Remembering Sid Mark

Scene: a row home in Philadelphia, PA
Time: March, 1958

For my sixteenth birthday, my parents bought me a Zenith Hi-Fi. They were all the rage in 1958 and FM radio was just coming into its own. It
was a beautifully styled wooden cabinet with golden speaker cloth covering the whole front side.

Tuning around the dial on my first FM radio, I quickly discovered 96.5 right in the middle of the dial. The station was WHAT-FM and they played jazz. I listened often enough throughout the day to learn the names of the d.j.s, Gene Shay, Stuart Chase, Mel Perry, Joel Dorn (who went on to become a record producer for singers like Roberta Flack), and Sid Mark who came on the air every afternoon at 4 playing Woody Herrman’s “Early Autumn.” These were still the days when d.j.s had “theme songs.”

Sid’s shift was from 4 to 8, and on weekday evenings he would feature one singer during his last hour. I can’t remember if this is correct, but it went something like: Monday with Ella, Tuesday with Mel Torme, Wednesday with Carmen McCrea, Thursday with Nancy Wilson, and Friday with Frank. Sid had begun Friday with Frank in 1957 and by the time I discovered it, the show was on from 5 PM until 8. Three hours featuring just one singer.

Monday through Thursday, Sid also used a theme song to close his show. He chose Maynard Ferguson’s version of “Frame for the Blues.” When that came on at 7:53 PM, I and my friends stopped whatever we were doing and listened intently to the whole 7-minute track. It became an anthem.

Sid Mark had the most popular show on the station and Sid and Friday with Frank soon became Philadelphia institutions. I and all of my friends listened. We looked forward to Friday nights. In 1960, I became a d.j. at WQAL-FM in Philadelphia. I was a senior in high school but only needed two morning classes to qualify for an academic diploma, and so I was on the air from noon until 4 pm weekdays, spinning records on Gates turntables and announcing. In a nod to my favorite radio program, I played lots of Sinatra on WQAL.

By 1967, I had graduated, married, become a teacher, and moved to Bucks County, PA. I soon learned that WBCB was the local radio station serving our area. The call letters stood for Bucks County Broadcasting. At 1490 on the AM dial, I soon punched it in on my car radio. One day, I stopped by the station which was in the Indian Creek section of Levittown. There I met the program director who, after having me make an audition tape, offered me Sunday nights from 7 until midnight. It was at WBCB that I sold my first radio program. It was a Sinatra show, obviously inspired by Sid Mark, lasting only a half-hour but featuring just Sinatra. I sold it to a local fuel oil dealer who was already a Sinatra fan. I called Capital Records and received promo copies of some
Sinatra albums to give away as promotions for the show.

In 1968, I had an opportunity to d.j. at WWDB-FM in Philadelphia. WWDB were the new call letters for what had been WHAT, so I found myself
working at the radio station I had admired as a teen and Sid Mark became one of my colleagues. Around 1969 or 1970, Sid Mark was appointed program director, and so he became my boss. Sid, of course, retained his Friday with Frank program and then added Sunday with Sinatra and The Sounds of Sinatra on Saturdays. Since my air shifts were Saturday nights from 7 to midnight and Sundays from 1 pm to 7, I rarely got to see Sid except for staff meetings and
during the Sinatra Spectaculars which occurred about twice a year where we played nothing but Sinatra for sixty-five straight hours.

When WWDB changed format in 1976 to all-talk-radio, I thought that marked the end of my radio career and possibly Sid’s, but despite the success of the talk format, Sid was able to continue his Friday with Frank and Sunday with Sinatra shows and eventually his Sinatra shows were syndicated across the country. I lost track of Sid Mark for the next decades except that I would hear snatches of his programs. Then in 2001, a new radio station went on the air in Dushore, PA. It was WCOZ, known as Cozy 104 at 103.9 FM. On December 2, 2001, I went on the air at 9 PM on Sunday evening with a new show called Sinatra and Friends, obviously inspired by Sid Mark and his successful radio programs. The show ran for three hours featuring the Standards and a Sinatra song four times each hour. At the time, I never imagined that the show would last over twenty years, but it has. The radio station has become GEM 100 and 104 and is now heard in Sullivan, Bradford, Wyoming, and surrounding counties, and has gradually moved into the Wyoming Valley. I have only been in the Philly area a few times in recent years, but I was sure to tune in to hear Sid’s Sinatra shows which were broadcast on WPHT. In his 80’s, Sid’s enthusiasm and love of Sinatra music was still obvious.

But all good things must end. Sid Mark passed away on April 18, 2022, at the age of 88. He was and continues to be my inspiration.

God bless you, Sid.

– Allan Waterhouse
April 22, 2022