Page 16—SUSQUEHANNA TIMES ... 1 Ak show [continued from front page] When Joyce Reimherr Perry walked into the WCMB radio station head- quarters in Harrisburg, she was looking for a job as a secretary. She ended up with her own talk show. Since last July, the Marietta feminist and media activist has hosted the ‘“Talk of Harrisburg” show every Monday night on WCMB (1460 on the dial) between 10:30 and midnight. Each week she prepares. a topic, usually a controversial one, and lines up a local expert to answer questions that people phone in during the show. ‘“The first ten minutes are the hardest,’’ says Joyce. ‘‘I have to ad-lib from my notes and hope people call. It’s my big fear that no one will call — then I'd have to ad-lib for an hour and a half.” Reporters worry about bloopers in their stories, and radio people hate the idea of a mistake also. “I've been nervous every night since I went on,’’ Joyce told us. ‘‘The five minutes before the show starts are like waiting to go to the gas chamber. Your mistakes are very evident to the listeners.” Joyce tries to be well prepared for her show, but finds it hard to ‘‘Keep up with everything.’ Keeping up with every- thing, or trying to, is a big order. Every week Joyce must become an instant expert on a brand new topic. Joyce told us that she ‘‘beats the bushes’’ for controversial, interesting topics, such as natural birth control, alpha waves, affirmative action, psychic phenomena, and how par- ents cope with the dis- covery that their children are gay. The Communications Act of 1934, Joyce told us, requires radio stations to deal with controversial issues of public impor- tance. To get ideas, she reads the New York Times, Li.p., Harrisburg Indepen- dent Press, the Phiiadel- phia Enquirer, Pennsyl- vania magazine, The Fu- turist, and other publica- tions. ‘‘I try to be issue -oriented,’’ she says. ‘““You’ve got to have a controversial topic to keep people listening.”’ Strange callers In soliciting phone calls on controversial subjects from anyone who wants to say something, Joyce and her audience get to hear from all sorts of people. About 50% of her calls are from ‘‘regulars,’’ people who phone the show every few weeks. “‘One of my regulars is a gay man who is anti -technology,”” Joyce says. ‘“He doesn’t own a car or a TV or a toaster or anything else, except a radio. When he calls, he does it from a pay phone on the corner.” One 75-year-old woman announced on the air one night that she was a virgin. Another time, when the topic was the singles scene, many older women called Joyce to complain about the lack of a singles club for meeting eligible older men. ‘“Many of my listeners are senior citizens,”’ Joyce says. ‘‘There’s one older couple I'd like to get together. They always call up to compliment the other one after one of them makes a call.”’ Joyce can’t arrange for these two to meet, however; it’s illegal. Joyce told us that she gets many calls from older persons in bad circum- stances. One, in the middle of describing her plight, broke down and began crying on the air. ‘“That’s the saddest thing I have to deal with,’’ Joyce says. ‘““Many senior citizens are lonely, can’t get out, and don’t have enough to live on. Social Security isn’t adequate for many of them.”’ Besides hosting ‘‘Talk of Harrisburg,”” Joyce reads the local news on WCMB’s FM sister station, WSFM (99 on the dial); reads noontime news on AM; reads the weather reports; conducts a weekly women’s program; conducts public [continued on page 7] PUFA invites you to come and hear the music by Betty Hershey P.U.F.A. supports and invites you to attend a rewarding program of music by the Donegal Music Department when they present their Christ- mas Concert on Saturday, Dec. 17th at Donegal High School. The Donegal Concert Choir will sing a cantata The Song of Christmas by Roy Ringwald. The Done- gal High School Chorus will perform a secular portion of Christmas music. The Freshman Chorus will also perform. The Rhythm Singers are back again this year singing and dancing. Come, relax and enjoy the program, as these groups sing and dance the Christmas season right into your heart! Indians get it together But they may not get it together this year a while. The Indians are still at the stage where they sometimes pass the ball to members of the With Doug Hopwood on crutches and three juniors on the starting team, the Donegal Indians basketball team is woefully short on experience this year. Hopwood, who was team leader this summer, was expected to be the top scorer this winter. As things stand, Eric Wolge- muth — who wasn’t a starter last year — is the only man on the squad with varsity experience. ‘“The team has to find out who they are before they can go as a team,’”’ coach Emil Swift says. ‘“Also, none of the boys are very big or heavy. When- ever they go against somebody big, they're going to have trouble.”’ In spite of their lack of experience, the team has shown a lot of spirit and raw talent early this season. They've won about half their games, and coach Swift thinks they can give a tough fight to any team in the section. The situation is remin- iscent of 1975-76, when Donegal started a squad of short, inexperienced, but hard-working juniors. By the end of the winter, those young athletes had been galvanized into a very effective team. Each man knew instinctively what his teammates were doing, and sometimes they seemed to be able to pass effectively without bothering to look for their targets. The next year, they didn’t lose a single game in their section. As usual, coach Swift has made certain that his team is in shape. The Indians move the ball as if every play were a fast break. It’s an exciting kind of game to watch, and the team is attracting fairly big crowds. If the fans are patient, they'll probably get to see this team contend for a championship. It may take This year’s Indians may not have much height or exper- December 14, 1977 wrong team: But as indi- viduals, they’ve got what it takes, and sooner or later, they’ll get to the top. ience, but they have no shortage of hustle. Photo shows an Indian (in white) stealing a rebound from a taller and better-positioned Solanco man. (Sorry we don’t have the names: our photographer doesn’t recognise the players, yet, and programs aren’t available yet, so we’re not sure who they are.) Xi The Indians lost to Solanco last week, but the cheerleaders shouted encouragement as if the boys were ahead by 20 points. TT Sea
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