George Graham will still produce music for WVIA, but with a convection oven, not at the public radio microphone he used most nights for more than 50 years.
Graham retired to great acclaim earlier this month, with a plaque installed at the Jenkins Twp. headquarters, a concert and party called “George’s Jam” and television news crews at his last show.
On his last programs, he played sax player Phil Woods, co-founder of the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts, and Phil Pilorz, a regional guitarist, alongside Paul Simon and the Beatles.
With his retirement, the station canceled his programs, which often showcased regional music. “Mixed Bag” aired six days a week. “Homegrown Music” ran weekly and produced many concerts with studio audiences that sometimes aired on WVIA television. Original weeknight episodes of “All That Jazz” were canceled but archival episodes will air Saturdays.
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George Graham chats with attendees during his retirement party at WVIA in Pittston on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A plaque recognizing George Graham above the broadcasting station at WVIA. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
George Graham chats with attendees during his retirement party at WVIA in Pittston on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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George Graham chats with attendees during his retirement party at WVIA in Pittston on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The station is turning to similar, but nationally produced, jazz and world music programming.
The decision to retire was a mutual one, Graham said, and a sign of changing times.
The federal government has turned away from public media. WVIA lost $1.2 million in federal money — about 20% of its operating budget — in July.
Increasingly, radio must compete with streaming.
Wilkes-Barre folk singer Don Shappelle performed at Graham’s retirement concert. He first recorded with Graham in December 1976, just after turning 21.
“He’s recorded thousands of people,” Shappelle said. “So I know that many of the people have gone on to bigger careers because of him.”
Performers used Graham’s recording sessions as demos when they searched for recording contracts or gigs.
Graham was the radio station’s first employee, personally turning on the equipment that put it on the air in 1973.
Today, the radio station is heard in 22 counties, with a signal that reaches 1.2 million people.
Graham was an engineer and producer as well as a host and designed much of the station’s original technical setup.
At the time, he said, most radio stations were playing a limited repertoire. “But we have been able to carve out a little niche over the years, for those people who are open-minded,” Graham said at “George’s Jam.” And he knew he could find some of that music locally.
Host and senior producer Erika Funke joined the station about six years later. She found Graham to be on the reserved side, but with a wry wit.
”He’s very deep too,” Funke said. “So you’re working with somebody who is not just someone focusing on the technical equipment or things like that, but he has a wide-ranging but deep, deep sensibility.”
As a colleague, Graham is irreplaceable, she said. “Without that presence, without that wealth and depth and breadth, it would be like maybe they took the roof off and let some air out and it’s not going to be good. We’ll miss him terribly.”
Graham was a master at tweaking technical issues and quickly finding any clip Funke needed for her own programming. “And you think, ‘How does he know those things?’ ”
Graham, who just turned 75, returned to his native area after graduating from Duke University and joined WVIA.
“It’s been part of my life for over 50 years, so it’s obviously going to be quite a big change,” he said last week. “But at the same time, I don’t feel as if it’s been forced on me. You know, this has been very amicable with the station’s management, and they’ve been very, very good to me.”
Since Jan. 2, he has been getting caught up on loose ends. He may look for opportunities for freelance work.
Graham will stay on as a volunteer with the station and Chiaroscuro Records, its jazz recording label. That will include organizing and digitizing those decades.
Part of that is dealing with obsolete recording formats. The reel-to-reel tapes of the ’70s and ’80s chemically deteriorate.
To save the contents, Graham bakes the tapes in a low-temperature oven for several hours. The contents have to be transferred to digital format within about a dozen hours.
“I’ve had a lot of experience doing that,” said.
Graham’s top picks for 2025
George Graham said these, listed alphabetically, are his top 10 albums of 2025:
Alison Brown & Steve Martin: “Safe, Sensible and Sane”
Silvana Estrada: “Vendrán Suaves Lluvias”
John McCutcheon: “Field of Stars”
Monkey House: “Crashbox”
Maria Muldaur: “One Hour Mama — The Blues of Victoria Spivey”
The Nunnery: “Ascending”
The Outernet: “The Light & the Fury”
Roomful of Blues: “Steppin’ Out”
Southern Avenue: “Family”
Will Stratton: “Points of Origin”