End of an era: Staunton radio station known for local sports coverage sold

STAUNTON — Tony Schiavone has been the voice of professional wrestling. He has called minor league baseball. He's worked on Georgia Bulldogs football broadcasts. He's made a good life for himself behind a microphone and, sometimes, in front of a camera, broadcasting sports.

And he owes it all to WTON, a small AM radio station that made its home on West Beverley Street in downtown Staunton.

A Buffalo Gap High School graduate, Schiavone was still in college at James Madison when he got his start at the station working on the Augusta County Game of the Week. He wasn't even calling games, just keeping statistics for $5 a game after being told by the station owner he wasn't good enough to be on air.

Though maybe hard to imagine these days, in the late 1970s the radio station was airing Augusta County football on tape delay every Friday night after the live broadcast of Lee (now Staunton) High football.

In addition to keeping stats, Schiavone set up the reel-to-reel audio tape recording system before the game. Once the the game was over, he'd rush the tape back to the radio station so it could get on the air. If the game was taking longer than usual, Schiavone would run the tape of the first half to the station during halftime.

One night, Fort Defiance was playing at Stuarts Draft. Tom Delaney, the play-by-play announcer, had gone to the wrong school and, when it was time to start recording, Schiavone was all by his lonesome. He started the reel-to-reel and called the first quarter of the game.

"My broadcast career began that night," Schiavone said.

By this weekend, WTON, or ESPN 1240 as it's known now, will no longer exist. While it was much, much more than a sports station over the nearly 80 years it was on the air, WTON was an integral part of high school sports in Staunton and Augusta County. The station was sold, along with its FM counterpart, Star 94.3, to Stu-Comm Inc. of Charlottesville, which operates WNRN, a non-profit independent music station.

Mark Keefe is the general manager and program director for WNRN, an album adult alternative station. The station has been using translators to rebroadcast the signal on different frequencies to different parts of the Shenandoah Valley. Keefe said when the opportunity to buy WTON came along it was almost too good to pass up. Translators aren't full power signals like the FM transmitter, so WTON will help make sure the signal reaches more people.

In addition to music, the station works with nonprofit groups, including ones in the Staunton and Waynesboro area, to help them spread their message.

Obviously, it was the FM in which WNRN was interested but it was a combo deal so they had to also purchase the AM, currently ESPN 1240. This weekend, once the signal switches to WNRN, the FM and AM will be carrying the same thing. Keefe wasn't sure how long that would be the case or what the plan would be for the AM down the road, calling it "yet to be determined."

Keefe expects everything to be switched over by Saturday morning at the latest.

What that means for high school sports fans — as well as fans of the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, whose games are carried by the stations — is that there will be no local radio outlet in Staunton or Augusta County carrying local sports.

Saturday's Riverheads state semifinal football game will be carried on ESPN 1240's streaming site, not radio, WTON general manager Chip Crabill confirmed. He also said if Riverheads reaches the state championship game they'll broadcast that on the streaming service. After that, there will be no connection between sports and WTON.

"I grew up listening to Staunton Braves baseball with Ron Hartlaub," said Crabill, who has worked for WTON for 19 years. "It's just been a staple of local sports in Augusta County. It's upsetting to see the station leave, but that's part of business."

Crabill remembers when he was in third grade at Dixon Elementary and Lee was playing in the state basketball championship. Crabill asked the principal if he would broadcast WTON's call of the game over the intercom. The principal did it.

"It was one of the neatest things," Crabill said. "It's one of my first memories."

Hartlaub was WTON's sports director for 14 years starting in 1981. There was no internet back then and game stories didn't show up in the newspaper until the morning after they were played. Keeping up with high school sports was much more difficult. Fans either attended the games or listened to Hartlaub on the radio.

"The local radio was the thing that kept people informed if they wanted to know what was going on in high school sports," Hartlaub said. "Because you were the only outlet for immediate information, people really seemed. to appreciate you. People were excited when they saw you show up at games."

Schiavone shared a letter he received from Fort Defiance basketball coach Don Landes in March of 1979, shortly after Fort won the Region C title and a year before it won the state championship. Landes thanked Schiavone for his work calling games, writing, "I'm sure there were times when you must have felt under-appreciated, however Fort's basketball program wants you to know that we care."

Landes went on to tell Schiavone that he and WTON probably created more interest from the students than the program had seen in years.

"I think that letter shows how important WTON was to the local sports scene," Schiavone said.

Terry McGuire moved to the area in the fall of 1976 to work for WTON, working there full time for four years until he opened Athletic Annex. Even after that he did some part-time broadcasting. He was sports director from 1978 until 1980. He called Lee High sports as well as the Staunton Braves.

"I did Lee High against Harrisonburg in Ralph's (Sampson) senior year," McGuire said. "(Radio) was a much bigger deal back then because there was no internet, no satellite radio competing for the listener's interest."

Hartlaub followed soon after McGuire, calling the same sports. One thing he called that maybe no one else at WTON can claim is the Staunton Bed Race, an event to raise money for a local charity. He sat on the top of a bank building and broadcast the race on WTON.

Not even the great Tony Schiavone can claim that.

"When I started there in 1981 it was pretty much the radio station in Augusta County," Hartlaub said. "It made you feel good that there were people listening. It inspired me to be a better broadcaster."

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— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: End of an era: Staunton radio station known for local sports coverage sold