Charles Liebman

His Story

The following is an e-mail from Charles Liebman to Jerry Klein (11/4/99)...I don't know if you remember me, but I remember you. I discovered this amazing WRTI website and your name was included as co-webmaster. E-mail me please and let me know who came up with the idea for this, and, of course, what you are doing. I last saw you 30 years ago at WCAU, I believe. I was the sports guy from 64-68....I have many fond memories.

The following is an e-mail from Jerry Klein to Charles Liebman (11/4/99)...How could I NOT remember you!! You were THE sports guy at WRTI when I was there! Remember, I was your engineer for Temple's NIT appearance at Madison Square Garden? Remember dinner at the restaurant before the game, when Ray Didinger ordered chocolate mousse for dessert and it arrived looking like two chocolate tits on a plate, and Didinger turned 40 shades of red and purple?

I have often wondered what happened to you after your graduation. I assumed you went into your family's furniture business. I thought you had a real talent for sportscasting and was sorry you apparently didn't pursue it.

The website started with Gerry Wilkinson. He started posting stuff on his AOL account and contacted me through Mike Muderick very early on. I have a great deal of stuff I kept from those years, and I started posting it on my own site, and then later I registered the address http://www.wrti.com. We've been working together on the site ever since, including an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the demolition of Thomas Hall.

I don't know how much of the website you've seen; there's Gerry's portion, the "Front Page" of the WRTI Old Gang website, at http://www.geocities.com/wrtifriend/oldgang.html. Then there's my portion, which is more archival (or maybe just more organized), called "Jerry Klein's Annex." That's at http://www.wrti.com/wrti. You can get to either one from the main address, http://www.wrti.com.

You know, you are mentioned several times on the website and we even have your voice! It's a promo you did for "People in Sports," on our Promos page (go to http://www.wrti.com/wrti/), click on "The Sounds of WRTI," then click on the link for Station Promos and PSAs. Yours is the third from the bottom.

You are also listed on the various executive staff lists and the awards list (go to http://www.wrti.com/wrti/people.htm); on the Memorabilia page (http://www.wrti.com/wrti/memories.htm) in connection with the 1967 Annual Banquet program cover; on the Playhouse 90.1 page (get there from the Sounds of WRTI page) as part of the cast of "Inside a Kid's Head," as well as in Mike Biel's comments on that production; and on the program schedule from Spring 1967 (there's a link on the Memorabilia page).

If you have any recordings of any of your broadcasts from those years, let me have copies so we can post some clips. Also please send me an email letting us know what YOU've been up to, so we can post that as well. Also, a recent photo (and any photos from back then, too) would be great.

What I've been doing, in short: left broadcasting, became a lawyer; left that, joined my wife in her public relations firm. All the details are on our website, http://www.akleinpr.com. Go to the "Our Team" page (http://www.akleinpr.com/biosmenu.htm) -- I think you'll like the sports metaphor. Click on Gerhart L. Klein (that's me) for all the gory details. And yes, I do really play ice hockey. Still, at age 51! (BTW, the last two links on my bio page are two other websites I created, for our neighborhood association and a boating group I belong to. I also created the website for the international PR network I'm of which I'm president -- http://www.pinnacleww.com.)

Do you remember my girlfriend at the time, Florence Weiss? Well, we've gotten back in touch as a result of this website. In September, my wife and I joined Florence and her husband at a harvest ball at a winery in Napa Valley! It is REALLY great to hear from you.

The following is an e-mail from Mike Biel to Charles Liebman (11/5/99)...Are you still rounding third? Have you EVER gotten home??

It is great hearing from you, albeit indirectly. As Klein said, you name and voice has come up quite a bit as we remember back. Here's another story I don't think I've told yet. You caused me to flunk my first FM audition in Sept 1964. They told us to be natural sounding, but when I heard YOU do your audition with your booming voice, I figured with that kind of competition I had to pull out all the stops. You passed. I failed. So it was off to AM for me, and I had to work my way onto FM little by little that semester.

I thought about you a couple of days ago, but it was Ray Didinger's fault. I was going thru a record and tape catalog from the late 70s or early 80s and I saw a listing of a motivational tape that Ray did with interviews with some impressive sports figures. (I don't have the catalog here so I can't give everyone the discographical data, but I will when I get a chance.) But when I saw that indication that he had been in the business, I again wondered what happened to you. Glad to hear from you!

You can see my bio on the web page--I'm still teaching the old Dr. Dusenbury method of Sound Patterns.

The following is an e-mail from Charles Liebman to Jerry Klein (11/6/99)...Thanks, Jerry, for your reply, and info about the website. I have checked it out thoroughly, and also e-mailed Ira Mellman, Mike Biel, and Fred Woskoff just for old times sake.

I was thoroughly amazed to find the Jerry DelColliano promo about my show, and my own promo, and listened to both. I sounded like I was 19 years old; by jove, I was 19 years old!. It is great that someone saved that stuff. And while on that subject, I have a huge box full of tapes of play-by-play and interviews I did at WRTI, but it hasn't been opened in 30 years. The tapes may have disintegrated for all I know. But I am now motivated to open them up, and find out what is there. If you give me your mailing address, I will send along some tapes and photos for the website. My father recently found a photo of me broadcasting a football game at Temple Stadium with Ray Didinger, and 2 other people I cannot name. Perhaps you will be able to identify them.

By the way, I am now living in Harrisburg, Pa. with my wife Carol, and I operate a retail furniture business in this area. Prior to 1985, I lived in Cherry Hill, and worked with my dad in the same field. I have 2 daughters, one of whom graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse, and now is an account exec in PR at Tierney and Partners in Phila. Jerry, I will have to get you guys together to talk shop. She is very good!! My other daughter is 21, and just graduated from Penn State. She is taking a year off and intends to go back to school to get a master's in education.

There is alot more of the last 30 years to tell, but I will save it for another posting. Let me hear from you , Jerry, and feel free to add my name to the website. Oh, one more thing. Do you recall you called me one day, and asked me to do sports on WCAU one Saturday afternoon in, let's say, 1972? I am not sure of the year, but I'm close. The anchor person was Al Julius. Well, it was very kind of you, but I never got the $50 you promised. Some things you just never forget.