Editor’s note: The following story was originally published in the Sept. 24, 2015, print issue of the Telegraph-Times-Monitor.
BY CLIFF SMELLEY
If Guglielmo Marconi is often referred to as “The Father of Radio,” does that make Chuck Kramer radio’s son?
As a joke, someone once asked Kramer if he had known Marconi. Kramer hasn’t been in radio quite that long, but he has been in it long enough that he knew somebody who knew Marconi.
Kramer, who is the general manager of Starke’s WEAG 106.3-FM (Eagle Country) and just the fourth morning personality in station history, is entering his 50th year in radio. He’s been at WEAG for a little less than half of its existence, as this marks his 25th year at the station.
“I’ve had people tell me that they grew up listening to me, and now their children are listening to me,” Kramer said.
Bradford County has become home for Kramer and his family. In fact, the station itself is home. Kramer’s wife, Mary, is the station’s office manager and joins Chuck on the air, where listeners know her as “Miss Mary.” Chuck and Mary’s daughter Lyn Kramer Veliz is the station’s Monday-Friday midday host from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., following Chuck, whose Monday-Friday show airs 6-10 a.m.
Daughter Danielle, who lost her life in a traffic crash in 2007 at the age of 20, was involved as well.
“They were just always around it, so I’m not really surprised,” Mary said of her daughters following in Chuck’s footsteps.
It all began when a squeaky voiced kid in Atlantic City, NJ, became fascinated with the ins and outs of radio.
Just hanging around leads to long career
Chuck said he was 11 when he “used to just hang around radio stations.” In fact, at one station, he was shown where a hidden key was so he could enter in the morning and help prepare for the start of the broadcast day at 7 a.m. Chuck said he would prepare the national anthem to be played and pull the commercials for the morning announcer.
Talking on air for the first time was a memorable experience. In the week leading up to Easter, Chuck said he had a dream that nobody showed up at the station on Easter morning. He told himself if he had that same dream again, it was undoubtedly a premonition.
He had the dream again, so on that Sunday morning, Chuck went to the station. Sure enough, the morning announcer was a no-show. After prepping and playing the national anthem, Chuck turned the microphone on and greeted the listeners.
“I did the whole live introduction,” he said.
Chuck did not have a voice for radio at that time. His intro was followed by a call to the station from the incensed owner, who wanted to know just what was going on. Chuck explained the situation, with the owner telling him, “Don’t say anything more. Just keep playing music. We’ll get somebody in there.”
At the time, Chuck was just some kid who helped out here and there, but he eventually got hired at that station three years later, officially starting his 50-year journey at the age of 14. Chuck laughed at how things turned out, as the station owner apparently didn’t realize the newest employee was that kid who dared talk on the air three years previously.
“I don’t think that boss ever really knew I was that Charlie Kramer of Easter Sunday,” Chuck said.
That first job entailed working one night a week on Sundays “pushing buttons,” Chuck said. He made $1.25 an hour, which was an exciting prospect for a young teenager. He told himself if he could make $80 a week, he could pay off his mother’s house.
“I thought I was on Easy Street,” Chuck said, his younger self not realizing just how many hours he’d have to work a week to reach $80.
Chuck still didn’t have a voice for radio, so he became good at production work, which serves him well to this day working at WEAG. For example, Mary may provide the voice for a commercial, but Chuck is responsible for the music, flourishes, etc.
Such responsibilities seem to be a natural for another Kramer.
“Lyn can do everything I can do,” Chuck said. She insisted that wasn’t true, but Chuck added, “Only faster and better. She excels on the computer end, while I’m old school.”
It was at the age of 16 when Chuck added on-air voice work to his duties. He still didn’t do a lot of talking as the station he worked at devoted the majority of its time to music, but he did voice short station breaks and things of that nature.
Whatever duties he was performing, he was on a career path that led him to 12 other stations—mostly in southern New Jersey—before he moved to WEAG. Chuck even co-owned a station in Atlantic City with two other people. He has worked with various music formats, with WEAG being the third country-music station he’s worked at.
“A lot of people don’t realize it, but they actually have country stations up north,” Chuck said.
Chuck, though, eventually made his way south.
Going to Florida
“I’m coming to Florida.”
That’s what Chuck told WEAG owner Ben Dickerson, whom he had gotten to know over the years. Dickerson is from New Jersey and would travel there periodically after moving to Florida because he owned apartments in New Jersey. He and Chuck always kept in touch.
“He would always say, ‘You should come down to Florida,’” Chuck said.
Chuck called Dickerson one day and told him he was going to visit Florida. Chuck was interested in WEAG, but was honest with Dickerson, telling him he had appointments at other stations in places such as Orlando, Tampa and Safety Harbor.
