Gary Van Veghten recently spoke to a large group of Little Falls Rotary members about his life as a broadcaster spanning over 50 years.
He entered the world of broadcasting more by accident than by design while at High School when he heard the students across the hallway talking drama and radio programming. He immediately joined the radio group and shortly afterwards jumped at the opportunity to fill in for a person who could not make the show to present classical music one Saturday evening.
From High School he attended Syracuse University and received his degree in Broadcasting. His first spot was as a 'Rock 'n Roll' disk jockey at a small radio station in Newark, NY which followed very quickly afterwards as the morning and afternoon host for the daily drive shows at WNDR.
After just two months, at age 22, he received a call from a syndicate in New Orleans with an offer to join KPOA in Hawaii. In 1959, he came back New York State to join WACK in Albany but that did not last long before re-joining WNDR for four years hosting their nightly show. Having moved around so many times in such a short period of time, he became known in the business as the 'Moving Man'. In 1963 he went back to WACK, where he stayed as a regular presenter until 1975, when he moved back to start his third stint with WNDR. 1982 saw very heavy rain, which resulted in the radio station being flooded out. The damage was so extensive that they closed and he was again on the move, this time to WLSH, WOWB and lastly WBUG, where he retired from regular radio presentations in 2001.
All his life he has believed in the maxim that 'the voice is a marvelous instrument' which can convey so much to so many as you enter their lives through the medium of radio.
During a telephone interview after his presentation, he said that several people had expressed interest in re-opening the radio station in Little Falls and he hopes to be able to explore the possibility in the coming months.
Pictured with Van Vegthen (right) is Chris Anderson from Valley Cinema.