Skip to main content

Photo: Old WBTA building

By Howard B. Owens

wbta.jpg

Appropriate to the recent celebration of WBTA's 75th Anniversary, C.M. Barons sends us this photo of the old WBTA building off of Alva Place, Batavia.

RICHARD L. HALE

Amazing.....the wife and I were just talking the other day about when WBTA was on Alva Place. We were talking also, about when Chuck Platt would sit in the window, doing his radio show.....and the cars would pull up to the window. He would give a choice of songs to play, and the cars would flash the headlights for which record they wanted to hear.
Back in the day as they say.....great memories !!

Feb 17, 2016, 12:31pm Permalink
Ed Glow

Thanks Richard, for the life of me I couldn't recall the DJ's name! I remember walking up to that window once with a request written on a piece of paper and I couldn't believe he actually played it.

Somewhere behind the spot that picture was taken from was the Mill Outlet store, and there was a back door to Vic's Grill in that back alley too. My father and I always stopped into Vic's to shoot a game of pool & wet our whistles after a visit to "The Mill".

Good ole "Mayberry" days for sure, we lived in Oakfield... Batavia was our "Mount Pilot"!

Feb 17, 2016, 12:55pm Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

That's odd, Ed.
We lived in South Alabama, and always considered Oakfield as our Mount Pilot.
Batavia? That was our Raleigh.
And Buffalo? That was only used for "extra-special occassions", like maybe, a new suit from Robert Halls.

Feb 17, 2016, 1:40pm Permalink
Linda LaPorte

Thank you C.M. What a great photo…got me reminiscing also. In the late sixties WBTA had a Sunday night “request night”. A girlfriend and I volunteered at the station to answer phone calls, get the 45 records out, and get it to the DJ to play. Chuck Platt of course was very popular and I’m thinking one of the other DJ’s was Roger “Ramjet”. Anyone remember? Needless to say what a fun job! A lot of requests for Beatles music. Years later I would work for Mr. William Brown at Genesee Travel and after that even worked a few years at WBTA. All great jobs!

Feb 17, 2016, 6:40pm Permalink

Authentically Local