Longtime Broadcaster Larry Berg Leaving Area

Larry Berg, best known for his tenures at WBUT and WISR, is leaving the area after six decades. (photo credit: Larry Berg)

A longtime fixture of western Pennsylvania radio and television is moving out of the area.

Larry Berg, best known for his time at Butler radio stations WBUT and WISR, is moving to Baltimore, where he left in the early 1960’s after serving as program director of WCAO, to move to Butler County, where he would spend six decades of his life.

Berg, 92, after spending years as a disc jockey and advertising salesman, decided to try his hand at station ownership, when he purchased WBUT radio in 1964. After 14 years of ownership, Berg decided to put the stations up for sale. Determined to keep the station in local hands, Berg sold it to brothers Bob and Ron Brandon.

Bob Brandon had worked at KDKA as an engineer, while Berg did occasional fill-ins there for vacationing talk show hosts. Brandon credited Larry Berg for much of WBUT’s success.

“Credit should be given to Larry Berg for saving (WBUT) from bankruptcy,” said Brandon, prior to his death in 2021. “Through his community involvement and sales, (Berg) slowly turned the station around and had split Butler’s ad revenue 50/50 with WISR by the late 70’s.”

According to Brandon, Berg also oversaw the move of WBUT’s broadcast tower from Butler Township to its current location in Center Township, a project started in 1976, which allowed it to double its current power value to 500 watts and improve coverage for its FM sister station by the time it was activated in 1979.

Brandon also credited Berg with assisting him and his brother to secure the financing necessary to acquire the stations.

After Berg sold WBUT, he went to WISR, where he sold advertising and hosted an afternoon talk program called “The Larry Berg Show”, where he interviewed personalities and local people of interest. Berg continued in that role until retiring in 2001 at the age of 70.

However, Berg didn’t stay retired. He went on to host “Faces and Places”, a local show that aired on Butler-based Armstrong Cable. Like his radio talk shows, he interviewed local people of interest and explored many of Butler County’s attributes. He continued to produce the show until four years ago, when he felt the time was right.

“I didn’t want people to say ‘he used to be good’,” Berg told the Butler Eagle.

All the while, Berg continued to voice commercials for local businesses on a freelance basis, most notably Kerr Furniture and Thompson-Miller Funeral Home.

Berg’s most recent address in Butler County was Connoquenessing Township. He and his wife Judy will move to Baltimore to be closer to their daughter starting tomorrow.