Arts & Entertainment

Old Pa.-Themed Holiday Radio Programs Available Online

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission posted broadcaster Peter Wambach shows on it's website.

 

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission invites you to take a nostalgic trip into holiday seasons past with the recordings of late historian and broadcaster Peter Wambach.

Twelve of Wambach’s award-winning “This is Pennsylvania” radio programs – each with a holiday theme – are available online at http://phmc.info/wambach.

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Originally aired between 1969 and 1976, subjects include Christmas in Pennsylvania, Music of Christmas, Berwick's Christmas Boulevard and the Philadelphia Mummers.

Wambach, a self-made Pennsylvania historian who died in 2007, produced radio vignettes for more than 100 radio stations statewide from the late 1960s into the mid 1980s.

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Wambach narrated more than 2,000 brief programs focused on a historical or contemporary Pennsylvania person, place, event or thing. Beginning in 1969 and running through 1985, shows with titles such as “Longwood Gardens,” “Dwight D. Eisenhower,” “Fishing in Pennsylvania” and “The Bucktail Trail” were broadcast weekly with few interruptions.

Every installment ended with Wambach’s famous tag-line, “It’s a Beautiful Day in Pennsylvania,” a phrase that became familiar to countless listeners.

In addition to these newly-posted shows, more than 50 additional programs are available on PHMC’s website, along with PDF versions of the original typed transcripts. A complete chronological listing of the shows produced by Wambach is also included.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official history agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Visit it online at www.phmc.state.pa.us.


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