Andy Civitella

His Story

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The following is written by Gerry Wilkinson....At 10:05 on the morning of Tuesday, January 6, 1998, I called Andy Civitella. I know the time because he had just finished doing the 10 am news on WPEN. Andy, by the way, uses the air name of Art Andrews. Much to my dismay, when I called "The Station of the Stars," the switchboard operator had no idea who Andy Civitella was. I figured, "well, she knows him as Art Andrews." No dice. She still didn't know and I was placed on hold. Finally she returned and gave me a new number to dial. I just figured that the news room wasn't hooked into the main switchboard. Dialing the number, I tried to figure out exactly what I was going to say to Andy since I really didn't know him that well. The phone was answered "Metro Networks." I asked for Art Andrews. Andy answered the phone and we talked for 20 minutes just like old friends. He explained that one day management told him (he was News Director) that everyone on the news staff was "gone." But if they wanted to, they could all have jobs at Metro and still do the news for WPEN. Andy didn't say what happened but many times when this kind of thing takes place, the news staff receives less in salary and little or no benefits. This may or may not have been what happened at WPEN. But Bob Cirillo told me on the phone (he called when I was writing this) that Andy was not too happy about these developments. Andy mentioned that he just made it under the wire to qualify for a pension with Greater Media, owners of WPEN. (Greater Media also owns WMMR where Ed Sciaky is employed). He said that a month or two earlier and he would not have qualified for the pension deal. Thank God at least Andy was able to get that in before he left.

Andy has no Internet connection but works only 20 feet from Walt Mocrytzki (a.k.a. Walter Moore........who?). I have talked to Walt and he said anyone wishing to e-mail Andy may do so through his (Walt's) e-mail address. Walt also works for Metro Networks selling time. Our 54 year old friend Andy said that when he retires he plans to write a book about the business. I said that knowing what I know about WDAS, I could write the sequel.

Civitella was graduated from T.U. in 1967 with a Bachelors degree in Communications and Theater. Andy also said that he never saw the 1967 edition of the Templar, the Temple University yearbook. They had his name spelled incorrectly (they had it as Ciritella). The difference in spelling of his last name generated several e-mails between myself, Mike Muderick and Jerry Klein. JK said, "Andy will have to solve the spelling for us...." Well, just for the record, it's C-I-V-I-T-E-L-L-A.

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