"Mid-day" Mocrytzki
His Story
Mocrytzki hits the road, Jack
Walt Mocrytzki, aka. Walter Moore has departed Metro Networks as of March 20, 1998. He resigned after completing his vacation and is currently selling computer software for Agency Express, Inc. You may visit the company at http://www.agencyexpress.com. Walt thinks that this is just fantastic. His wife is a furniture rep and now he will be able to travel with her. Mocrytzki has just obtained a home computer and is now on the Internet from his house. You may reach him at mocrytzki@aol.com
The following is written by Gerry Wilkinson....It was a Friday morning in mid-January, the 16th, to be exact. I hadn't seen Walt Mocrytzki in 29 years. I had talked to him on the phone a few times over the years, but we haven't actually laid eyes on each other for almost three decades. I knew he would notice my graying hair (it's pretty gray---my mother was gray by 42), but that didn't bother me. I called to make sure he was there and then left my house. I met him at Metro Networks' Philadelphia headquarters at 3901 Main Street. It's right across the street from Channel 48. Putting the video camera in the trunk, I placed some quarters in the parking meter and entered the building. When the elevator door opened, Walt was right there. We both looked a little older, but I would have recognized Walt anywhere. I was given the grand tour of their operations and met Glen Barton who was getting ready to do the news on WPEN. Most of you will remember Glen from his newscasts on Famous 56, WFIL in the sixties and seventies. He was a nice, pleasant man whose voice sounds exactly the same in person as it does on the air. You know how some announcers force their voices lower, well, Glen didn't have to do that. Next hand shake went to Pat Winters who had just finished a traffic report. Pat's husband, by the way, was an alumni of Temple's SCAT, RTF '71. The operations area was about the size of WRTI's old Studio B in Thomas Hall. But they squeezed so much into that space, it was unbelievable. On either side, there was a row of three broadcast booths. But not like we were used to. These were open, not enclosed. Most stations, Walt mentioned, want some background noise on their Traffic Reports. Walt says that in drive time, all six booths would be in use. There were also six glass enclosed areas, mainly used for newscasts. They were, maybe, four feet by four feet, and jammed filled with monitors, a computer and other items. Andy Civitella (a.k.a. Art Andrews) does his newscasts from one of these booths. The Channel 10 Traffic Reports come right from the center of the room with everything in the background. Just ten feet away, but behind a wall (and glass enclosed) is the Channel 29 Traffic Area. I hate to use the word STUDIO. And there wasn't an engineer or technician in sight. Absolutely amazing. When Pat did another traffic report, everyone kept talking. Why bother giving her an on-the-air light? They had the sales people squeezed in tight, too. Just about room for one per sales area. I would hate to call it an office. When I downloaded the Real Player for Walt onto his computer, he had to stand in a little hallway area. That's how little space there was. We left Metro and walked down two blocks to a Farmer's Market which was also set up for lunches. About halfway, we passed a club where Walt's son works. He had gone to college for a little while but decided not to continue. He was making $800 a week by being a bartender at the club. $400 of that is from just Friday night. For lunch, I selected a couple large slices of pepperoni pizza and an orange soda (not diet). Walt had a salad, a healthy-style muffin and a diet iced tea. They had a wide selection of food at the Farmer's market. Walt, by the way, has promised to send some photos of his son and Walt's second wife, who is a buyer for a Furniture place. Walt Mocrytzki uses the name Walter Moore at Metro, where he has been employed for the last five years. When he had his own ad agency, it was Walter Moore advertising and he figured he could trade on his old company's name. Walt has worked at WCAU in the early seventies and at WRCP. He recalls one time he was trying to get Mel Tillis to appear at something or other. They said,"Stop and see Mel at his trailer behind the old Latin Casino." Walt did and who the hell was there...SHELLY DAVIS. Shelly was the road manager for the famed country star. Walt said that the year was about 1976. After closing he agency, Walt went to work for a small group of small market stations in Maryland. He became Sales Manager and then General Manager. Hey, Walt...when you get to be GM here in Philly, remember me, okay? Over the years, Walt has remained friendly with Jim Nettleton, formerly of WFIL, now with WOGL. When Jim got married a few years ago, Walt was the best man at the wedding. Walt got up from the table and said, "I'll be back. I'm going to do something bad." I tried to figure out what he was going to do that was bad. Well, he returned with this huge chocolate chip cookie. Gee, Walt are we THAT OLD that the worse thing we can do is eat a large cookie? I guess so. We chatted about the "Bob & Jerry Show" and "Party Time" and some of the other programs we were involved with. I recalled that on Wednesday afternoons, Walt hosted a show playing MOR called "Mid-day Music." Somehow over the semester, the show's name got corrupted into "Mid-day Mocrytzki." It started out as a regular music program and ended up with silly skits (no scripts). Remember that John Carlton did the local traffic reports for the Altantic Go Patrol and Carlton Fredericks with hosting a TV talk show. So Ed Sciaky played the role of the Traffic Reporter, John Carlton Fredericks for the Pacific Stop Patrol. I engineered the show and remember that we would drop in parts of the Atlantic "Keeps Your Car on the Go" jingle. Walt would say that Ed used the name JOHN CARLTON FREDERICKS so that we could be sued by two people. When we returned to Metro, I took some video tape footage of Walt. Using a Snappy 3.0 Deluxe device, I converted the tape into still images. One thing..."Mid-day Mocrytzki" had no idea how WHO? became associated with him, but I said...have no fear, Mike Biel will know.
From Mike Muderick....My recollection, (compare it to the actual that I'm sure Biel knows) is that it originated with the PARTY TIME show. He would do his introduction, AND NOW LIVE, FROM PEABODY HALL..........AND ME, I'M WALT
MOCRYTZKI and everyone would yell........WHO?????
From Mike Muderick (again)....I have to tell you, right after I send my message response, Biel's (answer) came across the line. So I wasn't so far off
From Mike Biel....Aw shucks. Do we hafta tell him? Well, the afternoon of the very first Bob and Jerry show someone came around just before taping and whispered to each of us in the audience to yell out "Who?" when Walt said his name. I really don't remember who told us to do it, it may have been Bob and Jerry, or Mickey Saperstone, or Bob Cirillo. But Bob and Jerry were certainly in on it because you can hear them saying it to each other on the tape of that first show. Even though it is not the smoothest opening--the levels were HORRIBLE, and the mic placement dreadful--I'll include it for posting in a little bit. Then I'll put in a later opening after we learned how to mic the band and mix the sound.
Mocrytzki Photo #1 (1/16/98) Mocrytzki Photo #2 (1/16/98) Mocrytzki Photo #3 (1/16/98) This is the WRTI Old Gang Web Site!
