"Wonderful Palm Beach Radio"

1340 AM

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In 1972, a couple by the names of Everett Hamilton and Valerie Gay Aspinwall bought the radio station from Knight Quality Stations and changed the call letters to WPBR.  It returned to a middle of the road music format with the Aspinwalls doing a New York-style talk show called "Palm Beach AM" and "Luncheon at the Colony".*  As an NBC Radio Network affilliate, WPBR ran NBC Monitor on the weekends.  NBC Monitor ran from June 12, 1955 until January 26, 1975.  It was created by Sylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver, father of actress Sigourney Weaver. The program offered a magazine-of-the-air mix of news, sports, comedy, music and celebrity interviews.

Dave Garroway

Host on the NBC Radio weekend program, Garroway was the first "communicator" on NBC Radio's Monitor when the program first aired in 1955. He continued as the Sunday-evening host of the news and music program from 1955 to 1961.  

Garroway's signature upraised hand while saying "Peace".

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In 1972, Valerie and Everett Aspinwall gave WPBR-AM Radio a niche as the area's first all-talk station prior to WJNO and the infamous radio celebrity, John "Jack" Cole in West Palm Beach.  The Aspinwalls decided to buy a radio station after years of vacationing in the Palm Beaches.   WPBR became the county's second-oldest radio station.  The station had begun broadcasts from the beach in 1941.

We thought we'd do an hour talk show in the morning then head for the beach.

Valerie Aspinwall 

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Talk sold well for the Aspinwalls.  From the beginning, their ratings showed that people tuned in for the talk segments and flipped off the music.  They successfully transformed the station from easy-listening music to around-the-clock news and kibitzing.  

In 1987, the Aspinwalls sold their oceanside transmitters for $1.55 million to a Maryland couple who vowed to carry on in the same tradition. The buyer was Gary and Judith Portmess, who previously owned WHAG AM and WQCM FM in Hagerstown, Maryland.  At the time of the sale he was quoted as saying .. If we close the sale on Wednesday, I'll take over Thursday. Portmess confided that he was eager to take over WPBR and move into the home he bought at PGA National. 

I'll have a radio station on the ocean and a home on the golf course.  What else do I need?

Gary Lee Portmess

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 When the Aspinwalls walked away from their little station tucked on the southern edge of Lake Worth Beach, they didn't travel far as they lived nearby on South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach.  They wanted to focus on having more time for civic and charitable involvement.  Noticeably absent to her listeners was Valerie Aspinwalls' resonant, smoky New York delivery, a voice she said she received from her mother.  Upon selling WPBR Everett Aspinwall said they hoped to produce segments for radio and television on a project-by-project basis.  At the time they said they haven't had time to dream up specific ideas.  One thing for sure is that Everett and Valerie left behind a distinctive radio legacy. 

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Sidenote:  As a regular WPBR listener for many years I wish to thank Valerie and Everett Aspinwall plus Herbert Bayard Swope for many years of quality talk radio. Across town was the infamous Jack Cole on WJNO radio located on Flager Drive that covered the William Kennedy Smith trial and the Herbert Pulitzer divorce case.  Both of these cases out of Palm Beach and across the Intracoastal Waterway from WJNO made national headlines and kept Jack's faithful tuned in every afternoon.  Herbert Pulitzer's ex-wife was Roxanne Pulitzer.  Roxanne was originally fom Chautauqua County and attended school in Cassadaga, NY.  

*The Colony was a hotel in Palm Beach and their advertising slogan was .. "the place to see and be seen".