Ed Harvey
WCAU Radio remote
circa 1963

On Friday, May 22, 1964, on his "Talk of Philadelphia" broadcast, Broadcast Pioneers member Ed Harvey had a panel discussion about the Broadway Play called, "The Deputy."

Described as a Christian tragedy, The Deputy was written by Rolf Hochhuth in Germany. The English translation of the play was by Richard and Clara Winston. It opened on Broadway on Wednesday, February 26, 1964. In the production, it portrayed Pope Pius XII as a man who remained silent about the Holocaust.

The guest panelists were a Catholic Priest, a Jewish Rabbi and a Lutheran minister. While this would be an interesting show, no matter what, it is even more interesting that the minister was Broadcast Pioneers member W. Carter Merbreier. You may know Carter better as TV's "Captain Noah." However, this program predates the TV show.

Merbreier, at this time, however, was no stranger to broadcasting. He was seen often on TV delivering the short sermons that the stations used to air at sign on and sign off. He was also a radio guest on "The Talk of Philadelphia" and other programs. This is an extremely rare piece of audio featuring Carter in his pre-Captain days.

Ed Harvey often had the station air check his program. When he came across one that he especially liked, he would have the station engineers dub the program onto another tape with the commercials cut out. It is from this tape that our audio is mastered from. Unfortunately, the level was driven a little hard and thus there is some slight distortion in places. It is, however, the only known recording of the program in existence today. The original tape (with commercials) was erased and re-used in 1964. On this recording, it talks about there being a second hour where the guests took phone calls from the WCAU Radio listeners. The second hour tape has yet to be located.

We have placed a second of dead air between segments. Once you have the audio playing, it will track automatically from segment to segment.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Ed Harvey
Audio originally donated by the Ed Harvey Estate
Special thanks to Broadcast Pioneers member Phil Shuman
© 2009, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
All Rights Reserved

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com