Dickerson insisted that Chuck drive his Chevy Nova while in Florida. The car had no AC, and it was July.
“He said, ‘If you can drive this car for a week in Florida with no air-conditioning, you’ll be OK in Florida.’ He actually loaned me the car so I could go looking for jobs,” Chuck said.
Chuck said he suspected Dickerson had a feeling that after visiting other stations, WEAG in Starke would be the Florida station Chuck would want to make the move south for. If so, that feeling was correct.
“I made the decision when I got back home,” Chuck said. “I said to Mary, ‘We’re going to Florida. We’re selling the house, and we’re going to Florida.’”
Mary remembers it differently.
“No, you didn’t,” she said to Chuck after he told his version of events. “You said, ‘I’m moving to Florida. You can come if you want to.’”
Mary, of course, wanted to be with her husband. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with making such a move. It took a while for her to get used to being in Florida.
“She cried on our first Thanksgiving because she had to wear shorts,” Chuck said. “It was hot.”
It was actually the week before Thanksgiving, Mary said, but the point is she was used to life up north. She made the decision to buy plane tickets so she could go back home in December, taking Danielle and Lyn with her.
“I took the girls back to Jersey for Christmas,” Mary said. “I wasn’t sure if I was coming back. I spent five weeks at my mother’s house. I called (Chuck) up and said, ‘I’m coming back to Florida.’ Five weeks with my mother was enough.”
Mary found it easier to adjust to her new life once Danielle and Lyn grew older, giving her a chance to get out and about.
“Once they started preschool, and I got a job and got to meet people, then it was a lot easier,” Mary said.
Chuck, of course, had a job, but it wasn’t the one he was expecting upon moving to Florida. WEAG already had a morning personality in Terry Vaughan. Chuck had been hired to work afternoons, but before he even got started, Dickerson told him he wouldn’t be going on the air on the afternoon of his first day. Chuck said he thought to himself, “Did I get fired already?”
Dickerson explained that Vaughan had accepted an appointment from Gov. Lawton Chiles to fill the position of Bradford County Supervisor of Elections after the death of Supervisor Neva Flynn. Chuck was to step into the role of morning personality.
On Sept. 24, 1991, Chuck made his morning debut, becoming just the fourth morning personality in the history of WEAG, which began Feb. 23, 1957.
“There must be something about the station that draws people here, and when they’re here, they like it, and they stay,” Chuck said.
Since then, the station has become quite the family affair.
Kramer family calls Eagle Country home
Chuck used to be joined in the mornings by Jim Bray, who was someone Chuck could “bounce some stuff off of,” but Bray eventually left for another job. That opened the door for “Miss Mary,” who was also helping Chuck out during broadcasts from the Bradford County Fair.
“I didn’t mind it,” Mary said. “I’m not afraid to be on the air. I just talk to him (Chuck). I don’t think about who’s listening.”
Mary began working part-time at the station when Dickerson’s wife, Ruth, became ill and eventually became the office manager after Ruth’s passing in December 2000.
As for the children, they got a taste of radio early, hanging out with Chuck on Friday nights, for example, during broadcasts of Bradford High School football games.
“We’d do like the commercials or little things, sayings and stuff,” Lyn said.
Chuck remembers being on the air around the clock during the 1998 drought that caused a breakout of fires in the area. Mary brought Chuck dinner, but Danielle didn’t want to return home. She stayed at the station, but Chuck told her, “If you stay, I’m going to put you to work.”
“I had her answering the phone and taking information,” Chuck said.
Chuck taught her some other responsibilities and then decided to take a 20-minute nap. He asked Danielle to wake him up.
“Twenty minutes became 30, an hour, two hours—by the morning time, she was on her own,” Chuck said. “She was doing it all by herself.”
Lyn had no intention of getting in the radio business, despite her early experience. She majored in photojournalism at the University of Florida. Becoming the host of her own show on WEAG “just kind of happened.”
“This is better,” Lyn said. “Dreams change.”
Chuck couldn’t be prouder. He said Lyn is a natural.
“She’s doing a great job mid-days 10-3,” Chuck said. “Her phones light up like a Christmas tree at 12 when she’s doing the requests.”
Lyn said she enjoys the chance to do something in which she has a lot of autonomy. She designs her own show, picking all of the music herself outside of requests and producing it the way she wants to.
“It gives you a chance to be creative,” Lyn said, adding, “It’s so rare to be able to do everything. We not only are the announcers, but we are the musical directors, we’re the producers of our shows, we’re the writers—we do everything.”
Chuck loves being at WEAG, but added, “Every station has been special to me. I’ve loved every one of them. There isn’t a station I didn’t love working at.”
And there’s no doubt he loves working at the Starke station, where he has now spent half of his career.
“I wish I had found it earlier,” he said of WEAG.
