. However, there aren't many program directors in our age range currently employed. AGE DISCRIMINATION!!! Over the years, I had talked to Nels but don't think I had actually seen him in 30 years. He looked good, as my 12 year-old would say, "for an old guy." My pre-teen is a girl, but Nels has a 12 year-old too, a son. I took a couple of photos and said goodbye. It was great visiting with him. He was the same old Nels. Maybe a little older. Maybe a little grayer. Maybe a little less hair. Maybe with a few extra pounds. But he was still the Nels I remembered and liked.
Nels preparing the 2 pm NEW JERSEY 101 News at Express Our friendly buddy, Nels (at Express)
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